CREDIBILITY, CLARITY AND YOU! With Mitchell Levy

Howard Brown: 00:00:04

Hello, it's Howard Brown is the Shining Brightly

Howard Brown: 00:00:06

Show. And I have the most amazing guests, because I like

Howard Brown: 00:00:12

people that are interesting, intelligent, and have amazing

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stories to share. Mitchell Levy, welcome.

Mitchell Levy: 00:00:18

It is great to be here. I'm thinking about these

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accolades and wondering if, if they're all true. But thank you

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so much for having me. I have to tell you that we have not

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connected for a while. And I am so glad we have because you

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popped into my feed, and you invited me to the referral

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network club. And I have to tell you, absolutely blown away a

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whole new way of thinking about about myself, and how I how I

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actually present myself to the world and what playgrounds I

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play. And so yeah, I'm thinking it was an incredible experience.

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So I just want to tell you that I'm so glad that we are

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reconnected and you are doing amazing things and we're going

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to discuss a lot of them right now. Let me tell you a little

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bit about Mitchell. Oh my goodness, this guy is

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impressive. And I consider him a really a very big role model for

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me and a mentor. So global credibility expert Mitchell levy

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is a two time TEDx speaker, international best selling

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author of over only 60 books only 60 executive coach, a

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Marshall Goldsmith, 100 coaches. You've interviewed now 500

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thought leaders but I heard now the number is closer to 1000

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thought leaders on credibility. Your only published in seven

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countries international best seller, you've delivered a

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powerful TEDx on humanity created courses and created the

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credibility nation membership community, for those who live,

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learn and surround themselves with others on this credibility

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journey.

Howard Brown: 00:01:47

You're an accomplished entrepreneur,

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you've created 20 businesses, including Silicon Valley, for

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publishing companies. You've published over 750 books and

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counting. And you've provided strategic consulting to hundreds

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of corporations and companies. I've been the chairman of the

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board of a NASDAQ listed companies. And Mitchell, you are

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happily happily married for 31 years, I've got 29. So I'm

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almost behind you. And prior to COVID-19, you regularly spent

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four weeks a year in Europe with family and friends. So you got

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to kind of figure out and put that back in the on the bucket

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list as well. So welcome. And basic first question is, how are

Howard Brown: 00:02:25

you shining brightly? Today, this week? What's going on, man?

Howard Brown: 00:02:29

You know, it was based on the research, I really started

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focusing on credibility and seven months ago,

Mitchell Levy: 00:02:37

the one of the biggest lessons I've learned

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about credibility is is clarity. And since seven months, I've

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created four new projects, you are part of them, one of them

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the referral network club. And it is so amazing to be able to

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look at any company and talk to any CEO or any individual and

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help them articulate who they are in less than 10 words. And

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that level of clarity often brings a vibrational energy to

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the person I'm speaking with. Because if we're going to go

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into the woowoo stuff, it really is the frequency of the words

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that represent who they are and how they show up in the world.

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And to be able to do that in words, in a way that the person

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who's receiving it understands it and then starts emanating it

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outwards. It's magic, it's shining brightly. It is shining

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brightly, that clarity. So and I am just starting that journey

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with you. And I'm telling you, it works. And I'm getting there.

Mitchell Levy: 00:03:40

So and work in progress, right? We're all a work in progress. So

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you've had such an amazing career and business journey as

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an entrepreneur. And where was that time where you said, You

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know what credibility matters. Okay, and you became so

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entrenched in the research, when was that time and tell me where

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that you know how that all kind of came to do? You know, I've

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often looked at I've started becoming an entrepreneur in

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1997. Prior to that, I was working for Sun Microsystems. So

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this is my, if you're looking at this, this is my garage, and

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I've worked out of my garage since we did an upgrade in 2000.

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So I've worked out of the garage since 2000. Worked out of my

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house since 1997. And so I find an opportunity and I and I then

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figure out how best can I serve an audience to make money

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entrepreneur? It was the.com days as I did a lot in the E

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commerce space, created a CEO networking groups bent time I

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was I was on a public board for a little bit. And in 2005, I

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decided it made sense to start a publishing company we've created

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for and as you mentioned, we published 750 books. Now, what

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started happening as time went on, and as Amazon Amazon kept

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penetrating is the book publishing industry has become

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democratised. And as something like that happens, and business

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models start getting really stupid. It's time to go

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somewhere else. So in 2019, I kind of woke up one morning I

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said, Okay, what's next? And I go wide work with thought

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leaders. What is What do I need to do? And I said thought

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leaders credibility, and I just it just credibility. And then I

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go, What am I going to do with that? And the next day, I woke

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up and I thought Napoleon Hill, interviewed 500 millionaires and

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did thinking Grow Rich, Mitchell levy is gonna interview 5g

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thought leaders on credibility.

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It's actually incredible. And we criss

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crossed, by the way, I moved in 1997, from Los Angeles in the

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kind of avid technology, audio video space for broadcast

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television. And I got tapped by Hummer Winblad Venture Partners.

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And there's a chapter in my book on Silicon Valley during the 97,

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to about 2005. And where I actually say that the new math

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was two plus two equal 200. It made no sense, right? It was a

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crazy time. And I got to be part of, you know, really, to two

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companies that that both went public. And the economy changed.

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A bagel became $5, right? You know, everything changed. But

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innovation was the key the heart of the change of Silicon Valley.

Howard Brown: 00:06:26

So but, by the way, this is the first podcast I've ever been on

Howard Brown: 00:06:29

when somebody's equated the price of a bagel to inflation.

Howard Brown: 00:06:33

Yeah, absolutely. So it was a crazy time for me there. And so

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you as well, you know, got a taste of that. You know, me as a

Howard Brown: 00:06:41

startup entrepreneur, but I will tell you that the pace of that

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was was not sustainable. And the logic wasn't sustainable. So

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the.com bubble burst, and I went in a different direction. So

Howard Brown: 00:06:54

it's really incredible. Now, so tell me about this, because we

Howard Brown: 00:07:01

need to put a little definition, a little parameter on what

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credibility is, and how would you define it. So if you read

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the dictionary definitions, it's 1/3 accurate, what the

Howard Brown: 00:07:12

dictionary will say is that credibility is the quality in

Howard Brown: 00:07:16

which one is trustworthy.

Mitchell Levy: 00:07:19

And I'm gonna say that's partially true. When

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doing the research, and now if you look at the way the world

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is, where everyone has a camera, and everyone has a microphone,

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there are more elements than just trust. Because trust is

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also booked or looked at from and so so the way credibility is

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redefined from the research, it's the quality, which are

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trusted, known and light. And under being known, it's not that

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I know of you, Howard, it's that I actually know you, I know the

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intent and commitment, you have to do the right thing. I know,

Mitchell Levy: 00:07:53

your internal integrity, right. And then so and by the way, just

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for those that are under the opportunity to, if you want to

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be liked, what came out there, so there are 10 values of

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credibility, and I'll give you two of them. And this is a, I'm

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gonna say an easy way to be liked. And there are two things.

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First, show respect. That means when you have a meeting, come

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early, come prepared come with your heart. The second thing, I

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call it spreading credit, dust. So the second thing is sharing

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the ideas, thoughts and actions of others. So don't take credit

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for other people's work. When you when you meet somebody and

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you love what they do you you're spreading my cred desk right

Mitchell Levy: 00:08:38

now, by having me on your show, it makes more sense. If you can

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actually demonstrate if you're a manager, and you debit or leader

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and you demonstrate the value that people working with you i

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for you, if you demonstrate them by showcasing them spreading

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their credit dust, they're going to bend over backwards to

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empower you more.

Howard Brown: 00:09:00

I love it. And that go, we have to go. You

Howard Brown: 00:09:03

know, when people get in touch with you, they're going to want

Howard Brown: 00:09:05

to learn about the other 10 values of credibility. That was

Howard Brown: 00:09:07

a great tease. But I tell you that we're living in this

Howard Brown: 00:09:10

society of swipe left swipe right now you and I have been

Howard Brown: 00:09:13

married for a long time. But my friends that are recently

Howard Brown: 00:09:16

divorced or single, they swipe light, swipe right, swipe left,

Howard Brown: 00:09:19

they don't even know that person. They look at our

Howard Brown: 00:09:22

picture, they might read one line. You know, I like dogs. I

Howard Brown: 00:09:25

like walking on the beach. And again, I tell you, I'm almost

Howard Brown: 00:09:29

10,000 people on LinkedIn and maybe 5000 and Facebook, I don't

Howard Brown: 00:09:33

know everybody anymore. I don't know everybody anymore, that

Howard Brown: 00:09:36

it's just it's too big of a circle for you to actually get

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to know that many people, right? And people ebb and flow in and

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out of your life all the time. And so social networking has

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kind of gives you a glimpse. It doesn't tell you the full story.

Howard Brown: 00:09:52

So you really you really don't know you know the details of

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what's going on in someone's life or with them. just by

Howard Brown: 00:10:00

taking a look at their profile, or swiping right or swiping

Howard Brown: 00:10:03

left, so

Mitchell Levy: 00:10:04

Howard would here's what's interesting is if

Mitchell Levy: 00:10:08

someone wanted a particular service, right, if you if

Mitchell Levy: 00:10:12

somebody came to you tomorrow and said, Hey, listen, I just

Mitchell Levy: 00:10:15

don't have clarity. Now that you and I are talking up, you got to

Mitchell Levy: 00:10:18

talk to my friend Mitchell. That's right. And what will

Mitchell Levy: 00:10:21

happen is based on how you know them, they may not ask any more,

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they may not even do any research, they're gonna want to

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reach out. Same sort of thing. If if somebody that really finds

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me credible, that trust know, and loves me, and, and something

Mitchell Levy: 00:10:38

crops up where I say, you know, you got to talk to Howard, he's

Mitchell Levy: 00:10:41

great at this. Right? It's, it's that so what happens is we we

Mitchell Levy: 00:10:47

know what social networking is, we know it social marketing is

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at least we think we know. But what what's really happening

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with now you don't know if the person on the other end is a

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bot, or a human. And so what you really know is, you know, the

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person you're with, and you know, whether or not you trust,

Mitchell Levy: 00:11:04

know and love them or trust, no one liked them. And if they

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recommend somebody, you have a higher propensity, that ability,

Mitchell Levy: 00:11:12

because the trust is being transferred, that I know this

Mitchell Levy: 00:11:16

person is being transferred. Now, they may say something

Mitchell Levy: 00:11:19

like, Hey, listen, this person is credible, but you may not

Mitchell Levy: 00:11:22

like their political views. That's okay, that's still a very

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credible statement. But when somebody says, This person is

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credible, I don't even like their political views, but

Mitchell Levy: 00:11:34

they're going to come 10 minutes late to every meeting, that

Mitchell Levy: 00:11:37

level of disrespect. is enough to go in. I don't know, our is

Mitchell Levy: 00:11:42

it worth it? Right. So certainly, that's what that's

Mitchell Levy: 00:11:45

how we have conversations these days.

Howard Brown: 00:11:48

I agree. And so by us actually taking the time to

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actually get to know each other. I wouldn't say that at the

Howard Brown: 00:11:57

deepest level. But I don't know enough where we've built know,

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like and trust. And I do recommend you it is spreading

Howard Brown: 00:12:03

your credibility does I agree with you with that? And so I do

Howard Brown: 00:12:08

a little bit of interfaith relations. And the reason I do

Howard Brown: 00:12:12

that is that one, I think it actually it's expansive, to know

Howard Brown: 00:12:16

people that don't look like me talk like me, have the same food

Howard Brown: 00:12:19

interests grew up the same way the same history speak the same

Howard Brown: 00:12:22

language. And I think that I wish more people would think and

Howard Brown: 00:12:26

be open to that, because I think it broadens you your horizons

Howard Brown: 00:12:30

and expands your world. But right now, a lot of people they

Howard Brown: 00:12:33

live in a closed loop. And unfortunately, they don't choose

Howard Brown: 00:12:37

to do that. And it's a choice. It's totally a choice. And so,

Howard Brown: 00:12:41

when you're talking to credibility, um, is this like a

Howard Brown: 00:12:46

whole new concept for, you know, like, big executives or

Howard Brown: 00:12:50

corporation folks? They just ignored this

Mitchell Levy: 00:12:57

is a great question. By the way, I'm, I am

Mitchell Levy: 00:12:59

done with a coursework and getting a PhD and the

Mitchell Levy: 00:13:02

dissertations on just that. It's the missing element in, in

Mitchell Levy: 00:13:07

leadership today. I think what what's happened is humans, we

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like to make things more complicated, so the consultants

Mitchell Levy: 00:13:13

can charge more money. And we can't possibly imagine the

Mitchell Levy: 00:13:19

simplicity of being able to articulate who we are, or what

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the company is, and what we stand for, in less than 10

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words, what we what we've been taught is, every time we have an

Mitchell Levy: 00:13:31

option to have a mic, we need to sell, sell, sell, sort of, like,

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you know, you buy real estate, because a location, location,

Mitchell Levy: 00:13:38

location, you gotta get a mic, you got to sell so so that's

Mitchell Levy: 00:13:41

that. Think about trust, no, like, as somebody gets to know

Mitchell Levy: 00:13:45

you, and all you're doing is trying to sell, that means you

Mitchell Levy: 00:13:49

don't have the intent and commitment to do the right

Mitchell Levy: 00:13:52

thing. All you want to do is make money and sell stuff.

Mitchell Levy: 00:13:55

They're going to as they get to know you, they're not gonna like

Mitchell Levy: 00:13:58

you, they're not going to trust you, they will not have

Mitchell Levy: 00:14:02

credibility in you.

Howard Brown: 00:14:04

So are you coaching and teaching how to

Howard Brown: 00:14:09

actually establish better credibility? And and then I

Howard Brown: 00:14:14

always use your phraseology, is that the playgrounds that you

Howard Brown: 00:14:18

choose to play in? So one of them, you know, could be your

Howard Brown: 00:14:22

business, you know, hat and the other one is more of a social

Howard Brown: 00:14:25

hat. The other one could be a philanthropic hat or volunteer

Howard Brown: 00:14:28

hat, there's many playgrounds, right.

Mitchell Levy: 00:14:31

So so the answer is, let's do the yes and, okay.

Mitchell Levy: 00:14:35

The problem with the word credibility is something that my

Mitchell Levy: 00:14:39

wife was kind enough to bring up three years ago. And here's what

Mitchell Levy: 00:14:44

she said, Honey, do you realise that all business people think

Mitchell Levy: 00:14:47

they're credible? Now, whether or not you are Republican,

Mitchell Levy: 00:14:51

credible or democratic, credible or left right centre, you know,

Mitchell Levy: 00:14:56

everyone considers themselves credible up

Mitchell Levy: 00:14:59

By the way, let's use the same word accountable. Everybody

Mitchell Levy: 00:15:03

thinks they're accountable, but then they they, they make

Mitchell Levy: 00:15:05

excuses why they didn't make the deadlines they set for

Mitchell Levy: 00:15:08

themselves. Okay? We'll put that aside. That aside, in doing the

Mitchell Levy: 00:15:13

research and looking at people, so many people do not have

Mitchell Levy: 00:15:18

clarity. Just ask any one of your friends. So, tell me is

Mitchell Levy: 00:15:24

what you do? And can you do it in a sentence? Can you do it in

Mitchell Levy: 00:15:27

less than 10 words, and, you know, five or 10 minutes later,

Mitchell Levy: 00:15:30

they'll go, how do I do. And so, what's fascinating if you're

Mitchell Levy: 00:15:36

really expert of you, or if you're a company, if you really

Mitchell Levy: 00:15:40

have and understand the playground that the company

Mitchell Levy: 00:15:42

plays in, you should be able to articulate it in less than 10

Mitchell Levy: 00:15:46

words. And if you could do that, there's an implied level of

Mitchell Levy: 00:15:49

credibility of knowledge of success that you have. Because

Mitchell Levy: 00:15:54

you have the ability to really identify a pain point or a

Mitchell Levy: 00:15:59

pleasure point and the audience that you that you work with.

Howard Brown: 00:16:04

I have to tell you that I've been applying this to

Howard Brown: 00:16:06

myself, but I'm also applying this to my nonprofit work. And

Howard Brown: 00:16:11

it's really amazing. But because I'm in the colorectal cancer

Howard Brown: 00:16:16

space, and we have colon town.org, which basically is

Howard Brown: 00:16:20

10,000, colorectal patient and caregiver that are getting

Howard Brown: 00:16:23

support, we're walking alongside of them. And I actually tried

Howard Brown: 00:16:27

this out. And I actually said that we we actually make smarter

Howard Brown: 00:16:34

patients and caregivers. And I talked to the pharma industry

Howard Brown: 00:16:38

about that. And they're like, yes, because we need to use that

Howard Brown: 00:16:41

15 or 20 minutes, we get into clinic with a doctor or an

Howard Brown: 00:16:44

oncologist very efficiently. And so making smarter patients and

Howard Brown: 00:16:48

caregivers is the goal of this nonprofit. So I'm working and

Howard Brown: 00:16:52

I'm a work in progress. But I have to tell you that it's

Howard Brown: 00:16:55

really that's one example, just giving you an example for

Mitchell Levy: 00:16:57

Howard, to read example, and we could take it

Mitchell Levy: 00:17:00

offline. I'm gonna say that's a great tagline that then goes

Mitchell Levy: 00:17:03

with an interesting see pop. Yes, whoever remember yours? Was

Mitchell Levy: 00:17:10

it's the who? Yes. Struggling leaders getting back on track.

Mitchell Levy: 00:17:17

Right. It's like struggling, who do you work? Certainly. I get

Mitchell Levy: 00:17:20

that. And by the way, because it's something you've lived? Do

Mitchell Levy: 00:17:24

you have credibility to talk about that? That's right. Oh,

Mitchell Levy: 00:17:28

mine is eight words. I wish I could make it four. But I needed

Mitchell Levy: 00:17:32

a little bit more coaches who've created a job, not a business.

Howard Brown: 00:17:39

It's great. I. So I appreciate you allowing me to

Howard Brown: 00:17:43

share my two examples there. But I, you actually have some case

Howard Brown: 00:17:49

studies, like what examples would you use? Because people

Howard Brown: 00:17:53

may still conceptually not get this when they're listening to

Howard Brown: 00:17:56

the show? So do you have you want to provide a couple of case

Howard Brown: 00:17:59

study examples? Maybe so, so.

Mitchell Levy: 00:18:03

Happy to, okay, I, so here's, I'm gonna say

Mitchell Levy: 00:18:06

this, and then you could slap me around later, if it was a bad

Mitchell Levy: 00:18:10

thing to say. I could say with 100% certainty, that even when I

Mitchell Levy: 00:18:14

give the formula and, and share with people the formula ahead of

Mitchell Levy: 00:18:18

time, that 98% of the time, they will get it wrong. Now wrong is

Mitchell Levy: 00:18:22

a relative term, they'll get much smaller. What happens is we

Mitchell Levy: 00:18:26

have been ingrained that anytime we're in front of an audience of

Mitchell Levy: 00:18:30

at least one we have to sell ourselves. And a CPAP has no

Mitchell Levy: 00:18:34

selling component associated with it's just the who and the

Mitchell Levy: 00:18:38

what. So a CPAP is who do you serve? One, two or three words?

Mitchell Levy: 00:18:42

And either? What from their perspective? Is there a pain

Mitchell Levy: 00:18:45

point or their pleasure point. So I'll give you a great

Mitchell Levy: 00:18:49

example. Company, I'm working with 1800 employees, they were

Mitchell Levy: 00:18:53

they've been around long enough that the business model that

Mitchell Levy: 00:18:56

they use for the entire company is the person who screams the

Mitchell Levy: 00:19:00

most gets the most attention. So all the customers who get more

Mitchell Levy: 00:19:04

attention than others are those that scream. So imagine you're

Mitchell Levy: 00:19:08

in customer service, you're working for a company and you've

Mitchell Levy: 00:19:12

trained your customers to scream louder. What type of environment

Mitchell Levy: 00:19:16

is that for your customer service reps? I'm just gonna say

Mitchell Levy: 00:19:20

not good, okay. And then that same environment is brought

Mitchell Levy: 00:19:24

across throughout the entire company. Once again, employee

Mitchell Levy: 00:19:27

engagement, not good. The CMO spent seven weeks figuring out

Mitchell Levy: 00:19:31

who the company is looking at the stakeholders coming up with

Mitchell Levy: 00:19:35

a customer avatar coming up with a value added proposition. And

Mitchell Levy: 00:19:39

then we spoke and when it was time, I was listening to all the

Mitchell Levy: 00:19:43

research and then when it was time to come up with the CPAP we

Mitchell Levy: 00:19:47

came up with five words. Five words. And she just about

Mitchell Levy: 00:19:51

dropped. Because to be able to describe with simplicity five

Mitchell Levy: 00:19:54

have words for a company that that does that has that many

Mitchell Levy: 00:19:58

employees, and to then allow the employee base to wrap their arms

Mitchell Levy: 00:20:02

around the playground they planned and to treat their jobs

Mitchell Levy: 00:20:06

as participants in the playground starts changing the

Mitchell Levy: 00:20:09

attitudes that executive down have, and that employees up

Mitchell Levy: 00:20:13

have, because now you can think about, well, how would I play

Mitchell Levy: 00:20:17

differently with the different stakeholders that I actually

Mitchell Levy: 00:20:21

interact with? And the answer is many different ways. Yeah,

Mitchell Levy: 00:20:24

that's, that's powerful. Tell everyone just with see pop means

Mitchell Levy: 00:20:28

if they might have missed that, because it's your acronym? I

Mitchell Levy: 00:20:32

don't think I said it. So thank you. I know, that's what we're

Mitchell Levy: 00:20:36

gonna we're gonna tell people because you mentioned we

Mitchell Levy: 00:20:40

mentioned, they might not want to see pop it, so you'll explain

Mitchell Levy: 00:20:44

it now. So it's customer point of possibilities. And how would

Mitchell Levy: 00:20:48

I have to tell you, when I was doing the research, the 500

Mitchell Levy: 00:20:51

people, I thought it was customer pointed pain? Because

Mitchell Levy: 00:20:55

it was always like, Okay, what's your you know, and I think when

Mitchell Levy: 00:20:59

you and I, you were part of the 500 it was what is the customer,

Mitchell Levy: 00:21:03

you were part of the 500 people are interviewed your mind

Mitchell Levy: 00:21:07

Napoleon Hill study, right? And one of my friends gave me a name

Mitchell Levy: 00:21:11

or Raji CETI. Raj, has helped 3000 ish startup companies in

Mitchell Levy: 00:21:14

Silicon Valley. And he said, Hey, Michel, can you record me

Mitchell Levy: 00:21:18

and do the C pop exercise? So let me tell you what his C pop

Mitchell Levy: 00:21:22

is. game changers looking for their secret sauce? Like you

Mitchell Levy: 00:21:26

think about that, like, wait, I want to I want to meet this guy.

Mitchell Levy: 00:21:30

I want to know this guy. Right? So. So normally, what happens

Mitchell Levy: 00:21:34

when I share a see Papa's with an individual? I go, Hey, can

Mitchell Levy: 00:21:38

you sleep on it? Wake up in the morning, tell me what you think.

Mitchell Levy: 00:21:42

And so he came back a couple days later. And he says to me

Mitchell Levy: 00:21:45

something really powerful. So let's think about this. I

Mitchell Levy: 00:21:49

interviewed 500 people, I wrote a book. And I did a TEDx all

Mitchell Levy: 00:21:53

referencing customer point of page, see Papa's customer party

Mitchell Levy: 00:21:57

thing. Raj comes back and says, Michel, I don't care what you

Mitchell Levy: 00:22:00

call it, I'm calling it customer point of possibilities. And

Mitchell Levy: 00:22:04

sometimes, you know, somebody hits you in the side of the head

Mitchell Levy: 00:22:08

with a hammer. And, and I'm like, Rush. You're right. I

Mitchell Levy: 00:22:12

mean, it took me about three seconds. I mean, with all of the

Mitchell Levy: 00:22:16

infrastructure and everything I've done, like, you're right.

Mitchell Levy: 00:22:20

That's what I'm calling it to. And I like immediately changed

Mitchell Levy: 00:22:23

it on the spot. And it's sometimes, you know, you may not

Mitchell Levy: 00:22:27

actually get the concept, right. But it really is that customer

Mitchell Levy: 00:22:31

point of possibilities, because if you are a credible human, you

Mitchell Levy: 00:22:35

are of service to others. So who do you serve? And what do they

Mitchell Levy: 00:22:39

perceive as their pain point or pleasure point.

Howard Brown: 00:22:43

It's, it's simple, but it's so powerful. And it

Howard Brown: 00:22:48

takes a little work to do this, because I'm in the work right

Howard Brown: 00:22:50

now. And I appreciate that, and others need to, you know, do

Howard Brown: 00:22:55

that as well. So, you know, listen, we live in this blink of

Howard Brown: 00:22:59

an eyelash, digital, you know, kind of environment, right? So,

Howard Brown: 00:23:04

you know, it's not about having 20,000, you know, connections on

Howard Brown: 00:23:09

LinkedIn, or Facebook and things like that, you know, I, I know

Howard Brown: 00:23:13

what the answer I think I'm going to answer for you, right?

Howard Brown: 00:23:15

How important is credibility and how you show up in the world

Howard Brown: 00:23:18

right now?

Mitchell Levy: 00:23:20

Huh? I'm gonna say, I believe that credibility

Mitchell Levy: 00:23:23

and clarity is, is everything. Because you don't know. You

Mitchell Levy: 00:23:27

don't if you don't know somebody, then how do you get to

Mitchell Levy: 00:23:31

know them? Well, you get a referral. Right? And if somebody

Mitchell Levy: 00:23:35

refers you, then I'm there. I'm borrowing their credibility for

Mitchell Levy: 00:23:39

you. But if you if you just stumble upon somebody you've

Mitchell Levy: 00:23:43

never met. Typically, there are seconds, there seconds for you

Mitchell Levy: 00:23:47

to decide, do you trust this person? You then spend another

Mitchell Levy: 00:23:51

couple couple seconds or maybe maybe 30 seconds figuring out

Mitchell Levy: 00:23:55

Hey, as I get to know this person, do I like them? And And

Mitchell Levy: 00:23:58

as I'm getting to know them, do I really like them? And you

Mitchell Levy: 00:24:02

know, if it's a vendor, doctor, lawyer, dentist, you know,

Mitchell Levy: 00:24:06

anything that's servicing me, like, you really do get to

Mitchell Levy: 00:24:10

choose whether or not they're credible, whether or not you

Mitchell Levy: 00:24:14

really can trust no, and like who they are. Because we want to

Mitchell Levy: 00:24:18

work with people. We want to play with people that that we

Mitchell Levy: 00:24:22

find credible, that we actually really do trust no one like it

Mitchell Levy: 00:24:26

is. And I want to now ask you because it's really funny. We

Mitchell Levy: 00:24:30

are talking in the greenroom. And I asked you and I said, Does

Mitchell Levy: 00:24:34

credibility come first? Or does clarity come first? And take

Mitchell Levy: 00:24:38

take me through this because this is actually mind blowing

Mitchell Levy: 00:24:42

for me, but because I would have said my credibility comes first

Mitchell Levy: 00:24:46

and then I get clarity. And I think you're gonna disagree.

Mitchell Levy: 00:24:50

Well, I actually, by the way, I agreed with you because I spent

Mitchell Levy: 00:24:54

a year interviewing 500 thought leaders on credibility. So it

Mitchell Levy: 00:24:58

was my $50,000 project I'd like to learn a lot. And I even

Mitchell Levy: 00:25:02

learned that clarity was important. But I still spent

Mitchell Levy: 00:25:06

three years focusing on credibility. And going back to

Mitchell Levy: 00:25:09

what my wife said she was right. So women in the audience, and

Mitchell Levy: 00:25:14

guys in the audience, when when your wife says something,

Mitchell Levy: 00:25:17

they're right, okay, so she was right. And because everyone

Mitchell Levy: 00:25:21

thinks they're credible, and it's really easy, and they could

Mitchell Levy: 00:25:25

justify to themselves that they're credible. That said, Ask

Mitchell Levy: 00:25:29

anybody who they're in what they do, and most people do not have

Mitchell Levy: 00:25:34

clarity. Most people cannot, in less than 10 words, describe who

Mitchell Levy: 00:25:38

they are without throwing in some marketing, cookie cutter

Mitchell Levy: 00:25:42

stuff. And so, starting for me seven months ago, when I

Mitchell Levy: 00:25:45

realised that clarity really does come first, all design of

Mitchell Levy: 00:25:49

credit for projects in the last seven months focusing on

Mitchell Levy: 00:25:53

different aspects, because I actually have clarity on my

Mitchell Levy: 00:25:57

clarity. And, and it turns out, if you can clearly articulate

Mitchell Levy: 00:26:01

who you are, and how you show up, everything changes. People

Mitchell Levy: 00:26:05

start looking at you with more respect, people start referring

Mitchell Levy: 00:26:09

you because they they can they find you credible that they they

Mitchell Levy: 00:26:13

trust no one like you. And because you've made it so easy

Mitchell Levy: 00:26:17

to refer you, they actually do. I want to give you an example of

Mitchell Levy: 00:26:21

this, I just got off of a cruise ship. It was called the

Mitchell Levy: 00:26:25

reinvention retreat, I got 58 Out of the 60 people to my

Mitchell Levy: 00:26:29

session, I lead the lead the lead off, so I got good

Mitchell Levy: 00:26:32

attendance. I want to tell you that I the woman, this woman by

Mitchell Levy: 00:26:36

BeagleBone has handed out aha moments. I loved it right after

Mitchell Levy: 00:26:41

you heard someone's speech, you wrote a little slip on an aha

Mitchell Levy: 00:26:45

moment, I got 38 aha moments out of out of out of 58, which is

Mitchell Levy: 00:26:49

beautiful. Here's the thing that's carrying over the cred

Mitchell Levy: 00:26:53

dust is that I have gotten asked to speak at five different other

Mitchell Levy: 00:26:57

venues, okay, stages. And I've gotten about a half a dozen

Mitchell Levy: 00:27:01

people that are interested to be introduced to me high quality

Mitchell Levy: 00:27:05

introductions, either to come on my podcast, come on their

Mitchell Levy: 00:27:09

podcast, or consider it. And

Howard Brown: 00:27:12

I have to tell you this, it really works when

Howard Brown: 00:27:15

people feel that you've left your imprint, or they feel that

Howard Brown: 00:27:18

you're being authentic and accountable. Right. So I'm your

Howard Brown: 00:27:22

experiment. Mitch, I'm telling you that I believe that it's

Howard Brown: 00:27:25

working. And I'm continuing on being the you're the Jedi Master

Howard Brown: 00:27:29

and I'm continuing being limited. But is there really

Howard Brown: 00:27:32

examples of feedback that I'm getting now that are just

Howard Brown: 00:27:35

positive reinforcements to it as well. So tell me about we're

Howard Brown: 00:27:39

gonna we're gonna actually head down to the shining bright

Howard Brown: 00:27:42

spotlight in a second, but I wanted you just address what

Howard Brown: 00:27:45

what's what's next, now that you've done all this research,

Howard Brown: 00:27:49

you're rolling it out that the networking programme, the

Howard Brown: 00:27:52

referral network, club.com, you got I mean, I inviting everyone

Howard Brown: 00:27:56

to join there, the show notes. And it's really very different.

Howard Brown: 00:28:00

People go in and you're basically looking and you're

Howard Brown: 00:28:03

doing a lot of self examination, you're hearing other people do

Howard Brown: 00:28:06

it as well and some transformation. No one's selling

Howard Brown: 00:28:09

anything except self improvement. And it's, it's

Howard Brown: 00:28:12

simple, but it's really hard work. And so I invite people to

Howard Brown: 00:28:16

join you on that. So what else what other great exciting stuff

Howard Brown: 00:28:19

that you got going on.

Mitchell Levy: 00:28:21

So I have a certified clarity specialist

Mitchell Levy: 00:28:23

programme. So those are for the coaches who have created a job

Mitchell Levy: 00:28:26

not a business, it is a done with you programme, because the

Mitchell Levy: 00:28:29

coach needs to go. And by the way, it's coaches, consultants

Mitchell Levy: 00:28:33

and smaller businesses where there's one or two primary

Mitchell Levy: 00:28:36

rainmakers. And because they need to go through

Mitchell Levy: 00:28:38

transformation, they are assigned a coach that works with

Mitchell Levy: 00:28:41

them. Now, because we're early in the creation, that coach

Mitchell Levy: 00:28:45

happens to be me, but I'm building it in such a way that

Mitchell Levy: 00:28:48

those people who are graduating will be taking over for me, we

Mitchell Levy: 00:28:51

have that and then we have something called coaching fast.

Mitchell Levy: 00:28:54

So I'm interviewing some of the top coaches and coaching

Mitchell Levy: 00:28:57

trainers in the world. And we're putting together an opportunity

Mitchell Levy: 00:29:01

so that coaches can understand, not the transformation part

Mitchell Levy: 00:29:04

because that's what coaches do well, that coaches need to

Mitchell Levy: 00:29:07

understand that they are entrepreneurs. And as

Mitchell Levy: 00:29:09

entrepreneurs, you need to run a business. How do you

Mitchell Levy: 00:29:12

successfully run a business? We have a continual flow of new

Mitchell Levy: 00:29:16

people who are referral partners and new people who are prospects

Mitchell Levy: 00:29:19

turning into customers.

Howard Brown: 00:29:20

Yeah, the coaching industry is changed. A lot of

Howard Brown: 00:29:23

people call themselves a coach, but are they really a coach? And

Howard Brown: 00:29:27

so you need to wade through those waters as well. But you

Howard Brown: 00:29:30

know, and I went to Babson College and Airborne School for

Howard Brown: 00:29:33

entrepreneurship. And so I think I got the basics, but you have

Howard Brown: 00:29:36

to be able to pivot and change over time to the environment.

Howard Brown: 00:29:40

Right? I mean, I graduated in 1987. So that makes me old I

Howard Brown: 00:29:43

guess, but I'm learning the new tools and the techniques and

Howard Brown: 00:29:46

you're helping as well. So I want to put on our sunglasses.

Howard Brown: 00:29:50

If you have yours put yours on. And this is actually the shining

Howard Brown: 00:29:53

brightly spotlight because we are shining on clarity

Howard Brown: 00:29:56

credibility and you Mitchell levy tell people how to best get

Howard Brown: 00:29:59

in touch with you You and then share with me some inspiration,

Howard Brown: 00:30:03

a quote a story and then kick the show back to me for closure.

Mitchell Levy: 00:30:06

You know, the best way to reach out many

Mitchell Levy: 00:30:09

people will give you tonnes of things to think about, go to the

Mitchell Levy: 00:30:13

website, my website, Mitchell levy.com. So MIT CH, E, ll le

Mitchell Levy: 00:30:17

vy.com, you'll be able to see all the programmes we run, be

Mitchell Levy: 00:30:21

able to jump into the referral network club. And if it makes

Mitchell Levy: 00:30:24

sense for you to book time on my calendar, you can go and

Mitchell Levy: 00:30:28

directly do that as well. So that's Mitchelllevy.com. You

Mitchell Levy: 00:30:32

know, the thing I want you to think about the area that I want

Mitchell Levy: 00:30:36

us to think about is we think about this word called legacy.

Mitchell Levy: 00:30:40

And what is the legacy we're leaving? So what I want to say

Mitchell Levy: 00:30:43

is the legacy you're leaving is not leaving, the legacy you're

Mitchell Levy: 00:30:47

living is the one that's important. What do people think

Mitchell Levy: 00:30:51

about when you're not in a room? What do people talk about when

Mitchell Levy: 00:30:55

they not in a room? Do people talk about you in a nice way to

Mitchell Levy: 00:30:59

they refer you to, they recommend you to they have

Mitchell Levy: 00:31:02

positive things. If you are credible, someone that people

Mitchell Levy: 00:31:06

trust no one like they start talking about you in a better

Mitchell Levy: 00:31:09

way when you're not in a room. And if you have clarity, they

Mitchell Levy: 00:31:13

know what to say. And so I'm going to say let's tie clarity

Mitchell Levy: 00:31:17

into your legacy. So that as someone who wants your legacy to

Mitchell Levy: 00:31:21

be strong, make it strong today, for those who around you and for

Mitchell Levy: 00:31:25

future generations that at least remember you for the impact

Mitchell Levy: 00:31:29

you've been able to make.

Howard Brown: 00:31:32

I want to just I take my glasses off to look in

Howard Brown: 00:31:35

the eye because that's a wow, that the legacy you're leaving

Howard Brown: 00:31:38

the legacy you are living. That's a shining, brightly

Howard Brown: 00:31:42

spotlight baby. That's incredible. Oh my god. Well, I

Howard Brown: 00:31:46

mean, this has been a fantastic show. And we're gonna spread the

Howard Brown: 00:31:50

word in the show notes and then social and all that and, and

Howard Brown: 00:31:53

share this because people need to actually, you know, contact

Howard Brown: 00:31:57

you, Michel and get in try you out because it's actually

Howard Brown: 00:32:01

really, for me been transformative. And I'm so

Howard Brown: 00:32:03

appreciative. And I do consider you an expert in a mentor and a

Howard Brown: 00:32:07

friend as well. And so I'm going to give a shout out as well to

Howard Brown: 00:32:12

my publisher and supporter front edge publishing, read the spirit

Howard Brown: 00:32:15

magazine, which I blog each week, and my podcasts house, the

Howard Brown: 00:32:19

amplify you network. And this has been amazing. And just you

Howard Brown: 00:32:23

can get me at shining brightly.com Everything's there

Howard Brown: 00:32:26

for you for speaking podcasting. What I care about for advocacy

Howard Brown: 00:32:30

and what I how I show up in the world as well. And so just

Howard Brown: 00:32:33

remember, if we choose to shine brightly, just a little bit each

Howard Brown: 00:32:37

day for ourselves, and then go lift up others and then in our

Howard Brown: 00:32:41

communities and neighbourhoods, the world will be a better

Howard Brown: 00:32:43

place. Mitchell out standing. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Howard Brown: 00:32:47

Oh, it's amazing. Thanks, Howard. Thanks so much.