Welcome to Milestone Moments, the show where
we explore the journeys that lead to success.
I'm Sheila Slick, your host and founder of Five
Milestones. In every episode, we will bring you
insights from the minds of entrepreneurs, leaders
and experts who will share not just their expertise,
but the milestone moments that have reshaped
their journeys and led to significant achievements.
So if you're looking for motivation, you're in
the right place. Subscribe now and discover the
milestones that mark the path to success. Welcome
to another episode of Milestone Moments in Business
and Leadership. I'm Sheila Slick, your host.
And today, my special guest is Mitchell Levy.
Mitchell is a two -times TEDx speaker, including
the 28th most popular in 2021. an international
best -selling author of over 60 books, a certified
stakeholder, centered coach, and he's also an
executive coach at Marshall Goldsmith's 100 Coaches.
As an executive coach, Mitchell is a sounding
board, a thinking partner, and someone who can
hold the mirror to generate insights for personal
change. His impact has earned him a place among
the world's top 200 leadership voices by Leaders
Hum, number 16 in 2023, and as the number one
thought leader in ecosystems and top 100 thought
leader overall by Thinkers 360. Welcome to the
show, Mitch. Sheila, great to be here. Thank
you. I've enjoyed laughing with you even before
I turned this live, right? And I'm able to. And
by the way, I like Mitchell. Well, you have a
very impressive background and I've had the pleasure
of meeting you on other platforms like Clubhouse.
And I know that you've created over 20 businesses
in Silicon Valley alone and you've been a chairman
of NASDAQ listed company. Can you walk us through
one specific moment? because I'm sure you have
many, when you've had to make a decision that
has changed the trajectory of your life or one
of your ventures? Yeah, of course. You know,
I'm going to say there have been many times in
my life where you've had a major transformation,
right? And I've morphed at least five times.
But two of them... That were important at our
times in which the world changed. So one time
where the world changed was I was in 1997. I
left corporate. I became a e -commerce expert.
And during the dot com days, I made a ton of
revenue helping companies figure out how to use
the Internet inside their companies. And then
somewhere around the 2000 time frame. People
no longer wanted to spell, oh, be involved, spend
any money on this word called e -commerce. And
so, by the way, I'll do another one. COVID. I
had a six -figure publishing business between
2005 and 2020. COVID came and the business essentially
didn't quite go to zero, but pretty close. And
then Amazon came and ran it over with a truck
a couple of times. And so what's interesting.
is there are times in people's lives, and particularly
now with AI, where the world will change. And
if you don't change with it, you will disappear.
Because what I was doing as an e -commerce person,
what I was doing as a publisher, those businesses,
for all intents and purposes, went away. And
if I did not morph into what's next and figure
out what's next, and by the way, the short answer.
Listen to your clients, listen to your friends,
listen to your prospects and what is it that
they want. And then figure out what do you love
doing and then move forward in that area. But
those are two massive times we're at a really
nice revenue stream that went almost to zero.
So what was like that major lesson other than
adapt, right? How do you get under that pressure?
Yeah, major lesson. You always have to learn,
listen, adopt. Part of being credible is being
coachable. And the biggest lesson, though, is
sometimes things won't work out because it has
nothing to do with you. It could be the world
around you, right? So there are businesses that
great ideas just the wrong time. If you remember
back in the dot -com days, there was a company
that took in billions of dollars called Webvan.
The goal of Webvan was to deliver food directly
to your house. The infrastructure wasn't ready.
It exploded brilliantly. Just great idea at the
wrong time. Now we have that, right? So the big
lesson is... You could have great ideas. And
I'm going to say with GPT, great ideas are so
easy to come by. It's about how you're going
to implement them and who you're going to implement
them with. That's the most important. And if
you listen to your customers, another great .com
example was BlackBerry. BlackBerry invented the
market and they were amazing. But they always
thought that this thing, this phone, needed a
keypad. And even when Steve Jobs came out with
the iPhone, and it was so easy and so worthwhile,
the technical founder of Blackbird was like,
yeah, we still need a keypad here. My customers
want to hear the click. Well, guess what? They
didn't. And so you've got to pay attention to
the world changing around you. I love that. So
you kind of revealed your age a little when you
started talking about BlackBerry and even before
like the dot com. And the gray hair might do
it, too, but you never know. So just to clarify,
if you don't know what a BlackBerry was, it was
after the flip phones. We had the BlackBerry,
which I would say was like the top of the line
secure phone that actually came with that keyboard.
So you were able to type, right? Thank you for
that. Yeah, it turns out that it was, there was
a point in time in Silicon Valley that we were
not sure whether or not the BlackBerry would
be the dominant platform around the world or
whether or not the telephone, you know, the cell
phone, because there was a point in time the
telephone was just a flip phone. All it did is
make calls, right? And so there was a point in
time we weren't sure who was going to win. Kind
of interesting. Yeah, and see how it's going
to continue evolving, right? Because I even just
discovered something yesterday, and this is off
topic, but I was on my Apple iPhone, and I'm
like, oh, highlights. I was going in settings
I don't know what I was looking for. And I'm
like, well, what is highlights, right? It's got
permission for highlights. I'm very conscious
of permissions because I've coded before, and
I know sometimes when you get these updates in
the security, it's based on things that they've...
missed out on and then kind of like location
services and then they're like you know what
we gotta ask permissions well highlights apparently
it makes me feel like it is wanting to record
where I am focusing my eyes and then share that
data perhaps not my user information but I'm
like well why do they need that permission right
so I don't know if at this point we're using
you know the eye the heat sensors so that we
can determine with those heat maps Where are
people spending the time? So it's even taking
it away from the human touch, the fingers. Like
there's found eyeballs, right? Like the heat.
Where are you focusing on that screen? So we'll
see how much. Yeah, that's fascinating. Thank
you for sharing. I'll have to spend more time
looking at that. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, no. And the
other one, and I've mentioned it before, Vine
was an app that came out that was all video,
right? And I don't know if that's the one that
also had like live location. You could share
videos. It was just unheard of to watch people,
you know, in real time, just sharing their location
and their video at once so that they cannot broadcast.
But I am on that platform still. And I'm hearing
rumors that Elon's bringing that back, but with
AI generated videos. I don't know. That may be
something to look out for. But you'll say, well,
what is Vine? And Vine was pre -TikTok. It wasn't
the same thing at the time. And once again, it's
about being at the right place at the right time.
And of course, many people go after the newest
platforms because they want to be, quote unquote,
an influencer in that platform. And the thing
is, if it's not what you like doing, don't do
it. Focus on... who you are and how you show
up. And you will then find those customers who
are in the same vibrational area, the same types.
They're interested in the same things you are.
Well, speaking about that, I know that one of
your new ventures is LinkedIn. So why don't you
tell us a little bit about what you're up to
with LinkedIn? You know, there's an odd... I
would love to. There's an audience that I focus
on. It is leaders tired of slimy LinkedIn sales
tactics. I was waiting for that. We were waiting
for the smile. Aren't we all? Right? And so what
I will tell you is I've been on LinkedIn since
before LinkedIn was making money. I was sitting
in the room with two of the five founders and
they paid me money to write and publish LinkedIn's
first book. I have looked at over a couple hundred
thousand LinkedIn profiles. So what I do is I
help those I work with focus on the 5 % of functionality
that delivers 80 % of value. And I'm absolutely
going to be happy to tell you what it is. The
company is called Social Compliment. And before
I tell you what it is, let me step back. The
reason I did that is that One of the things that
we as humans do, we vibrate at a frequency. And
if you can stay in that vibrational level, and
every human at least sometime in life is feeling,
oh man, I'm vibing. Things are really good. Well,
I actually interviewed 500 thought leaders between
2019 and 2020. And by the way, this was one of
the ways that I ended up figuring out what to
do post the I didn't realize COVID was coming,
but this was something, what do I do post -COVID,
right? And what happened when I was doing the
interviews is I unlocked a superpower. And that
superpower is clarity, as you know already. It's
called the CPOP, your customer point of possibilities.
And I could sit with any company or any human
and help them articulate where they are executing
on their purpose in less than 10 words. Now,
here's the cool part. If you can actually represent
who you are in less than 10 words, like leaders
tired of slimy leading to the sales tactics,
what happens is if you're interested in, what
is that? That's an interesting playground. What
do you do? Right? That changes everything. It
turns out that that represents the frequency
that you're vibrating at. Now, I've done this
over a thousand times. The problem. is that if
you are a do -it -yourself type person, you're
going to sit with me or the CPAL is a formula
and I'm happy to gift away the formula. The problem
is that we have too many marketing cookie cutter
approaches out there. It's hard for people to
deploy this formula. And so when I'm sitting
with over a thousand, both companies and individuals,
and they're feeling in alignment, it's amazing.
And I will tell you that the do -it -yourself
people, 10 % of the audience, they're immediately
going, oh my goodness, I need to update my website,
my LinkedIn, how I show up in the world. I need
to change. The 10%, I've changed their life for
the rest of their lives. The 90 % get caught
up in the chaos of day -to -day living and they
will get out of alignment somewhere between two
hours and two weeks. Painful. Now, as an executive
coach, one of the things that I do, if I'm working
with a CEO, of a Inc. 5000 company interested
in leading the future with executive abundance,
I'm helping them stay in alignment. Eight months
ago, I ended up purchasing a LinkedIn agency
because for a whole lot less money, what happens
when I'm working with individuals is the first
thing we do is we give them their CPAP. And then
we set up a bespoke LinkedIn program that focuses
on the audience they're supposed to be working
with. And then as they're talking with their
audience, the question becomes, are they making
sales? Now, are they not making sales? Then the
question becomes, is it because you're talking
to the wrong audience or is it because you're
selling the wrong thing? Right. And and that's
part of the programs that I help put into place
is helping people not just identify the alignment
they think they have today, but then to fine
tune it in such a way where they could live a
life where they're actually living, working,
playing every day in alignment. OK, so that's
what I'm doing with the LinkedIn program. And
you and what I did say is I would give away the
five percent functionality. So one of the things
I do a couple of times a quarter is I do a webinar.
It's called Why Are We Not Getting the Referrals
We Deserve? And what I've done is taking the
seven habits of highly effective LinkedIn social
selling. And I'll walk through all seven habits,
but let me give you habit number seven. Habit
number seven is really where the gold is. The
gold in LinkedIn. is inside LinkedIn Messenger.
Because the real goal, it's not about selling
in a mass for most of us, particularly professional
service providers. It's not about mass selling.
It's not about getting a viral video. One of
my mentors, Marshall Goldsmith, has 1 .5 million
followers on LinkedIn. He gets great engagement
when he posts. He's never picked up a client
from a post. So what it's really involved is
inside LinkedIn Messenger, I like one of the
habits is celebrating life events, birthday,
anniversary, new job. And as you wish somebody
a happy birthday and they respond, if it's somebody
who's a prospect, either referral partner or
prospect, how do you turn that conversation into
a, or how do you turn that conversation into
a Zoom call? And that's... The 5 % functionality
is using LinkedIn Messenger to have more of,
actually, in essence, what you and I are doing
right now. I love that. And that's actually like
a skill. That's something that you need to learn,
even if you have these tools like AI, because
that human touch, you know, it makes it or break
it. I can identify automatically when. You know,
it feels like it's a robot just trying to do
that sales call and it almost wants you to unfriend
the person. So what you're describing is genuine
connection. Yes. Actually, sometimes I do unfriend
the person if it's too many and that's okay.
It could be a bad time in their life. And most
of the time, though, it's because we don't know
better. There's some expert out there who's talking
about how they've made a ton of money with a
particular approach and they... and they encourage
you to do what they've done, and it feels uncomfortable,
it feels slimy to you. I don't want people to
do that. I want you to be you. If you're living
in your vibrational frequency, if you're living
and doing the things you love doing, you're going
to attract the people who want to play in the
playground you play in. And that's the world
I want to live in. So that's what I'm doing with
the LinkedIn program. So what would you recommend
for someone that's either pivoting or changing?
How often should we, and I guess I'm asking for
a friend, how often should you revisit that CPOP?
Oh, that's a great question. Yeah, you're talking
about being, you know, vibrating. Yeah. It's
an interesting thing. I mean, I'll give you a
generic answer. at least once a quarter, sort
of check into it. You might want to consider
changing it every year or every other year. On
the other hand, what's going to happen is as
you talk to people, great example, I had my only
phone call this morning prior to you, and then
I've got a big webinar later today, was somebody
that four years ago, I gifted them a CPOP. And
kind of a stubborn guy. So I hope he doesn't
watch this podcast. Right. And, and it was really
him. And he goes, Oh yeah, of course I know that
Mitchell. And I'm okay. Great. Glad. And, and
this morning, as we started diving into the CPOP
and his effectivity, he started talking more
around, not just where he's making money. But
the partners that need to be part of the process
for him to be able to make money, he all of a
sudden got this incredible insight that said,
oh, maybe my outreach needs to be not just for
the direct customers I'm making money with, because
he can only make money if he finds the partners
to work with. Maybe my outreach needs to be the
partners to work with. Now, that may require
him to have more than one CPAP, right? And so
it was fascinating to me. He's been using it
for four years and he hasn't been as successful
as he wants to be. So when do you change your
CPAP? If you're going after the audience, you're
saying the right thing, you're having the right
conversations, and you're not being as effective
as you need to, you have to ask yourself, is
this the right audience? And am I saying the
right things or selling the right things? Now,
if you know you're selling the right things,
then maybe you're selling it to the wrong audience.
Or maybe you're somewhere in your... your chain,
your supply chain of the partners you work with,
maybe there's a different audience that if you
were able to get them excited about who you are
and what you did, that it would just automatically
flow to you making more money on the back end.
And yeah, that's the, so CPOPs will change. And
it's really about when you speak, I love the
one, leaders tired of slimy LinkedIn sales tactics
because it, It always makes people, oh man, because
you feel icky. I just say the words. I'm like,
oh, yuck, right? And the thing is, I'm going
to help you use LinkedIn effectively so that
you're not using sliding LinkedIn sales tactics
and you'll be pleasantly surprised. It may require,
oh, I got a good story. How are we doing it on
time? Go for it. I mean. All right. You can decide
to keep it in or not. So one of my clients is
a 70 -year -old man. who spent a lot of time
as a CFO. And he's been a client for five months.
We came up with a CPOP for him and it was quote
unquote, the best CPOP he could have come up
with at the time because A to Z, he spent his
whole life focusing on different marketing cookie
cutter things. So he came up with a good CPOP.
Two months later, we were in a public meeting.
He goes, Mitchell, can I change my CPOP? Now,
Sheila, you know how funny that is because it's
his, not mine. I'm not the keeper of his CPOP.
He knew the formula of the CPOP. And I go, yeah,
of course you can change your CPOP. And he goes,
well, let me tell you what it is. Now, he told
me what it was and he followed the formula. But
then he said, how come you're not excited about
it? Well, because at the time it was just words.
And I said, and I'm having a hard time not using
his name. purposely trying to not use it. And
I said, well, tell me why you changed it. And
he said, well, over the last couple of months,
this is a LinkedIn client. He goes, over the
last couple of months, you put me in front of
a bunch of my audience members. And in talking
to them, I was reminded what I loved doing as
a CFO and also what I didn't like doing as a
CFO. And so I've updated my CPOP to focus on
the stuff I love. And as soon as he said that,
I go. I love your seat pup, right? Now, when
we talked privately, I reminded him that I think
he's only partially there. I think as he spends
another couple months, he's going to fine -tune
it one more time. I didn't want to do that publicly,
but I want to do that privately. And what's powerful
is he knows the audience he needs to play in,
and now he needs to find the right product. That
will allow him to be able to do the closing and
make the money he wants to make. So now I have
two questions. You said you were going to share
the formula. And I know that being a coach, bouncing
it off you isn't the same as just giving a formula.
Sometimes it's better to share it. So if you're
going to share that formula, that key ingredient.
I could. Want me to? Please. Yes. All right.
I will tell you that I'm comfortable sharing
the formula because it's hard for many of us
to deploy it effectively because there's still
so many outside influences that are changing
how we think of the world. To me, this formula
is very similar to a E equals MC squared. The
problem is we're talking about humans. When you
talk about humans, there's a lot of variability.
So the CPOP is broken into two pieces. It's always
less than 10 words. And the first component of
the CPOP is the who. So it's who do you serve?
So for me, and I have two CPOPs, my executive
coaching, who I serve is Inc. 5000 CEOs. What
I decided on the LinkedIn stuff, I just had leaders,
kind of an open -ended. Maybe I could figure
out a better, you know, a better person to use,
but that's the who. Most people have a hard time
because they want to make the, they've figured
out that there are five, 10 different who's they
serve. And I'm going to say, pick one. Pick where
most of your revenue comes from. Yeah, but lots
of people, I've listened to a couple of your
episodes. Lots of people go, oh, I. I serve authors,
speakers, consultants, coaches. Yeah, by the
time you're done listing that list, people don't
hear you. Pick one. Doesn't matter. You know,
try to elevate it so you can pick one. So it's
the who. And the second part of it, from their
perspective, 80 % of the time is what is the
pain point they're trying to get over. 20 % is
what is their pleasure point. So my two CPOPs
are pain point, pleasure point. When the audience
is a CEO. Their egos are so big, they won't relate
to a pain point. You got to give them a pleasure
point. So that's why it's Inc. 5 ,000 CEOs leading
the future with executive abundance. The natural
question is, Mitchell, what's executive abundance?
And I tell them what it means. They're like,
wait, I want that. Yeah, no, that's what I thought.
It was like the outcome, right? Where you're
showing them what you get if you work with me.
And I like that. and prefer to go in that direction.
But 80 % of the time for most of the people I'm
working with, they get the person to raise their
eyebrows with the pain point. And I'll tell you
exactly why. The pain point, so leaders tired
of slimy LinkedIn sales tactics, is the partner
or friend, it's the referral partner. Right?
You're going to hear somebody complaining, hey,
listen, all my clients are on LinkedIn and everything
I'm doing is not working. And then people are
recommending stuff, but I don't like it because
it feels uncomfortable. Or I don't go to LinkedIn
anymore because I get too many people selling
me. But if that's where your clients are, you
have to use LinkedIn. Right? And it's the referral
partner who, when I say the pain point, that
goes, oh, wait a second, I got somebody I need
to introduce you to. And so that's 80 % of the
time. The CPOP is a pain point. As much as I
would prefer to always sort of live in an abundant
state where it's, you know, it's a pleasure point.
I love that. Oh, can I? So let me tell you something
interesting. The reason that formula is important
is because you can't just use a formula for success.
Formulas are interesting. But particularly when
we're talking about humans. I can give somebody
a CPAP, but 90 % of the time they don't know
what to do with it. They need to work with somebody,
potentially someone like you or someone like
me, or there are lots of people who have frameworks
that once they have the clarity of the CPAP,
they could use a framework to deploy. So I have
two frameworks, right? I'm doing my executive
coaching. I'm doing the LinkedIn work. Almost
every... professional service provider I work
with have some form of framework that they use.
That's great. Let's apply the formula for the
CPOP up front, because if you get that level
of clarity with your client, your frameworks
work that much better. I love that. Well, you've
accomplished so much. What is your next milestone?
The bigger milestone is getting the PhD. So I've
done the coursework on the PhD. And I was starting
the dissertation. And when I first started, I
was focused on credibility. I interviewed 500
thought leaders on credibility. Let's do a PhD
on that. And there was something about it that
didn't quite feel right. I mean, I hadn't done
the research. I felt like I got that covered.
And that's the book Credibility Nation has done
that. Then I started focusing on clarity because
I've got that clarity superpower. And that didn't
feel right either. And when I landed on Executive
Abundance, I'm recognizing that that is a way
in which it's a framework for running companies
differently than the way companies are run today.
That felt so comfortable for me. Now, in order
to live in that world, milestone one was pick
up a keynote where I get to speak on Executive
Abundance. Finish that. Milestone number two
is write the book. The reason why the book is
important. So the book is actually written, not
will be published shortly. I needed to, when
I talk to people about executive abundance, particularly
my audience, like Mitchell, what can I read?
I had a one, you know, one page PDF. I'm like,
no, no, I need to give you a blueprint. I need
to give you the book. So I'm doing the book.
And then as soon as the book is done, so I put
my. dissertation on hold for about six to seven
months. As soon as the book is done, then I go
back to the dissertation, which is going to be
on executive abundance. So there'll be a second
version of the book, which will have much more
research and other things on it whenever the
dissertation is done. So the milestone is the
dissertation. It's not so I could call myself
Dr. Levy, right? That's not the milestone. The
milestone is I'm being forced to do the level
of research that's necessary to be able to share
a framework that I think is so transformational
that I could share the framework in such a way
where it has a lot of research behind it. And
so that's really the milestone is having that
done and having some companies, some really big
companies talking about, oh, we're focusing on
executive abundance. Well, I am intrigued. Well,
I love it. So can you share how our listeners
can get in touch with you? Oh, sure. So best
way, go to my website. So it's MitchellLevy .com,
M -I -T -C -H -E -L -L -L -E -V -Y .com. You
can see how I'm putting myself out there, programs
we have, if you have any interest. And really,
if this has inspired you to have a conversation,
you can also book time directly on my calendar.
And that's at MitchellLevy .com. So thank you
so much for joining me today. Oh, you're welcome.
Thanks for having me. Nice to spend time with
you again. And thank you all for tuning in to
another episode of Milestone Moments in Business
and Leadership.