Unlock the secret to crystal-clear business communication with Global Credibility Expert Mitchell Levy, the thought leader who revolutionized how we articulate our entrepreneurial purpose. Imagine distilling the essence of your business into a ten-word strike of lightning – that's the power of clarity Mitchell advocates for, and it's a transformative force we explore in today's chat. From the bedrock of trust and integrity to the magnetic pull of a well-crafted message, we uncover the strategies that make your business brand not just seen but felt in its industry.
Dive into the heart of differentiation as we dissect what sets genuine entrepreneurs apart from the 'wantrepreneurs', with a focus on commitment and the investment of time. I proudly share my own Customer Point of Possibilities (CPOP), challenging you to reflect on your entrepreneurial spirit. It's a tale of sacrifices and triumphs, a candid look at the journey from having a brilliant idea to nurturing a thriving business, as we dissect the habits that fuel success beyond the 9-to-5 grind.
For small business owners standing at the precipice of change or in search of that elusive opportunity, listen closely as we lay out the roadmap for strategic business pivots and business growth. We talk targeting your marketing message for maximum impact, embracing the clarity that beckons opportunity, and fostering a community-driven ethos. With Mitchell's insights and our shared experiences, this episode is a beacon for entrepreneurs and small business owners eager to carve out their niche and shine.
Unlock the secret to crystal-clear business communication with Global Credibility Expert Mitchell Levy, the thought leader who revolutionized how we articulate our entrepreneurial purpose. Imagine distilling the essence of your business into a ten-word strike of lightning – that's the power of clarity Mitchell advocates for, and it's a transformative force we explore in today's chat. From the bedrock of trust and integrity to the magnetic pull of a well-crafted message, we uncover the strategies that make your business brand not just seen but felt in its industry.
Dive into the heart of differentiation as we dissect what sets genuine entrepreneurs apart from the 'wantrepreneurs', with a focus on commitment and the investment of time. I proudly share my own Customer Point of Possibilities (CPOP), challenging you to reflect on your entrepreneurial spirit. It's a tale of sacrifices and triumphs, a candid look at the journey from having a brilliant idea to nurturing a thriving business, as we dissect the habits that fuel success beyond the 9-to-5 grind.
For small business owners standing at the precipice of change or in search of that elusive opportunity, listen closely as we lay out the roadmap for strategic business pivots and business growth. We talk targeting your marketing message for maximum impact, embracing the clarity that beckons opportunity, and fostering a community-driven ethos. With Mitchell's insights and our shared experiences, this episode is a beacon for entrepreneurs and small business owners eager to carve out their niche and shine.
Without touting your system, without saying how good you are, who you serve or what you do, can you articulate the playground you play in in less than 10 words? And if you're like everyone else in the world, only 2% of you can. So if you're part of that 98%, I would suggest you do some self-reflection and come and customer conversation and be able to do that. That will change everything for you.
Michael Morrison:
Welcome to Small Business Pivots, a podcast designed for small business owners. I'm your host, michael Morson, a small business coach and founder of Boss, where we help you create a business that runs without you. To learn more, go to BusinessOwnershipSimplifiedcom and make sure to hang around to the end of this episode for my recap and coach's corner, where I share applicable action steps that will help you grow your business. Our guest today is Mitchell Levy.
Michael Morrison:
Mitchell is a two-times TEDx speaker, an international best-selling author of over 60 books and an executive coach at Marshall Goldsmiths 100 Coaches. He's an accomplished entrepreneur who has created 20 businesses in Silicon Valley, including four publishing companies that have published over 750 books. He's provided strategic consulting to hundreds of companies and has been the chairman of a board of a NASDAQ-listed company. After interviewing 500 thought leaders on credibility, he published a seven-country international best-selling book, delivered a powerful TEDx, created courses and created the Credibility Nation membership community to help those live, learn and surround themselves with others on the credibility journey. Let's get to Mitchell now and learn why credibility starts with clarity, and without clarity you're not credible. Well, welcome to another Small Business Pivot podcast. Today we have a very special guest. How are you today, sir?
Mitchell Levy:
I'm doing great, Michael. Thanks for having me Fantastic.
Michael Morrison:
Let's introduce yourself a little bit and tell us what you do so.
Mitchell Levy:
Mitchell Levy, global credibility expert, and my life, like many entrepreneurs, are broken into three pieces, but I'll tell you the most important. I deliver clarity, so I work with corporations and individuals and I allow them to articulate who they serve and how they serve them in less than 10 words and with that level of clarity, life is easy, absolutely.
Mitchell Levy:
So that's one thing We'll talk about that. We'll talk about clarity. Happy to talk about book publishing. 20% of my effort is focused on both executive coaching, so I take on five or six executive coaching clients at any point in time, and then I've published over 750 books to the four publishing companies we have.
Michael Morrison:
So you have a lot to share. So I'm not going to take very much of the stage here. Our guest, our small business owners who are stuck in their business and looking to get to the next level and just don't see a way out of what they're currently doing. So you are full of knowledge and information to help these people. So, going back to our childhood, I know a lot of small business owners. We all had some type of mindset issue. Did you have anything like that or you just came out going, let's go.
Mitchell Levy:
I think we all would be. Anyone who just came out and said that would be lying to at least themselves.
Michael Morrison:
So that's my honesty question up front. So we see if we trust you.
Mitchell Levy:
No, I'm just kidding, I think the I spent four years ago. I spent a year interviewing 500 thought leaders on credibility, and credibility is comprised of 10 values. The simple definition is that I had to rewrite. In today's world, the simple definition is the quality in which one is trusted, known and liked. In that order, trust, no like.
Mitchell Levy:
What's interesting under the ability of being trusted is integrity. Actually, integrity is in two. It's the only value that's in two places. The integrity and being trusted is your external integrity as people get to know you. The integrity under being known is your internal integrity, and a lot of people get in trouble because they say one thing and they do something else. In today's world, that's just not possible. Someone will catch you.
Mitchell Levy:
So I believe, and I'll put it back to the time I was nine when my parents got divorced and my dad, I think, tried to be a dad. I mean he'd helicopter in on Saturdays and take us bowling or to a movie. But my question in that point is what is a father and what should a father do? And that is sort of from that age, as I started thinking about integrity and how does one, how does somebody be, have integrity? And I think the answer is and I didn't even know this at the time, and I'm thinking about, as I'm expressing it this way to you, michael, at the time, I was thinking about both external and internal integrity. I just didn't even know that. So, technically, what should a father do? And then, internally, do they really want to do it? Do they feel good about doing it? Yeah, yeah, right, because you could feel it.
Michael Morrison:
That's important too, yeah.
Mitchell Levy:
Yeah, exactly you could feel when people are not consistent in their integrity.
Michael Morrison:
So you grew up in a shared atmosphere. I guess mother, father different homes.
Mitchell Levy:
No, no, it was. Mom was a school teacher. Three kids, so technically we were beneath or below the poverty line, okay, but as kids we never knew that Right, yeah, that's awesome.
Michael Morrison:
Mom was good.
Mitchell Levy:
Mom was really good, she we didn't know.
Michael Morrison:
Yeah, that's incredible. Not so many people are that lucky growing up. We all seem to have some trials and tribulations growing up, and I mentioned that because it seems like a lot of entrepreneurs always have that in the back of their head and it really keeps them from getting to the next level because they have already a self value or a worth that they think they are, and a lot of it stems from the childhood and how you shift into adulthood and how you use that to your advantage, which let's get to your story, because you started adulting. What got you to be an entrepreneur?
Mitchell Levy:
Always had some form of entrepreneurial efforts from, even from the time when I did a paper route. By definition, entrepreneur, right. The thing that's interesting to me is and once again, this is a good maybe I'm in a good self-reflective mode today, but you're making me think about things Michael hadn't thought about before, which is cool. And what's interesting is, I got put into the thing that we're all put into. It's the marketing cookie cutter approach to life. All right, mitchell, you need to get a college degree. Oh, okay, I'm like okay.
Mitchell Levy:
So I got a college degree. Okay, mitchell, I think it makes sense to get a master's. So I got an MBA, did that, and I think you should work for a company. So I did that and I took one when I moved from Boston. So I ended up going to the University of Miami underground. I went to the college of William Mary in Virginia from my graduate, then went to Boston, followed one of my professors from College of William Mary and I did some work for him in an independent study. He took my work, got a job at a colonial mutual fund in Boston and said, mitchell, you're coming with me. I'm like okay. And then I ended up meeting a girl who, to long story shorted. I've been married to now for 33 years, but we she ended up moving to California. I moved to California six months after she moved, got a job at a startup Startup, went belly up as I didn't know at the time. Many startups do.
Michael Morrison:
Yes.
Mitchell Levy:
But, you know, I say, hey, I'm moving to Silicon Valley, I'm going to, the streets are paved with gold, I'm going to make a shit ton of money. And at that time I was at an interesting crossroads, like, okay, what do I do? What's next? And I although I may have had that entrepreneurial entity I mean my parents said, you know, you should go to a large company and what? You go to a large company, you could figure out what to do for there.
Mitchell Levy:
And so I spent the next nine years at Sun Microsystems and I did as much entrepreneur stuff as I could but kept bumping against walls. And so, starting in 1997, I hung up the shingle as an entrepreneur and I've started 20 companies and I look for this is what entrepreneurs do, at least is what I've done, right, yeah, you have a good network. You talk to your friends and your network often and yes, and what they need? And they tell you, and first, couple you do for, basically for free or for some small amount of money, because you want testimonials so you can have social proof. After that you start charging. So that's birthed 20-ish companies. Then I'm starting. About five months ago I started planning. About three months ago I started my last, my most recent one.
Michael Morrison:
I know for us that have started businesses before, it sounds like a silly question, but I'm often asked from people that haven't yet quite made the leap into entrepreneurship because they're still stuck in a job and they don't know what they really want to do. So, taking yourself back, do you recall kind of what? How did you know what you wanted to start? Basically, because I have so many people. Well, I love doing this and I love doing that, but I don't know if it's really a business, so I don't know. If it's, they're just they're not ready to pull the trigger. Or if it's, they seriously don't know what to do, or maybe it's just not a fit. You got any advice for those listeners? Yeah, all right.
Mitchell Levy:
You're baiting me a little bit, because clarity and understanding a lesson, 10 words, that playground you plan, solves all, all issues. I mean, it really is. That's the business I'm doing now. But let's, let's answer your question in a different way. We'll come back to that level of clarity as my first. Let me let me share my.
Mitchell Levy:
I have something called a CPOP, your customer point of possibilities, and your CPOP represents that playground you plan and it makes it easy from there to to figure out who are your like. Your CPOP it stands for customer point of possibilities. You start with with the customer in mind and what you're thinking about is okay, who, who is that? How do you like? How do I as narrowly define it as possible? And then, from their perspective, what is their pain point or what is their pleasure point? We'll come back to that. I'll share mine, but then I'll answer your question in a in a very direct way. So mine, coaches who've created a job, not a business. So what I mean by that it could be certainly coaches, could be consultants, could be small businesses where they wake up every day and they're doing the stuff they don't want to do. They're doing the, the, the PETA, the pain in the ass stuff versus actually executing on a business, making money, having fun, and particularly with coaches. The ICF, the International Coaching Federation, has done a worldwide survey of executive coaches. Specifically in the US, there's over a hundred thousand executive coaches with an average salary of $55,000. Wow, so I know like crazy, right. And you say to yourself, how is that? And that is because what we've done as far as academic education is concerned, what most certification programs have done, is they've teach and teached that's a good word. They've taught you a methodology for delivery. So there are many coaches who are really good at delivery. They suck at business development. So that's actually the program I'm working on right now is I'm three months into a program that I'm actually doing that and helping the coach get more well rounded so they they can actually have a business versus a job.
Mitchell Levy:
Let's go back to your, your direct question. Your question was what could somebody do today to get excited about being an entrepreneur? Yeah, okay. So I'm going to define the difference between first of all, read the. Michael Gerber has done a whole series of books on the EMIF. Read his stuff, I mean, just if you haven't consumed his stuff, you need to. And and here is he defines a entrepreneur versus an entrepreneur, and I'm going to give you your. Anyone who's listening. This is, this is when you get to say to yourself I'm a entrepreneur and I apologize in advance for squashing your dreams, but I'm going to give you the difference between an entrepreneur and an entrepreneur. So here's why, when I'm in front of, and I've been in front of, tens of thousands of in Silicon Valley, I'm often in front of that engineer with a great idea.
Mitchell Levy:
Yeah, and then I asked two questions. Now I only ask the second question If the first question doesn't blow me away in a negative way. So, first question how many hours a week do your work? If the answer is anything less than 70, I asked the second question Okay, because you know, if you're working 70 hours a week, you need downtime afterwards, right, if they're working anything less than 70,. I then ask the second question. And the second question is how many hours a week do you spend on your entrepreneurial idea?
Mitchell Levy:
Now, this is the definition. This is when you get to say oh shit, Mitchell's right, if you spend zero hours a week, if you're working less than 70 hours and you spend zero hours a week on your entrepreneur activities, you are today defined as a entrepreneur. Yeah, that's good. Sorry, sorry, but it's true and that's okay. It's okay to have a job and to have a steady stream of revenue and hopefully you could carve out a job you love doing. When you get to the point where you wake up in the morning and go Matt, you know I'm going to carve five hours a week or 10 hours a week, I'm going to do this entrepreneurial thing. And you start doing it and you start seeing there's a demand, you start making a little bit of money. That's when you could start saying hey, I really am an entrepreneur. What if I put more time and effort there, could I make the same amount of money as I could with my job? By the way, that's not a bad place to start.
Michael Morrison:
I know a lot of people. They keep saying they want to own a business and then they're out playing golf in the afternoon and going out with friends on the weekend and not one second is spent on. How am I going to? I need to do some research. I need to do the things that you're talking about.
Mitchell Levy:
So, michael, I'm going to tell you about a friend that I haven't spoke with with a little bit, but he was running a CEO networking group and he had joined for a little bit. He was working 30 hours a week. 30 hours a week and making 150,000 a year. It was running his own company, but it was part of a franchise system. Blah, blah, blah. And I said how many extra hours are you doing on other things you want to do? He goes oh no, I'm going to wait till I get rid of this thing, till I do something else. I'm like dude, I know you're an entrepreneur because you have a franchise system, but you're really a entrepreneur. Yeah, and maybe he doesn't like me anymore and it's no longer a friend. But the issue is, think about this 30 hours a week, 150,000, and you have no spare time to do anything else besides play.
Michael Morrison:
Well, and I'll just piggyback on that and probably make more people angry. But when I talk to people and they tell me they don't work on, you know they have a job but they don't do any extra effort after hours, I know some of the comments they mentioned to me is well, I'm not going to work for free. And I'm like, okay, you're not an entrepreneur because we work for free all the time on our craft. You know we do all the things that need to be done, but if you're not going to put in the extra time there, what makes me confident in you that you're going to put in the extra effort to make your clients happy? You know, because that's what an entrepreneur is all about is, whatever it takes and hours in the day, it doesn't matter. Like I don't log my time on how much I help people. You know it's just part of part of it. So I love that question. So you said it, not me, but that's what I really wanted to say because I didn't want to make people mad.
Mitchell Levy:
So thank you, I'll take you, I'll take the quiver on that one.
Michael Morrison:
I have to talk to these people every week on our podcast, so I want to keep some friends around. So let's get to your, your business venture. So the real purpose of our show is to talk about pivots and iterations, as some people call them, anything you got to offer to help. I know you have a lot of clarity, tools and resources that you use and you offer, so let's help some people. How, what can, what can we do to help them?
Mitchell Levy:
I have made many massive pivots in my life and many of them are documented on social. So if you, if, if you're the type of person who wants to learn through that I I do a couple podcasts a week and my I often tell my story. So you didn't ask me my story, thank you, because I want to give you tools, the thing. So, having spent, I did my own Napoleon Hill style survey. So I interviewed 500 thought leaders on credibility. Napoleon, you know, interviewed 500 millionaires, you know, on on how to run a business. He came up with thinking grow rich. I'm thinking, hey, mitchell's going to come up with his own version of thinking grow rich, but focused on credibility. And I unlocked a whole number of secrets. I just actually I happened to be deploying the wrong secrets for three years Kind of not fun as an entrepreneur. So I did okay, but not great. It was about five or six months ago that I started. I sat down with one of my friends so somebody I trust and she said something that was a marketing cookie cutter approach. And so I kind of like with somebody I, I I'm a book publisher. I've published over 750 books. I've written 65 myself. Many of them are best sellers.
Mitchell Levy:
I get this random LinkedIn message that says you ever thought about how being a best selling author is going to help you be successful? I'm like have you looked at my? Oh, and they start to. I've looked at your profile. I love who you are. I'm like Did you really look at my profile? Because you know and, but I'm not so mean and same thing, ever thought about bundling your knowledge and creating an online course? You'll be super successful.
Mitchell Levy:
So this woman said to me Mitchell, how about scaling your business? Because I could help you 10 exit. So like, I'm feeling, like I feel like the hairs on my back, on my neck, stand up, even when I'm making me cringe. I know like, but it was somebody I trusted, so I'm like Okay, now it turns out that her superpower is business models and, as so she, you know, she used the marketing cookie cutter words because it's too easy. I mean, that's how I ended up working for corporate for so long I just followed the marketing cookie cutter approaches. But as she was going through business models, I realized that I've been spending.
Mitchell Levy:
After the research I spent three years focused on on credibility and secondarily, I moved to clarity and what I realized in going through the business models and what I could scale. I need to. I need to lead with clarity Because, by the way, my wife had it right three years ago. She said honey, do you realize that every business person thinks they're credible? And unfortunately that's true even if they're not? Now, only 65% of business people think they have clarity and in reality, only 2% do so. Leading with clarity makes a lot of sense. So if you want to pivot, I'm going to ask you to create your own CPOP, your own customer point of possibilities. It's in less than 10 words. It has two pieces to it and then you could go to. It's really fun. I've got a community. You can go and take a course and do it yourself. You could. Once a month we do a clarity session. It's a 90 minute session. I guarantee everyone will get their own CPOP. Cpop's customer point of possibilities is two elements.
Michael Morrison:
You're listening to Small Business Pivots, a podcast created exclusively for small business owners. This podcast is paid for by Boss, where business ownership is simplified for success. Boss helps business owners create a business that runs without them, with business coaching, business lending courses, events, additional resources and more. Go to businessownershipsimplifiedcom to learn why small business success starts there. If you're enjoying the podcast and want to stay up to date with all of our latest episodes, make sure to hit that subscribe button, and if you're loving what you hear, give us a thumbs up or leave a positive review. Your support means the world to us and it helps others discover the show too. Thanks for tuning in and don't forget to hit subscribe and like. Now let's get back to our guest.
Mitchell Levy:
So first, who is your audience. Now, what we came up for you was I normally like one, two or three words. Unfortunately for you, we came up with four words, but it was the right four words, yeah, right. So your four words were stuck million dollar businesses Right, I mean, think about that. You're not saying I help, I serve, I do stock million dollar businesses. Now, for me, if I was like everyone else, I would say coaches, consultants, small businesses. But because the majority of the business I know the pain points is coaches, I'm saying coaches Now when I do my, tell me more. What happens with a good CPOP. If somebody says, tell me more, I can say oh, by the way, your consultant, it works for you. But I want to focus on the more narrow you could be, the more people listen. So, for me, your four words is I have one coaches. Okay, here's the next thing From their perspective.
Mitchell Levy:
This is an important part. If you're an entrepreneur and you don't know who your audience is, or it's too big, you know once again, you got to narrow it down. And if you don't know either their pain point or their pleasure point, and which is going to get them more excited, spend some time. Talk to your prospects Right, ask, communicate, communicate, talk, yeah. And so for you it's the we know the, we know who, and your. It turns out for you that it felt to me that it's interesting. Stuck million dollar businesses is kind of a pain point, and so you had to compliment that with a pleasure point.
Mitchell Levy:
Getting to the next level. It's a little bit longer, but stuck million dollar businesses getting to the next level. It's like I get that because what happens and I'll share mine as well coaches who've created a job, not a business. There are three people who are going to listen to your CPOP. One could be a referral, a referring partner, a two could be a prospect and three they don't care. It doesn't mean they don't care about you, they just don't care about the playground you play in. When you're talking to somebody else and they are one or two they're a referral partner or a prospect they have to ask you tell me more, right, stock, million dollar businesses.
Mitchell Levy:
Getting to the next level, michael, what do you do? How do you do that? What's interesting about this approach is you've described your playground in less than 10 words. You have the clarity to come across as a credible person, and when they're saying, tell me more. You're now speaking from a level of credibility, because they've entered into your playground, because what they're thinking about either as a referral partner or a prospect, can I use Michael? Can I refer Michael Right? So it's the same thing with me, right? If everybody knows a coach who is just not doing good, they don't like what they do, they're not getting enough business, huh, should I recommend them to Mitchell? Should I refer Mitchell Right? That's kind of what it is.
Mitchell Levy:
So if you want to know the next step to find your CPOP, you can go over to Credit Bally Nation. We charge 35 bucks a month. You take the course there for free or, like I said, join me for the annual thing, get your CPOP. But to find your CPOP, and then, if in your spare time, if you're not 100% sure, start talking to people, start talking to your prospect audience. So if you have a job, michael, if you have a job, you have a financial sponsor. That financial sponsor is paying your bills and maybe more. If that financial sponsor is not requiring 70 hours a week and you have less, you have time. Your financial sponsor is paying you to actually test drive the validity of your entrepreneurial concept. Isn't that cool?
Mitchell Levy:
You got a company who's paying you money because you got an extra five or 10 hours a week to test drive your entrepreneurial activity. And typically, by the way, or in many cases when the boss hears it, they're not upset Right, because 20 years ago they would be today like everyone's doing now. So you're getting paid to spend time to actually don't do it on your job time, but you can pay to have extra time actually test the validity of your entrepreneurial notions.
Michael Morrison:
I mean you get to do that, like, you get to decide if you want to do that. There's no guarantee. So a few minutes ago you're talking about 10X, whatever, whatever. There's no guarantee, but it does relate to moving forward. I guess A lot of people, when they have a content writer, they're like you got to have a guarantee and so they put this we can 10X your business in 30 days. Well, that's the credibility. Is not there, right? Because everybody's saying it and it's a false myth. It's a lie For those that have bought those programs. I'm sorry it's a lie. You can't guarantee anything like that. But with the credibility what you're saying like with both yours and mine, you're giving them a place to go in the future, like you're giving them hope but you're not guaranteeing anything other than themselves going there, if that makes sense.
Mitchell Levy:
Yes, I don't know. There was a question there, so I think. I probably answered the question that I asked yeah, I now understand the context and thanks for answering the question. And okay, now we're done. You start interviewing me now.
Michael Morrison:
No, I'm just kidding, but I love that because that's a fresh approach. What you have and I say that I'm basically giving you credibility to the listeners Like this is good stuff. Like I know they hear a lot of stuff, they see it on YouTube, they read it, they read blogs, but this is a fresh approach. That just sounds refreshing. It's different.
Mitchell Levy:
It's so funny because everything in life is so. So everything goes in cycles, you know, and I remember when computing needed to be huge, then I needed to be small, like in terms of centralized, decentralized. Everything goes in cycles and there was a point in time where we really did business in a hat like this and we shook somebody's hand and somebody gave their word and they delivered, and then all of a sudden, this social media thing and the computer I was actively, actively part of the helping bring the internet to businesses that came out and all of a sudden, everyone here it is. Here's mine for this. I can see it. I'm holding the microphone to my face, everyone has a microphone and a camera and everyone's a thought leader. What happened with 2023? Is GPT actually made every thought leader ubiquitous? All you have to do is know how to prompt and you could be an expert at where space.
Mitchell Levy:
So, at this stage, going out as someone who is unknown, like if I don't know your face, I don't know you, I don't trust you, I can't, I don't actually trust no one like you. I can't buy your product because I don't know if it's you or some AI responding to me. So we're going back to the stage where you look somebody's eyes, you shake their hand and you deliver what you say. So the question becomes when you look somebody's eyes and you say I am going to help you, I am going to help either deliver a promise or I'm going to help solve a pain point or address a pain point. Your CPOP, that's your promise, that's the play around you playing. When you say those words.
Mitchell Levy:
You have to be talking to people, not this amorphous audience. You talk to individual people and we forgot that. We did this a lot. We need to come back. You could do the social media stuff for education. As a matter of fact, as I said even in this interview, you want to know my origin story. Watch any of my other videos. I could say that, and if there were a thousand people watching, there might be one or two who go. Oh, I'm going to do that.
Michael Morrison:
Well, one of my coaches, in reference to kind of what you're saying and I wanted to share this with the listeners one of my coaches reminded me and it's a good reminder he said don't forget everybody. Most people are catering to the algorithms, the keywords, the hashtags and all this, but he said, behind every cell, no matter between if it's brick and mortar, digital e-commerce there's a person making that cell. So don't forget to talk to the person.
Mitchell Levy:
I love your stuff, the marketing cookie cutter stuff says oh, here's why I like the least. Well, actually I'll tell you the worst thing I've ever heard. This is the worst advice. Run away from anyone who says fake it till you make it Okay. Throw that away Okay, because if you fake it, that means you're faking yourself, right. Instead, if you have a CPOP and you think there's a pain pointer or a pleasure point, if you talk to a prospect, you say those words I think this is something I can address. So what do you do If you've already have a job and you have your financial sponsor? You offer to do whatever it is that you're going to be doing with your prospect for free. The only cost is a video testimony when you're successful. Isn't that a unique idea? Yes, right.
Michael Morrison:
Get a customer. Get two customers.
Mitchell Levy:
You're going to learn a lot when you do something. The second time You're going to learn the value of the things you're working on. And once again it goes back to the individual, whether it's the individual or company. The stuff I do works on corporations. This is talking to a company that is somewhere around a quarter of a million not a bad size. You know 1600 employees and I'm speaking to them about clarity and they had all their stuff all over the place and their CPOP is five words. As soon as I mentioned that to their CMO, it like the light bulbs went off and like, oh my God, and it's the question, the answer.
Mitchell Levy:
People say it can't really be that simple. And I want to say to you, for those who are listening or watching right now, we've been taught how to make things more complicated so we could charge more money. That doesn't necessarily mean it's right, yeah, Okay. So if you can cleanly articulate the simplicity of who you serve and what do they think is their pain point or pleasure point, that the playground where you play If you can do that and then actually successfully execute on that, you got a business.
Michael Morrison:
That's how it works. I've heard I don't remember who I heard it from, so I apologize if you're listening but I heard someone once say it's not always the best company that gets the sell, it's the company that's more clear. In other words, I understand what you do Like that has more telling their story clearer.
Mitchell Levy:
That's going to bug you. By the way, when you actually get that quote, send it to me because I'd love to use it. Yeah, that is going to bug me now.
Michael Morrison:
I can tell that I'm on the spot.
Mitchell Levy:
Having spoken with you before, I can tell that's going to eat you. So when you solve it, I want to know too, and maybe you put it on your notes to let the audience know but the ability to crystal-ly, crystal-ly.
Michael Morrison:
So now you're talking like me, I'm rubbing off.
Mitchell Levy:
Yeah, the ability to clearly crystallize your message, to have people like one of my good friends, his CPOP Game Changers, looking for their secret sauce. You're like huh, I'm interested in something like that and it's so simple that now to tell me more for him is an interesting one. It's very easy. He's worked with thousands of entrepreneurs. The secret sauce sometimes is how do I deliver the service or product. Sometimes is how do I allow the market to actually see me? Because this is the other thing. So many entrepreneurs I have the best thing that will slice the bread in the best way possible. If only I knew how to get to the audience. And then they name some influences. It's only this person new about me. That's entrepreneur dreaming. That's not entrepreneur activity.
Michael Morrison:
Most, not all successful, very successful entrepreneurs actually call themselves accidental entrepreneurs because they weren't seeking that billion dollars, they were just. They had a product, a service, they had a clear story, people found it and the rest is history. A lot of people we've had on the show actually have said it was accidental how I got where I'm at, but I was so passionate about what it was, it just turned into what it did. It morphed into what it did. So it's not always about chasing a dollar amount, but as long as you have clarity and you have passion, like you're speaking about putting in those extra hours, that's what makes a great entrepreneur and I promise you, coming from me, you'll be happy. It's the other people that are doing it for the wrong reasons. You know they're trying to either copy somebody, mimic somebody, get in touch with that influencer, whatever it is and I just like listeners to hear that, because sometimes we get kind of derailed a little bit of what we're really aiming for as an entrepreneur.
Mitchell Levy:
Oh, Michael, I have to. I have to say something because it's so interesting. I was looking here at tagline. It says simplified for success, all right.
Mitchell Levy:
So how could this Mitchell Levy guy come along and say, by the way, the CPOP comes before your, why the CPOP comes before your mission statement, your value proposition? I mean, I share this with the quarter of a billion dollar company, so a quarter of a million. Oh sorry, I said quarter of a million, I meant quarter of a billion, so $250 million company. And I said that to the CMO and I go, she goes. Well, how does your CPOP relate to the value proposition? I said, well, let me give you one and then you could tell me. And I gave it to her and she goes oh my god, this should. Because she's already spent time, money and energy and a lot of money coming up with a value proposition and the customer avatars and all the live like. There's so much work you can do if you don't spend time with the simplicity. So how could this Mitchell Levy guy come along and say it really is as simple. Sometimes we just get caught up in marketing cookie cutter stuff and it really is as simple. So, michael, let me say I've actually helped deliver. Now, this is a little bit vulnerable as well. So I've helped deliver over 1,000 CPOPs to companies and individuals. Ok, mitchell, that's a good number. I'm going to say yes. Now let me give you a not so good number.
Mitchell Levy:
90% of the time, if all I'm doing is delivering the CPOP and the person who feels it is like, oh my god, this is amazing, 90% of the time they forget it somewhere between two hours and two weeks If I'm not working with them, helping them deploy it, because that's not common nature today to think about life in such simplicity. What often happens is some other expert, smart person comes along, they hear the CPOP and they say, oh, you should change these words. And then the person goes and changes the words and what happens is, when we know something is right and it feels good and we start sharing it, we sometimes allow other people to influence us and derail us, and so I'm noticing that more and more so. As an entrepreneur, the thing that I'm thinking about often is do I spend time focused on the 10% or do I spend time focused on the 90%? Natural inclination is to go.
Mitchell Levy:
Let's go out to 90%. So I'm putting DIY content out there for the 90%. But where my programs are targeted are the 10%. It's those people who hear their simplicity of their CPOP and they want to take action on it. So that's the target market I'm going after Fantastic.
Michael Morrison:
Well, we are out of time. My friend, surprising huh. We're not out of conversation. I sure the listeners. We could go on and on, but any words final, like if you could put every business owner in a room, what would you tell them?
Mitchell Levy:
Without touting your system, without saying how good you are or who you serve or what you do, can you articulate the playground you play in in less than 10 words? And if you're like everyone else in the world, only 2% of you can. So if you're part of that 98%, I would suggest you do some self-reflection and customer conversation and be able to do that. That will change everything for you.
Michael Morrison:
That's great advice and I'll add to that and then call you. I'll reach out to you for it. Because, you know how to do it.
Mitchell Levy:
My public programs are really good and if you decide that you want to join the, we do a clarity certification program. We're actually certifying clarity specialists and I'm working hand in hand with our clarity specialists in essence, building and making their business successful. And it's early on. I need to do this with two sets of cohorts. I'm just in the middle of the first one. I need to do this with two sets of cohorts so I can actually then create a simplified process I could leverage other people for. So, just acting as an entrepreneur, I know there's a demand. There's a huge demand. I need to actually satisfy demand with two sets of people so I could see the consistency between those sets and then come up with processes that will allow me to leverage myself. That is what successful entrepreneurs do.
Michael Morrison:
Yeah, that's golden. What is the best way to follow you or get this information, particularly on platforms?
Mitchell Levy:
Yeah, there are many platforms. It's the easiest going to my website, michaellevycom, so it's 3Ls in there. So MITCHELLEVYcom there you can see all the stuff we're doing, particularly the. I keep an eye out for the next time we run a clarity session. So once a month we run a 90-minute clarity session. We'd love to have you there. You'll get exposed to what we're doing directly and you personally will come away with your CPOP.
Michael Morrison:
Yeah, fantastic. Well, I appreciate your time today. You've helped a lot of people, Thank you. Thank you All right, we'll see you. I appreciate your questions. It was fun, Awesome. Well, you've been wonderful to have. So thank you, Wish you continued success and we'll talk to you soon. Looking forward to it. Thanks, Michael, Take care everyone. Welcome to the Recap and Coaches Corner, but first I want to thank you again for tuning in to this episode of Small Business Pivots.
Michael Morrison:
Today we dove deep into the crucial topic of creating clarity for your business messaging. Remember a clear message, not a cookie cutter marketing approach, is the bridge that connects your business with your target audience. As we wrap up, let's focus on one actionable item for business owners to implement immediately. We'll do that in our Coaches Corner. I challenge you to define your business in a single concise sentence. Imagine you only have a few seconds to capture someone's attention and make them understand what you do.
Michael Morrison:
Craft a message that clearly communicates the problem you solve and the solutions you provide, using the formula Mitchell shared. The simple yet powerful exercise can be the key to attracting the right audience and generating more revenue. Take the time to refine and test your message until it resonates effortlessly with your potential clients. If you need help, visit Mitchell's website and I encourage you to invest in his resources. Remember, clarity is the catalyst for connection and a clear message is the first step towards building a business that runs without you. Thank you for listening to Small Business Pivots. Don't forget to subscribe and share this podcast. If your business is stuck or you need help growing your business, go to businessownershipsimplifiedcom and schedule a free consultation to learn why business success starts with boss. If you have a guest or topic suggestion for our podcast or just want to talk anything small business related, email me at michaelatmichaeldmorsencom. We'll see you next time on Small Business Pivots.