This episode of Leaders and Legacies dives deep into the essence of leadership, emphasizing the pivotal role of credibility. Mitchell Levy, a seasoned expert, shares his insights on how genuine compliments and recognition, termed "cred dust," can significantly enhance a leader's influence. He articulates the importance of integrity, both internally and externally, and how it intertwines with a leader's ability to be trusted, known, and liked.

The conversation further explores the transformational power of leadership when it’s anchored in authenticity, clarity, and the strategic acknowledgment of others' contributions. The dialogue underscores that today’s leadership transcends traditional command-and-control models, advocating for a more inclusive, empowering approach that celebrates the achievements of all team members.

Want to learn more about Mitchell's work? Check out their website at https://community.credibilitynation.com.

Connect with Mitchell on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchelllevy/.

Key Points with Time Stamps:

• (00:01:28-00:02:04) The transformative power of credibility in leadership.
• (00:17:31-00:18:16) The concept of "cred dust" – spreading genuine compliments and acknowledgment.
• (00:06:00-00:06:22) The significance of internal and external integrity for leaders.
• (00:29:18-00:30:05) Clarity in leadership: expressing core values succinctly.
• (00:19:51-00:20:21) The evolution of leadership styles and the shift from 'me' to 'we' cycles.

Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;30;20
Craig Andrews
I was in a coma for six weeks while the doctors told my wife I was going to die. When I woke up, she told me the most fantastic story. My team kept running the business without me. Freelancers reached out to my team and said, we will do whatever it takes. As long as Craig's in the hospital. I consider that the greatest accomplishment of my career.

00;00;30;23 - 00;00;51;10
Craig Andrews
My name is Craig Andrews and this is the Leaders and Legacies podcast where we talk to leaders creating an impact beyond themselves. At the end of today's interview, I'll tell you how you can be the next leader featured on the show.

00;00;51;10 - 00;01;28;20
Craig Andrews
Today I went welcome Mitchell leaving. He is the head of Credit Building Nation and runs something called the Referral Network Club, which I hope we get a chance to learn about. But he is a two times TEDx X speaker and an international best selling author of over 60 books, and an executive coach at Marshall Goldsmith's 100 coaches. I hope it's not a surprise that Mitchell is an expert on credibility, because that it defines who he is.

00;01;28;23 - 00;01;58;16
Craig Andrews
After interviewing 500 thought leaders on credibility, he published a seven country international best selling book delivered a powerful TEDx talk on humanity, created courses, and created the Credibility Nation membership community to help those live, learn, and surround themselves with others on the credibility journey. Mitchell. Welcome to Leaders and Legacies.

00;01;58;18 - 00;02;04;26
Mitchell Levy
great to be here. I kind of like that that that read you just did. So thank you. Good to be here.

00;02;04;28 - 00;02;30;05
Craig Andrews
You know, one of the things that I appreciate about you, and I think the listener will appreciate is you have an ability to catch somebody off guard with a compliment before they can barely get a word out of their mouth. When we, when we first jumped on, that's immediately what you did. And so part of your DNA, I can see that.

00;02;30;07 - 00;02;37;04
Craig Andrews
I guess my first question is, how did you learn that?

00;02;37;07 - 00;02;57;18
Mitchell Levy
Yeah, actually, by the way, for those who are just listening, you know, Craig, you're in a really nice tweed, brown tweed jacket like that. Like, I think what happens is we we live in the world where we have all these marketing cookie cutter approaches, and we're not supposed to say this and we're not supposed to do that.

00;02;57;21 - 00;03;12;12
Mitchell Levy
But if something catches your eye and it's a compliment, you go, I like it. Now if something catches your eye and it's the opposite of a compliment, you don't say it unless it is going to be helpful for the person. But you don't start that way.

00;03;12;14 - 00;03;23;00
Craig Andrews
Yeah, I think a lot of us hold on to compliments like it's our our our subway money to get home. And, and so we kind of clench on to it and we give it out sparingly.

00;03;23;02 - 00;03;27;09
Mitchell Levy
Why? I'm just say why.

00;03;27;11 - 00;03;46;10
Craig Andrews
Yeah, but it's it's so refreshing. I imagine everybody that meets you, they immediately feel delighted that they, you. And something tells me. I know it's a guess. Does that help? Credibility.

00;03;46;12 - 00;04;10;22
Mitchell Levy
Oh, that's a great question. Thank you. Maybe I should have had a different answer because of your question. So? So the answer is yes. The way the dictionary defines credibility today is only one third accurate when it says it's the quality in which we're trusted. That is true, but we need to continue. Credibility is the quality which you're trusted, known and liked.

00;04;10;25 - 00;04;31;22
Mitchell Levy
And so it's the concept of I hadn't really thought about this until you brought this up. To be likable means that you show we respect you come early, you come prepared. You come with your heart. To be likable means that you are spreading other people's credit. Us. You're sharing the ideas, thoughts, and opinions of others. And so maybe you're right.

00;04;31;22 - 00;04;37;17
Mitchell Levy
Maybe that I do it naturally because I noticed that's a concept of being credible.

00;04;37;20 - 00;05;01;13
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Well, I think it's a I think it's part of being generous. And the, you know, I have a buddy who we were fighting over who would buy lunch one day and I, you know, in the sense of we weren't pushing the bill towards each other. We were, you know, we both had you know, we nearly ripped the bill in half to see who could get it.

00;05;01;15 - 00;05;18;15
Craig Andrews
And he said, Craig, I insist on paying the bill. I'm fulfilling my father's wishes, like, well, what are those? He said, my dad told me, he said, if you always buy lunch, you will never go hungry.

00;05;18;17 - 00;05;34;05
Craig Andrews
And I think you do that in dispensing compliments to others. It's a generosity that you extend to others. And it's and I do think it helps builds credibility. I think it helps build relationships.

00;05;34;07 - 00;06;00;06
Mitchell Levy
Craig I'm going to say words deserved. You know, you should never, you have to have as part of being credible, the intent and commitment to do the right thing. And if the right thing at the at the point in time is to share, compliment, then yes, there are times where it's not the right thing. And certainly if you don't meet it, if you don't have, integrity is one of those values of credibility.

00;06;00;06 - 00;06;22;11
Mitchell Levy
And it turns out it's the only value that's listed twice in terms of the ten values of credibility. It's your external integrity, what you tell the world, but it's also your internal integrity. If deep in my mind, I do not appreciate the jacket you were wearing, for me to say something would not be credible, right? It would mean I'd be in authentic.

00;06;22;13 - 00;06;27;17
Mitchell Levy
So I need to be authentic in how I act and then have the integrity to believe what I say.

00;06;27;20 - 00;06;51;11
Craig Andrews
Yeah, well, you do it well. You do it well. I think there are a couple of things that you told me in the green room that kind of surprised me. You know, one was that you met Jeff Bezos sitting on a bench when he was searching for series being. And we can talk about that in a minute. The thing that really caught me by surprise.

00;06;51;11 - 00;06;59;20
Craig Andrews
Now, I have to admit, it troubles me a little bit. You don't like cilantro?

00;06;59;23 - 00;07;29;28
Mitchell Levy
that, I that's a physical reaction I actually have, for those who are curious. And by the way, for the 20% of the population that agrees with me, just, go into Google, go into Bard or, you know, and actually type in, tell me about cilantro allergies. And there was a great article in The New York Times, probably 6 or 7 years ago, that talks about there's a portion of the population that the allergy doesn't cause anything bad.

00;07;29;28 - 00;07;51;02
Mitchell Levy
It doesn't cause shortness of breath, swelling, a mouth, any of that stuff. What it does is it causes your taste buds to change the composition of cilantro. So it actually tastes like soap. And I happened to be one and and surprisingly, I'm one, my wife is one, and my son loves cilantro, so go figure.

00;07;51;05 - 00;08;00;25
Craig Andrews
Wow. Well, if you ever come to Austin, you're gonna have a hard time eating because we put everything here.

00;08;00;28 - 00;08;26;16
Mitchell Levy
I, I, that's how I found out. Was, like, 30 plus years ago, maybe 35. I went for dinner with my family in San Francisco. And there's this famous Indian restaurant called Gaylord. And everyone is sitting around the table, and I had never tasted I was East Coast guy before that. I never tasted cilantro. And everyone's sitting around the table talking about how amazing Indian food is.

00;08;26;16 - 00;08;50;14
Mitchell Levy
And I normally love Indian food, and every dish tasted like soap. I, I but I didn't say anything because I thought it must have been me and then a couple weeks later, I went to a Mexican restaurant for, you know, for a burrito. And I took a bite and I pulled out this big green piece of cilantro, and I got, this is this is the culprit.

00;08;50;16 - 00;09;01;08
Mitchell Levy
And then I so I went to the person behind it, kind of. So what is this? I didn't say this is my nemesis. This is my Kryptonite. What is this? But I said, what is this? And that's when I found out it was cilantro.

00;09;01;10 - 00;09;17;26
Craig Andrews
Wow, what an interest. I had never heard that allergy before. As bizarre. Well, let's talk about business then. so you met him. Where was he in life at this point? How did you meet him? What happened?

00;09;17;28 - 00;09;43;18
Mitchell Levy
So the, At the time, this was before I became an entrepreneur in 1997. In 1996, I was working at some micro systems. I was part of a nonprofit called Commerce Net. The goal of Commerce Net was to help proliferate the use of the internet in business, which, of course, we now know, how successful they were or how successful that was.

00;09;43;20 - 00;10;17;20
Mitchell Levy
And I decided to focus on running the marketing component of the annual conference for Commerce Net. And I made a reach out to Jeff Bezos, who had just received series B on his book company. And so, you know, nobody really knew who he was. He was sitting outside the room ready to ready to speak. I was like 15, 20 minutes before, before he was supposed to go on stage and nobody was there.

00;10;17;20 - 00;10;36;13
Mitchell Levy
And, and I sat down next to him and I said, hey, do you mind company? He goes, no, no, no, not at all. I just, you know, just was getting ready. And I go, well, you're ready. You got this. He goes, yep, I got this. And and I asked a question, which was because at the time he was all in for books, books and all books.

00;10;36;14 - 00;10;58;15
Mitchell Levy
Right. And and I said, so why just books? And his responses? Well, there's a huge problem. And one of the places that it shows up most prevalent is in the inefficiencies in the book industry. I said, I got that, I go, so you're going for more? He goes, oh yeah, we're going to sell everything. And here's the cool part.

00;10;58;17 - 00;11;19;10
Mitchell Levy
As we're learning how to sell other things and break the ecosystem, would that exist today? We're going to produce new products, and then we're going to take those new products and we're going to sell them. So before AWS came into existing, he had in his mind that he was going to do things like create AWS.

00;11;19;12 - 00;11;34;01
Craig Andrews
Wow. Yeah. Just amazing. The the vision he had. And I remember one of his statements was your margin is my opportunity.

00;11;34;03 - 00;11;59;19
Mitchell Levy
Thank you. You know, it was he was one of the first to be able to talk to Wall Street and get them excited about not making money. And and it was very clear he goes, listen, we are going to do everything that we can. We're going to run out, you know, thin margins or we're going to run in in the red.

00;11;59;22 - 00;12;15;11
Mitchell Levy
And there will be a point in time where our company will be at. And, he has he has held true to that promise. But imagine he had a couple of years that were a couple of years where people were talking about Amazon going away.

00;12;15;13 - 00;12;41;29
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Well, let's let's think about that from the credibility standpoint. You know, raising money and certainly raising the amount of money he raised is tough. And to go in and pitch, hey we're going to spend a ton of money not make anything. As a matter of fact, we're probably going to lose. And after we lose a bunch of money, we're actually planning to lose a whole bunch more money.

00;12;42;01 - 00;12;50;16
Craig Andrews
How does one build credibility and and get people to write those big checks?

00;12;50;19 - 00;13;20;18
Mitchell Levy
Yep. No one's asked me this question. So this will this will be kind of fun to to give you the answer on the fly. What I'm going to be doing is there are ten values or credibility. I'm going to tie that into what he did at the time. So first of all, he had a vision. And the vision was take a look at the current, ecosystem, not just the inefficiencies of the book business, which we could I could spend an entire, as, I run four book publishing companies.

00;13;20;18 - 00;13;53;07
Mitchell Levy
We published over 750 books. I could talk about the inefficiencies of the book system. he goes, but look at how goods and services are purchased and delivered and the inefficiencies there he goes. So when we are able to deliver that last mile, right, to make it so that somebody actually doesn't have to leave their house to be able to get their goods and services in a in a quick and efficient time, life will change.

00;13;53;10 - 00;14;13;17
Mitchell Levy
And we need a very big company that's very trusted. So how do we get there? We can't get there overnight. Here's what we're going to do. We're moving after these markets. We're going to go through them very efficiently, very effectively. And we're going to make these things happen. Now here's what's interesting. and this is where credibility comes in.

00;14;13;19 - 00;14;46;03
Mitchell Levy
He had the intent and commitment to do the right thing, not just by the investors, but he truly felt this is what the consumer public wanted. He absolutely was extremely authentic in how he showed up and his integrity. Besides maybe the internal integrity of cheating on his wife. Well, right. But his integrity up until then, both external and internal were very, you know, it was you knew when you were in a meeting with him and he was very direct and direct and very to the point in what he wanted.

00;14;46;05 - 00;15;09;25
Mitchell Levy
And it was one of those things that he said he was going to do. He didn't waver, and he kept doing what he said, you know, which is is which is a sign of somebody who doesn't doesn't fit the switch. When the dot bomb came, it very easy to to to crawl up and get unhappy. He just kept going and he kept moving.

00;15;09;25 - 00;15;35;17
Mitchell Levy
And then one of the companies that kept going and so he when he looked investors in the eyes, he told them upfront, don't expect a large return in the next couple years. If if you do, we're not the stock to invest him. We're not the company to invest in. What you can expect is something significant, greater when we when we have a big share of the marketplace.

00;15;35;20 - 00;16;02;05
Mitchell Levy
And and so he has been true to his word, to true to his word. And but he started seeing it up front and was very clear on his vision, not too dissimilar to almost everything Elon Musk has touched. Yeah, right. He basically says, here's what we're doing. The world needs changing. And mine. I know everyone says we can't do it, but I think we could run a rocket ship company.

00;16;02;05 - 00;16;23;03
Mitchell Levy
I think we can build an electric car company. I think we can, do something that that allows people to transact money in a more efficient way. PayPal. Right. I mean, it's, you know, he's just been successful, sets his mind on an area where the marketplace really needs adjustments and started painting the vision before other people had it.

00;16;23;06 - 00;16;59;00
Craig Andrews
You know, that's interest in it. And, you know, both of them, both Bezos and, Elon Musk are obsessed about eliminating loss, minimizing loss and inefficiencies. Loss in the terms of inefficiency, you know, and so I've heard some of the Tesla engineers interviewed, and they if you look inside a Tesla, there's no knobs and buttons. That's because it's a mindset of why would we add parts that we don't need, just build it in the touchscreen and it's the what, the Cybertruck.

00;16;59;00 - 00;17;15;00
Craig Andrews
They got rid of the door handles. It's all about eliminating things that can create problems that create, you know, speaking in an engineering mindset, lossy systems, it's all about removing the loss from a loss system.

00;17;15;02 - 00;17;22;09
Mitchell Levy
Simplicity, which is leads towards my focus of clarity. But yeah, it's all about simplicity.

00;17;22;12 - 00;17;31;15
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Well, let's talk about that, a little bit actually, before we move there, you said there are ten elements of credibility. What are those ten elements?

00;17;31;18 - 00;17;52;04
Mitchell Levy
So it's it's, if you focus on, if you want the for those who are listening, go to that Ted talk. we are losing our humanity, and I'm tired of watching it happen. And so I go through all those in detail. A credibility is a quality which you're trusted, known in, like and under each one of those three areas are four, four and two.

00;17;52;11 - 00;17;58;02
Mitchell Levy
At the beginning of the program, I mentioned the two under like, which was showing respect and spreading greed.

00;17;58;02 - 00;18;16;20
Craig Andrews
Dust, you know, showing respect and credit dust. I like that. And if I had to tell tomorrow because somebody is going to ask me if I go out and say, hey, I'm going to spread some credit dust, they're going to say, what the heck is crud dust? How would you define that again?

00;18;16;23 - 00;18;38;25
Mitchell Levy
So it's the I'm actually good at credit outcome. And I actually put it that definition in there. But it's the it's the for credit. It's sharing the ideas, thoughts and actions of others. Right. So if you said tomorrow the if you go out and you and you just say, hey, that's a great idea, we should be sharing the ideas, thoughts and actions of others.

00;18;38;25 - 00;19;03;04
Mitchell Levy
And it didn't say, oh, by the way, Mitchell Levi came up with this idea and said, we should be spreading some credit to us, sharing the ideas, thoughts and actions of others. Most people would do it without using because we've been taught to take ownership. The bad part of running, of being a manager, being a leader, is that the the leader's job in the command and control world was, was that, hey, I am going to have people work for me.

00;19;03;04 - 00;19;23;13
Mitchell Levy
They're going to produce stuff and I'm going to take credit for it. That's the old command and control leadership style. That's not the style that works today. Right? So it's it's the leader who actually does spread bread dust, who actually does have the ideas from the bottom floor shop, who delivers good customer service because the employees are really engaged and happy.

00;19;23;17 - 00;19;28;02
Mitchell Levy
Those are the leaders that are going to succeed going forward.

00;19;28;05 - 00;19;51;03
Craig Andrews
You said something really interesting that taking credit for the ideas of others, that's not what works today. The there are a number of people that looked at, you know, let's go in through pendulum swings. We move through these 80 year cycles. And the guy named Roy Williams, who lives here in Austin, but, wrote a book called Pendulum Swing.

00;19;51;03 - 00;20;21;21
Craig Andrews
We go through 240 or swings 40 years of a me cycle, followed by 40 years of a we cycle. And for reference, we're halfway into the we cycle. But I read last year I read Lee Iacocca's book, which was his autobiography, which was published in 83 or 84. 83 was the peak of the Me cycle. And if I hadn't read pendulum before reading that, I would have absolutely hated Lee Iacocca.

00;20;21;23 - 00;20;35;09
Craig Andrews
I was like, this guy is just so arrogant. He's so full of himself. And the true answer is he was a leader of the time, writing in the leadership style of the time. But that style has changed.

00;20;35;11 - 00;21;01;06
Mitchell Levy
Well put, well put. We. So when you think about the word credibility, we have to be credible for the surrounding we're in at the moment. And for instance, if we now looking back at a it's so funny, by the way, you had a hard time saying Musk because we've been trained that Jeff Bezos is Bezos and we've been trained that Elon Musk is Elon.

00;21;01;08 - 00;21;25;07
Mitchell Levy
Yes. Right. It's just it's such an interesting thing. And that's it. That's a little bit more of today's world, right? You can actually reach the the the most wealthiest person in the world. If you wanted to send him an email and theoretically he'll read it. Right. So the the interesting part is we need to be credible for our surroundings.

00;21;25;09 - 00;21;47;19
Mitchell Levy
Right? There's context of what credibility is. If a leader was going to be credible during Lee Iacocca times, that was a different form of management, management style. What happens is we're having a hard time transitioning to the newer style today, and those people who are in the command and control or not, they don't give up as quickly and they don't.

00;21;47;24 - 00;22;08;14
Mitchell Levy
They don't focus. And so there are now many new people, many new books, many, many ways in which we now and Covid help. This happened a whole lot quicker, where we recognize that the world needs to change, but we haven't quite come up to it in all aspects of what who we are and what we do.

00;22;08;16 - 00;22;30;23
Craig Andrews
So let me see if I understand this red dust for me to get cred, dust, I should celebrate the, the contributions and the thoughts of others and become kind of a megaphone to promote others. Is that it, or is it different? Well, I think.

00;22;30;25 - 00;23;04;08
Mitchell Levy
I think you carried that concept to an extreme. And that's one way people actually do, become thought leaders or become influencers as they share the thoughts, ideas and actions of others. Oprah, who had a good heart, also shared lots of other people, so she was very good at doing this. I'm just say you should do what's what makes sense for you with a with a caveat like even in this, in this talk, you talked about a local person who lives close to you, who's written a book, and you're you mentioned him by name.

00;23;04;11 - 00;23;26;12
Mitchell Levy
You're spreading credit dust. I mean, you just do it in interactions. It's just natural for you. You don't need to do anything more other than to recognize, like for someone like you, like me, when we're doing a podcast to recognize that that podcast interviewee that we interviewed that changed my life, right? Or that gave me an idea, you know, you guys should check out.

00;23;26;18 - 00;23;42;22
Mitchell Levy
That's the reason I mentioned the dead. You want the ten values, I could give them to you, however, if you want them and digest them at a time where it makes sense, watch the dead. It's kind of cool. It's 60 minutes, right? but but you could Google it and get, you know, an answer to that question immediately.

00;23;42;22 - 00;23;46;23
Mitchell Levy
That's not as helpful as having it done within context.

00;23;46;25 - 00;24;05;03
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Well, and here's a, here's a real life thing that happened. And I'd be interested in your take on this if you had to answer right now, who invented the iPod? What name would you say?

00;24;05;05 - 00;24;20;00
Mitchell Levy
I know it wasn't jobs, but he's the one who made it happen, so I don't I don't have a name. I mean, I'd have to, if I didn't want the click of my keyboard. on the podcast, I'd actually look it up immediately.

00;24;20;03 - 00;24;46;13
Craig Andrews
Yeah. So that was designed by Tony Fidel, and he had actually been working on that for years before he joined Apple. And the genius of Steve Jobs was jobs hired Fidel not as an employee, but as a contractor, to do a feasibility study for the iPod. But Fidel had already been working on it, and jobs looked at the concept stone and said, we're going to run with it.

00;24;46;16 - 00;25;06;07
Craig Andrews
I want you to come on as a full time Apple employee. And Fidel, it took four weeks for jobs to convince him to come on board. He was looking for certain things. But back to the credibility. Everybody looks at Steve Jobs as somebody who changed the world, which he fully did. But part of the way they changed the world was by hiring the right people.

00;25;06;07 - 00;25;15;12
Craig Andrews
And he talked about that to a certain degree. But shocking how few people know the name Tony Fidel.

00;25;15;14 - 00;25;21;25
Craig Andrews
Have you heard of the Nest Thermostat? Yes, that was Tony Fidel.

00;25;21;27 - 00;25;24;06
Mitchell Levy
No kidding.

00;25;24;09 - 00;25;51;01
Craig Andrews
So think about some of the things. And by the way, it was the iPod team that did the original iPhone. It was the iPod team that did the iPad and when Tony Fadell decided to leave Apple and he founded nest. And so here's this person that has changed the way we live our lives from multiple perspectives, and nobody knows his name.

00;25;51;08 - 00;26;08;18
Craig Andrews
So if you were to go back and coach Steve Jobs, I've just given you the ultimate task. I you're going to go back and you're going to coach Steve Jobs in 2000. You're going to say, Steve, for you to have maximum cred dust. Here's what you need to do. What would that be?

00;26;08;21 - 00;26;46;00
Mitchell Levy
Sorry I got lost in I'm reading Gemini's response to who is Tony Fidel and what else did he invent? I couldn't help it. It's the second time you, you said it. Interesting character. I'll spend some more time thinking about it. The problem with armchair quarterbacking on this sort of thing is you can't change somebody who's in motion, who has a particularly strong focus and I believe the world needed him at the time.

00;26;46;03 - 00;27;18;21
Mitchell Levy
Right. In order to get what his general philosophy is, consumers want something better, but they don't know what they want. So let's make sure we just give it to him and then tell him that's what we did, okay. And it he didn't want to have someone I understand the he did it. Apple was so constrained on I knew what people talked about and how they talked about him that he he didn't want other people to get ideas, thoughts.

00;27;18;21 - 00;27;47;13
Mitchell Levy
You know that this happened now, what I would suggest in today's world with today's companies, if if the CEO can't do it themselves, to have a right hand person by the side, who's actually the person who actually keeps track of who does what, and to make sure they get the appropriate amount of of credibility because what's the what the the appropriate amount of press, the amount of appropriate amount of attention.

00;27;47;15 - 00;28;13;15
Mitchell Levy
Because we have an opportunity in the world that a company is not a set of nameless, faceless people. It is when you get to the point where you've got something you know, you go into an Apple Store and you expect the same service. And that's what Apple has created for the world. The same thing as McDonald's. you go into a McDonald's around the world, you have the same quality food, the same level service, same is true with Apple.

00;28;13;18 - 00;28;39;28
Mitchell Levy
That is a strategy that the company has taken. That's not a bad strategy, but there are many other strategies where you would go into, and interact with a employee of the company and get blown away. And, and that is not what Apple is like. Everyone's the same and everyone's helpful. That said, you look at companies, companies can be so much greater than the sum of the parts, right?

00;28;39;28 - 00;29;02;09
Mitchell Levy
It's not just a nameless, faceless company, but it's actually brands inside the company that's been successful. That's the direction we're moving. how do you manage it in today's world? How do you have a bunch of influencers who work for your company? That's an interesting question. We don't have all the answers to that. but certainly, there's an opportunity for transformation that that we're seeing every day.

00;29;02;11 - 00;29;18;03
Craig Andrews
Yeah. One thing I want to make sure we hit, we don't miss is you talked about clarity and how clarity is an essential part of credibility. How are those two linked?

00;29;18;05 - 00;29;41;06
Mitchell Levy
I will tell I'll tell you. I'll tell the audience, here's here's an interesting thing. I believe any company, any human in the world can explain who they are and how they show up in ten words or less. now, if you have that level of clarity, somebody says, who are you? How do you do? You will often heard the person who speaks for five, ten, 15 minutes and they serve the world.

00;29;41;09 - 00;30;05;19
Mitchell Levy
If you can do that in seconds, the most natural request that comes back is, tell me more. So for me, my eight words coaches who've created a job, not a business. And and when you look at that and you think about Woody Mitchell, what do you mean what's a job? And so let me do my I'll do my tell me more.

00;30;05;19 - 00;30;30;25
Mitchell Levy
Right. But now what I'm doing, I'm answering that question from the container of simplicity coaches who've created a job, not a business. I'll tell you a little bit more. I actually work with coaches, consultants, smaller businesses that have 1 or 2 primary rainmakers and what they're really good. They've been taught how to do transformation. They've been taught how to bring a company or an individual from A to B, but I'll tell you something.

00;30;30;25 - 00;30;52;26
Mitchell Levy
They haven't been taught in today's world. They've not been taught on how to actually do business development, how to have conversations, how to walk somebody from somebody off the street to somebody who's a client. Well, I have a done with you program that actually helps coaches do that. What's interesting about that one minute is I don't have to say a lot about me.

00;30;52;28 - 00;31;14;11
Mitchell Levy
It's not about me, right? It's about describing the playground. I plan, and I mean it this way. It's a playground. And then I have tools that I use in my playground. If you're really interested, in you go, Mitchell. I'm really interested. I can then go into more detail about the tools. But you don't care about it upfront. You just care if you're listening and you're one of two people, not one of three people.

00;31;14;13 - 00;31;33;22
Mitchell Levy
So when you. So, Craig, when you share a C pop, there are 1 or 3 people are to who are going to listen. They're a potential referral partner. I'm hoping that's what you and I are, a potential referral partner. they could be a potential prospect if that happens. That's great. We could potentially be products of each other, or customers of each other.

00;31;33;24 - 00;31;52;12
Mitchell Levy
Or the third piece could be they don't care. Doesn't mean they don't care about you. It just means they don't care about your c pop. They don't care about the play or any plan. It is very natural when you share something that is less than ten words to know if somebody is a referral partner or prospect base, they're going to say, tell me more.

00;31;52;14 - 00;31;57;08
Mitchell Levy
Yeah, it's just that simple, I love that.

00;31;57;11 - 00;32;09;13
Craig Andrews
Hey Mitchell, here's the problem. We could go on for another hour. I don't feel like we've even begun to scratch the surface of what you have to bring, but unfortunately, we're out of time.

00;32;09;16 - 00;32;16;04
Mitchell Levy
I know, I'm looking at my calendar. Yeah. We can't. so.

00;32;16;06 - 00;32;21;25
Craig Andrews
But I absolutely believe people need to reach out to you. How do they reach you?

00;32;21;27 - 00;32;45;26
Mitchell Levy
You know, the the easiest way is just go to my website. So it's Mitchell levi.com. So that's three L's MIT l l l every.com. And from there you can, take a look at the products programs, the, the things we do on simplicity, the referral network club, which we talked about. And if you feel the need to put time on my calendar, you get access to my calendar and book time.

00;32;46;03 - 00;32;48;19
Mitchell Levy
So it's Mitchell Live.com.

00;32;48;21 - 00;32;55;04
Craig Andrews
Excellent. I do hope people will reach out to you because you've.

00;32;55;06 - 00;33;14;24
Craig Andrews
And I promise whoever does reach out to you will be immediately delighted by it, because that's that's in your DNA. I can and I think you have something generous to give. And, and so I hope people do reach out to you. Mitchell, thank you for being on Layers and Legacies.

00;33;14;26 - 00;33;22;00
Mitchell Levy
My pleasure. Craig, it's nice of you to say that, and I'm honored. So thank you.

00;33;22;00 - 00;33;50;26
Craig Andrews
This is Craig Andrews. I want to thank you for listening to the Leaders and Legacies podcast. We're looking for leaders to share how they're making the impact beyond themselves. If that's you, please go to Alize for me.com/guest and sign up there. If you got something out of this interview, we would love you to share this episode on social media.

00;33;50;28 - 00;34;14;10
Craig Andrews
Just do a quick screenshot with your phone and text it to a friend, or posted on the socials. If you know someone who would be a great guest, tag them on social media and let them know about the show, including the hashtag leaders and legacies. I love seeing your posts and suggestions. We are regularly putting out new episodes and content to make sure you don't miss anything.

00;34;14;12 - 00;36;24;26
Craig Andrews
Please go ahead and subscribe your thumbs up! Ratings and reviews go a long way to help promote the show. It means a lot to me. It means a lot to my team. If you want to know more, please go to Alize for me.com. or follow me on LinkedIn. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.