Networking Unleashed: Building Profitable Connections. An Interview with Mitchell Levy and Michael A Forman
- mforman521
- Aug 1
- 27 min read
📍 Welcome back to Networking Unleashed, building Profitable Connections. The show where we explore the strategies, mindsets, and conversations that drive real results in business and life through the power of connection. Today's guest is a true authority when it comes to elevating your presence in the professional world.
He specializes in helping individuals build credibility, lead with confidence and craft personal brands that don't just stand out. They lead to opportunities. Whether you're climbing up the corporate ladder, building a business, or just getting started in your career, the insights you'll hear today are going to give you a serious edge in how you connect and influence.
So get ready to take notes because we're diving deep into what really takes it to be seen, heard, and respected in any room you walk into. I want to introduce to you today, Mitchell Levy, and he is. I would say an authority on networking. It may sound familiar to most of you because I feel that we have a synergy with this, but Mitchell, welcome to the show and tell us a little bit about your background.
Michael. Thanks. Thanks for having me. And as I'll take it to the next level, it's not just for individuals, but I also spend a lot of time with corporations. But background rights, the best way to say it. I've been in Silicon Valley for. 30 year, 38 years. Happily married for 36. Have a 26-year-old I'm excited about.
I have, now I'm gonna say this is stuff, so I'll tell you the important stuff afterwards, but this is stuff I've sat on the board of an asset firm. I've, as a book publisher, we've published over 750 books. I've written 65 two TEDxs, one commencement speech. And I've, short answer is I've done many of the things in life or actually all of my bucket list item things, and now I am here to be of service.
And what really got me to where I am now is between 2019 and 2020, I went on a Napoleon Hill journey and that journey was to interview 500 thought leaders on what the concept of credibility. Is and that helped really transform who I am and how I show up today. Very good. Like I said before, I'm super excited just even just to speak with you.
Absolutely. But let's start with the questions that I came up with. All right. So how do credibility and trust influence someone's ability to build a powerful professional network? So I will, for those who are watching, I will share an image on the background as I'm speaking. Credibility is the quality in which one is trusted, known, and liked.
And so the most important thing, and I know on your website you do the standard one, which is where I started. No, like trust. Problem is no, I trust was relevant. When in, in the old days, you'd go into a town on your horse, you'd go into the local saloon and there are two blacksmiths, and you go to, the bar keep, Hey, what's the best blacksmith for me?
And they go not only are there two that you know, but there's a third over here. That person would be better. In the old days where there wasn't the internet, there wasn't ai you didn't know who was who. No meant I need to know where that person is or what they do. Today what happens is you have instantaneous access to services around the world.
And so the most important thing that needs to happen is they need to trust you. And how does trust get developed? Technically it is if we think about a LinkedIn profile, we think about a website. It happens in the first three to five seconds, right? So credibility at first is you go to a website and you need to trust.
Are you ready? You need to trust that you wanna spend the next 30 seconds getting to know this person a little bit better as you get to know the person a little bit better. Yeah, then you get to say what I like working with this person do I trust they'll do the job the way I want them to do.
And after that, first, the five seconds up front, the next 30 seconds, now you might say to yourself, Hey, I'm willing to spend a couple minutes really learning who this person is. So trust is if you don't get trust immediately, you're completely losing the opportunity to even be seen. So I know credibility.
And you ought gonna be seen by your prospects. Very good. And I see what's happening with the no and trust, which is, I speak about often, but trust, no, and liked you just turned it around, but I like what you did with the authenticity, the servant leadership, because. If anybody who's been listening to me knows that networking starts with a servant's heart and you always look to give instead of receive.
So all of this plays right into the hands of my networking, so thank you. Oh, you are welcome. Thank you. What are the key traits of a leader that make them an effective networker?
I could almost go as far, I'm gonna do my cheat sheet if you don't mind. So I'll almost go as far as to say, when you first, when I meet any leader and I'm focused on the trust area, I. Of all the four elements, coachability, authenticity, integrity, vulnerability, I'm looking for all of them, but what really pops first is the person coachable, right?
And you can tell almost immediately if somebody is coachable or not. You can ask 'em a silly question like, Hey, what restaurant do you like most? I went there, I didn't like it. How do they respond? The second most important thing, which is probably as important as what you mentioned before, are they a servant leader?
As you get to know somebody, do they have the intent and commitment to do the right thing? We'll come back to the fact that the value integrity is the only value of 10 that's listed twice. But. Really are they a servant leader? And then, you know the interesting part, as you listen to them speak, as you get to decide if you like somebody, you could decide, I like both of them.
One is share the stage. So for a leader when they speak, do they use the names of their employees or other people? Do they share cred, dust and do they show respect? And to me, if I'm gonna pick those, just four, four simple things. Coachable servant leader, they show respect and they share other people's cred, dust, I.
Okay. Okay. That's, it's very good. And that's, again, it's a lot of things that I speak about. So what you're speaking about is close and near and dear to my heart. Nice. So again, yeah. Well done. Yeah, I saw that. I saw that when I was looking at you and what you do and how you show up. Yeah.
Okay, good. How does personal branding play into first impressions during networking events or introductions?
Personal branding is such a broad term, right? When we're talking about introductions, and you're talking about physical introductions or online introductions. Physical. Physical introductions. Physical. Okay, perfect. So here's where it gets really interesting, where you could almost call it personal branding, but what I might actually say is, are you showing respect?
So let's focus on the likability piece of it. So when you're walking up to somebody or you walking with a frown, or you walking with a smile, when you are walking up to somebody or you walk, are you dressed appropriately? And technically, what mom always told me slightly better than everyone else in the room.
Not slightly worse than everyone else in the room. And when you are introduced by somebody else, are you showing them the respect? Michael, if you came to me and introduced me to somebody, you might go or if I was gonna introduce you, I would walk up, I'd bring you with me I'd introduce you to the person, and I'd say, Hey, so and so you should meet.
Michael, now Michael, by the way, this person is really good at A, B, C. And then when I expressed to you I would say something like, you know what's really interesting, you like me and the stuff I do well, if you like me, you'll like Michael, because Michael Foreman focuses on the same sort of things. He just has a different approach to it.
So why don't you guys talk and let me know how it goes, right? So notice my voice raised. When I share that, 'cause I wanted to show excitement. So showing respect and pain, cred, dust are the things that you can do most assuming you have dressed the part and you're, and just to be clear, you have to be a hundred percent present now.
I will, I, let me add one element to that. You are never going to a network event to sell you or a product. Ever period done, right? So if you've done a good job of getting somebody interested in you and wanting to learn more, when they ask you about your expertise and what they could buy from you, your response should always be, are you ready?
Listen, I am so excited and I'd want you to introduce you, you to meet other people here. As a matter of fact, I'm gonna keep you in mind as I go around and network with others. But why don't we put time on the calendar and during that time we will spend more energy focused on your particular needs. But right now, you and I are focused on meeting other people.
Is that okay with you? That would be the best way. When somebody says that to you. Does that make sense? That makes perfect sense. Perfect sense. And I want to go back to when I'm first meeting the person, when you're introducing me, of course your body Lang language speaks volumes. It's how you keep yourself when you say dress, just a little bit above I.
Them. So if they're in just a shirt and slacks, you should be wearing a blazer shirt and slacks. If they're wearing a blazer shirt and slacks, you wear a tie. Blazer shirt and slacks. It's always one step above, but the body language, it speaks volumes when you shake somebody's hand, right?
It's not a dead fish. It's not a dead fist. You shake it firmly. You look them square in the eye. All of this tells a story in the few seconds you have when you're meeting them. And they will react to it a lot more, a lot better than if you didn't do everything. Thank you for filling the blank.
Thank you for filling in the blank. Appreciate that. Yes, agreed. A hundred percent. Yeah, it's the same. Okay. Can you share a moment? When your credibility opened a door, that skills or experience alone couldn't, Ooh. Give me a, there's so many different areas and different approaches. Gimme me. Can you fill in that concept a little bit more in terms of what you might be looking for?
And That's a great question. Okay. Usually your experience can open the door for you. But I'm talking about a moment that. You're, they're not looking at your experience, but they're looking at just your credibility. In other words, they said, oh, that's Mitchell. Oh, he's an author and he's this, or X, Y, z, and that's the person who I'm being introduced to.
Because I don't know any of your experience. I only know what is written about you or what you've done. It's funny, I was at a startup event yesterday and when somebody introduced me they said, yeah, Mitchell he's actually written a couple books. And the person on the other side was like, Ooh.
And then she goes how many did you write? And I go 65. And she goes, oh, it was really an interesting, I think, I think it's important where your presence is that level of trust where people first get to see you, agreed with the right firm handshake, the look in the eyes, the attentiveness, the presentness, and then the question has to happen really quickly in the mind of the person who you're meeting.
Is it worthwhile for me to spend time with this person? And so what I often will do if somebody doesn't know me, I might say a couple things and it happens all the time, right? It's if I need to know who they are first. So I never will start with I am. I like the stuff I shared before. I don't really I don't ever do that.
What if I'm at a startup event, I can assume and if I could see their name badge or a CEO of a startup. I'm like, oh, tell me about your company. I'd love to hear a little bit more. Now, what's really interesting is one of the areas I have specific expertise, I. Is being able to help any company or any individual articulate in less than 10 words where they're executing on their purpose.
And so when I went to this networking event, I met with 10 CEOs. I wanted to get back involved and feel comfortable about stuff other than I had a badge. By the way, how that badge helped me get immediate credibility. It said the word investor on it. Of all the things I could have put, that was the thing that was most interesting to that audience.
So that's, IM, to answer your question, that's immediate credibility investor, ha, I gotta talk to this person. But when I'd asked them who they were in 10 outta 10 times, none of them had clarity, right? It just, because what happens when you're the CEO of a company, or you're networking event, you're so excited about you, you want to spew out all the important things about who you are.
So oftentimes I'd listen and depending on who they are, if I felt like they were coachable, I would say something like, I believe that there's something that's so powerful that if you're able to do this, people will listen to you more. Stop. That's interesting. What, alright what would that be if you were able to articulate the playground you play in less than 10 words?
That would now allow people to jump right in and get excited about you. It'll give your compass of who you are and how you show up and they go, oh, cool. Now, depending on how much time I had with them, I might actually say I. If you want, we could do it now. 'cause I've already spent enough time with 'em. I know they're open, they could do it.
Or other times I might go, you know what, I would love to do this with you. I've done this now over a thousand times. Credibility point. I've now done this over a thousand times. I can guarantee that I give that. I can only charge for this. But I would love to give this to you 'cause I really like you. Would you mind if we put time on the calendar?
I'll send you, I'll send you my calendar link. So it's all the techniques that say I'm a servant leader. I want to be of value. This is something that's of value. 'cause I normally charge for it and I wanna help you be more successful. Would you mind? And those are going back to a couple of your questions.
At the end of the day, it's, what can you say that somebody says, oh, this is worthwhile listening to this person. And that's really what, that, that's really what a credibility piece does. Whether it's a book or a TEDx or you're, whenever you're speaking at an event, you are by definition, given that incremental credibility, whether you deserve it or not, because you're one of these speakers.
Would you say that's an exponential part of your elevator pitch, your elevator speech? Because the whole idea of the elevator speech is to get the person's attention. It's what you're saying is that you can get the person to articulate what they do in 10 words. That's what that speech that, that.
Beginning note, because what I do is I tell them, look, you should have your 32nd elevator speeds. That's what everybody professes. I don't profess that. I say, oh good. Yeah. I really don't. You should be able to say what you have to say in five seconds, which is okay.
What I do. And then just see, and then hopefully, 'cause the only thing you're looking for is a response. And positive or negative, you can really tell. But that's all you're looking for. You're looking to draw him into the conversation so that you can then further expand. So that's my take on the elevator speech.
I, I don't profess it, I don't teach it. But I have that few seconds, I have my elevator pitch. Okay. If I go to a B and I, or if I go to a chamber meeting or something, I have to, do that pitch and then I. You do, but I'm gonna say, Michael, you do, but you don't, but try it. Tell me, I'm curious, what would be your pitch, your 32nd pitch?
I help professionals network and communicate more effectively and efficiently, thus creating more profits. Got it. Okay. So I'm gonna say, if you don't mind, I'm gonna take what you said, but take it to a whole new level. All right. Lemme just ask a question first. Sure. Does the elevator speech come from the head or the heart?
It should come from the heart. But does the elevator speech come from the head or the heart? The elevator speech as it is, comes from the head. So how could somebody possibly get to know and trust you if you're speaking from your head? For anyone who's listening and watching, I would encourage you, whatever you've learned about the elevator speech, put it on a piece of paper, crumpled it up, burn it, and make sure you throw it out.
You should never ever give an 32nd elevator pitch, period. That's why I said I only use like the first five seconds. It's just enough to get the person's attention because I feel that an elevator speech, an elevator pitch, it sounds very robotic, very practiced, very. Like they, they don't care.
They're just telling you what it is because that's what they're taught to do and they're taught to do it from their head instead of their heart, but that's me. That's what I I teach and I think we teach the same thing, but I think you're a little bit better than I am. Lemme tell you why it's not better or worse, that's irrelevant, right? It's if we're adding value as servant leaders to others, not better or worse, right? It's what I've recognized that what I do I'm gonna give you a name for it. It's call it a cpop, your customer point of possibilities. What I do is I allow somebody in less than 10 words to articulate their cpop.
It's the playground they play in. It's the compass they use for making decisions of, Hey, is this a good networking event? Is this a good website? Is this a good LinkedIn profile? It is. The thing that what's really cool about having a cpop Michael, if you share this epop, what's really cool is the person who's listening is one of three people.
They are either a referral partner. They are either a prospect or they're either somebody who doesn't give a shit. Now, it doesn't mean they don't care about you as a human, it just means they don't care about the playground you planned. So if you share your cpop and I'll share mine, and if you want, we can create yours.
If you share your cpop with somebody, the most natural thing, if they're one or two, if the referral partner or prospect is, tell me more. Now what's interesting about a cpop is people are not used to hearing it. Because what I'm gonna encourage you to teach your people, never say I help, I serve.
'cause what happens immediately is people go, Ugh. Now what you could do instead, 'cause they feel like you might be selling, oh, that's one of those. No interest, right? What you could do instead is do a hook up front. The hook is there's a group of clients. I love working with, or there's a group, there's a set of professionals that really benefit from what I do.
But then pause. So for me, the way I'd say it I have two C pops. One, give the one that's appropriate for your audience. There's a group of professionals. I add so much value to pause. Business owners pursuing abundance with LinkedIn. Six words. So Michael, the most natural thing there is Mitchell. What do you mean?
Tell me more. So now I'm gonna say something in less than a minute, but I'm gonna say it off the top of my head based on our previous conversation. I'm not gonna memorize, like every time I say it, it's different 'cause it's coming from my heart. It's not coming from my head. Michael, what I actually do, I've been part of LinkedIn since before LinkedIn was making money.
I was. Paid by Reid Hoffman and Constantine Gerlich to actually write and publish LinkedIn's first book. So what I do is I help people use the 20% of functionality that would deliver 80% of value. Just enough where if they're really interested, they may, oh, I'm interested. Tell me more. Here's what I would do next.
I have seven habits of highly effective LinkedIn networking. Could we get time on the calendar or by the way, I have an event next week. You could sign up for it. It's complimentary or can we get time on the calendar and we'll see if it's a good fit for you right now. Let me tell you what I'm really doing and this is where we're different because what you do is fascinating.
What I'm gonna say is you help people with c popping. You're giving 'em the ideas and thoughts of how they can network more effectively, and then they have a book and a learning course. Where could, they could learn more? What I have figured out is cpo, the cpop. To me, it's a formula and I can sit, like I said, any human, any company and give them a formula.
Here's what's interesting. When I'm talking with somebody, they're gonna feel so good about it. They're gonna go, oh my God, that's me. Because we as humans, we vibrate at a frequency, and if you are a servant leader and you're living aligned with yourself, I'm gonna just give you the words that will help you be in alignment.
That's fantastic. I've done this now over a thousand times. Here's what happens. The world is full of chaos and in 90% of the times without incremental support. They are going to forget their cpop in two hours to two weeks. It just, it's just the way it works. So the world needs people like you and I that will help people once they learn how to network more effectively, to stay in touch with how to do it, or once they learn.
In my case, what I'm doing with LinkedIn is I'm helping them play in the playground. They say they want to play it. As opposed to the next nice shiny object comes by and they try to do something else. Very good. First of all, I'm so glad that this is being recorded because there's no way I can write down enough notes listening to, I was listening so intently that I am gonna play this video back about 10 times so I get it right.
With that in mind. What advice would you give to someone trying to align their personal brand with the leadership roles that they aspire to? I, it's really hard for me these days not to actually, and I'm not trying to sell who I am. Oh, maybe I am. It's is important for you to be able to articulate the playground you play in.
And so the playground is typically defined in this way by this formula, and it's, I'll give you the secret formula. You okay if I share that? Sure, absolutely. So what you wanna be able to do in one or two? One or two, or worst case, three words, who do you serve? In your case, it's professionals, right?
In my case, either business owners or when I put on my executive coaching hat. It's Inc. 5,000 CEOs, different audience different cpop. So who do you serve? Now if you're interested in, if you're in corporate and you're hat a company today, hopefully you at a company you love being at. If you're not, if you don't love who you are and what you do at that company, it's time to move companies, right?
And so who do you serve? And then from the perspective of who you serve as a servant leader, what is the pain point or pleasure point? 80% of the time it's a pain point focused thing and 20% of the time it's okay to do the pleasure point. For instance, when I talk to CEOs, their egos is so big, I have to actually give the pleasure 0.1.
And so what's interesting as I was thinking about you, and to answer your question, it's. It's important to be able to know the playground you're playing in and then share it at the right time with people when they ask you who you are. But it gives you this compass. When you have a compass. Now, what happens when opportunities come your way?
You know what's a yes? What's a no? You know what's a, maybe you know, you. It's so clear of the audience you serve and how you serve them, that you should feel comfortable going above and beyond. That's what gets you the job if you know how to play in your playground. I sat on the board of a public firm.
The people that I wanted on the executive staff with the CEO were people who knew how to play in their functional roles. 'cause they weren't gonna get direction from the CEO, at least they shouldn't. They should be telling the CEO what they need so they can accomplish the goals they were set out to do.
And that's really, so they knew how to play in the playground that they set up for themselves. I like that. I like that a lot. Here's a question for you. What are some common mistakes professionals make that hurt their credibility while networking? The most obvious, the easiest one is the one you've heard many times.
You have one mouth and two ears. Yep. And you're using 'em not you, you're not using 'em in the right proportions. That's right. The most important thing you could do when you're networking is ask a good question that encourages the other person to talk. Now what's the most important thing to do next?
Listen. Okay. Don't listen with the intent of when you could interrupt them bad and when you could say who you are. Also bad. Just listen. Add value, right? That's it. The most important thing, if somebody walks away liking you and trusting you because they spoke for 10 minutes and you spoke for a minute or 30 seconds, I.
That just gives you the op. Now, by the way if somebody knew that each person should speak for five minutes and somebody took nine, that's probably not somebody you want to play with anyhow. But if you really focused on the other person so that's the biggest mistake is not listening, talking too much trying to highlight you in a networking event that's it's.
If you're a servant leader, if you're really echoing concepts of credibility you are there to be of service of somebody else. You are coachable. If they say something that changes who you are, you go and kinda what you're doing today. It's oh, that's really interesting. I'm gonna listen to this a couple times 'cause I can't take notes fast enough.
You're also spreading my cred dust. You're doing the types of things, not because you're following a blueprint, you're doing it because you're a coachable, credible, vulnerable person who authentically wants to do better by their clients. So you have the intent and commitment to do the right thing, and as a result of being that person, you're just allowing yourself to be you.
You're doing it while you're recording on a podcast where people are, many times very nervous, but you're just showing up as you, and if anyone is paying attention I like this Michael Guy. I mean he, this was a good episode. I want Michael to help me. And that's what comes out when you listen to and watch something like this.
Yep. I firmly believe having the servant's heart when you go networking is paramount. As you're listening to that person and letting them speak, and I use something called form when I'm, before I talk with them, it's family, occupation, recreation, and a message, right? So I have that in my head before I go and speak to them.
'cause I can speak to them about any of the above. As they're speaking and after they finished you pause, very important that pause because you don't want to say the next thing that you wanted to say, but you're going to respond to what he said, he or she said, and you say, you know something? I like you. I like the way you do business.
How can I make you more successful? How can I be a good referral source for you? And I usually blows him away. He says I don't even know what you do yet, because I haven't said anything yet. But he talked or she talked for five minutes, and that's the whole process. So I strongly believe that, and hopefully you use a little bit of that yourself.
Oh, remind me, what was the RI got the, I got the FOM, but I didn't get the r. Recreation. Recreation. Cool. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, because you know when you're going and you're sitting at somebody's desk, okay, and you're meeting this person for the first time, you about 30 seconds. So look around his office and see what he's got on the walls on his desk and everything he has.
And one thing here's a little trick for you. He's got pictures of his family. On his desk. All right. Now watch. Now look, how are the pictures positioned? Are they just so to him so that only he can see him? Or are they facing outward for you to see? And if they're facing outward than he's that much more proud of his family and he wants you to say something about his family, his children, his whatever.
And that's a great way to start your conversation. Cool. I love that. Yeah. Great. Great suggestion. Yeah. Yeah. Little tidbits. Little tidbits. Okay. How can emerging leaders use networking to strengthen both their influence and their personal brand?
If you are networking as an emerging leader at a networking event where there aren't other people at your company. What you wanna do exactly what you suggested. You want to get to know people where you can add value to them so they recognize who you are. You wanna be able to, if you are writing something that you think would be relevant for them, you go, you know what?
I'm spending a lot of time in this area. Do you mind if I send you an article I'm writing sometime next week when I'm done writing it? Or, how about when I'm doing my podcast? Every now and then I'm gonna interview somebody who's a good fit. Do you mind if I send you that or maybe even send you a reel?
We'll snippet from that might be of value. It's, those are the things that you do with people outside your company. If you're networking inside your company, which you absolutely should, what you're doing is you're actively looking for people who could be. Mentors of you or mentor you in some way at some point in time, right?
And so what you're looking for is you're looking for if you're thinking about the form that you just mentioned, if you're looking for things that are valuable that they first can relate to you because you've recognized it, and then second you go, every now and then I've got this interesting question.
And actually I'm not even sure I'd ever, no, I wouldn't do it. I take, I was gonna say something and then I'd like Nope. Too formal. Too quick. All you want to do is be of service and be recognized. When you first meet somebody, and at some point in time if you think they could be a mentor to you, you want to build the relationship over time inside the company.
You don't want to ever ask when you first meet somebody it's a little bit too needy and it's not the right thing to do, but you want to be of service. So if they have an admin, you could ask the question of the admin, Hey, what could I do that would be of value? To your boss. And it's the same things you're doing, but if you're doing it for a company, you just have to follow a little bit different set of rules inside your company than you do outside the company.
Very good. Very good. And. Going to the secretary or assistant asking them the best way to get to that person. That's gold. Because first of all, I've done that for years. For a hundred years. That's to me is sales 1 0 1. But it's it's, I. All these items, all these things are forgotten.
All of these things people don't do anymore. But I don't want to get into that because I can sit here for an hour and talk about that. What role does consistency in behavior, and I'm sorry, in behavior message and image play in long term networking success? So I did promise that I would tell you why.
Here we go. The value of integrity was listed twice. So doing the interviews what came out were 10 values of credibility. When I first created the 10 values, I couldn't tell you why Integrity was there twice. It took a year before I really figured it out and it took about four and a half years before I could make the statement that I'm gonna make it a little bit later.
What's interesting is about a year after putting this out there, what I realized is that the difference between. The integrity that's associated with trust. That's your external integrity. That's who you say you are. But as somebody gets to know, you know the real you, the integrity there is your internal integrity, who you really are, who you really act as.
And I wanna make this fun statement I learned about six months ago, and as you ever go to a networking event and you're meeting somebody and then the hair in the back of your neck stands up, you've got this spidey sense, there's something wrong. Yeah. I wanna put words on that. It's simply they're saying one thing, their external integrity is saying one thing, but you know that they don't mean that when you look at their internal integrity, when there's incongruency between external and internal integrity that's when your spidey sense pops up.
So the word consistency, and I'll also add another C word a couple C words I like, I love curious, but also the consist the C word commitment. When you're consistent and have commitment to focus on doing the right things by those that you serve, you over time are making sure there's alignment between your external and internal integrity.
And if you don't have that alignment, that's an immediate, the when I, when a executive comes to me or is imposed on me, the first thing I have to see is, Hey, are they. Coachable. They're not coachable. I'm, I'll say no immediately, but then within the first conversation or two, I'm gonna learn whether or not there's incongruency between their external and internal integrity.
Depending on how bad that is. It's either coachable, if they're coachable or not. And I'll make those decisions right then. And it's really important to. And it's hard. Sometimes it's sometimes easy to do things that other people are doing, even though it's inconsistent with your values.
But you gotta own who you are and you gotta show up in a credible way that people see you in a way that they're comfortable. Yes. Very much that's very good. And I like that with the Spidey senses because I think everybody who has networked. As much as we have, you walk into a room and you start talking with somebody and they start talking, and immediately that starts to flare up.
You're like no, I'm gonna make this as short as possible and just move on to that next person. Because I've gotten really to the point where I don't want to deal with that anymore. If you're just starting out, if you're a sales professional, you really do business with just about anybody that's going to buy your services.
I. And I'm really at a point where I'm like no I remember I had a I had a graphic design studio about 20 years ago, and I was taught a lesson from my mentor at the time. He said, look, Michael, you have to fire your client. It was just, I was like, but you can't do that. He's paying me a lot of money.
Yeah, but your health is worth a lot more than that. You have to be happy at what you do and fire the client. And I did, and my profit margin went down, but I felt a lot better. So there was something to learn about that. Okay. How can someone with limited experience still build credibility and lead within network, their network?
It's a very open-ended question. So let me let me add a little bit of context around that. There are different forms of leadership, right? One of the, one of the. Best form of leadership that I, that is very easy for anyone to do regardless of title is the leadership of taking notes and summarizing notes and forward and following through essentially good project management.
So at any point in time when a group of disparate people come together, being the person who will volunteer to take notes and distribute the notes and then recap the notes at the next meeting, that's the leader. Whether or not they have the title or not, and so it's, if you have very limited experience being that person and saying, listen.
I have limited experience in this field, but what I can do really well is listen and take notes. Do you mind if I do that? And if you're showing your vulnerability, if you're showing that you authentically care, you have the intent to commitment, do the right thing. Sometimes that leadership will actually be rewarded with true leadership who should run the project.
The guy taking the notes. So that, that to me is an approach. I would suggest that people take, and let's bring this podcast full circle and if someone wants to be remembered after a single conversation, what should they focus on Projecting
servant leadership. Okay, that you are there to add value to the person you're with and if possible, to be able to add value. Yeah that's always my answer. That's always my answer, and I'm so glad that you said the very same thing. Mitchell, I can't begin to tell you how much I enjoyed this podcast.
I can probably go on speaking with you for another two hours without even thinking about the time. But if somebody wanted to hire you or ask you a question or ask anything about you, how would they find you? The best way, and this is something that many people make mistakes at, they'll start echoing off tons of ideas of how to reach somebody.
So I'm gonna give you one. It's my website. Go to mitchell levy.com. That's three Ls, M-I-T-C-H-E-L-L-L-E-V y.com. And from there you could see the types of programs I have, the things that I do, you could participate in, either paid for or some complimentary resources. You could even book time on my calendar.
So that's at mitchell levy.com. That's fantastic. And I, again, I enjoy this so much and I look forward to talking to you again, Michael, me as well. Thank you. I really appreciate it. Well, hold on folks. Don't go anywhere. Lemme just read a few of our sponsors that we have. Struggling to read success. Maybe. Time to quit in Quit Your Way to Success by Rodney Davis. This reveals 27 steps to Breaking Bad Habits that hold you back. This powerful book helps you rewire your mindset, take control of your actions, and turn setbacks into stepping stones with real life examples.
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They provide prevention, training programs for children, teens, and adults. To learn more, go to rev up kids.org. That's R-E-V-V-E-D-U-P-K-I-D-S. Dot org.
Michael is a business networking expert specializing in enhancing professionals' networking and communication skills to drive profitability. As a leading authority in this field, he is highly sought after for his dynamic presentations and workshops. His extensive experience has consistently led to significant improvements in corporate profitability by empowering individuals and organizations to connect more effectively and efficiently.
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