Whether facing personal or professional changes, Mitchell Levy offers a blueprint for thriving, not just surviving.
In this episode of Life in Transition, Art Blanchford speaks with global credibility expert Mitchell Levy about the importance of clarity, purpose, and authenticity during life's major transitions.
Mitchell shares pivotal moments from his own journey, including overcoming the dot-com bust and sustaining a 35-year marriage. He emphasizes finding and aligning with your North Star—your purpose—as a guiding force through transitions. By focusing on servant leadership and authenticity, he explains how balancing personal and professional growth leads to fulfillment.
A key takeaway is Mitchell’s concept of "three lives" in a relationship: each partner's individual lives and shared life. This balance has been crucial to his marital success.
For anyone navigating transitions, Mitchell’s insights offer a roadmap to embrace change, find clarity, and live in alignment with your true purpose.
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Living Untethered: Beyond the Human Predicament: Singer, Michael A.
The Lion Tracker's Guide To Life Illustrated, Varty, Boyd - Amazon.com
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The views and opinions expressed on the Life In Transition podcast are solely those of the author and guests and should not be attributed to any other individual or entity. This podcast is an independent production of Life In Transition, and the podcast production is an original work of the author. All rights of ownership and reproduction are retained—copyright 2024.
Art Blanchford: So welcome back to life in transition podcast. I'm really excited to have another face to face podcast episode going and a great guest, Mitchell Levy, who is with me today, joining me all the way from Silicon Valley. I really appreciate that. And Mitchell is a global credibility expert. We were just having this conversation off the mic, that this is really what his expertise is.
And I really appreciate you bringing that today. Most welcome to life in transition.
Mitchell Levy: It is. It's great to be here. It's great to see you in person. Oh my God. I have, it's so much harder. When you're looking at, you can't look at the screen and you're looking at the camera, but here's a human and there's a mic right in front of me and I see your eyes.
I'm like, Oh wow, this is very intimate. Yeah, no. And
Art Blanchford: that's what I like, right? Bringing these times of real conversations as we were talking about. And it is, There is a physical energy between people when you're co located that's stronger than if you're just looking on a screen.
Mitchell Levy: I'm gonna say yes.
Art, I'm curious. I could feel that energy when I'm over Zoom. So when somebody's in flow and I'm feeling Like,I could feel their excitement. I feel that energy. It's not the same as in person though.
Art Blanchford: That's right. you can get that connection, but it's not the same as if you really get, in the same physical space.
So I really appreciate it. I remember, something roughly called the cowboy philosopher that I've read his emails for a while. One of the things he said was make friends. You can smell. And not just that you talk to you on the phone like the cowboy philosopher type statement. Yeah. Okay.
That's really good. But thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it. And one of the things that, folks, I mean, I need to check my underarm deodorant. I'm not sure I know we didn't greet each other that way this morning. Just a handshake was fine. but, obviously a lot of people looking for clarity going through transition.
And that's what this is all about. but I'm wondering, like on all of my conversations, I'm really connecting with a person and not so much, what they bring. So I'm gonna start with the question I always start with Mitchell, which is what has been a really significant, meaningful, maybe difficult.
We were just talking about our children right before this and some difficult times that they might be going through. But a really meaningful, purposeful, difficult, transformational transition that you have been through yourself.
Mitchell Levy: Wow. There's so many. So let's see, trying to think about, there's the big ones, the.
com going away. So my business going to zero. so I got two of those, I mean, so we could cover either of those. Let's see. Marriage been happily married 35 years. So that one is, thank you. That one is we set up ground rules up front and we stuck with them.
Art Blanchford: let me peel into that one for a second because it feels like something's there.
So I've been married 30 years, so I'm still a newlyweds compared to you, but it's
Mitchell Levy: a,
Art Blanchford: it's
Mitchell Levy: still
Art Blanchford: a
Mitchell Levy: good number,
Art Blanchford: but Setting up ground rules. Like a lot of people, when they're thinking about getting married, it's all, flowers and roses love. And you're saying you set up ground rules and we're still following them.
So tell us a little bit more about that. Like what has made this marriage successful for you and how have you used that and kept life and agreements at the same time?
Mitchell Levy: So the most positive, so I'll give you two from two angles. First is we both recognized. That it's important for us to have each of our individual lives in addition to the together life.
So there are three lives in this household. Yes. And we care about all three lives, right? That's probably the fundamentally that's the most important, right? The second thing is before we were married, I'm sure we were engaged. We had a verbal fight and we went to bed mad and we woke up and we both looked at each other and we said, let's not do that again.
Right? Okay. So here's what we're going to do. If we are mad first, let's not raise our voices. Right?
Art Blanchford: And
Mitchell Levy: second, Let's make sure we talk it out so that it's done before we go to bed, right? Then we only had to say that once because it was not fun.
Art Blanchford: Yeah, that's for sure. That's for sure
Mitchell Levy: can't even remember what we it's so irrelevant.
That's the interesting thing for most people Whatever the topic was it is so irrelevant. It doesn't mean anything it is As humans, men more than women, we want to prove ourselves right, so I was probably trying to prove myself right in some place where she bore her heels. Right. at the moment, that's what's not, what's more relevant is we both say, let's not do that again.
Art Blanchford: Right? No, for sure. You know, for sure. Something triggers you. It's not really, really about that event. It's just something that's triggered. And, I've been rereading, Michael Singer's book, living untethered for the second time.
Mitchell Levy: Another, another a hundred coaches. Yeah.
Art Blanchford: Now, wonderful, wonderful insight and wisdom there, but he talks a lot about, clearing our space and not being triggered by.
Sub scars or the Hoffman process calls it, patterns, whatever you want to call it, but to clear those out so that we can really be with people. But I love what you were saying about recognizing the three entities that you have yourself, she has herself, and then you have this entity called being in relationship with each other and
Mitchell Levy: making all three of those important.
Oh, and by the way, you know, when you have kids, then it, then everything, all that goes out because those three get thrown out. Then the kids become number one, but well, and
Art Blanchford: hopefully, you keep those three going and you complicate it. You swear they don't actually
Mitchell Levy: get kind of thrown out, but they become the slightly less in important.
Yeah.
Art Blanchford: There's a lot of other things that you have to focus on, but what I'm curious about is how do you, you said caring about all three of those things. So caring about yourself caring about her as an individual and caring about your relationship What are some examples of how you did that
Mitchell Levy: or how
Art Blanchford: you do
Mitchell Levy: that?
Well, it's I'm in Silicon Valley Yeah, we've been here for 35 years The always the right question. How do you make friends? So, as for me, as an extrovert, how do I make friends, almost every day I have an opportunity, art. This is potentially a blossoming, if we, if I just did this online and didn't, I was in town.
if I didn't actually come here, we may not have had that same opportunity. Now that we've done this, we're like, Oh, what's next. Right. So making friends is. As an extrovert, something that's relatively easy for me to do, when I go to conferences and I, let's say we're at a conference, there's 100 people or 500 people, I'm going to have somewhere between three to 10 really powerful conversations.
I don't need hundreds. Right. Right. For sure. And any one of those may end up being a. Casual friend or even a good friend. Now, my wife is not exposed to the same thing. So she has a different set of friends and in Silicon Valley. Real estate just continues to go through the roof. Yeah, yeah. That's why we have so many of you guys living here now.
By the way, you could say that almost about any very cool city. Right, right. I always get, at least at one time during the conversation, some slur. Throne at me, one of you guys right around the corner, you know, this person, right? So what's interesting is as my wife's local friends have left and she'll stay and maintain relationships.
But as her local friends have met. All of a sudden the radar comes up for Mitchell, like, how do we make sure we get more local friends for you? And that's me like, the first can't do that daily, obviously, or even weekly, but every now and then I sit back and I go, okay, let's look at the register.
Who's leaving now. Right. Right. All right. How do we, who are we placing that person with and it's having enough recognition For her, whatever you and I are the same. Okay. You and I are the same in a very interesting way. you reach a point in your entrepreneurial career or in your work career where you don't actually have to work anymore, but if work equals play, if you decide to do the things which are fun, you keep doing it.
Right now, the measurement of success happens to be money of some sort. Yes, there are other measures and we might be able to talk about those there are other measures but money seems to be the one because if somebody is willing to pay you even if it's a dollar, yeah There's a transaction. there's something there that makes it more powerful than if they if you do something for complimentary Yes, right.
And so when you're at that stage where Well, you can do what you want and you don't have to play anymore. The question becomes, well, what do you do for me? I will play in this way the rest of my life. As long as there's somebody who, if I could add value to a person or a company or groups live, I will.
Yeah. my wife's different, right? And so we always find the, About my son is 26. So at the time he was two, we rented a house in Europe for a month and we invited friends and family typically over the summer, did that consistently up until COVID,
threw us off schedule and next year we'll get us back on schedule.
And that was sort of the balance for her. And that was actually my gift to her. Right. In terms of what's going on, I'll tell you an interesting story. we're all over the place, by the way, if you hadn't figured that out. I'm going to bring us back in a minute, but go ahead.
I appreciate that. So, so my son was a year and a half. I was working seven days a week. Right. And I'm thinking, man, I'm not seeing enough of him. And I think you and I are the same. When you sit with somebody, you ask questions and you learn more. And I, thought. Somebody gave me an idea. I'm like, Oh, I like this idea.
And so I go to my wife and said, I have a present for you. She goes, okay. I go, I'm going to take every Sunday off and spend time with Duncan. We're going to officially call it daddy Duncan day. Now, She immediately looked at me. Look, I can even see the smirk on your face. I was ignorant.
I thought this really was a gift for her. She looked at me and said, Honey, that's the gift for you. What about me? I mean, you knew that right away. I'm still naive. I'm like, Oh yeah, of course. And I said, well, give me a, couple minutes. And I, literally, we were, I could still feel the energy. We were still on a hug.
I said, don't leave. I'm going to come up with something. And when he took me a minute, I said, you love Europe. What if I took off four to five weeks a year, if you could do all the booking and I'll only do the emergency stuff, we'll go to Europe once a year. And, The truth is she didn't really believe it even after booking the first trip.
And in our first trip, we had a nice place in France. Everyone we invited didn't quite believe it. We only had three couples come, right? the following year we had 28 people, which was amazing. So that's
Art Blanchford: lovely. Now that is a gift for sure. And I think, marriages, especially for, people that are working hard, it is a balance.
And I think it is really important to recognize those three entities and to keep pouring into those. And that's a super important. And I feel Lucky and blessed to be as far into marriage as I am. I guess I always knew I would be 30 years in. I never knew it would be this good.
Mitchell Levy: Ah,
Art Blanchford: 30 years in, to be honest.
What
Mitchell Levy: makes it for you? know what it means for me, but what does it mean to you? This good? What does that mean? it means
Art Blanchford: to still be an authentic connection. Right. To have the courage on both of us, like we never let it go long without where one of us feels disconnected without the other one speaking up.
Even if it's uncomfortable, even if it seems dangerous, even if it's going to upset the other one. so that we come back into authentic communication. and then. I guess another principle that we have, and we talked about this before we got married, what our key values are, our top three values for each of us.
And, personal growth, spiritual growth is number one for me, summer two for her. And so we support each other on that path. And that's also sometimes uncomfortable. But when we break through the uncomfort, then we come back to this. And this is the third part of this all in wonder, appreciation for each other.
I think for a relationship to keep its magic, it needs to have, I need to put my spouse a little bit on a pedestal.
Mitchell Levy: I
Art Blanchford: need to see her with awe and wonder, like a Ming dynasty vase, like, wow. and I still have that, we've been married 30 years and three kids, all adults now and getting ready to be empty nesters.
And we still have that, which is really beautiful. And every time I start to doubt it, every time things get, difficult, voicing that difficulty and having the courage to say, this is the way I'm feeling, this is what's going on with me. It brings it back together by having those courageous conversations and they're not, comfortable.
We were talking earlier about, , things aren't always comfortable and they're not, the way it's meant to be. But if you have the courage to face the discomfort, to face the dark, stormy waters and stay solid in that you come through to the other side and that's where the reconnection and the continuation can come from.
Mitchell Levy: You made two points there that what's really interesting for my Wife and I, it is so common for us to be in an area of just so authentic communication. whatever it is, that it's not uncomfortable at all because it's, complete vulnerability. It's complete understanding that the person on the other side is really interested in being of service to me.
Yes. Period. I mean, it's a, you know, credibility, the intent, a commitment to do the right thing. She has the intent, commitment to do the right thing for me as a servant leader. Period. Period. To make me a better human and I need to be coachable, right? And so it's not as not that it all was, beautiful.
What's interesting though, is I agree with you. It's that pedestal. When I see someone who's five or 10 years into marriage and says something about their spouse, I'm like, don't mind. You could tell me anything you want, but in order to be successful for long term marriage, you never say anything negative about your spouse, period, because what's important is that you're always her cheerleader or the other way around, right?
And because it, comes down to if you, put that other person, if you're honored, And happy to say, Hey, this is my spouse, I'm going through life with this human. Yep. It changes who you are and how you show up and even how you perceive information when it comes in the door.
Absolutely.
Art Blanchford: and there's places you get to in that relationship that you can never get to if you don't have that a hundred percent commitment. All right. If there's always a little bit like, well, if it gets too much, I can leave and you never get a chance to. Experience the things you get to experience if you're a hundred percent in
Mitchell Levy: what I was thinking and saying is, you often hear about the divorces that happened where one person grew and the other didn't.
Yes. And I'm going to say it is absolutely this, I was thinking about my marriage. between 2019 and 2020 I interviewed 500 thought leaders on credibility and if I'm going to do something like that, right. I'm going to be a different person at the end, which I was, and who I am now, holy cow, so much different than when I started, right?
What the other spouse needs to do in a good marriage is just accept whatever's happening Right it obviously if I went in a direction that would be far off of her values She'll need to let me know and occasionally she'll question some of the things I say Did you really mean you know what? This sounds like to me?
All right, I'm like, uh, I didn't think I said it that way right But that person who's me, who I am now is different than the person she married. and that's if you really care about the three entities, by definition, they need to change over time. Yeah,
Art Blanchford: absolutely. Absolutely. And to evolve.
and the only way to do that is by having the authentic conversations. And being willing to, and it sounds interesting, but it's like being willing to grow yourself and being willing to even risk the relationship for being the best human you can be, because that's what saves the relationship that you show up in the right way.
Um, for the each other and for the relationship as a whole what I'm really clear about with my spouse, with my wife, no matter what she wants or what she does, I'm like you said, I'm her biggest cheerleader, right? I want her to be successful. I want her to live life fullest and I don't want her to get stuck in fear or I don't want her to let me to get stuck in fear and to keep moving forward.
So that's a big one and that's a big transition for sure for all of us. especially ones that have made it 30 years or 35 years as you have. you mentioned another one, which was, going through the dot com and losing your business. What was that like for you?
Mitchell Levy: Fun. Well, tell me, tell me more.
It's a wild rollercoaster. So I was working at Sun Microsystems up until 1997. Okay. The dot com was there. there was a company, I think it was Accenture at the time. It they might've been in the Arthur Anderson before they became
Art Blanchford: Accenture.
Mitchell Levy: one of the managing partners went to a meeting I was at and stood up and said, if you could spell the word e commerce, we're hiring, right?
And it was, that was the time it was money was falling off the tree. So I created an e commerce management consulting firm. And out of that came a number of businesses. I started, E commerce management program, a professional development program out of San Jose State. I did a CEO networking group, all sort of professional services firms.
And it was amazing. I, the money was flowing 2, 000. Yeah, 2000 was our biggest year to Europe because when my wife said, can we do this? Just let's keep going. By the way, we decided not to do that again, but it was a little bit too lavish. and, I was king of the castle in 2000 as many of us were. And then the dot bomb came and just to be clear for those who can't remember that timeframe.
The world was even saying, Amazon's going to go out of business. hard to imagine today, but there was the investment community had divested so much in Amazon. There was that thought process, the trough of disillusionment at that point. Right. So what was interesting, I'm always a big fan. If you're running your own business to have multiple revenue streams, right.
So during the, one of my executive business programs, one of my students came to me and said, Hey Mitchell, I'm creating a CEO networking group. I tried it once. It didn't work. I need you. By the way, we all want to hear stuff like that. Sure, sure. And he goes, you don't have to do any work.
By the way, CEO networking. I'm like, okay, I don't have to. You can't do a networking group without doing work. We're creating a CEO network. You don't have to do any work. I'll give you a third of the business. I'm like, okay, done. We at the time I was a primary rate maker and the dollar amount was like 60 K a year and it was so small compared to everything else.
I was about ready to jettison it, right? And then when everything else went from really large numbers to either almost zero or close to zero, I'm like, Hmm, 60 K. This is pretty cool. Right? It pays the bills. Right? Right. Right. So. that was really for me the first time that what I was doing went away, not for anything that I did.
Right. Right. For those people who are working at companies and you get fired or you decide to quit, it goes away either because don't have a choice or I was at a startup when I first went to Silicon Valley, they ran out of money, I didn't have a choice. But to actually. See a marketplace completely transformed when I was running the, executive business program to see the classes because people were flying from around the world to Silicon Valley to take these classes.
Right. I had emails, I can't find them anymore because it's so long ago, but I had emails of people saying, Hey Mitchell, I tried to get in your class. I ran the introductory class three times. Try to get in your class. We kept it at 50. I couldn't get in. I'm going to get in the next one in a couple of weeks.
I was like, it was amazing to see the classes go from 50 to 35 to 15. I mean, phenomenal learning opportunity because I went to, we had 30 instructors. I went to all of my instructors classes as well. So I was learning with the students each and every time. And to see the quality of education.
based on the size of the room and how the engagement would happen was so phenomenal. So for me, sitting back and looking at seeing my business go to zero, by the way, the second time it happened was with book publishing, right? I, when I started my book publishing companies in 2005 I knew. So the first time was com and then Hotbomb,
Art Blanchford: right?
And you went from making a very, very nice income to like things that had maybe even a lot of book value disappearing and your income going as a whole almost to zero besides the CEO network group. what went on for you during that time? Did fear come up? Did uncertainty come up?
what happened for you during that time?
Mitchell Levy: Whether it was naivete, it wasn't fear, but clearly uncertainty. Right. What's next? What do I do? where do we put money? the real luck is that I was sitting there with a 60, 000 coming in revenue stream. Right. Right. So that was, really a, lucky opportunity.
so you could keep buying groceries while you figured
Art Blanchford: out what's next.
Mitchell Levy: Yeah.It was that when one's parents would always talk about the rainy day fund, right? I'm like, Oh, we really needed a rainy day fund, right? Right. It's, we needed something just in case. Right. just trying to think about what else?
part of it sometimes is who am I? Yes. Right. What's the next evolution? I really liked this stuff, but now that everyone knows what e commerce is and I can't. typically at the time it was 5, 000 a day. Consulting, speaking was five to 10 K keynotes, right? but it was on e commerce, right? And when the, when that market dried up and market dried up, it zero.
So the question is as a speaker, who are you, if your audience doesn't want to know what you're talking about,
Art Blanchford: right? Come back to that because you said like the next step was who am I or what's next, right? Like what's the next evolution of me? How do those fit together? Like you said who am I and what's the next evolution?
Like what's the next like when I think next evolution? I'm thinking what am I doing next in business? All right, or maybe it's what am I doing next for growth? But who am I seems to be a very much Deeper question, but those came out from you at this in the same sentence. So talk about that for a second
Mitchell Levy: I can answer this question now with what I know after the research in a better way than I could have answered it then Okay, then I did what I did intuitively, but I could tell you what I do know now so I'm gonna throw out a couple stats.
Art Blanchford: Okay,
Mitchell Levy: 90 percent of humans are born, live and die without ever knowing their purpose. And 98 percent don't have clarity. Right. Okay. So, the who I am is often equated to your purpose. Okay. Interesting. okay, so that I want to know if you were tracking so far before
Art Blanchford: you make that next statement. Yeah, yeah, I wanted to, because,mean, who I am is my purpose.
So, don't know. I love this. tell me why you think those two are the same. Because I feel a difference for myself. Yeah. yeah, there's things that I meant to do, but there's also this thing about who I am, what's really, and this gets very deep now.
It's like, what is my spirit? What is my soul? Like who am I, how am I being right? So I have a, prayer and journal practice that I do every morning. And the thing that I ask God first after praying for others is, What do you want me to be today? And then the second is what do you want me to do?
So I see those as different things, but I feel like the doing there can be a lot of doing that's either right or wrong. If you will, it's either effective or not effective depending on how I'm being. So if I'm in the right spade of being, if I have the right state of mind, , if I'm channeling God and what I'm doing, then almost anything that I.
would be doing whatever action may be the right one because of who I'm bringing to the party. So I'm going to say yes. and conversely, if I'm not in the right state of being, then whatever I do, whatever action that's on the list today, whatever's in the calendar may be totally unaffected
Mitchell Levy: and not creating value.
Got it. So by the in terms of establishing community, one of the fundamental tenants, friend of mine, a guy by the name of Lucas Root has six six tenants of community and one of them is having a common language by me asking you this question. I now have a common language of what you're doing.
So I'll say it again, but in a different way, this amorphous concept of purpose so elusive. I'm going to say, I'm not going to touch that. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. It's sort of like as a book publisher, we've published over 750 books and there are people when they do their first book, they want to write the book, right?
The book that's going to sell off the shelf and make them a gazillion dollars. And we'll be talking about it and change humanity. And often when I work with That author I said, you know what we're gonna put a book out first Even though it's gonna be physically your first book call that your second book and the other book you could do at some point in Time and once they get the first one out, they're like, oh, yeah, you know what?
I don't really need to do this other book, right? So The same thing I'm gonna say is true with this amorphous concept called purpose. Mm What I will say though is what's important is to articulate the playground you play in. Yes. Okay. Yes. The playground is something where I'm going to say, and this is, I'm going to throw a couple of concepts together.
First, it's your frequency. It's a vibrational energy, which your body responds to. Vibrate that. Second, I will guarantee you, you could say in less than 10 words, right? So that's the formula that I have. And if you can articulate the playground you play in, right. How you actually play in your playground.
like you said, when you wake up in the morning and you're doing God's purpose, it is how you are executing on your purpose today. Right?
Art Blanchford: Yeah. I mean, and that to me is the frequency, what energy are you bringing to it? How are you showing up? that is that frequency?
Mitchell Levy: I want to change the word. gonna change that a little bit. I think the frequency is. The vibrate, like our frequency, because we're now at a state where we're definition, the, our frequency has sort of said, Oh wait, let's make sure we get aligned again. We're not as aligned as we were at the beginning of the conversation when we're talking about our spouses.
We were like, Oh my God, that's so cool. Frequency. Is when you think about, and I'll just give you the who you serve, so my, thought process is simply the, and it's this concept I have, I call it a CPOP, your customer point of possibilities. It's who you serve and either their pain point or pleasure point.
That's the playground you play at. Right. And when I can pull that out of somebody and then all of a sudden they go, yeah, that is me. Right. It's sort of you sitting down and journaling and going, okay, what does God want me to do today? It needs to fit within the container. It needs to fit within the playground of who you, think you are.
Yeah, for sure. For sure. Or in this case, who God may have said to you, who you think you are, but it's some point in time, you're going to say to yourself, okay, there's a playground of what I play and what I'm going to do to play in that playground today.
Art Blanchford: Right.
Mitchell Levy: when we have the clarity, and that's what I do with this CPOP, , of being less than ten words of the playground you play in, what comes after that is magic.
Right. So, here's You cut magic
Art Blanchford: being in the sense of like, the effectiveness of a laser versus a light. Is that what you're saying? What comes after that is magic? If you get that clarity of having Less than fewer than 10 words about what is your purpose? what's your task? are you playing?
What playground are you in? And then you say the magic comes after that. What is that magic that comes after that?
Mitchell Levy: Now the magic happens and let's say without any incremental support for 10 percent of the population. Okay. Okay. Magic happens because you now have a North star. You could wake up every morning with a North star.
You have a compass that will affect the decisions you make. And if the compass is affecting your decisions and then you're demonstrating behavior that's in alignment, you're coming cross as a very credible human. Because if the words that you say are in alignment with how you show up online.
So it, you update your website, you update your social media. It's, you have this, than 10 word phrase Encapsulation of who you are, that compass will allow you to then stay focused. And if you're staying focused, first of all, you're feeling good. So by the way, I feel our energy coming back.
Right? So what happens is your energy starts flowing. you're more productive because you're in your zone. You've heard people say, I'm in the zone. I feel good. I'm in flow. Right. What also happens. Is other people feel that, or they may see it or feel it without actually knowing what it is?
Sure. Because you're in alignment. When you're in alignment, the people who need you, they get attracted to you. Right. That's that law of attraction thing is if you're, putting out who you are, not shouting from the rooftop, but in some cases you are, but if you're putting out who you are, it authentically.
And people see that you're a servant leader that you're adding value that you're doing the right thing that you're also coachable You don't know it all right Somebody other sides gonna come back and go Resonate with you. magic is when you get to a crossroad of a decision The decisions made because it fits inside the compass that you've created for yourself.
Art Blanchford: So it's interesting. So a couple things coming up for me you're saying this, most of my life and my career was very much driven by that. Have a vision, have a North star, have a tree out there that you're going for and then you go to that no matter what and you get that result.
And that's sort of the epi It's, it's what we've been taught. Exactly. It's, it's not right, but it's what we've been taught. It's epi of the American sort of ethos. Yeah. But I also think it's not right where I am in my life now and hence this podcast and everything else that I'm doing called Life in Transition.
Right.I think now it's like what I'm working on is like showing up is the right way and having the right beingness Not being necessarily connected to what comes out of that, right? I align a hundred percent with what you say like Van Goethe said that when a man commits himself and Providence moves also Right, and that is true and to not think that I'm wise enough or know enough to have figured out exactly how the end game is going to be, right?
I love this little book that I read. I was telling you before we got online about doing these, nature leadership development and, a book I read for that. And then we use for that is called the lion trackers guide to life. Hmm. By Boyd Vardy. And it's a very simple book by an actual lion tracker in Africa.
Fun. But the thing that was so antithetical to all of my training, if you will, about how to be successful before that was he said, I have no idea when I'm tracking a lion, I have no idea where I'm going, but I know exactly how I'm going to get there. It's the opposite of everything else. Oh, I know where I'm going.
I don't know how I'm going to get there, but I know where I'm going.
Mitchell Levy: Do you want me to give you and your listeners
Art Blanchford: a model? Sure, because I think that, I mean, to understand, and I'm just to say one of your liar tracking, he said, because you have no idea where the lion is. And if you try to figure out where the lion is, you're going to miss it.
But if you just find the next track and you just go to the next track and you just go to the next track, then eventually
Mitchell Levy: you get to the line. Before I share the model though, tell me why that was the antithesis view.
Art Blanchford: Because for me, I grew up in the automotive industry, right?
So the, our heroes were, there were some that I really do sort of feel like we're here is like Alan Mulally that we talked about, but then there's also the Carlos Ghosn's of, , we're going to do this no matter what, right. We're going to create this result no matter what. So here's the goal.
Here's what we have to accomplish. And then you do whatever's necessary. However, it's necessary to make that happen.
Mitchell Levy: Some microsystems, Scott McNeely followed the automotive processes he got from his father. And that was exactly
Art Blanchford: his philosophy. Yeah. And so that was, have a vision, have a North star, have a fence post and you keep your eye on that.
And whatever happens, you block everything else out and you make that happen. Whereas this other one. and the difference for that was that, and I never lived into this completely, but this is what I felt like I should do is that everything else gets blocked out. you have one thing and you make that happen instead of.
Be the kind of person that you should be connect with people be in the right way and then see what magic happens You talked about the magic happening, right? And so that's what I'm trying to live into now in my life is okay Let's show up as the right way and then see what magic can happen I still see that there is magic in action in knowing a North Star and being it You know, like if things aren't clear do the next step right do the thing that's in front of you Right?
but I think it's very different than trying to control for a certain outcome than it is to say, okay, what's my role to play here? How should I show up? How can I best serve the situation, right? What is expected of me from God or from life in this moment? And am I clear enough? Am I clean enough?
Have I done my own work enough that I can show up and participate to be the right conduit as Chip Connelly says these days. Fascinating. that's the journey I'm on and it's. So different than what I've been on previous in life that I have a lot of lack of clarity as well, but it feels Much more organic and I think about this quote that I somebody told me I don't remember who i'd love to attribute it to the right person because it's starting to get attributed to me But when I was running a big business in china Somebody I read or told me said a happy life And like we're all doing everything because we want to be happy.
We want to feel good in here Right a happy life is merely a succession of happy moments But most people forgo the happy moments in pursuit of a happy life. That's a great quote, right? Isn't that wonderful? Yes. So I'm working on the happy moments in my life now. Well, we got one right now, right?
Absolutely. and I love this podcast for that very reason. I love doing this. I mean, this is really, I'm always smiling when I finish a podcast in my heart and on my face. Nice. Right. No matter what the conversation is. So that's something that is in my arena right to play in, because of the way that it makes me feel in the moments that I have in that.
But I,really tried to live into that and not have so much like one of the quotes that is mine that I say a lot came downloaded to me was the life to me is no longer a monument to be built. it's an unfolding adventure to be experienced, right? So I don't have some like, Oh, I have to go create this thing in order to be okay.
I want to be okay. And then how can I serve the moment? How can I serve the people around me? How can I, do the right CPOP?
Mitchell Levy: So the question, I guess the question I'm going to say what came out of this conversation for me and absolutely an article I'll write and start talking about is, do you have the wrong North star?
Because the North Star is never defined with a dollar amount. Or a, percentage of marketplace that's not North star.
Art Blanchford: Yeah. And I think maybe in business I did have the wrong North star. and also there was a lot of things that my personal motivations were also, some of them are unhealthy, right?
They're driven out of fear, other things. But I guess the thing that when I hear North star, maybe this again comes from, how much I spent the first 45, 50 years of my life. When I hear North star, it's often about some sort of. tangible result. And when I listen to you say North Star right now, I think more about a way of
Mitchell Levy: being.
, by the way, thank you for giving me incremental. I've not had this level of conversation about North Star before. So you're actually giving me clarity by listening to how you react to the words that are coming out. And it'll give me more time to think and process. Yeah.
Art Blanchford: And I mean,
Mitchell Levy: part of it is probably the natural cycle
Art Blanchford: of where I am in life, right?
If you read Arthur Brooks or David Brooks or Richard Rohr, there's a lot of re examining things at midlife, right? That's one of the big groups that I have that I work with is midlife mastery, mastering midlife transition. that happens at this point in life.
So there may be times when it's just, see it, go out and do it. and I feel like. , that's not how I want to spend my second half
Mitchell Levy: and what I'm trying to
Art Blanchford: help people to see is as life brings us transitions as how do we make the most of those in who we are and how do we, live in, what Michael Singer talks about live, surrendered, right?
Live in a way that's yeah, not. in depression because we're not doing anything, adding value, but at the same time being open to the outcome, right? And not thinking I have to have X or Sri Kumar Rao. He talks about it like, and this may be, it comes to your point. If you are a writer and you write because you are a writer.
That's your vibration. That's your frequency. Then you don't have to have a 10 million bestseller in order to be happy because you're happy doing what it is that you're supposed to do as being a writer. And that's maybe the difference, right? Then looking for external metrics that are North stars versus Processes are states of being as North stars instead.
So I have thought about this some, as you can tell.
So bringing it back around with your expertise in this area of credibility and talking about, you know, linking who you are with, what your purpose is, what do you feel. for people going through transition, which is his audiences for this podcast that are questioning maybe some of the things that we've been talking about.
What would be a tool that you found is really helpful for you when you're going through change that you would recommend that anybody can use and they could start with now when they're listening to this podcast that right as soon as they finish up, what's something that you would recommend?
Mitchell Levy: Oh, perfect. Got that answer. I can give you this one, but I'm going to make it up as I'll say it differently because of this conversation and I've ever said it before. First thing I, would allow you to internalize, and this is often the, you often hear Simon Sinek say why is most important. Why is, probably the third or fourth thing, but why is important when someone's going through transition?
There are different stages of transition. and so as a generic, audience, I'm going to say something I would not normally say. And that is what I like that person to be thinking about. What I'd like you to be thinking about is, what was your kryptonite? What was that thing sometime in your life that caused you such angst that you then spent the time and energy to get over?
Yeah, I know that very
Art Blanchford: clearly.
Mitchell Levy: Okay. Cause that's
Art Blanchford: your, now your superpower. Interesting. So that's my superpower. Interesting. I never thought about that. So the kryptonite have a podcast episode about this, I think it's seven or eight was wanting to please the man, like being. Afraid that I'm not okay as I am so I have to do something to please others Right,
Mitchell Levy: and
Art Blanchford: that comes from a very specific experience of being raised in a religious cult in a very tough way Wow and that was that's it It made me incredibly successful in large multinational corporations because if you can please your boss before they even ask the questions You go up the ladder really fast Right.
so going up, I was pleasing the man going down. I had the right type of leadership and I loved my people and took really good care of people, but I was driven when I talked about being driven by the wrong thing. It was about please the man, make money, do the right thing so I can be okay.
Mitchell Levy: Right.
Art Blanchford: So how is that now?
My superpower?
Mitchell Levy: Ooh, I'll get there. Okay. The answer is, When you and I talked before, I had articulated in my mind what your CPOP is, as as you talk, and I'll, give the definition to the audience, but as you talk, you're talking about it, but I'm going to bring something into your now forward CPOP that will be powerful.
so first let's go back to the transition. Yep. First thing is you may want to think about it. Was there something that caused you to not be the human you want to be kryptonite when you figured out how to fix that, your ability to transition, your ability to do this yourself may have been painful for you to do that.
Your ability allow others to do that is your superpower.
Art Blanchford: okay. That Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Makes sense. Yeah.
Mitchell Levy: So The thing that I would like to say to people the formula for the CPOP. Oh, so let me also be clear I will give away the secret formula Great. away the secret formula because if I give this away to a thousand people I have over a thousand 10 percent will get it, know what to do with it.
All right. I can't tell you if you're part of the 10%. I think you are, but we'll see. And it doesn't matter. 90 percent will be influenced by the world today and forget how good they felt when they actually knew their vibrational energy, when they were able to articulate in words how they show up in the world.
Right. Right. Right. So here's the formula. Two pieces. First is the who. Who do you want to serve? Right. In a lot of cases, it could be who you were. Right. If you don't mind, I'm going to give you two words for who do you want to serve? Executive pleasers. Yeah. Right? Like, I didn't have the pleasing word before because when we talked last, I didn't ask you about your kryptonite.
Right. knew there was something missing. By the way, you're helping me understand that I may also need to ask about kryptonite at some point in time, but you need to get to a level of authenticity where people really feel comfortable sharing,
Art Blanchford: right?
Mitchell Levy: Not just sharing, but also their, internalizing what their kryptonite really was.
Art Blanchford: Yes. Yes.
Mitchell Levy: Right. Right. So. two of the four words of your CPOP is executive pleasers, right? Right. So the first component is who yeah, the second component is what? And by the way, who plus what equals where? So the who plus what equals where you are executing on your purpose, right? Okay, so the what is either The pain point that they're experiencing Or the pleasure point they want to reach, right?
Ideally, both. Ideally, both. For instance, for me, I list both.share with you, before I share your four words, I'll share with you my, at the moment, my eight. Okay? And my eight has a little bit of both. in 80 percent of the time, we follow the marketing rule of talking about pain. Right. Right. Okay.
In your case, I actually think it's pleasure that we want to talk about because when you have an audience that you serve that has an ego, you don't talk about pain cause they won't accept it. Right.
Art Blanchford: and one of the things when I think about it, cause I have to find this for me, like who I'm serving.
And then the narrowest sense it's already successful business people. Who are wanting something more. Right? So that's a going toward the pleasure, right? They've done all the things that they think they should do. It hasn't gotten them the feeling that they want to have. So now how do I get the feeling that I want to have?
Mitchell Levy: that's not necessarily a bad seat pop. I'm just going to condense even make it more focused. So let me share mine. So remember it's the who and the what, right? first of all, I'm going to say I've never thought that I would serve this very minute audience. But what I needed to do is pick a vertical.
What I do with clarity is very wide, right? But if you think about Jeffrey Moore crossing the chasm, he says, pick a bowling alley and pick another. And so I actually have two before I go wide. And the first one is, and this is the CPOP coaches who've created a job, not a business. Right, right. and so what often happens.
When you share that CPAP. Now, so by the way, at the moment, that's my North star. If you look at my website, you look at my social, it's all focused around tailoring to that audience. When I speak, it's all focused around that. And what's really interesting is if you're an exec by definition, if you are a good exec, you are also a coach.
Art Blanchford: Yes, absolutely.
Mitchell Levy: so almost everyone in humanity is a coach. They may or may not recognize that because it's not what we've been taught. I'll give you that. Absolutely. So the way. When you talk to somebody and you share that, so for instance I would share that, you could be one of three people.
You could be a potential referring partner, you could be a potential client, or you could be someone who doesn't care. It doesn't mean you don't care about me, you just don't care about the playground, you don't care about where I'm executing on my purpose today. That's really okay, it's not offensive to me.
So if you're one or two, the most natural question is, tell me more, right? Right. So coaches who've created a job, not a business. Let me tell you a little bit more, right? Coaches, consultants, small businesses with one or two primary rainmakers typically are really good at what they do. Let's just assume we're talking to that crowd, right?
They've actually been certified to transform a company or an individual from A to B, right? What they suck at. Is running a business, right? Having a good referral network, having clients and leads come in on a continuous basis. There's always the have and have not type basis, right? So our solution, we have a done with you program.
They get a coach, get access to a mastermind and they get leads on a weekly basis and we help them just have a consistent flowing business, right? That tell me more was less than a minute, but you're like, Oh, Mitchell, I get it.
Art Blanchford: Right. I know how to recommend you.
Mitchell Levy: Yep. Yep. When you are that clear. On, you could call that your North star if you want.
But if you're that clear on the container on the playground, you play in a service when somebody talks of what they do in the playground and notice very little was what I did. It was just sort of read, you know, making sure we define the audience view. It'd be executive pleasers, right? So I'll, do your C pop and tell me more.
Right. So. What's interesting is the incremental level of credibility I'm given because I have such clarity on where I'm playing today.
Art Blanchford: Right.
Mitchell Levy: One of the people who came to, once a month I do a clarity session, it's 90 minutes long. One of the people who came has a community of fractional execs. I think it was 18 paid execs, 800 free.
he comes to me afterwards in R101 and he goes, Mitchell. fractional execs need clarity. And so he invited me to his free event and there were like 60 80 people in the room and I went to two of them. and I go, Paul, Paul Jones and I go, Paul, what's really interesting is fractional execs are exactly the same as coaches.
I mean, in terms of what I do, right, exactly the same, same problem, same issue, same. So Paul is helping me come into the fractional exec world. That's my second vertical. Right. Once I do those two, I'll go horizontal.
Art Blanchford: Right.
Mitchell Levy: Okay.
Art Blanchford: So coming back to the tool that anybody can use from here in that's in transition.
So we started with. defining the CPOP like who is it and what's the point right? What's the plan? So
Mitchell Levy: I will let me yeah. Oh, sorry. You had a question. No, so I just
Art Blanchford: presupposing wouldn't know I just wanted I want to bring this around to People that are listening and they're thinking okay.
I don't have a lot of clarity. I'm going through transition. How do I find it? okay, first is who and to find the what was my kryptonite in the past and how do I inverse that or take care of those people because of what I've learned because of what my kryptonite was going forward. And then what am I going to do for those?
Right. Right. Either treat, eliminate pain or create pleasure for those people. how would somebody listening be clear about what was their kryptonite so that they're clear about what is their, who that they're working with going forward?
Mitchell Levy: That's a good question. I don't know if I know all the answers.
I know. when I see how somebody shows up, I could see how their kryptonite and superpower fits into what they're doing today. And so a lot of times what, people can do is talk to their friends, talk to the people really know them. That's what I was saying. What am I really can hold up a mirror?
Yeah. What am I really good at? one of my favorite models, when somebody gets their CPOP and it's in an area they have not spent time with, I bought this from one of my friends and, converted it slightly and I call it the three for three.
And
it, so if it involves coaching, my suggestion is, well, why don't we do this?
Why don't you go to three people who could be your. client and offer to do what you do if you don't have it done yet and offer to do it for a dollar a month for three months. And then what you say is here's the cost somewhere close to the end. I'd like a video testimonial and also somewhere where you're feeling comfortable.
I'd like you to give me three referrals. So imagine in that scenario over a three to six month period, you'll have at least three testimonials, but maybe more. You may turn the three that you're doing for 3. You may turn those into clients at the end of three months, and you're going to have nine other people you get to talk to, right?
And guess what? If you're practicing doing what you think you should do because it's executing on your superpower, you get to see if you like it or not. As well. And if you don't, you start over and
Art Blanchford: figure out something else. Right. Now that's a great tool. And that's a great, I think those are, giving people tools.
A lot of things to think about as they're going through transition. And that's definitely given me a lot to think about, which is wonderful.
Mitchell Levy: Let me give you your four words, please. If you're ready. Yes, I'm ready. Okay.
Art Blanchford: I've got my pen out here and people can't see it on the video probably, and definitely not on the listening,
Mitchell Levy: but I can't, I was almost putting my pen and paper, but I, fortunately you gave me the cup of coffee.
So now I made that you're on firing on all cylinders. So I like the four words, executive pleasers, easily. Transitioning. Mm hmm. hmm. Four words. So, if you're in the room with a referral partner, or with your prospect, so many, what do you mean, pleasers? Yeah. Go off. So let me do your tell me more.
Okay. So if somebody said, who are you? You can't say my CPOP is cause we don't, you know, maybe 50 or a hundred thousand people know what that is. At some point in time you will, right? So what you do instead is you position for a short, brief comment coming next. If somebody says, if, or if I'm you at the moment, what do you do?
based on my experience in life, there's an audience that I'm attracted to that I work really well with pause. Executive pleasers, easily transitioning. Pause. All right. Let me tell you why I do this. This was me. I went through my corporate life really successful as a pleaser, and it sucked for me emotionally.
Right. I was not the person I needed to be. It took me a while to get over it. And after getting over it, I realized. That this is a place I want to serve others and I can help others do that. A lot of times I do it with nature retreats. And so if this is something you're feeling you need to do, let's have a conversation.
Art Blanchford: Yeah.
Mitchell Levy: 50 seconds. Wonderful. I love it. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Honest. My, my pleasure. So that's the, look at that smile. Look at how you're feeling the tell me more. So let me bash something else the 30 second elevator pitch Stop it Don't memorize it throw it away, please. Please, please Here's the problem when you have memorized a 30 second elevator pitch.
Are you speaking from here? Or are you speaking from here? You're speaking for
Art Blanchford: you can't speaking from the head for sure.
Mitchell Levy: well So, in order for somebody to relate to you, you need to speak authentically from your heart.
Art Blanchford: Authentic conversations. So,
Mitchell Levy: I might be able to repeat the tell me more, but it, I certainly would never use the same words.
I remember your four words, your CPOP I get, it is such a cool and powerful container. like, Oh, I got that right. By the way, if you're trying not to think about this now, but for most people, when they get it, they go, Oh my God, I need to change my website. I need to change my social media. I'm not showing up as clearly as I can.
Here's the cool part. You already have a podcast that re like you playing in that playground. You've already created the podcast. You just didn't realize, or maybe you did. Right? The simplicity of this playground you play in is the superpower that you help cultivate for yourself. Right.
Art Blanchford: Right. No, it's really cool.
It's really good stuff. And I, appreciate it. And I, think, definitely being narrow and taking action on what it is that's right in front of us a great. place to start. And I love the three and three as well. Three for three that you said, that's a fun way. And I think that's also something that can be applied to make we applied in any new area, any new venture that anybody's wanting to work into, right.
To try it. And then one of the best gifts is to see if you really like it as well. Right. So I really appreciate that. Where can people find out more about you, Mitchell?
Mitchell Levy: So the best place to go would be my website. It's MitchellLevy. com. So that's three L's. M I T C H E L L E V Y dot com. There you'll see the programs we have.
If you decide you want a clarity session, you can book that. And if you decide that it's really important to put time on the calendar, you can get access to my calendar and book time there as well. From that website. So it's MitchellLevy. com. Wonderful. Are you active on social medias as well? Or they can go there from your website?
Oh. So, by the way, just as a technique, when I talk to people, say one thing, maybe two. The social media I'm most active on is LinkedIn, but I have a number of different locations, but you can get there from MitchellLevy. com or just if LinkedIn is your default, you can go to MitchellLevy. com and that's a good place for me as well.
And we'll put all these. Actually not. Yeah. I'll be the guy with a hat that pops up. There
Art Blanchford: we go. No. And that's, another good telltale that you always have the hat. we'll put all this in the show notes as well, but thank you so much for taking the time to come be with me in person today. I really appreciate it.
And also for your insight and for the authentic conversation. I think it's really fun To challenge and, sharpen each other and to debate things and align on things and to learn together. So I'm
Mitchell Levy: going to say two things. Yeah. thanks for making me really think about North star and how to define and focus that energy more.
And second, I now see you. Yeah. Thank you. That's really cool.
Art Blanchford: That's really powerful. and now I get a little emotional because I feel like. I love the movie Avatar because of that line, you watch the avatar and both of them where they say, I see you in the first one, it's very much more dramatic, right?
Where they first, I see you, right? And I think, to me, that's more powerful than even saying, I love you because love is so powerful. There's so much baggage on it like God in many other words that we have there's so much baggage on it and there's so many different definitions whereas Everybody needs to be seen.
Everybody wants to be seen. Nobody wants to be watched. Oh And ooh, well that line to see
Mitchell Levy: people
Art Blanchford: is really powerful. So thank you for seeing me. I really appreciate that
Mitchell Levy: Oh, it's really cool. Yeah, and this is what we want your audience to have. This is where The place that I play ultimately is I want us all to be seen most importantly, if we see ourselves, that will allow us to be better servants to
Art Blanchford: others.
Absolutely. Absolutely. On that we'll park it, Mitchell. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you joining us on my pleasure. Thanks so