This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Mitchell Levy. Mitchell is a global Credibility Expert, TEDx speaker and international best-selling author of over 60 books. He is a serial entrepreneur who has created twenty businesses in Silicon Valley including four publishing companies that have published over 800 books. Mitchell and his teams help clients with positioning, establishing their credibility, marketing themselves, and creating best-selling books.
He’s provided strategic consulting to over one hundred companies and has been chairman of the board of a NASDAQ-listed company.
Needless to say, Mitchell knows a thing or two about how to stand out and share your value in the world. And that is exactly what I’ve asked him to come on the show and teach you how to do.
www.MitchellLevy360.com
Mitchell starts by talking about what he does today. He works with busy professionals that want to increase their credibility with a book, but don’t have time. His firm makes you a best-selling author and does everything for your book with you putting in 8-10 hours of work.
Before he got into publishing, he was an e-commerce/business strategist in the Dotcom boom. In fact, he was labeled “Mr. E-commerce” during that time. It was great during the boom and not great when everything went under. Almost overnight, he lost a lot of revenue streams. In the early 2000’s, he saw the democratization of book publishing on the horizon and capitalized on it. His firms published over 800 books from 2005-2017. But he says that he was serving the wrong audience. He wanted to change the world, but was doing it in the wrong way.
He did a Ted Talk and a Kickstarter to fund a company that was not serving people who wanted to write a book, but for people that wanted a book and had great ideas, but didn’t have the time.
During this time, he started to become a thought leader on global credibility. He currently has a initiative to interview over 500 top minds on credibility. The information being gained on this initiative is driving his next decade of business solutions.
What’s your process for finding a market and maximizing how you succeed in it?
- You have to solve a problem.
- Look at what friends you have that can be a credibility, financial, or awareness sponsor for you.
- What friends do you have that you can offer to provide a service for that will solve a problem.
- First, you have to determine if there is a value to the problem that you want to solve. See if someone will pay you, even $1 or a discounted rate.
- Then, ask yourself “Do I want to do this again?” once you’ve solved it.
- If the answer is “no” drop it, if it is “yes,” then start to ask what you can be focused on as the expert and then outsource the rest.
- You may need to do the process once and then document and put a structure in place…but once it is done, you can hand it off and outsource it.
At the 14 min mark, Mitchell and I discuss partnerships…
What is the #1 thing an individual or business can do to cement credibility?
- For individuals – Having a book
- The book that you should have that cements your credibility is the book that demonstrates you are an expert of what you want to do tomorrow.
- You need to write your book for your customer base to solve their main point of pain.
- The title should be the pain point you solve for your customers.
- Being the author of a book that is easy to consume and easy to share is the best way to cement credibility.
What is a book?
- In the old days, it was typically something a multi-year project with the content needed.
- People don’t consume books that way anymore.
- Now people go to Youtube to learn or google things
- A book in today’s age should have 7-8 sections, color on the inside, each section having a summary and a QR code to video on the subject with the author talking about it, etc. It’s an interactive experience.
- It needs to have many “aha” messages that help your credibility.
- A book is a vehicle that shows you have expertise in an area that summarizes the aha moments and messages. It’s an asset.
What is an “Aha” message?
- An aha is that moment of time when you hear something that reinforces something you know or changes your thought process about something.
- It makes you think in a new or different way.
Are there specific sections that every book should have or does it vary by author?
- It does depend.
- It depends on the major themes or messages/problem you are trying to solve, but 8-10 sections should be max.
- You should repurpose your content in different ways throughout the book for people to consume.
- You want to make a book as 3-dimensional as possible.
What has to be done to become a best-seller?
- It’s a multi-pronged approach utilizing all types of media and mediums.
- When you elect to go into the kindle program exclusively to sell your book for 90 days.
- You can give your book away for free for 5 days with this program.
- If you can get 300-400 people to buy your book for free and this can get you onto the best-seller list on Amazon, maybe #1.
What is a CPOP?
- It stands for Customer Point of Pain.
- It’s not selling pain…it’s solving pain.
- It’s 3-5 seconds of you describing the pain point you solve from the viewpoint of your customer.
- It’s different than a value proposition.
- Most people don’t care about what you do, they care about how you can help them.
- It should know who you customers are, how you solve their problem, and your solution.
- Mitchell uses his CPOP as an example
- Thoughtleaderlife.com for examples
- 3 Steps to do it
- Narrowly define your customer.
- What is the overarching issue/pain that you solve for them?
- Say it without leading with “I do this” or “We do that.”
At the 44-minute mark, I dig one of Mitchell’s old principles, the HELP principle and we have some fun with him remembering it…
- Healthy Following in the particular market you serve.
- Execute well. If you execute well, people will recommend you.
- Leadership. What are you sharing that helps people know that you are the expert at what you do and driving success?
- Platform. This is where you share your thought-leadership. You should play on the platforms where your prospects are.
At the 47 min mark, Mitchell talks about other patterns/thing he’s learned from the hundreds of interviews on credibility he’s done.
- Show up. And when you show up, come early, be prepared, and show your heart.
- Of his interview 7% come early and 6% show up after the 30 min window for the meeting.
- 98% of people cannot answer their CPOP, even with a 4 min video Mitchell sends prior.
- Show your heart – be open, be honest, be vulnerable. That is how people know, like, and trust you.
Best Quote: "Develop your CPOP - A 3-5 second answer on how you solve your "customer's point of pain."
Mitchell's Misfit 3:
- Show up when you show up. Come early, be prepared, show your heart.
- Go through life with 5 sponsors: Financial, Accountability, Content, Awareness, Credibility
- When you find someone, who is a friend that fits you well, do the work necessary to keep them in your life.
Show Sponsors:
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5 Minute Journal: www.MisfitEntrepreneur.com/Journal