Transcription of Episode
Intro/Outro 0:04
Welcome to Investing Across Borders with Lauren Cohen. Every week she will share valuable information that you need to know in order to successfully invest in real estate and other business endeavors in North America. We believe in helping clients invest, live, work, and play across borders. And now, your host, Lauren Cohen.
Lauren Cohen 0:25
Hi, everybody. I’m Lauren Cohen, the host of Investing Across Borders where we teach you to invest, live, work and play across borders. I’m an international legal and real estate expert originally from Canada and now in South Florida. and grateful to be here because they just had a pile of snow in my hometown of Thornhill Ontario. So I was speaking with a couple of people this morning were snowed, and I was like, Oh, I’m grateful to be in Florida. So I am here today with my very good friend and wonderful, amazing credibility expert Mitchell Levy. Mitchell is literally on the other side of the country in the San Francisco Bay Area. I guess it could be further you could be in Seattle. But Mitchell and I have known each other a good couple of years. And last year, we were on the marketers cruise together, which obviously this year was postponed. Who knows how indefinitely and we’ve had some some good times together. Mitchell, you want to say hi and introduce yourself?
Mitchell Levy 1:23
Hi, Lauren. Nice to see you. Good to be here.
Lauren Cohen 1:28
It’s good to have you here. Tell us a little about yourself. I mean, what brought you to where you are, you publish books, you help people become experts in their fields, and there’s so many amazing things that you brought to the world. Tell us a little bit about them.
Mitchell Levy 1:47
Okay, I love open ended questions. So think of me as into two areas. One is what I actually do to help other people get credibility, one on one, which I get paid for. The other is actually understand what the word credibility is. And so I’m a global credibility expert, and have interviewed over 500 thought leaders on this concept of credibility and have redefined the definition. And so I’m working on getting that updated at Oxford.
Lauren Cohen 2:18
Are they listening to you? I love that
Mitchell Levy 2:20
Watch. It will change whether or not they listen now or tomorrow it will change. And so I have a book on the topic called Credibility Nation.
Lauren Cohen 2:30
Have you also?
Mitchell Levy 2:32
Yeah. All right, having a membership community of the same name. And, recently, actually, I shot a TED talk focused on credibility. So the concept is, what is credibility? How do we live it? How do we execute on it? Well, we’ll talk about that further. And then how you and I, when we originally met back on the marketers cruise and actually even before then.
Lauren Cohen 2:57
Yeah it was on LinkedIn
Mitchell Levy 3:00
It was LinkedIn! And so there are two things that I’m doing at the moment. One is, Done For You book publishing. And that’s just an incarnation, one of many things people can do to get credibility. And so for those that want to write a book, four months, from the time we start, we’ve ghostwritten, published, distributed and made them an Amazon best selling author. And then now here’s the coolest thing that’s relatively new. And that is running crowd wheels. A cred wheel is a credibility, shine video, it’s an opportunity in five minutes for you to have an asset that people get to know, like, and trust you before they meet you. And I now have a new program or just kick it off. That is a annual program. So it’s a semi annual update to your crowd wheel.
Lauren Cohen 3:48
What’s the cost of the cred wheel? What’s the value? Why is it so important for every expert to have a cred wheel?
Mitchell Levy 3:56
Say that five times fast. I know I have a problem with ours, too. So it’s the research that went into the results, into what credibility is, and it’s always the same five questions. And I think probably the best way to say it, what’s the end result. We all are looking for people to meet us, to interact with us, to actually find us. And get word of mouth marketing is one of the best possible things we can do. Well, how do they do that? They have to know who you are. And they have to remember you for who you are in such a short phrases, sort of short approach that they actually want to recommend you and then you need to reinforce that content, reinforce who you are on your social media, on I’d say your asynchronous communication. So let me give you a stat. 98% it’s now up to over 550 people 98% of people who get their cred wheel, need clarity on their C-pop. So the c-pop is your customer portal. And it’s often surprising to me that number is so high, essentially, in less than 10 seconds, typically one to three seconds less than 10 words, can you say, who you serve, and the pain point you serve. And most people 90% actually need clarity on that. Now, when you could be so clear that you can articulate who you serve, and the pain point you serve in, let’s say, three seconds. And now what happens is you go to your LinkedIn, once you know that, you go to your LinkedIn profile and you do a update to it. You make it search engine optimized based on your c-pop, you go to your website, you do the same thing, it gives you a lens, it’s a compass. Your c-pop is your compass, for who you are and how you serve. It doesn’t mean your competence doesn’t change over time. What it does mean though, and this is why we put the semi annual thing in place is every now and then you’re going to say, hey, wait, I want to change slightly, or the world’s changed rambley. Let me re-update. And so the primary focus is really the green room conversation that the interviewees have with me where we actually focus on and give clarity to your c-pop. The rest is just reinforcing who you are and what you do and how best you can do it. So if somebody sees you, they recognize. Imagine you get an introduction and somebody somebody says, Oh, I know Lauren, does the following. Here, watch this. They watched a five minute video, they go, Hey, I kind of like her. I want to do business with her. That’s what a cred wheel is. And we charge 997. We charge $1,000 for a cred wheel.
Lauren Cohen 6:39
That’s a one time charge, right?
Mitchell Levy 6:41
That’s a one time charge. And, let me ask you this, Lauren, this morning’s after workout brainstorm is for 1500, what I was going to do is put people on a continuity program. And so I need to set that up as of this afternoon, but, a continuity program, we will do a cred wheel once every six months. So a semi annual cred wheel. So essentially, you’re getting two for the for the price of one and a half. And I think the last person I interviewed was someone in the marketing space who actually does this. I mean, she helps her clients get known. And when she came on, what we did is, the conversation, it’s typically a 45 minute interview, which produces that five minute video, that five minute interview. So that 45 minutes, when we changed her seat, by the way, I don’t change c-pops, I just listened. And based on listening, I go Oh, wait, you know, I think your c-pop is this. And it was so profound for her that she needed another week. So we scheduled for the following week, we did the interview. And I said well, should we do this every quarter? And her response couldn’t have been better. She goes, Mitchell, I have a lot of work. Now. I need to go into my LinkedIn profile. And I need to update I need to go into my website and update it based on allowing people to see me the way this c-pop. Now let me do it. So why don’t we do it semi annually. And so for $1500 a year, the opportunity to stay on top of who you are and what you do. Because Lauren, here’s the cool part. If the c-pop is your compass, it tells you who you are, what you do, where you’re going, when you can then do search engine optimization around your c-pop on LinkedIn, on your website, your magnetizing your compass,
Lauren Cohen 8:33
Of course. I mean, it does make sense. And obviously, it’s like a business plan. So people write business plans, and they put them on the shelf. And they’re like, Oh, that’s my business plan. And then six months or a year later, they go in there, like, it’s not my business plan anymore. For example, COVID happened, lots of people’s business plans changed, right? A lot of like the marketers cruise people, for example. But at the end of the day, if you keep it static, it’s you know, that’s not the way the world works. So you do need to have some kind of a continuity program. And I think that’s great. And the beauty of what you do is that it is pervasive across borders, right? It doesn’t matter where you are in the world, you need this c-pop, you need to know what your customer point of pain is, you need to know how to address that point of pain. This is the best way to sell, is to actually respond to the customer’s pain point. And to know what it is and how to respond. You know, and it also helps you to target your target market, hone in, laser focus on your target market. Now, how many people would you say are scared of being too focused on their target market? How many entrepreneurs percentage wise?
Mitchell Levy 9:49
That’s a great question. No one’s asked that question. So I think this numbers, the number that pops in my head is the peredo number of 80%. I’m gonna say 80.
Lauren Cohen 9:58
I think you’re probably about right Because I would, I would bet you that most entrepreneurs, especially newer entrepreneurs are scared of honing in on their target market because they’re going to be too narrowly focused. And you’re doing yourself just, you know, if you’re watching this or listening, you’re doing yourself a disservice, huge disservice,
Mitchell Levy 10:23
So, let me give your mind my c-pop is huge, humans that want to be seen as credible. Now, who’s gonna recommend me for that, per se? Now what will happen is when, you if you heard me go, oh, man, that’s really interesting Mitchell. And I said, Well, we have a membership community, and at different price points, you can come and join, we might recommend that. Now, if you heard me, when I upfront was talking about what I do for books, the next time somebody says, Hey, listen, I need a book. And I just don’t have any time or I’ve been thinking about writing my book forever. Well talk to Mitchell. I mean, that’s one of the things we do or the same thing on the cradle. The thing that’s really fascinating is, I have a lot of really good friends that I actually end up having continual conversation with, continual communication, and a number of them. Although I may really like them and appreciate them. I don’t necessarily like when their perfect prospect comes by me. I don’t necessarily recommend them. Because they’re so broad at what they do. It’s not clear that this is what they serve, this is who they serve. And this is why a good recommendation would make place and I think that’s the, as an entrepreneur going into this. I’ve heard this before. So let me share this, let’s say, you’re a beginning entrepreneur, you don’t even know what to charge? Okay.
Lauren Cohen 11:50
Ready stage? You’re always with Oh, by the way, that’s actually always I mean, look, you asked me, What do you think about this? Right? Actually, that’s your target market, aren’t I? So it’s all and I think that’s so important to understand, I just want to highlight the fact that no matter what stage you are in your business, you’re always going, you need to if you want to be successful, just like I said, about this business plan and the static business plan, you need to be willing to be flexible, and you need to be open to change, because otherwise you’re not going to be successful. And your target market may change over time. Right?
Mitchell Levy 12:30
I think you brought up a really good point. Thanks for throwing it back at me, no matter who you are. There’s always something new, and an opportunity for you to I guess, I test drove my target market like Warren, would you pay $1500 a year? And after we’re done, or am I sick? Yeah. Mitchell here, where’s Where do I sign up? Right?
Lauren Cohen 12:51
It’s and I haven’t been down already. Okay. I appreciate because the reality is that everybody needs the support of a team. And I think that within the scope of what you’re doing, building that membership platform, and you know, that ongoing, it’s not one and done. We’re never one and done. With a visa this morning, I’m talking to people, finally somebody actually said to me, and what happens once we get the visa? Do we still work with you? Yes. The point is, you got to renew that damn thing. And if you just leave it hanging out there, you’re not going to be able to and people don’t get that. You can’t just say I got the visa. I got the credit. We’ll I’m done. No, you’re not done. Now. It’s implementation. Now it’s updating. Now it’s test driving it. Now it’s split testing. Did that create real do what you wanted it to do? Maybe you need to modify it. Maybe you didn’t, really through nobody’s error? You just missed something. Now fix it. But the other part of it is, and this is interesting, because you do work with people literally from all over the world. Are different people in different countries responding differently to what you’re offering? Or and I asked this question of Penny’s anchor the other day, she’s done business. She lived in Switzerland, she sold her company to a French company. Do you feel that people are people? Or do you need to address your marketing very differently, depending on the country that you’re targeting at the time?
Mitchell Levy 14:35
Oh, that’s a very interesting question. I think I’m gonna say something initially, partially controversial. I’ve been in Silicon Valley for 35 years. I always felt that the Silicon Valley janitor could say something and people would listen from around. And that’s still, that’s still true here. So it’s harder for me to answer your question because being a Silicon Valley consultant expert, you know, thought leader, credibility expert, whatever it is you want to call me. So, being that I’ve always had people listen or pay attention differently, because the expectation is that new trends, new ideas emanate out of Silicon Valley. Now, I’m a credible side, you know, it’s really interesting, I’m trying to think about, is there, I don’t actually see a difference, like when I talk to you in the human. So when we’re in a green room, and I turn the recording off. So there’s no recording, and we’re talking about who you are and how you serve. Human as a human, right. And I think what happens is sometimes we may change the c-pod because of the economic environment around them. So, there are external factors that may change how people share, show themselves, or present themselves. But at the end of the day, you’re c-pop is your purpose. It’s, what you wake up in the morning, and you are excited about doing. Because if you’re not excited about doing something, then you have the wrong c-pop, you’re on the wrong maybe the wrong planet.
Lauren Cohen 16:18
Right. So definitely the wrong trajectory.
Mitchell Levy 16:21
You’re in the wrong trajectory, right. And so to answer your question, the answer is not really I mean, there isn’t. When you get down to the fundamental of who you are, and what your purpose is, and how you serve, that breaks all borders.
Lauren Cohen 16:38
Yeah, I think I would have to agree with you. One thing that I have noticed is that working with people from literally all over the world, 80% of them inbound to the US 20% outbound from the US or Canada to somewhere else, okay. So obviously, the North Americans for the most part, well, actually, this is not even true, because they call me the Canadian whisperer, because Canadians are different. Canadians are longer decision makers, they take a lot longer to make decisions. Now, some of the Canadians that you’re dealing with, my Canadians, for example, the big guys are actually my clients. So some of the Canadians your dealing with, don’t make decisions that slowly because they’re in a different Echelon, but Canadians as a rule are more conservative. So you’re going to sell to them a little differently, but you’re still going to speak that same language. However, if you’re in Canada, and you’re doing a presentation about the c-pop let’s say, do you think you might modify the way that you did it? Definitely, if you’re in Israel, or you’re in France?
Mitchell Levy 17:43
To answer that question, absolutely. Culturally, the funniest thing I did and how I learned that lesson, Lauren, was I think it was in the late 1980s. Okay, a long, long, long time ago, and I was working for Sun Microsystems, and I was working in their financial systems at the time, and I created something for all the financial analysts around the world. And so I actually got on a plane. And first I did the training in the US, in California, then I went to the east coast of the US. And then I went to London, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan. And I was shocked at I guess I was kind of naive before then. And then also, I was shocked afterwards, because yeah, even the US is different. Now, at the time, this is hopefully no longer true. In most of the other places the world, you needed to consume a liquid lunch, which is here. Now I know I actually have a liquid lunch, but it’s a green juice. But it was really fascinating. I think probably the shocker for most people who when you think about the Asian cultures, I’m in Hong Kong, and more importantly, in Japan, you can’t possibly train the same way. It just doesn’t work. It needs to be more experienced, or you need to get people out of their chair out of their comfort zone. You can’t say Did you hear what I said? Do you understand it? Because so in the US when you say, Lauren, did you understand what I just said? You’re gonna say yes. In Japan, when you said did you understand what I said? The answer is yes. I heard that you asked me a question. It’s not that I understood what you said. It’s that I heard a question. So yes, doesn’t mean yes, in different parts of the world. And then, when I think about Germany, or France or UK and the sales cycle, they’re always different. Because depending on where you are, and as you mentioned, a Canadian is not a Canadian, right? There are multiple types of Canadians. And so what happens is, and we know this from understanding a sales funnel, what you need to know when you’re interacting with somebody is where are they, the overall concept of the sales funnel? Do they know you? Do they like you? Do they trust you? If that’s the case, then they’re actually listening to who you are and what you have to say. Now, a lot of times, if they don’t know who you are, and you’re at the top of the funnel, you need to do things that get people to know like and trust you to get to do things so that they assume that when you say something, and you promise a result, you’re going to deliver it because unfortunately, today, there’s all these people promising a bunch of shit and not delivering.
Lauren Cohen 20:47
A lot of promises, not a lot of fulfillment.
Mitchell Levy 20:51
And I call those people dubious. So I do, and a lot of people do this, as well. Say, here’s what we’re gonna do. Here’s the end result, here’s the promise, here’s a guarantee. Right? And it’s, what’s nice about that approach is you’re relieving the pressure associated with delivering something, you know, on the book side, we are, we will unless the author slows us down. For months from the time we start and only 10 hours of the author’s time, we will go straight publish, distribute, make them an Amazon best selling author.
Lauren Cohen 21:26
And how much is this? $5000, $10,000? What’s the deal? I forget.
Mitchell Levy 21:30
We have our current process, we do a little bit more work $27,500. And we deliver what we do. Let’s see, I’ll give you an example.
Lauren Cohen 21:41
See, there’s value in what this gentleman does, because the value is dictated by us.
Mitchell Levy 21:47
We do a hardcover, we do paperback. Part of what happens as soon as we’re done in the four months, we let the author contact our partner, and then they read their audiobook, we do color on the inside. And then there’s a QR code that points to a video. So part of it is having videos where the author’s talking about their content. And then the really cool part is, most of the time when you’re thinking about a book, what happens is the ROI doesn’t come from book sales. No, the ROI comes from speaking engagements. Now, there is a place where you could get an ROI and part of the $27,500, we actually create a one hour course. And so you know your book you’re selling for we typically sell a hardcover for $25. We sell a paperback for $20. Maybe you make above, maybe make two or three bucks per book, nothing. You can actually sell an online course $497. And so how many online courses do you need to sell? Not as many. So we actually, for that 27 five, we do the online course, the audio book, and then physical, both hardcover and paperback books and the Amazon bestseller campaign.
Lauren Cohen 23:03
That’s an awesome, amazing deal. And obviously, you’re also going to help them this is all building their credibility. And it’s all interconnected back to being part of credibility nation. And how many books, how many authors have you published?
Mitchell Levy 23:18
Oh, we’ve published over 750 books.
Lauren Cohen 23:24
I know that there’s a guy in Boca who I won’t name, who you’ve done what, about 10 books for my friend here in Boca?
Mitchell Levy 23:32
Absolutely. Might be seven or eight. Yeah, we did one with him and his daughter, which was absolutely beautiful.
Lauren Cohen 23:40
Yeah. So it’s funny because it just goes to show you how pervasive what Mitchell is doing is because I was co-chair at a Jewish Federation program with this gentleman. And he had a book. And I had many books, but we were introducing all these icon speakers, very high profile speakers like, I can’t remember their names now. But the gentlemen who started subway, or the gentlemen who is the CEO of Carnival, and cruise lines, and all these major philanthropist, and I’m looking at the book, I’ll see the back and I see your name. And I’m like wait a minute. That was just very cool, because it just shows you how pervasive it is.
Mitchell Levy 24:22
I can’t mention his name. I’d be happy to mention his name. So show Jeffrey Shavitz is absolutely…. What I love about Jeff is he is constantly re-evaluating and repurposing. And so way back when he started and ran a credit card processing company, sold that he now does something really interesting. Warren he goes to larger companies. And essentially he’ll say, I think you’re paying too much for your credit card stuff. I’m not going to charge you anything. I’m just going to save you money. And you split the money savings with me. Like, think about that business model here, this is like such a beautiful thing when you could guarantee, don’t pay me think about this, even if you don’t know, Jeff, don’t pay me unless I save you money. Now if I save you money, it’s newfound money. So I get half of it. It’s a nice model, actually.
Lauren Cohen 25:24
Yeah. And that’s actually a great model for success because you’re partnering with the client. And you take a vested interest in the outcome of the of the process. And there’s a gentleman we know from our crews that does that with taxes, and it’s just a great way because it shows that you’re vested and invested in the outcome and it’s a great way to make even more money, but you’re building credibility because you’re participating in the outcome. You’re not just saying my fee is x no matter what. So it’s a great model. So Mitchell, if people want to reach you and learn about credibility nation or how to get their books published and multiple streams, how do they do that?
Unknown Speaker 26:03
So credibilitynation.com is how you can get to the membership site. If you want to reach me directly it’s just my name MitchellLevy360.com. And there it’ll point you back to credibility nation and also let you connect to me on social media and it has access to my calendar. So you if you want to book time directly on my calendar, just go to MitchellLevy360.com
Lauren Cohen 26:28
This is Lauren Cohen, from Boca Raton, Florida signing off with Investing Across Borders. I thank you for being my guest today. I’m glad that you’re staying safe and well on the West Coast as I am here on the East coast. And it’s always a pleasure to spend time with you.
Mitchell Levy 26:47
Absolutely, Lauren you’re fantastic. Actually, Lauren, I know we’re wrapping at the end. But there’s something really interesting. I’m always a big fan of experimentation. So there’s a guy I bumped into a guy named Lucas Root, Lucas is probably one of the most, I can’t say he’s world renowned, because not as many people know him because he’s behind the scenes, he is one of the most amazing executioner’s I’ve ever known.
Lauren Cohen 27:45
Excellent. Sounds good. That sounds like Henry the Eighth has changed, that he’s somebody who executes implementers.
Mitchell Levy 27:52
Implementers, or execution, oh, he’s not the direct implementer he set the strategy for the company to do the implementation and execution and the accountability. So we are doing together a if you go to MitchellLevy360, or Credit Nation, we are actually doing a five day challenge together and leading that into a mastermind. And we’re charging probably 1/10 of what we think we should be charging. For those people who are part of the mastermind and it’s going to be for the rest of the year. We will help those 10 or 12 people who were involved, we will help them execute both with credibility executing upon their purpose. You definitely want to join our five day challenge for that.
Lauren Cohen 28:52
Absolutely. That sounds awesome. credibilitynation.com This is Lauren Cohen again thanking my friend Mitchell living over on the west coast of the country and signing off for today from Investing Across Borders, where we teach you how to invest, live, work and play globally. Thanks again for joining us today. Bye for now. Thank you. Bye.
Intro/Outro 29:19
Thanks for listening to Investing Across Borders with Lauren Cohen. Make sure to check the show notes for any links and for guests contact information. If you have questions for Lauren, please reach out to her at FOUNDER@ecouncilglobal.com. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please subscribe, rate, review, and share the podcast with a friend.
