BLS Interview with Michael Levin, Part 1

Michael Levin is a best-selling author, successful businessman, and a beloved guest on ABC’s hit show Shark Tank.

Derek Champagne, CEO of The Artist Evolution, interviews Michael Levin. Michael and Derek had the opportunity to work together on a project during Summer of 2015.

Michael is an engaging guest who provides a powerful and memorable interview with Derek on this week’s Business Leadership Series Podcast. 

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO PODCAST INTERVIEW

Derek: Welcome to today’s Business Leadership Series, I’m your host, Derek Champagne. Our goal with this series is to inspire you to become the best leader that you can be. I am excited about our guest today. We’ve got Michael Levin, who is a very accomplished writer. He’s a New York Times bestselling author, has written, co-written, and ghost written more than a hundred books. 11 are national best sellers. I remember him first from ABC’s Shark Tank on the first season, where he did very well and was liked by the judges. Even though they did not take the deal with him, they were very interested in him and his personality and he won a lot of people over then. He is also published with Simon & Schuster and Random House and St. Martin’s Press, Putnam & Berkley and many other houses.

And his work’s been featured for film and TV, including HBO, Disney, ABC and others and he’s even had a novel, Model Behaviour that was on ABC’s Sunday night Disney Movie of the Week. So Michael, welcome. You’ve got more contributions but The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes.com, Politico, Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe and I’m running out of breath just sharing your resume. [laughs] Welcome Michael.

Michael: Okay, okay, okay, everybody gets the point. Alright Derek, thank you. It’s a pleasure and a privilege to be with you and your listeners.

Derek: I got the opportunity to work with you this summer, I had a great experience working with you over the last couple of years, of doing lectures on marketing and social media. And I had been working on the writing process for over a year to get this book finished and when I met you, I really had a 40-page outline from my lectures. My first meeting with you was just very eye opening and you really helped turn around the chapters and give consulting, it was just one of the most valuable things that I could have done. So I really appreciate that. And so your guidance allowed me to complete the book and finish writing it with a lot better focus and some really targeted takeaways that are more valuable to the reader.

Michael: [laughs] You know Derek, that’s very nice of you to say and when I’m with a client, the first thing we do is we sit down and plan a book and we do this in a 60 to 90-minute meeting, as you and I did. And we want to get three things clear right away. One is, what is the specific audience for the book? because there’s no such thing as a mass audience today, even two thirds of America ignores the Super Bowl, five sixths don’t watch the Oscars. So let’s not think being a bestselling author, less being a best earning author, who writes you checks? Who is the audience you’re trying to influence and motivate? What next step do you want them to take with you and then what body of knowledge is in your head that will convince them to take that next step with you?

These three questions unlock a person’s uniqueness and what I find over and over again, is that folks who are very, very successful but they don’t always know why they’re successful. And they don’t always know- or they’re not- or they’re too humble or they just don’t even recognize what makes them great. So one of the most exciting things about planning a book in that first session, people walk away on air a lot of the time; I hope so. It’s that not only do they have a plan for their book but they’ve got a very clear sense of who they are as people and they may never have had that before. How they serve, who they serve and it’s very exciting for me to help people discover and own their uniqueness. Not just in the marketplace but as human beings and that’s part of the process.

Derek: Yes, that’s amazing. And again, with my personal experience I had, you really helped me with, “Let’s wow them” or “Let’s blow their mind” at least four times, or something to that effect. That was powerful and you actually helped me look at some things like how to set a budget and some other things, that for me, were just par for the course. I didn’t really- you know, that it was part of a lecture and just something that I’d always teach. So it was helpful for me, for you to help turn it around and make those ‘wow’ factors.

Michael: Well thank you, one of the types of books that we do most often, is a book that our clients use as a marketing tool and it’s a way of them distinguishing themselves in the marketplace. A way of creating thought leadership for them, a way of demonstrating to the world, “I am the person that you can trust” and then they can use the book to- so that the prospect can sell the author to other decision makers, whether it’s a spouse or your team member. I mean, the last thing your wife wants to hear is, “I found the guy” – we’ve all been there but the thing is, if you can hand her the book or if you can hand your husband the book; then the husband says, the wife says, “Yes”, then you really did find the person. And when we’re able to- here’s the thing, a lot of the time, people think, “Okay, I’m going to write a book that isn’t going to be about what I do” and they end up essentially writing a marketing plan for their competition. It’s just like, “This is how you go into business. This is how I run my-. This is how-” and the thing is that, people don’t want to become an expert in your field. They want to find an expert in your field. I hope it’s you and then hire you and then walk away, trusting that you’re going to take care of whatever their problem is. Whether it’s financial services or insurance or something to do with entrepreneurship.

You see, whatever it is, whether you’re just trying to convince them on a set of ideas. So if you’re able to, people want their minds to be blown. People don’t just want a book that’s got information in it, people want to have moments that are so exciting, that they say to themselves, “Oh my gosh, I never realized that.” And “This guy” or, “This woman” or “This person’s amazing.” So my job is to listen for the things that, as I said earlier, make you unique. What are the insights? What are the innovations that you have? And everyone is like, “Whoa, I don’t have any innovations, I don’t have any uniqueness.” Yes, you do, yes, you do, I don’t care if you’re a financial advisor and you do the same thing as others. You don’t do it the same way, you don’t think the same way, you didn’t come into the business for the same reasons, you’re not driven by the same motivations.

You’re different and it’s fun to help people. I once worked with a- sorry for the long answer, I once worked with an international business consultant. Just a super brilliant guy, he worked on three continents and when we were done planning the book, after the first 90 minutes, he said, “You know, until you came along, I never knew what I did.” So sometimes we just need someone else to come in and listen. I felt that my uniqueness was that I’m a good writer but the reality is, that I’m an okay writer, I’m a good writer but I’m a really good listener and that’s where the magic happens. When you’ve got somebody who will listen and listening and attention are the most desirable and rarest qualities today in the world. It’s so hard to find people who will just listen and when you have that and that’s my unique ability. When you have that, someone who can really, really listen to you, magic happens.

Derek: Yes, that’s amazing. And again, experiencing it first hand and I’m somebody that teaches how to tell your vision story and how to- I mean, I do that with clients and we do it well and then when it comes to my own story though, it was something I needed help differentiating. So that was really powerful for me, to see that kind of transformation and yes, you do listen well. In addition to that, you also come out of it and you’ve got some just really super wisdom from what you’ve listened to. I think that’s a really unique ability.