September 9, 2025 • 50 mins
True leadership goes beyond hitting the numbers — it’s about creating meaningful impact that resonates with everyone you serve. In this episode Mitchell Levy explores how leaders can embody what he calls “Executive Abundance” by bringing clarity, credibility, and purpose to their role. We’ll look at what it means to lead in a way that energizes your personal life, inspires employees, delights customers, reassures investors, and uplifts the broader community.
Working on Purpose is broadcast live Tuesdays at 6PM ET and Music on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Working on Purpose is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
Working on Purpose Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/working-on-purpose--2643411/support.
Working on Purpose is broadcast live Tuesdays at 6PM ET and Music on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Working on Purpose is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
Working on Purpose Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/working-on-purpose--2643411/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The topics and opinions express in the following show are
solely those of the hosts and their guests and not
those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
or products mentioned on air or on our web. No
liability explicit or implies shall be extended to W FOURCY
Radio or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments
should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for
(00:20):
choosing W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
What's working on Purpose? Anyway? Each week we ponder the
answer to this question. People ache for meaning and purpose
at work, to contribute their talents passionately and know their
lives really matter. They crave being part of an organization
that inspires them and helps them grow into realizing their
highest potential. Business can be such a force for good
in the world, elevating humanity. In our program, we provide
(00:51):
guidance and inspiration to help usher in this world we
all want Working on Purpose. Now, here's your host, doctor
Elise Cortez.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Welcome back to the Working on Purpose program, which has
been brought to with Passion Enterprise since February of twenty fifteen.
Thanks for tuning in this week. Great to have you.
I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortez. If we've not met
before and you don't know me, I am a workforce advisor,
organizational psychologist, management consultant, logo therapists, speaker and author. My
team and I at Gusta Now help companies to unliveen
and fortify their operations by building a dynamic, high performance culture,
(01:27):
inspirational leadership, and nurturing managers activated by meaning and purpose.
Many organizations are not aware of how critical it is
to invest in developing their leaders and managers not just
for their own effectiveness, but also to avoid burnout and
keep them fulfilled and so that they can measure and
also that they can measure and monitor the purpose experience
in their organization to keep it working as an operational imperative.
(01:47):
So much you can actually do with purpose And did
you know that inspired employees outperform their satisfied peers by
a factor of two point twenty five to one. In
other words, inspiration is good for the bottom line. More
about us and how we can work together at Gusto,
dashnow dot com or my personal site at least Quartes
dot Com getting In today's program, we have with us
(02:09):
Mitchell Leedy. He's a global credibility expert, a two time
ted X speaker, an international best selling author of over
sixty books, a certified stakeholder centered coach, and an executive
coach at Marshall Goldsmith's one hundred Coaches. He's an accomplished
entrepreneur who has created twenty businesses in Silicon Valley, including
four publishing companies that have published over seven hundred and
(02:29):
fifty books. He's provided strategic consulting to hundreds of companies
and has been in the chairman of a board of
a NASDAQ listed company. Today, we'll be talking about, among
other things, his new concept of executive abundance. He joins
today from Gupertino, California, otherwise known as Apple Country. Mitchell,
A hearty welcome to Working on Purpose.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
It's great to be here. Thanks for having me. I
didn't realize I was had a tongue twister bio.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
But you know, well, I have to say I personally
need a small nap before we get started after reading
all that. Just a small way, a power nap.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
And I'm good sleep. That's not a good way to
start a show.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Yeah, just a little nap. No, you're gonna laugh with this.
I had a couple of guys on that wrote a
book on momentum. It was fantastic, and one of them
said something about yawning on the show, and I said,
that has never happened in the ten and a half
year years that I've been hosting the show. And don't
be the first one to do it. You either, Mitchell.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
You tempted me, don't do it now.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
So we just first have to start with this idea here.
I'm sure that in the decades that I've been walking
the planet that I had never before met a global
credibility expert. So let's start with that.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
So what's the question?
Speaker 3 (03:43):
What is it and what does it do?
Speaker 4 (03:46):
So what ended up happening in I was a book publisher,
sat on the board of a public firm, started a
bunch of companies, and around the year twenty nine, I'm thinking, yeah,
the book publishing market is slowly coming to the end.
We've got Amazon bringing in and making books really a
(04:10):
commodity item. And then COVID hit. I didn't realize this
at the time. Covid just killed my publishing business. And
so in twenty nineteen, I started on a Napoleon Hill journey.
I interviewed five hundred thought leaders on the concept of credibility. Wow,
and I think after you do something like that, So
(04:32):
pick a topic, anything you're particularly interested in, and start
interviewing people. And it took me he or I interviewed
five hundred people and two things came out of it.
One was, and I know we're on radio, so feel
free to take a look google Mitchell Levy credibility equation.
I'm going to share something. This is the definition of
(04:55):
credibility that came out of it. It's the quouty in
which you're trusted, known and light. Underneath each of those
are ten values. And so it took me a while
to even after doing all the interviews, it took me
a while to sort of live in the new framework,
the new culture, the new concept of credibility. One of
(05:17):
my podcasts now is called leaders Live in their Values,
And the values are values or credibility. So when I interview,
I'm just listening for and asking questions to go after
the ten values. So a global credibility expert is someone
who can look at any company, any human and quickly
see things that they're doing which add credibility to who
(05:41):
they are, and things that they're doing that take credibility away.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
That's just gorgeous. And I love that idea of having
one of my topics that I really care about and
just go find people to interview. I love that idea.
Oh that's exciting, right there so many things we've already
kicked off already, and I knew this was going to
be really, really crunchy and chewy, and we're off already. Okay,
So I want to talk a little bit about your coaching.
(06:07):
I can't imagine what it we be like on the
other end of being coached by you. Profound changes happen
on the other side of that, I'm sure. Can you
say a little bit about why are you so compelled
to coach?
Speaker 4 (06:20):
And interesting? By the way, I'll ask you politely, is
starring with two rs or one guest starring Mitchell Levy
And by the way, it doesn't.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Matter, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Actually, if it is one, then that's really credible because
we're authentically going live that way, you know, I think
what happens. And I love that we're on this show
called live, Live Working on Purpose or live Working on purpose. Sorry,
actually both work. By the way, not only should we
(06:56):
live working on purpose, but we should be working on purpose.
We exist in purpose. We should wake up every day
and smile because we're doing what we feel like we
are meant to do, and we're playing by our roles,
not by somebody else's right. And so one of the
things that I do, and this is true on everything,
(07:20):
let me tell you something that happened. When I interviewed
five hundred thought leaders on credibility and came up with
the definition, I also unraveled a superpower. And I wasn't sure.
Maybe I already I always had it as a publisher,
I sort of focused on the right topics. But when
(07:41):
you interview five hundred people and you focus on and
by the way, my superpower is clarity. I could sit
with any company or any human and help them articulate
where they're executing on their purpose and less than ten words. Now,
lots of people have different definitions for the word clarity.
So I'm just going to say I could sit with
(08:01):
you and help you come up with what I call
your SEAPOP, your customer point of possibilities. Love it right,
and and that represents in less than ten words. Represents
many things. It represents your compass, It represents the as humans,
we vibrate at a frequency. It represents the frequency that
(08:23):
your body vibrates at. So, to go back to your question,
if you're being coached by Mitchell, the first thing that
we do is whether you're the CEO of an ink
five thousand company or or a business owner, first thing
we do is we figure out who are you right
and who are you is represented by your seapop, what
(08:44):
playground are you playing in? And then the next question
is do you want to still continue to play in
that playground? Typically the answer of bs or do we
want to gravitate to something else? And most importantly is
how do how do we play in the playground that
those around us us are playing with us in the
same playground, And I know that there was an analogy.
(09:08):
It will make it really really simple. If you're a
parent and you're watching new kids playing the playground, you
just want to make sure everyone plays fair, whatever that is.
You know, if a really big kid comes by, you
don't want him pushing your kid on the swings. You
don't want the big kid sort of focusing on the seesaw,
other than that. If he's a nice kid or she's
(09:29):
a nice kid, that's okay. Right. So there are some
general rules for playing in your playground, and when you're
coached by me, we not only help to find what
those rules are for each person, but that person typically
the CEO is going to be sharing those rules with
(09:49):
their team. So the team has a culture and they
could play by the same rules and that makes really
interesting thing. Now let me let me Can I add
to that? Would you mind? No?
Speaker 3 (09:59):
I don't want to add to that.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
You know that. So I there's a you know, sometimes
things come out of your mouth and you go, yeah.
There's two interpretations. One interpret One interpretation of rules are
black and white. You know, you either go left or
you go right. Another interpretation or rules are more like rules,
which are guidelines. Right, so right. So so for me,
(10:28):
my thought process is, if you're the CEO of the company,
the best thing you could do is empower your team
to also know the playground they're playing in. So every
every person on the management staff has their own seapop.
Now they understand the corporate seapop, and their seapop has
to their customer point of possibilities, has to fit in
(10:50):
the corporate seapop. If it doesn't, by the way, it's
time for them to leave. Yeah, And as the CEO,
you have to be really clear higher, slow, fire fast.
The best things I ever learned by running four different
CEO networking groups. You know, it's it's higher, slow, firefast.
And if you recognize at some point in time that
you're playing on a particular playground and there are people
(11:13):
in your team that are toxic to that playground and
they're managing others, they gotta.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Go absolutely absolutely Yeah, I gotta believe. Okay, so this
is perfect for us to talk about. I gotta believe
that anybody who's listening or watching this this podcast today
is going clarity. Oh that sounds really good right about now.
You know, there's so much going on in the world
where people are like upside down and backwards, don't know
(11:40):
which end is up, et cetera. So I would think
that clarity would be something that people are just clamoring for. Yes,
are your phone ringing off the hook?
Speaker 4 (11:49):
Even if I go sort of, so here's what judging.
I spent a year understanding what credibility was, then created
a business helping to deploy credibility and spent three and
a half years create a nice six figure business and
spent three and a half years deploying credibility. Now, it
(12:11):
wasn't a change the world business. It was just, you know,
I made good money, had fun leisure type business. But
I now that I've done this research, I want to
put in a marketplace something that would allow us to
live in a better way. The ted X I did,
if you want to look at it, is called we
are losing our humanity and I'm tired of watching it happen.
(12:32):
And so what's interesting is if we live credibly and
just exude the values of credibility, will be more humane.
So three and a half years went by, I go, yeah,
this is not a change the world business. Let's try
something else, this clarity thing. I'm really good at that.
Let's create a Clarity certification program. So I created the
Clarity Certification program once again, grew it really quickly to
(12:55):
a six figure business. And seven months ago I had
a friend of mine, and I have to be careful
about how I say, slap me to face, virtually slap
me in a face. So it was a guy my
named Ken Cook I'll name him, and Ken gets on
the phone with me, and he says something really interesting.
(13:17):
He goes, Mitchell, I know every living marketing legend alive today,
and there's nobody who knows clarity like you. Like my ego.
My head got really big. He then says, Mitchell, re
want me how many people don't have it? So based
on the research, ninety eight percent of people don't have clarity.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
I good buy it up.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
He then says Mitchell, I'm gonna say something you don't like. Okay,
so he starts the conversation. My head's really big, and
then he says he's going to say something I don't like,
and I couldn't imagine what it would be. And what
I want you to visualize. If you're if you're visualizing
a balloon, you're at a birthday party, you're visualizing a balloon,
and then you you take a pin and you stick
(14:01):
it in the balloon. What happens? It pops like immediately
there is no balloon. So that's what he did to
my ego in two or three sentences. I didn't expect this,
So here's what he said. He goes, Mitchell. By the way, Mitchell,
this is just a something to do with marketing. He goes,
(14:23):
you are world class at doing something that ninety eight
percent of your audience doesn't have. And they don't have
it because they either think they have it and they don't,
or they don't think they need it. Either way, that
number sucks. And when you hear that, I'm like, yeah,
he's not wrong. So he threw me a lifeline. And
(14:44):
that lifeline I'll tell you what it is in the
second and then the next day I woke up and
I found that was That was my first gift from
Ken Cook. My second gift. I woke up the next
morning and had it. So here's what he did. He
looked me in the eyes, he goes, Mitchell, what can
you do for me? This it that will put money
in my pocket tomorrow. First words out of my mouth
(15:05):
executive presence. An executive presence grew into what I now do,
which is called executive abundance, and that's part of my
executive coaching piece of it. Before we talk about that
and switch, what I want to do is tell you
the gift I woke up with the following morning. Please,
this is crazy. I've known this at least I've known
(15:28):
this my ow entire life, and I've essentially ignored it
to seven months ago. Now every marketer is going to
listen to this, and of course, Mitchell, I have to
tell you, I've been in Silicon Valley. I'm a thought leader.
I'd put stuff out there, people buy it. I've lived
a really nice life so far. But seven months ago
I recognize something really important. Okay, here it is sell
(15:51):
them what they want, deliver what they need.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Yes, you tell me that when we first spoke that,
I've got that down. It's gold.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
So here's the interesting thing I recognize after five and
a half years, a year worth of research, three and
a half years ors of deploying credibility, a year worth
of deploying clarity. After five and a half years, I
realized what I was focusing on was what people need.
They need clarity and they need credibility. But that's not
(16:20):
what they want. So that's not what they're asking for.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
What they want?
Speaker 4 (16:24):
What are they asking for?
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Me?
Speaker 4 (16:27):
If you're a fast growing CEO in five thousand CEOs
leading the future with executive abundance, you're looking for abundance.
And then the other thing I did is I ended
up purchasing a LinkedIn agency, and the primary focus there
is on business owners, so it's business owners escaping slimy
LinkedIn sales tactics. So that's the stuff that people want.
(16:53):
They both get the same thing, just in different doses.
They both get clarity or credibility.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Okay, we're going to talk more about that, but let's
grab our first break because I want to I do
want to dive into the executive abundance next. I am
your host, Doctor Elise Cortez. We're on the air with
Mitchell Leedy. He's a global credibility expert and certified stakeholders
centered coach. We've been talking a bit about where all
this work compassion came from. After the break, we're going
to get into his newest concept, which is executive rebundance,
(17:21):
which has already teed up for us.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Doctor Elise Cortez is a management consultant specializing in meaning
and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author. She helps companies
visioneer for a greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose
inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance,
and commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to
invite a lease to speak to your organization. Please visit
(18:00):
her at Elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to
get your employees working on purpose. This is working on
Purpose with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today
or to open a conversation with Elise, send an email
to a lease a l I se at Eliscortes dot com.
(18:23):
Now back to working on purpose.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Thanks for stating with us, and welcome back to working
on purpose. I'm your host, doctor Release Cortes, as I
am dedicated to help them create a world where organizations
thrive because their people thrive are led by inspirational leaders
that help them find and contribute their greatness. And we
do business at Betters the World. I keep researching and
writing my own books, so one of the latest came out.
It's called The Great Revitalization. How activating meaning and purpose
can radically enliven your business. And I wrote to help
(18:53):
leaders understand what today's diverse and demanding workforce really wants
from their world of work. And then I give you
twenty two bestice practices that you can fold into your
culture to provide that for them. You can find my
books on Amazon or my personal site at least Cortest
dot com picking up with where we were from with
our guest Mitchell Levy. He's an author of more than
(19:15):
sixty books, with the next one coming out soon on
abundant Leadership, which is where we're going next. I love
the name of it already, so let's talk about I
think you started to tell us the train of where
it began to emerge for you.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
Yeah, so executive abundance. I first started with the concept
of executive presence. You know, having published seven hundred and
fifty books, having been on a ton of stages. I've
probably talked, been at least three thousand stages, have helped
many of my authors and speakers be successful and CEOs,
(19:54):
and I thought, oh, executive presidence, that's really cool. But
then lots of people doing executive presence, and that there
was a little bit too much ego associated with that.
So I I By the way, all this happened in
a two week period after Ken Cook sort of flattening
the face and told me that that my what I
(20:16):
was selling was not something that people wanted, and I'm like, uh, yeah, okay,
So in a two week period, I sort of started
switching from executive presence. I went to executive gravitas.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
I love that word.
Speaker 4 (20:29):
That's really cold too. But as I started test driving
it with with my audience people I was talking with,
I'm like, there's something it doesn't work there. And then
ultimately I settled on abundance and then went to I
when I realized it was executive abundance, I went and
(20:50):
picked up executive abundance dot Com and I'm like, oh, perfect,
it was meant it was meant to be. And what
the first thing I did after making that happen. I
started I started sharing my seapop with different conference organizers,
and the second one I shared it with immediately said, Mitchell,
I got a conference coming up. It's called the Purpose Summit.
(21:14):
I know it, Yeah, like in four or five months,
and I'm going to basically build a program around you
so you can do this. I need to hear more
about executive abundance. And what was fascinating was I believe
I needed to live in the world of what's house speakers.
(21:34):
Like an actor, you know, if you're playing a part,
you got to so as a as a speaker, I
needed to live in that world to fast forward. The
next thing I needed to do is is start the
writing of my book on executive abundance, and as soon
as I got mostly into it, I'm like, yeah, I
(21:57):
need to change my dissertation. So I was doing a dissertation. Research. Yeah, research, Sorry,
let's start again. I was doing a research dissertation and
then I realized, you know what I need to do
a capstone project I need to have that comes out
of it. I need to do academic research on this
(22:17):
concept of executive abundance. But what I want to come
out of it is I want to actually have a
blueprint that my clients and other people can use to
actually deploy executive abundance inside their companies. And so that's
that's where I'm at now. And I wake up every
morning ecstatic. I mean, I just it is very cool
(22:40):
when you wake up and you talk to prospects, you
talk to clients, and they go, yeah, I need this,
and there's a nice playground. It's a very nice environment.
But it's at least what's interesting. It is not the
world we live in today. We live in a world
today that primarily is structured around quarterly financial reports. Right,
(23:04):
So we live in a world called or exemplified by
this concept of short termism. Yes, and life can be different,
and so that's where I'm right in the midst of
my dissertation research to be able to put some academic
grounding around the concept of executive abundance before the book
(23:29):
comes out.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Okay, let me comment on one thing before we go
any further on ideas, because I want to showcase for
our listeners and viewers what we're seeing here, which is
a man who is very passionate about what he cares
about and you give yourself over it to that, and
I think it's so amazing, and I always like to
be able to call these things out for our listeners
and viewers because some people listen to the show because
they want to see what it looks like to be
(23:52):
turned on by life. They're inspired by that. They're looking
for hope and connection to that kind of energy. Some
people are here because they want to learn what it
is that we're talking about and fold that into their businesses.
But a lot of people, and I know them because
they're in my speaking audiences too. One they don't know
what they're passionate about. When I ask what are you
passionate about? About eighty five percent of the audience will
(24:14):
oftentimes realize when I ask the question, they don't have
an answer. So I want to celebrate just how passionate
you are that you just give yourself over to this stuff.
And then the second thing I want to put forth
is imagine, ladies and gentlemen, if you could have people
in your organization turned on like Mitchell is and they
then give themselves over to whatever is they really care about,
and you get the benefit of a turned on human
(24:36):
who's probably going to be out there innovating new product
services for your customers because they care about them when
they're connected. So that's what I also wanted to situate
and celebrate here what it looks like when a human
being is really turned on and unleash to go after
what they really care about. Just what could happen?
Speaker 4 (24:55):
And let's what I'm going to add to that, that's
what you and I both do, right. And the thing is,
in an abundant world, we're not competitors. We're potential partners.
We haven't partnered yet with a corporation, but we will, right,
And that's what's what's fascinating is the and this is,
(25:18):
by the way, this is the one thing that's really
difficult to replicate out of Silk and Valley. There have
been many, many, many, many geographical areas that have tried
to replicate Silk and Valley. And there are three things
that make Soak and Valley soilkon Valley. One is is
(25:38):
the money, right, so you got you got money to invest.
Second is people, so you've got good educated people who
are learning and growing and doing new things. And the third,
and this is what's hard to replicate, is that even
when there are people solving a problem from different companies,
(26:01):
they'll still help each other out right, because it's more
about solving the problem than it is about one company
versus another winning. Right.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
I'm sure I did not know that is that is tremendous.
I love that I had Paul Skinner in my podcast
on back in twenty eighteen. He p he's become a
friend and not been able to get away from me since.
But his first book is called Competitive Collaborative Advantage. It's
the whole idea that we can get much more done
when we collaborate than if we compete with each other.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
Agreed.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Okay, well, so where are we taking this abundant executive
abundance concept? Where's it going's? How is it going to
live and grow in the world.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
So what I'm doing at the moment is getting a
PhD in the concept, and the dissertation will be focused
on executive abundance. And we'll see I have absolutely unrealistic
goals of how quickly I'm going to make this happen,
(27:01):
and well, you know, and here's the thing. I've got
these goals and if I hit them, a holy cow,
that's amazing. And if not, I'm not going to beat
myself up for it. And as soon as the dissertation
is done. And what's happening is I'm I'm going to
continue to be writing the Executive Abundance book. At the
(27:22):
same time I'm creating coursework and I'll create two chatbots. Right.
So the coursework, the online coursework is in two different flavors.
The first flavor is to the CEO, very summarized, very focused,
and very much Hey, let's get on the same page.
(27:43):
This is this concept of executive abundance. This is what
you want your team to have. The second piece of
coursework is for everyone else. And the everyone else is
this is the detail that you need to focus on.
This is what you should expect from your executive and
your execusative team, and this is where we're going. This
is what we're doing right and so right now it's
(28:07):
conceptual because haven't built built that together. But what's nice
about today's world with AI the way it is, with
technology the way it is, the ability to create a
stream of course work to make that happen. This is
(28:27):
not an insurmountable multi year plan. This is maybe multi
week worst case, multi month, but it's it's it is
something that is if and this is what I agree
with you before. If you're if you have a company,
you want your employees to go, oh my god, I
can make this happen because all the tools are out
(28:50):
there to make it happen. When you have this IT department,
that's stopping the employees from from using the tools. They're
not corporate authorized, you know, get a hold of yourself.
I mean, I understand there's lawyers and lawsuits and all
that stuff, right, they have to worry about, but you
need to use the technology that is at your fingertips.
If you don't, your competitors well, and if your competitors do,
(29:12):
they're going to just really jump past you super quickly.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
Absolutely agreed, Completely agreed, And I want to situate a
fun little term for you, since you helped us with
a few already, And that's this idea of logo philosophy
or logo therapy. So one of my degrees is in
logo philosophy and listeners and viewers, if you don't know
what that is, that is really the work of doctor Vitrifrankel,
who you might recognize as the author of Man Search
(29:40):
for Meaning in many other books as well, who gave
us the field of existential psychology. And so in the
world of logo philosophy and logo therapy, what we know
is that there's the whole premise is that our search,
our main search concern as humans, is for meaning, and
that we have that we are irreducibly spiritual creatures, and
(30:01):
that's and we're looking for meaning. So the opportunity to
ignite that human spirit, to unleash that human spirit, I
think is the opportunity that so many organizations are missing
out on and squandering because of the way they stable
people in seats and restrict them and remove their autonomy
and their choice. Now we're down to like a fraction
(30:22):
of that human and which is part of the reason
that today the global employe engagement rate is twenty one percent.
I don't know how you run I don't know how
you run a company with that. I don't know how
you get anything done with that kind of unemployment employee
engagement rate.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
Oh and by the way, if you think that you
could fix that by delegating it to If you're the CEO,
and you think you could fix that by delegating it
to some human resource person without giving them the authority
to actually make it happen, you're dreaming.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
Yeah, yeah, agreed, seaking of a dreaming. Let's let our
listeners and viewers have just a small little short nap
losers and viewers while we take our very last break.
I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortez. We've been on the
air with Mitchell Levy. He's a global credibility expert and
a certified stakeholder centered coach. We've been talking about his
newest concept, Abundant Executive Abundance. After the break, we're one
(31:19):
of the things we're going to talk about is the
four steps to creating a purpose driven organization. Be right back.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Doctor Elise Cortez is a management consultant specializing in meaning
and purpose an inspirational speaker and author. She helps companies
visioneer for a greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose
inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance,
and commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to
invite at least to be to your organization, please visit
(32:02):
her at elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to
get your employees working on purpose. This is Working on
Purpose with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today
or to open a conversation with Elise, send an email
to Elise A LISEE at eliscortes dot com. Now back
(32:26):
to working on Purpose.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
Thanks for staying with us, and welcome back to working
on Purpose. I am your host, doctor Elise Cortes. As
you know by now, this program is dedicated to empowering
and inspiring you along your journey to realize more of
your potential. If you want to learn how we can
work together and learn more about one of the things
we do is the gust Joinell Academy for leaders and
individuals on various journeys alike. Make your way to our site,
it's gustodeshnow dot com and then go to the training
(32:54):
tab and you can find out all about what we're
doing there if you are just now joining us. My
guest is Mike Mitchell Lee. He's the author of over
sixty books, with the next one throughout soon on abundant leadership,
which is what we were talking about in the last segment.
Speaker 4 (33:07):
So before we go on.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
I just want to share with you that I just
got a text from one of the one of my
team members, Lydia. Lydia, you're a rock star, and she said,
I'm loving this show. You guys are great together. So
we have one fan.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
Hey, you know it starts something. It always has to
start somewhere.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
Yes, it does. Well, we'll take it, thank you, Lydia. Okay,
So I love this because we've queued up purpose a
few times in this conversation. Of course, you and I
are aligned on how critical and central that really is
many organizations, of course, says you know, and I know
understand purpose wash They just sort of banty about a phrase.
But I do want to situate. I like to be
(33:44):
able to give our listeners and viewers things that they
can immediately put to use and to work when they
listen to this podcast. And you have an article on
LinkedIn that talks about these four steps to creating a
purpose driven organization. Let's talk about it.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
I would love to do you mind if we define
purpose first it go for it all right? Oh and
by the way, you in the previous segment, you talked
about logo therapy and logo philosophy. So I I asked
my chat bought what it was, and it's very cool.
I will incorporate that most likely in my dissertation. So
I think right on, I'm thrilled to hearing that. You know,
(34:21):
here's the thing. If you look at the definition of
the word purpose, it means so many different things for
different people, and also incorporates a religious component to many people.
As a matter of fact, if you think about purpose
driven organizations, now we're talking about well organizations that bring
God into the company, right, Because that's the purpose. And
(34:44):
I want to look at it differently. And so I'm
going to encourage you. And even though I said let's
define purpose, I'm actually going to define something different than purpose.
I'm going to define how you can execute on your purpose, right,
And that is different than defining purpose. I might say, well, Bitchell,
that that's an interesting use of words, here's the thing,
(35:07):
and our best thing I could do is give you
a story. I've written sixty five books. Sixty six is
the most important. That sound executive abundance. I've published seven
hundred and fifty. And what happens is I in the world.
By the way, if you could go to you can
go to chat gpt and says and ask the question,
(35:27):
how many people want to write a book, how many
actually write the book, how many published a book. Well,
apparently eighty percent of the population wants to write a book,
only six to twelve percent actually write it, and zero
point one percent actually publish it, even though there's so
many books out right, that's amazing. So the interesting part
is now one of the reasons they don't write the
book because they've been taught they want to write the
(35:49):
great American novel. Right. So, by the way, if you
were just listened to the radio that had the double
quotes on, they want to write the book that it
is like the book that's the be end all book
of that solves all human hunger and whatever it is. Right.
So what's interesting is when I would work with that author,
I'd go, hey, you know what, let me help you
(36:10):
write your second book. Your second book's just going to
talk about your philosophy and your approach and how you execute,
how you add value to your clients. And they go, Okay,
I'll write the second book. I'll go back to the
first book another point in time. And after we write
with them and publish their second book, they sometimes most
of the time, never go back to their first book.
(36:30):
And so that's what I want to say about the
word purpose. Okay, purpose is some big thing that means
so many different things to different people. What I call
a SEPOP is your customer point of possibilities. It is
where you are executing on your purpose today. It's a
vibrational energy. It's when you wake up in the morning
you go, oh my god, I really have to make
(36:52):
this happen. And so as a CEO, your job is
to have people inside the company who wake up and
have a vibrational energy that's an alignment with yours and
the philosophy of where the company wants to go. And
here's the most important thing. You empower them, yes to
be successful to do that. Sorry, I got carried away.
Speaker 3 (37:11):
Would you stop apologizing for being passionate? Just up already.
It's a requirement to be on the show. By the way,
you were fully screened. We're good. Well, so let's talk
about so did you did you go through all the steps?
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (37:24):
If you did, I want to echo them.
Speaker 4 (37:26):
No, no, no, So I think I skirted the issue directly.
So you were.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
Defining purpose first, yes, and what it means.
Speaker 4 (37:33):
Thank you for it works contract. So so what I
call the four steps, which was the article or a
better way to think about it, is the engine of
executive abundance is four c's. We've already talked about two
of them. Everything starts with a simple formula, and that's
(37:55):
your clarity until you until you have clarity. Like people
say to me, so they send me the book, is
this going to be a good book? My first question
is it a good book for what? What do you
want to do with it? Right? Right? If I talked
to a CEO, Hey, here's our purpose statement. This is
a good purpose statement for what right? What do you
(38:16):
want to do? Right? And so clarity is the most
important think about credibility as an operating system. Now there
are two other SE's that are important in the four
step process. So it always starts with with clarity. And
by the way, to be clear, if ninety eight percent
of companies in humans do not have clarity, there's a
(38:37):
lot of opportunity here because that's the first thing that
has to happen, right, Okay, and clarity once again should
be where are you executing on your purpose? And less
than ten words? Okay? Now, what comes after clarity and
credibility is consistency. Right, So a lot of times you
(38:59):
see people and who they show up as on LinkedIn
and Facebook and Instagram and x are different people because
they have different audiences. So they're changing their personality to
focus on different audiences. That's not being consistent, right. Consistency
is showing up the same way whether you're online or
(39:20):
in person. By the way, to be clear, whether you're
with family or friends or work, work associates, it's all
the same, right. Consistency. Now, all of that is really hard,
and so the fourth C is commitment. You need to
have to commit to make it happen even when things
(39:43):
get tough, right. And so in the article I wrote
it as four steps to make it simple, but and
it really starts with clarity, and it is really those
that's the right order. But when you're looking had an
engine all parts of an engine all work together all
(40:03):
the time. Because what happens is the world changes. You
may change your seapop your clarity statement because the world's changed.
Not only is technology different, but your audience who consumes
technology is different, and you need to change your seapop. Well,
how do you do that in a way that's that
still is credible and have the consistency and commitment so
(40:25):
that the entire workforce that works with you is on
top of that with you.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
Okay, so a couple of things. First, let's just describe
that as the most appropriate way that I know how
to describe that. And that's yummy. That was just yummy.
Speaker 4 (40:41):
Use a technical word, isn't it? Though?
Speaker 3 (40:43):
It really is? And that is a great that's a
great belly laugh, by the way. That's an authentic laugh,
by the way. So I want to I want to
echo something you said about how when the world changes,
because people get a little lost. I think sometimes on
this purpose thing, because first and foremost we have to
recognize what you're saying. What's under what you're saying is
for something to count as purpose, we have to always
(41:04):
be of service to something beyond ourselves. So we're serving
something whether that's a human or a cause or the whales,
whatever it is. And so to your point, this is
where I think people get tripped up is as the
world does change, that means so can the expression and
the living and the function the featuring of the purpose
(41:25):
change as to be able to remain of service or
to be of better and higher service to that purpose.
And I think that's where part of the reason people
get lost. And back on the clarity piece, I do
some of the work that we do MINTIL when we're
working with organizations is to help people do what we
call the wildlife scratching process together of gaining that clarity
about what is our purpose here, why do we exist,
(41:47):
and why should anybody care? What are we actually up
to here? And because most of the time, if you
ask somebody in organization what's the purpose of this company,
the first thing they'll either say is I don't know,
or we're got to be looking for the sign on
the wall someplace that says it that they have no idea,
they're not connected to and can't remember. So I think
what you're bringing up is really important to talk about
(42:10):
how you need to revisit this stuff. It's not a
static statement.
Speaker 4 (42:15):
No, and that's why, by the way, having it less
than ten words makes it easy to remember.
Speaker 3 (42:20):
I love that. I love that. Yeah, it's just this
is so important. And you also says something earlier that
I want to go back to too, and that was
something about the disconnecting humanity that you are seeing that
you that are so troubling for you. Completely agree. We're
aligned on that, and especially inside the world of work.
One of the things that I love about that what
(42:42):
we do when we're helping other companies and how we
live in the culture within my company is we want
to play life full out. And what we're trying to
do is help other organizations to ignite all those souls,
those beautiful souls in their organization in a way that
works for their overall life. With a recognition that every
individual that you have working with you has a rest
(43:03):
of his or her life that they bring to work
and that comes with them as part of the package
of their life and their contribution. And I know that
you have that whole way of looking at you know,
the five key stakeholder groups of a human or a person,
which include all these different aspects. Of course, the family
(43:24):
and self employee, the customers, investors, a community, and then
so does the individual have all of those different clusters too.
So I want you to talk a little bit more
about this, what you're seeing in terms of the absence
of humanity, and what is it that you want to
do to try to address that.
Speaker 4 (43:40):
Hmmm. Well, the interesting part is I was under the
mistaken understanding that if I came up with an updated
definition of the word credibility, all I had to do
is share and people know what to.
Speaker 2 (43:57):
Do with it.
Speaker 4 (43:59):
That's fine, all right, I know exactly well. I was
doing a lot of the research happened during COVID timeframe,
so I was in this very insular environment, and then
when we started sharing it, I'm like, wait a second,
people are not reacting. And by the way, as it
turns out, I attribute it to the fact that I
(44:20):
believe that ten percent of the population or do it yourselfers,
maybe ten percent are done for you. They want to
pay somebody else to do it in eighty percent or
they're done with you people. So when I could share
a c pop or if I could share the credibility definition,
ten percent know what to do with it. But that
(44:41):
doesn't change the world, right, So and so I was
sort of sitting back trying to figure out how can
I how can I change the world in such a
way that we've put a framework out there, a framework
that can be used successfully by all parties. And what
(45:06):
where I'm excited about executive abundance now is that you
have to go where the money is. So the money
is in corporations, right, So you go to corporations and
you go, hey, listen. And I signed the board of
a Naztec firm, and one of the things as a
board member of a public company, my responsibility was to
(45:28):
be my fiduciary responsibility was to the shareholders, right. It
was not to the health and family of the CEO
and or their staff. It should have been. It's not
that we ignored it. It was not to the employees.
It was to the shareholders. It was not to the customers,
although if we didn't have customers, we wouldn't be able to,
(45:49):
you know, have investors who are happy. It was not
to the community. Now, now, theoretically we should focus on
the bigger picture. And that's what executive abundance is is
a frame work that says, hey, let's not just focus
on ROI return on investment for the shareholders. Let's focus
on the family and health of the CEO, the staff,
(46:10):
and the employee base. Let's focus on the employees because
if you can empower the employees to be successful, guess what,
They're going to make sure that your customers are happy.
If your customers are happy, they will make sure your
investors are happy. And we all live in a community,
and so that's what the focus is. And so doing
it in a dissertation format means that other researchers can
(46:35):
come behind me and add value to that. So that's
one reason for that piece of it and the reason
for it to be a cat stone. It needs to
be practical, pragmatic and deployed immediately, and so I do
that as part of my practice. Both my executive coaching
practice and surprisingly even my LinkedIn practice are many versions
(46:55):
of executive Abundance and so it's I'm learning, growing, and
deploying today. And so it's got a very practical use
and so it's a lot better than putting out a
definition and hoping people use it. Although at the time
I thought that was it.
Speaker 3 (47:14):
Yes, Well, I can absolutely see the whole stakeholder centered
approach in this, and I certainly absolutely aligned with that.
I wrote that in my last book as well. One
of the many reasons I wanted to have you on
to talk about this, Mitchell, because I believe in it.
I want you to champion this as high from the
rooftops as we possibly can. And of course we're doing
our small part too in the way that we do
our work. So it's happened. It happens every time sometimes
(47:40):
that this goes by so very fastward the end of
the show, this show is being listened to by people
around the world who care about some of the things
we've been talking about in terms of becoming a better leader,
a better human, enjoying their work in a more fulfilling way.
What would you like to leave them with.
Speaker 4 (47:58):
You can wake up every morning and be happy, and
you're happy if you can make sure you have financial
and spiritual foundation and you're doing the things that are
adding value to your life and to others. If you
can be of service to others and make money doing it,
(48:20):
you will be happy. And that is not a dream
for tomorrow. That should be very actionable in terms of
what you do today.
Speaker 3 (48:30):
Here here, I am I'm completely with with you. I'm
just going to call your brother, Mitchell. That's what this is. So, Mitchell,
I'm so delighted to know you and have you in
my life. And now you also cannot get away from me.
I'm a pretty fast runner, so you're not getting out
of my clause. So enjoyed having you on and share
with my listeners and viewers. Thank you.
Speaker 4 (48:48):
Oh you're welcome, my pleasure. I'm you are. By the way,
you hinted in the break previously that you had somebody
on for like six years ago and you haven't let
him out of your Mitch. I was getting when I
heard that, a good.
Speaker 3 (49:02):
Well, I haven't. That's you, Paul Skinner. Okay, So, listeners
and viewers, if you want to learn more about Mitchell
Lev the work he does, his speaking, or his various books,
you can start first by his his main site Mitchell
lev dot com. Let me spell that for you. It's
m I T C h E L L lev l
e v y dot com Mitchellleivy dot com. And then
(49:23):
you can also go to his new site, Executive Abundance
dot com. Either one you can check what out one
he's doing. Last week gave you missed the live show,
you can always catch a via recorded podcast. We are
on air with rich Davinni, a retired Navy Seal commander
and author of Masters of Uncertainty, The Navy Seal Way
to turn Stress into success for you and your team.
We talked about how his Master Uncertainty method can help
(49:45):
individuals and teams elevate performance and work with work with
our brains throughout the wonders of neuroscience. It was a
wickedly interesting and elevating conversation. Next week, we'll be on
the air with Tamar Ryan, who spent twenty two years
as a CEO of the Women's b Project in Colorado
and Know, and we're going to talk about her new
book on Followership, which in many ways turns leadership on
(50:07):
its head towards something more like servant leadership, but so
much more than that. See you then, and together, let's
lean in and learn together how to make workplaces that
work for everyone and find ways to do business in
a way that betters your world. Let's work on Purpose.
Speaker 2 (50:23):
We hope you've enjoyed this week's program. Be sure to
tune into Working on Purpose featuring your host, doctor Elise Cortes,
each week on W four C. Why Together We'll create
a world where business operates conscientiously. Leadership inspires and passion
performance and employees are fulfilled in work that provides the
meaning and purpose they crave.
Speaker 4 (50:42):
See you there.
Speaker 2 (50:43):
Let's work on purpose.
The topics and opinions express in the following show are
solely those of the hosts and their guests and not
those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
or products mentioned on air or on our web. No
liability explicit or implies shall be extended to W FOURCY
Radio or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments
should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for
(00:20):
choosing W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
What's working on Purpose? Anyway? Each week we ponder the
answer to this question. People ache for meaning and purpose
at work, to contribute their talents passionately and know their
lives really matter. They crave being part of an organization
that inspires them and helps them grow into realizing their
highest potential. Business can be such a force for good
in the world, elevating humanity. In our program, we provide
(00:51):
guidance and inspiration to help usher in this world we
all want Working on Purpose. Now, here's your host, doctor
Elise Cortez.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Welcome back to the Working on Purpose program, which has
been brought to with Passion Enterprise since February of twenty fifteen.
Thanks for tuning in this week. Great to have you.
I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortez. If we've not met
before and you don't know me, I am a workforce advisor,
organizational psychologist, management consultant, logo therapists, speaker and author. My
team and I at Gusta Now help companies to unliveen
and fortify their operations by building a dynamic, high performance culture,
(01:27):
inspirational leadership, and nurturing managers activated by meaning and purpose.
Many organizations are not aware of how critical it is
to invest in developing their leaders and managers not just
for their own effectiveness, but also to avoid burnout and
keep them fulfilled and so that they can measure and
also that they can measure and monitor the purpose experience
in their organization to keep it working as an operational imperative.
(01:47):
So much you can actually do with purpose And did
you know that inspired employees outperform their satisfied peers by
a factor of two point twenty five to one. In
other words, inspiration is good for the bottom line. More
about us and how we can work together at Gusto,
dashnow dot com or my personal site at least Quartes
dot Com getting In today's program, we have with us
(02:09):
Mitchell Leedy. He's a global credibility expert, a two time
ted X speaker, an international best selling author of over
sixty books, a certified stakeholder centered coach, and an executive
coach at Marshall Goldsmith's one hundred Coaches. He's an accomplished
entrepreneur who has created twenty businesses in Silicon Valley, including
four publishing companies that have published over seven hundred and
(02:29):
fifty books. He's provided strategic consulting to hundreds of companies
and has been in the chairman of a board of
a NASDAQ listed company. Today, we'll be talking about, among
other things, his new concept of executive abundance. He joins
today from Gupertino, California, otherwise known as Apple Country. Mitchell,
A hearty welcome to Working on Purpose.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
It's great to be here. Thanks for having me. I
didn't realize I was had a tongue twister bio.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
But you know, well, I have to say I personally
need a small nap before we get started after reading
all that. Just a small way, a power nap.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
And I'm good sleep. That's not a good way to
start a show.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Yeah, just a little nap. No, you're gonna laugh with this.
I had a couple of guys on that wrote a
book on momentum. It was fantastic, and one of them
said something about yawning on the show, and I said,
that has never happened in the ten and a half
year years that I've been hosting the show. And don't
be the first one to do it. You either, Mitchell.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
You tempted me, don't do it now.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
So we just first have to start with this idea here.
I'm sure that in the decades that I've been walking
the planet that I had never before met a global
credibility expert. So let's start with that.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
So what's the question?
Speaker 3 (03:43):
What is it and what does it do?
Speaker 4 (03:46):
So what ended up happening in I was a book publisher,
sat on the board of a public firm, started a
bunch of companies, and around the year twenty nine, I'm thinking, yeah,
the book publishing market is slowly coming to the end.
We've got Amazon bringing in and making books really a
(04:10):
commodity item. And then COVID hit. I didn't realize this
at the time. Covid just killed my publishing business. And
so in twenty nineteen, I started on a Napoleon Hill journey.
I interviewed five hundred thought leaders on the concept of credibility. Wow,
and I think after you do something like that, So
(04:32):
pick a topic, anything you're particularly interested in, and start
interviewing people. And it took me he or I interviewed
five hundred people and two things came out of it.
One was, and I know we're on radio, so feel
free to take a look google Mitchell Levy credibility equation.
I'm going to share something. This is the definition of
(04:55):
credibility that came out of it. It's the quouty in
which you're trusted, known and light. Underneath each of those
are ten values. And so it took me a while
to even after doing all the interviews, it took me
a while to sort of live in the new framework,
the new culture, the new concept of credibility. One of
(05:17):
my podcasts now is called leaders Live in their Values,
And the values are values or credibility. So when I interview,
I'm just listening for and asking questions to go after
the ten values. So a global credibility expert is someone
who can look at any company, any human and quickly
see things that they're doing which add credibility to who
(05:41):
they are, and things that they're doing that take credibility away.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
That's just gorgeous. And I love that idea of having
one of my topics that I really care about and
just go find people to interview. I love that idea.
Oh that's exciting, right there so many things we've already
kicked off already, and I knew this was going to
be really, really crunchy and chewy, and we're off already. Okay,
So I want to talk a little bit about your coaching.
(06:07):
I can't imagine what it we be like on the
other end of being coached by you. Profound changes happen
on the other side of that, I'm sure. Can you
say a little bit about why are you so compelled
to coach?
Speaker 4 (06:20):
And interesting? By the way, I'll ask you politely, is
starring with two rs or one guest starring Mitchell Levy
And by the way, it doesn't.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Matter, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Actually, if it is one, then that's really credible because
we're authentically going live that way, you know, I think
what happens. And I love that we're on this show
called live, Live Working on Purpose or live Working on purpose. Sorry,
actually both work. By the way, not only should we
(06:56):
live working on purpose, but we should be working on purpose.
We exist in purpose. We should wake up every day
and smile because we're doing what we feel like we
are meant to do, and we're playing by our roles,
not by somebody else's right. And so one of the
things that I do, and this is true on everything,
(07:20):
let me tell you something that happened. When I interviewed
five hundred thought leaders on credibility and came up with
the definition, I also unraveled a superpower. And I wasn't sure.
Maybe I already I always had it as a publisher,
I sort of focused on the right topics. But when
(07:41):
you interview five hundred people and you focus on and
by the way, my superpower is clarity. I could sit
with any company or any human and help them articulate
where they're executing on their purpose and less than ten words. Now,
lots of people have different definitions for the word clarity.
So I'm just going to say I could sit with
(08:01):
you and help you come up with what I call
your SEAPOP, your customer point of possibilities. Love it right,
and and that represents in less than ten words. Represents
many things. It represents your compass, It represents the as humans,
we vibrate at a frequency. It represents the frequency that
(08:23):
your body vibrates at. So, to go back to your question,
if you're being coached by Mitchell, the first thing that
we do is whether you're the CEO of an ink
five thousand company or or a business owner, first thing
we do is we figure out who are you right
and who are you is represented by your seapop, what
(08:44):
playground are you playing in? And then the next question
is do you want to still continue to play in
that playground? Typically the answer of bs or do we
want to gravitate to something else? And most importantly is
how do how do we play in the playground that
those around us us are playing with us in the
same playground, And I know that there was an analogy.
(09:08):
It will make it really really simple. If you're a
parent and you're watching new kids playing the playground, you
just want to make sure everyone plays fair, whatever that is.
You know, if a really big kid comes by, you
don't want him pushing your kid on the swings. You
don't want the big kid sort of focusing on the seesaw,
other than that. If he's a nice kid or she's
(09:29):
a nice kid, that's okay. Right. So there are some
general rules for playing in your playground, and when you're
coached by me, we not only help to find what
those rules are for each person, but that person typically
the CEO is going to be sharing those rules with
(09:49):
their team. So the team has a culture and they
could play by the same rules and that makes really
interesting thing. Now let me let me Can I add
to that? Would you mind? No?
Speaker 3 (09:59):
I don't want to add to that.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
You know that. So I there's a you know, sometimes
things come out of your mouth and you go, yeah.
There's two interpretations. One interpret One interpretation of rules are
black and white. You know, you either go left or
you go right. Another interpretation or rules are more like rules,
which are guidelines. Right, so right. So so for me,
(10:28):
my thought process is, if you're the CEO of the company,
the best thing you could do is empower your team
to also know the playground they're playing in. So every
every person on the management staff has their own seapop.
Now they understand the corporate seapop, and their seapop has
to their customer point of possibilities, has to fit in
(10:50):
the corporate seapop. If it doesn't, by the way, it's
time for them to leave. Yeah, And as the CEO,
you have to be really clear higher, slow, fire fast.
The best things I ever learned by running four different
CEO networking groups. You know, it's it's higher, slow, firefast.
And if you recognize at some point in time that
you're playing on a particular playground and there are people
(11:13):
in your team that are toxic to that playground and
they're managing others, they gotta.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Go absolutely absolutely Yeah, I gotta believe. Okay, so this
is perfect for us to talk about. I gotta believe
that anybody who's listening or watching this this podcast today
is going clarity. Oh that sounds really good right about now.
You know, there's so much going on in the world
where people are like upside down and backwards, don't know
(11:40):
which end is up, et cetera. So I would think
that clarity would be something that people are just clamoring for. Yes,
are your phone ringing off the hook?
Speaker 4 (11:49):
Even if I go sort of, so here's what judging.
I spent a year understanding what credibility was, then created
a business helping to deploy credibility and spent three and
a half years create a nice six figure business and
spent three and a half years deploying credibility. Now, it
(12:11):
wasn't a change the world business. It was just, you know,
I made good money, had fun leisure type business. But
I now that I've done this research, I want to
put in a marketplace something that would allow us to
live in a better way. The ted X I did,
if you want to look at it, is called we
are losing our humanity and I'm tired of watching it happen.
(12:32):
And so what's interesting is if we live credibly and
just exude the values of credibility, will be more humane.
So three and a half years went by, I go, yeah,
this is not a change the world business. Let's try
something else, this clarity thing. I'm really good at that.
Let's create a Clarity certification program. So I created the
Clarity Certification program once again, grew it really quickly to
(12:55):
a six figure business. And seven months ago I had
a friend of mine, and I have to be careful
about how I say, slap me to face, virtually slap
me in a face. So it was a guy my
named Ken Cook I'll name him, and Ken gets on
the phone with me, and he says something really interesting.
(13:17):
He goes, Mitchell, I know every living marketing legend alive today,
and there's nobody who knows clarity like you. Like my ego.
My head got really big. He then says, Mitchell, re
want me how many people don't have it? So based
on the research, ninety eight percent of people don't have clarity.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
I good buy it up.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
He then says Mitchell, I'm gonna say something you don't like. Okay,
so he starts the conversation. My head's really big, and
then he says he's going to say something I don't like,
and I couldn't imagine what it would be. And what
I want you to visualize. If you're if you're visualizing
a balloon, you're at a birthday party, you're visualizing a balloon,
and then you you take a pin and you stick
(14:01):
it in the balloon. What happens? It pops like immediately
there is no balloon. So that's what he did to
my ego in two or three sentences. I didn't expect this,
So here's what he said. He goes, Mitchell. By the way, Mitchell,
this is just a something to do with marketing. He goes,
(14:23):
you are world class at doing something that ninety eight
percent of your audience doesn't have. And they don't have
it because they either think they have it and they don't,
or they don't think they need it. Either way, that
number sucks. And when you hear that, I'm like, yeah,
he's not wrong. So he threw me a lifeline. And
(14:44):
that lifeline I'll tell you what it is in the
second and then the next day I woke up and
I found that was That was my first gift from
Ken Cook. My second gift. I woke up the next
morning and had it. So here's what he did. He
looked me in the eyes, he goes, Mitchell, what can
you do for me? This it that will put money
in my pocket tomorrow. First words out of my mouth
(15:05):
executive presence. An executive presence grew into what I now do,
which is called executive abundance, and that's part of my
executive coaching piece of it. Before we talk about that
and switch, what I want to do is tell you
the gift I woke up with the following morning. Please,
this is crazy. I've known this at least I've known
(15:28):
this my ow entire life, and I've essentially ignored it
to seven months ago. Now every marketer is going to
listen to this, and of course, Mitchell, I have to
tell you, I've been in Silicon Valley. I'm a thought leader.
I'd put stuff out there, people buy it. I've lived
a really nice life so far. But seven months ago
I recognize something really important. Okay, here it is sell
(15:51):
them what they want, deliver what they need.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Yes, you tell me that when we first spoke that,
I've got that down. It's gold.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
So here's the interesting thing I recognize after five and
a half years, a year worth of research, three and
a half years ors of deploying credibility, a year worth
of deploying clarity. After five and a half years, I
realized what I was focusing on was what people need.
They need clarity and they need credibility. But that's not
(16:20):
what they want. So that's not what they're asking for.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
What they want?
Speaker 4 (16:24):
What are they asking for?
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Me?
Speaker 4 (16:27):
If you're a fast growing CEO in five thousand CEOs
leading the future with executive abundance, you're looking for abundance.
And then the other thing I did is I ended
up purchasing a LinkedIn agency, and the primary focus there
is on business owners, so it's business owners escaping slimy
LinkedIn sales tactics. So that's the stuff that people want.
(16:53):
They both get the same thing, just in different doses.
They both get clarity or credibility.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Okay, we're going to talk more about that, but let's
grab our first break because I want to I do
want to dive into the executive abundance next. I am
your host, Doctor Elise Cortez. We're on the air with
Mitchell Leedy. He's a global credibility expert and certified stakeholders
centered coach. We've been talking a bit about where all
this work compassion came from. After the break, we're going
to get into his newest concept, which is executive rebundance,
(17:21):
which has already teed up for us.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Doctor Elise Cortez is a management consultant specializing in meaning
and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author. She helps companies
visioneer for a greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose
inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance,
and commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to
invite a lease to speak to your organization. Please visit
(18:00):
her at Elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to
get your employees working on purpose. This is working on
Purpose with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today
or to open a conversation with Elise, send an email
to a lease a l I se at Eliscortes dot com.
(18:23):
Now back to working on purpose.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Thanks for stating with us, and welcome back to working
on purpose. I'm your host, doctor Release Cortes, as I
am dedicated to help them create a world where organizations
thrive because their people thrive are led by inspirational leaders
that help them find and contribute their greatness. And we
do business at Betters the World. I keep researching and
writing my own books, so one of the latest came out.
It's called The Great Revitalization. How activating meaning and purpose
can radically enliven your business. And I wrote to help
(18:53):
leaders understand what today's diverse and demanding workforce really wants
from their world of work. And then I give you
twenty two bestice practices that you can fold into your
culture to provide that for them. You can find my
books on Amazon or my personal site at least Cortest
dot com picking up with where we were from with
our guest Mitchell Levy. He's an author of more than
(19:15):
sixty books, with the next one coming out soon on
abundant Leadership, which is where we're going next. I love
the name of it already, so let's talk about I
think you started to tell us the train of where
it began to emerge for you.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
Yeah, so executive abundance. I first started with the concept
of executive presence. You know, having published seven hundred and
fifty books, having been on a ton of stages. I've
probably talked, been at least three thousand stages, have helped
many of my authors and speakers be successful and CEOs,
(19:54):
and I thought, oh, executive presidence, that's really cool. But
then lots of people doing executive presence, and that there
was a little bit too much ego associated with that.
So I I By the way, all this happened in
a two week period after Ken Cook sort of flattening
the face and told me that that my what I
(20:16):
was selling was not something that people wanted, and I'm like, uh, yeah, okay,
So in a two week period, I sort of started
switching from executive presence. I went to executive gravitas.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
I love that word.
Speaker 4 (20:29):
That's really cold too. But as I started test driving
it with with my audience people I was talking with,
I'm like, there's something it doesn't work there. And then
ultimately I settled on abundance and then went to I
when I realized it was executive abundance, I went and
(20:50):
picked up executive abundance dot Com and I'm like, oh, perfect,
it was meant it was meant to be. And what
the first thing I did after making that happen. I
started I started sharing my seapop with different conference organizers,
and the second one I shared it with immediately said, Mitchell,
I got a conference coming up. It's called the Purpose Summit.
(21:14):
I know it, Yeah, like in four or five months,
and I'm going to basically build a program around you
so you can do this. I need to hear more
about executive abundance. And what was fascinating was I believe
I needed to live in the world of what's house speakers.
(21:34):
Like an actor, you know, if you're playing a part,
you got to so as a as a speaker, I
needed to live in that world to fast forward. The
next thing I needed to do is is start the
writing of my book on executive abundance, and as soon
as I got mostly into it, I'm like, yeah, I
(21:57):
need to change my dissertation. So I was doing a dissertation. Research. Yeah, research, Sorry,
let's start again. I was doing a research dissertation and
then I realized, you know what I need to do
a capstone project I need to have that comes out
of it. I need to do academic research on this
(22:17):
concept of executive abundance. But what I want to come
out of it is I want to actually have a
blueprint that my clients and other people can use to
actually deploy executive abundance inside their companies. And so that's
that's where I'm at now. And I wake up every
morning ecstatic. I mean, I just it is very cool
(22:40):
when you wake up and you talk to prospects, you
talk to clients, and they go, yeah, I need this,
and there's a nice playground. It's a very nice environment.
But it's at least what's interesting. It is not the
world we live in today. We live in a world
today that primarily is structured around quarterly financial reports. Right,
(23:04):
So we live in a world called or exemplified by
this concept of short termism. Yes, and life can be different,
and so that's where I'm right in the midst of
my dissertation research to be able to put some academic
grounding around the concept of executive abundance before the book
(23:29):
comes out.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Okay, let me comment on one thing before we go
any further on ideas, because I want to showcase for
our listeners and viewers what we're seeing here, which is
a man who is very passionate about what he cares
about and you give yourself over it to that, and
I think it's so amazing, and I always like to
be able to call these things out for our listeners
and viewers because some people listen to the show because
they want to see what it looks like to be
(23:52):
turned on by life. They're inspired by that. They're looking
for hope and connection to that kind of energy. Some
people are here because they want to learn what it
is that we're talking about and fold that into their businesses.
But a lot of people, and I know them because
they're in my speaking audiences too. One they don't know
what they're passionate about. When I ask what are you
passionate about? About eighty five percent of the audience will
(24:14):
oftentimes realize when I ask the question, they don't have
an answer. So I want to celebrate just how passionate
you are that you just give yourself over to this stuff.
And then the second thing I want to put forth
is imagine, ladies and gentlemen, if you could have people
in your organization turned on like Mitchell is and they
then give themselves over to whatever is they really care about,
and you get the benefit of a turned on human
(24:36):
who's probably going to be out there innovating new product
services for your customers because they care about them when
they're connected. So that's what I also wanted to situate
and celebrate here what it looks like when a human
being is really turned on and unleash to go after
what they really care about. Just what could happen?
Speaker 4 (24:55):
And let's what I'm going to add to that, that's
what you and I both do, right. And the thing is,
in an abundant world, we're not competitors. We're potential partners.
We haven't partnered yet with a corporation, but we will, right,
And that's what's what's fascinating is the and this is,
(25:18):
by the way, this is the one thing that's really
difficult to replicate out of Silk and Valley. There have
been many, many, many, many geographical areas that have tried
to replicate Silk and Valley. And there are three things
that make Soak and Valley soilkon Valley. One is is
(25:38):
the money, right, so you got you got money to invest.
Second is people, so you've got good educated people who
are learning and growing and doing new things. And the third,
and this is what's hard to replicate, is that even
when there are people solving a problem from different companies,
(26:01):
they'll still help each other out right, because it's more
about solving the problem than it is about one company
versus another winning. Right.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
I'm sure I did not know that is that is tremendous.
I love that I had Paul Skinner in my podcast
on back in twenty eighteen. He p he's become a
friend and not been able to get away from me since.
But his first book is called Competitive Collaborative Advantage. It's
the whole idea that we can get much more done
when we collaborate than if we compete with each other.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
Agreed.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Okay, well, so where are we taking this abundant executive
abundance concept? Where's it going's? How is it going to
live and grow in the world.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
So what I'm doing at the moment is getting a
PhD in the concept, and the dissertation will be focused
on executive abundance. And we'll see I have absolutely unrealistic
goals of how quickly I'm going to make this happen,
(27:01):
and well, you know, and here's the thing. I've got
these goals and if I hit them, a holy cow,
that's amazing. And if not, I'm not going to beat
myself up for it. And as soon as the dissertation
is done. And what's happening is I'm I'm going to
continue to be writing the Executive Abundance book. At the
(27:22):
same time I'm creating coursework and I'll create two chatbots. Right.
So the coursework, the online coursework is in two different flavors.
The first flavor is to the CEO, very summarized, very focused,
and very much Hey, let's get on the same page.
(27:43):
This is this concept of executive abundance. This is what
you want your team to have. The second piece of
coursework is for everyone else. And the everyone else is
this is the detail that you need to focus on.
This is what you should expect from your executive and
your execusative team, and this is where we're going. This
is what we're doing right and so right now it's
(28:07):
conceptual because haven't built built that together. But what's nice
about today's world with AI the way it is, with
technology the way it is, the ability to create a
stream of course work to make that happen. This is
(28:27):
not an insurmountable multi year plan. This is maybe multi
week worst case, multi month, but it's it's it is
something that is if and this is what I agree
with you before. If you're if you have a company,
you want your employees to go, oh my god, I
can make this happen because all the tools are out
(28:50):
there to make it happen. When you have this IT department,
that's stopping the employees from from using the tools. They're
not corporate authorized, you know, get a hold of yourself.
I mean, I understand there's lawyers and lawsuits and all
that stuff, right, they have to worry about, but you
need to use the technology that is at your fingertips.
If you don't, your competitors well, and if your competitors do,
(29:12):
they're going to just really jump past you super quickly.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
Absolutely agreed, Completely agreed, And I want to situate a
fun little term for you, since you helped us with
a few already, And that's this idea of logo philosophy
or logo therapy. So one of my degrees is in
logo philosophy and listeners and viewers, if you don't know
what that is, that is really the work of doctor Vitrifrankel,
who you might recognize as the author of Man Search
(29:40):
for Meaning in many other books as well, who gave
us the field of existential psychology. And so in the
world of logo philosophy and logo therapy, what we know
is that there's the whole premise is that our search,
our main search concern as humans, is for meaning, and
that we have that we are irreducibly spiritual creatures, and
(30:01):
that's and we're looking for meaning. So the opportunity to
ignite that human spirit, to unleash that human spirit, I
think is the opportunity that so many organizations are missing
out on and squandering because of the way they stable
people in seats and restrict them and remove their autonomy
and their choice. Now we're down to like a fraction
(30:22):
of that human and which is part of the reason
that today the global employe engagement rate is twenty one percent.
I don't know how you run I don't know how
you run a company with that. I don't know how
you get anything done with that kind of unemployment employee
engagement rate.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
Oh and by the way, if you think that you
could fix that by delegating it to If you're the CEO,
and you think you could fix that by delegating it
to some human resource person without giving them the authority
to actually make it happen, you're dreaming.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
Yeah, yeah, agreed, seaking of a dreaming. Let's let our
listeners and viewers have just a small little short nap
losers and viewers while we take our very last break.
I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortez. We've been on the
air with Mitchell Levy. He's a global credibility expert and
a certified stakeholder centered coach. We've been talking about his
newest concept, Abundant Executive Abundance. After the break, we're one
(31:19):
of the things we're going to talk about is the
four steps to creating a purpose driven organization. Be right back.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Doctor Elise Cortez is a management consultant specializing in meaning
and purpose an inspirational speaker and author. She helps companies
visioneer for a greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose
inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance,
and commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to
invite at least to be to your organization, please visit
(32:02):
her at elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to
get your employees working on purpose. This is Working on
Purpose with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today
or to open a conversation with Elise, send an email
to Elise A LISEE at eliscortes dot com. Now back
(32:26):
to working on Purpose.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
Thanks for staying with us, and welcome back to working
on Purpose. I am your host, doctor Elise Cortes. As
you know by now, this program is dedicated to empowering
and inspiring you along your journey to realize more of
your potential. If you want to learn how we can
work together and learn more about one of the things
we do is the gust Joinell Academy for leaders and
individuals on various journeys alike. Make your way to our site,
it's gustodeshnow dot com and then go to the training
(32:54):
tab and you can find out all about what we're
doing there if you are just now joining us. My
guest is Mike Mitchell Lee. He's the author of over
sixty books, with the next one throughout soon on abundant leadership,
which is what we were talking about in the last segment.
Speaker 4 (33:07):
So before we go on.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
I just want to share with you that I just
got a text from one of the one of my
team members, Lydia. Lydia, you're a rock star, and she said,
I'm loving this show. You guys are great together. So
we have one fan.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
Hey, you know it starts something. It always has to
start somewhere.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
Yes, it does. Well, we'll take it, thank you, Lydia. Okay,
So I love this because we've queued up purpose a
few times in this conversation. Of course, you and I
are aligned on how critical and central that really is
many organizations, of course, says you know, and I know
understand purpose wash They just sort of banty about a phrase.
But I do want to situate. I like to be
(33:44):
able to give our listeners and viewers things that they
can immediately put to use and to work when they
listen to this podcast. And you have an article on
LinkedIn that talks about these four steps to creating a
purpose driven organization. Let's talk about it.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
I would love to do you mind if we define
purpose first it go for it all right? Oh and
by the way, you in the previous segment, you talked
about logo therapy and logo philosophy. So I I asked
my chat bought what it was, and it's very cool.
I will incorporate that most likely in my dissertation. So
I think right on, I'm thrilled to hearing that. You know,
(34:21):
here's the thing. If you look at the definition of
the word purpose, it means so many different things for
different people, and also incorporates a religious component to many people.
As a matter of fact, if you think about purpose
driven organizations, now we're talking about well organizations that bring
God into the company, right, Because that's the purpose. And
(34:44):
I want to look at it differently. And so I'm
going to encourage you. And even though I said let's
define purpose, I'm actually going to define something different than purpose.
I'm going to define how you can execute on your purpose, right,
And that is different than defining purpose. I might say, well, Bitchell,
that that's an interesting use of words, here's the thing,
(35:07):
and our best thing I could do is give you
a story. I've written sixty five books. Sixty six is
the most important. That sound executive abundance. I've published seven
hundred and fifty. And what happens is I in the world.
By the way, if you could go to you can
go to chat gpt and says and ask the question,
(35:27):
how many people want to write a book, how many
actually write the book, how many published a book. Well,
apparently eighty percent of the population wants to write a book,
only six to twelve percent actually write it, and zero
point one percent actually publish it, even though there's so
many books out right, that's amazing. So the interesting part
is now one of the reasons they don't write the
book because they've been taught they want to write the
(35:49):
great American novel. Right. So, by the way, if you
were just listened to the radio that had the double
quotes on, they want to write the book that it
is like the book that's the be end all book
of that solves all human hunger and whatever it is. Right.
So what's interesting is when I would work with that author,
I'd go, hey, you know what, let me help you
(36:10):
write your second book. Your second book's just going to
talk about your philosophy and your approach and how you execute,
how you add value to your clients. And they go, Okay,
I'll write the second book. I'll go back to the
first book another point in time. And after we write
with them and publish their second book, they sometimes most
of the time, never go back to their first book.
(36:30):
And so that's what I want to say about the
word purpose. Okay, purpose is some big thing that means
so many different things to different people. What I call
a SEPOP is your customer point of possibilities. It is
where you are executing on your purpose today. It's a
vibrational energy. It's when you wake up in the morning
you go, oh my god, I really have to make
(36:52):
this happen. And so as a CEO, your job is
to have people inside the company who wake up and
have a vibrational energy that's an alignment with yours and
the philosophy of where the company wants to go. And
here's the most important thing. You empower them, yes to
be successful to do that. Sorry, I got carried away.
Speaker 3 (37:11):
Would you stop apologizing for being passionate? Just up already.
It's a requirement to be on the show. By the way,
you were fully screened. We're good. Well, so let's talk
about so did you did you go through all the steps?
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (37:24):
If you did, I want to echo them.
Speaker 4 (37:26):
No, no, no, So I think I skirted the issue directly.
So you were.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
Defining purpose first, yes, and what it means.
Speaker 4 (37:33):
Thank you for it works contract. So so what I
call the four steps, which was the article or a
better way to think about it, is the engine of
executive abundance is four c's. We've already talked about two
of them. Everything starts with a simple formula, and that's
(37:55):
your clarity until you until you have clarity. Like people
say to me, so they send me the book, is
this going to be a good book? My first question
is it a good book for what? What do you
want to do with it? Right? Right? If I talked
to a CEO, Hey, here's our purpose statement. This is
a good purpose statement for what right? What do you
(38:16):
want to do? Right? And so clarity is the most
important think about credibility as an operating system. Now there
are two other SE's that are important in the four
step process. So it always starts with with clarity. And
by the way, to be clear, if ninety eight percent
of companies in humans do not have clarity, there's a
(38:37):
lot of opportunity here because that's the first thing that
has to happen, right, Okay, and clarity once again should
be where are you executing on your purpose? And less
than ten words? Okay? Now, what comes after clarity and
credibility is consistency. Right, So a lot of times you
(38:59):
see people and who they show up as on LinkedIn
and Facebook and Instagram and x are different people because
they have different audiences. So they're changing their personality to
focus on different audiences. That's not being consistent, right. Consistency
is showing up the same way whether you're online or
(39:20):
in person. By the way, to be clear, whether you're
with family or friends or work, work associates, it's all
the same, right. Consistency. Now, all of that is really hard,
and so the fourth C is commitment. You need to
have to commit to make it happen even when things
(39:43):
get tough, right. And so in the article I wrote
it as four steps to make it simple, but and
it really starts with clarity, and it is really those
that's the right order. But when you're looking had an
engine all parts of an engine all work together all
(40:03):
the time. Because what happens is the world changes. You
may change your seapop your clarity statement because the world's changed.
Not only is technology different, but your audience who consumes
technology is different, and you need to change your seapop. Well,
how do you do that in a way that's that
still is credible and have the consistency and commitment so
(40:25):
that the entire workforce that works with you is on
top of that with you.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
Okay, so a couple of things. First, let's just describe
that as the most appropriate way that I know how
to describe that. And that's yummy. That was just yummy.
Speaker 4 (40:41):
Use a technical word, isn't it? Though?
Speaker 3 (40:43):
It really is? And that is a great that's a
great belly laugh, by the way. That's an authentic laugh,
by the way. So I want to I want to
echo something you said about how when the world changes,
because people get a little lost. I think sometimes on
this purpose thing, because first and foremost we have to
recognize what you're saying. What's under what you're saying is
for something to count as purpose, we have to always
(41:04):
be of service to something beyond ourselves. So we're serving
something whether that's a human or a cause or the whales,
whatever it is. And so to your point, this is
where I think people get tripped up is as the
world does change, that means so can the expression and
the living and the function the featuring of the purpose
(41:25):
change as to be able to remain of service or
to be of better and higher service to that purpose.
And I think that's where part of the reason people
get lost. And back on the clarity piece, I do
some of the work that we do MINTIL when we're
working with organizations is to help people do what we
call the wildlife scratching process together of gaining that clarity
about what is our purpose here, why do we exist,
(41:47):
and why should anybody care? What are we actually up
to here? And because most of the time, if you
ask somebody in organization what's the purpose of this company,
the first thing they'll either say is I don't know,
or we're got to be looking for the sign on
the wall someplace that says it that they have no idea,
they're not connected to and can't remember. So I think
what you're bringing up is really important to talk about
(42:10):
how you need to revisit this stuff. It's not a
static statement.
Speaker 4 (42:15):
No, and that's why, by the way, having it less
than ten words makes it easy to remember.
Speaker 3 (42:20):
I love that. I love that. Yeah, it's just this
is so important. And you also says something earlier that
I want to go back to too, and that was
something about the disconnecting humanity that you are seeing that
you that are so troubling for you. Completely agree. We're
aligned on that, and especially inside the world of work.
One of the things that I love about that what
(42:42):
we do when we're helping other companies and how we
live in the culture within my company is we want
to play life full out. And what we're trying to
do is help other organizations to ignite all those souls,
those beautiful souls in their organization in a way that
works for their overall life. With a recognition that every
individual that you have working with you has a rest
(43:03):
of his or her life that they bring to work
and that comes with them as part of the package
of their life and their contribution. And I know that
you have that whole way of looking at you know,
the five key stakeholder groups of a human or a person,
which include all these different aspects. Of course, the family
(43:24):
and self employee, the customers, investors, a community, and then
so does the individual have all of those different clusters too.
So I want you to talk a little bit more
about this, what you're seeing in terms of the absence
of humanity, and what is it that you want to
do to try to address that.
Speaker 4 (43:40):
Hmmm. Well, the interesting part is I was under the
mistaken understanding that if I came up with an updated
definition of the word credibility, all I had to do
is share and people know what to.
Speaker 2 (43:57):
Do with it.
Speaker 4 (43:59):
That's fine, all right, I know exactly well. I was
doing a lot of the research happened during COVID timeframe,
so I was in this very insular environment, and then
when we started sharing it, I'm like, wait a second,
people are not reacting. And by the way, as it
turns out, I attribute it to the fact that I
(44:20):
believe that ten percent of the population or do it yourselfers,
maybe ten percent are done for you. They want to
pay somebody else to do it in eighty percent or
they're done with you people. So when I could share
a c pop or if I could share the credibility definition,
ten percent know what to do with it. But that
(44:41):
doesn't change the world, right, So and so I was
sort of sitting back trying to figure out how can
I how can I change the world in such a
way that we've put a framework out there, a framework
that can be used successfully by all parties. And what
(45:06):
where I'm excited about executive abundance now is that you
have to go where the money is. So the money
is in corporations, right, So you go to corporations and
you go, hey, listen. And I signed the board of
a Naztec firm, and one of the things as a
board member of a public company, my responsibility was to
(45:28):
be my fiduciary responsibility was to the shareholders, right. It
was not to the health and family of the CEO
and or their staff. It should have been. It's not
that we ignored it. It was not to the employees.
It was to the shareholders. It was not to the customers,
although if we didn't have customers, we wouldn't be able to,
(45:49):
you know, have investors who are happy. It was not
to the community. Now, now, theoretically we should focus on
the bigger picture. And that's what executive abundance is is
a frame work that says, hey, let's not just focus
on ROI return on investment for the shareholders. Let's focus
on the family and health of the CEO, the staff,
(46:10):
and the employee base. Let's focus on the employees because
if you can empower the employees to be successful, guess what,
They're going to make sure that your customers are happy.
If your customers are happy, they will make sure your
investors are happy. And we all live in a community,
and so that's what the focus is. And so doing
it in a dissertation format means that other researchers can
(46:35):
come behind me and add value to that. So that's
one reason for that piece of it and the reason
for it to be a cat stone. It needs to
be practical, pragmatic and deployed immediately, and so I do
that as part of my practice. Both my executive coaching
practice and surprisingly even my LinkedIn practice are many versions
(46:55):
of executive Abundance and so it's I'm learning, growing, and
deploying today. And so it's got a very practical use
and so it's a lot better than putting out a
definition and hoping people use it. Although at the time
I thought that was it.
Speaker 3 (47:14):
Yes, Well, I can absolutely see the whole stakeholder centered
approach in this, and I certainly absolutely aligned with that.
I wrote that in my last book as well. One
of the many reasons I wanted to have you on
to talk about this, Mitchell, because I believe in it.
I want you to champion this as high from the
rooftops as we possibly can. And of course we're doing
our small part too in the way that we do
our work. So it's happened. It happens every time sometimes
(47:40):
that this goes by so very fastward the end of
the show, this show is being listened to by people
around the world who care about some of the things
we've been talking about in terms of becoming a better leader,
a better human, enjoying their work in a more fulfilling way.
What would you like to leave them with.
Speaker 4 (47:58):
You can wake up every morning and be happy, and
you're happy if you can make sure you have financial
and spiritual foundation and you're doing the things that are
adding value to your life and to others. If you
can be of service to others and make money doing it,
(48:20):
you will be happy. And that is not a dream
for tomorrow. That should be very actionable in terms of
what you do today.
Speaker 3 (48:30):
Here here, I am I'm completely with with you. I'm
just going to call your brother, Mitchell. That's what this is. So, Mitchell,
I'm so delighted to know you and have you in
my life. And now you also cannot get away from me.
I'm a pretty fast runner, so you're not getting out
of my clause. So enjoyed having you on and share
with my listeners and viewers. Thank you.
Speaker 4 (48:48):
Oh you're welcome, my pleasure. I'm you are. By the way,
you hinted in the break previously that you had somebody
on for like six years ago and you haven't let
him out of your Mitch. I was getting when I
heard that, a good.
Speaker 3 (49:02):
Well, I haven't. That's you, Paul Skinner. Okay, So, listeners
and viewers, if you want to learn more about Mitchell
Lev the work he does, his speaking, or his various books,
you can start first by his his main site Mitchell
lev dot com. Let me spell that for you. It's
m I T C h E L L lev l
e v y dot com Mitchellleivy dot com. And then
(49:23):
you can also go to his new site, Executive Abundance
dot com. Either one you can check what out one
he's doing. Last week gave you missed the live show,
you can always catch a via recorded podcast. We are
on air with rich Davinni, a retired Navy Seal commander
and author of Masters of Uncertainty, The Navy Seal Way
to turn Stress into success for you and your team.
We talked about how his Master Uncertainty method can help
(49:45):
individuals and teams elevate performance and work with work with
our brains throughout the wonders of neuroscience. It was a
wickedly interesting and elevating conversation. Next week, we'll be on
the air with Tamar Ryan, who spent twenty two years
as a CEO of the Women's b Project in Colorado
and Know, and we're going to talk about her new
book on Followership, which in many ways turns leadership on
(50:07):
its head towards something more like servant leadership, but so
much more than that. See you then, and together, let's
lean in and learn together how to make workplaces that
work for everyone and find ways to do business in
a way that betters your world. Let's work on Purpose.
Speaker 2 (50:23):
We hope you've enjoyed this week's program. Be sure to
tune into Working on Purpose featuring your host, doctor Elise Cortes,
each week on W four C. Why Together We'll create
a world where business operates conscientiously. Leadership inspires and passion
performance and employees are fulfilled in work that provides the
meaning and purpose they crave.
Speaker 4 (50:42):
See you there.
Speaker 2 (50:43):
Let's work on purpose.
Popular Podcasts
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.