September 9, 2025 • 47 mins
What if the question that annoyed you throughout childhood became the guiding principle for your success? For Michelle Berman-Mikel, founder of Beyond the Method, her father's persistent question after every swim meet—"Was that the best you could do today?"—transformed from a frustrating interrogation into the cornerstone of her business philosophy.
Michelle reveals how discipline and relentlessness became her defining traits, sharing candidly how these qualities enabled her to build a thriving business, secure major speaking engagements, and write her upcoming book. With refreshing honesty, she dismantles the myth that content virality leads to business success, explaining instead that "virality doesn't pay bills—appointments do." Her systematic approach to follow-up sets her apart in an industry where most give up far too soon.
What makes Michelle's methodology unique is her recognition that we must work with our authentic selves rather than against them. Her "value series" approach places content creators in environments where their passion naturally shines through, making videos more engaging and genuine. This philosophy extends to her personal journey as well—from the moment she spotted her future husband at the gym and knew instantly he was "the one" (despite never having spoken), to marrying him just two months after their first date, to navigating the heartbreaking loss of a child while writing her book.
The pivotal realization that she wasn't a social media expert but a prospecting expert transformed both her business and her understanding of her purpose. Now, as she prepares to launch her book on August 25th, Michelle's message resonates with anyone seeking sustainable success: identify what truly sets you apart, commit to consistent daily actions, and never stop following up on opportunities. Ready to transform your approach to business and life? Michelle's story shows how small, consistent choices ultimately create who we become.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Maria Quattrone (00:00):
I'm Maria Quattrone and this is the Be the
Solution podcast, and today I'mvery excited to bring Michelle
Berman-Mikel on.
Welcome Michelle.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (00:11):
Thank you so much, maria, excited to
be here.
Maria Quattrone (00:13):
Excited to spend some time with you.
We've known each other throughsocial media, but it is great to
connect on the podcast and ifyou know anything about me and
my podcast, I have a quotespecifically that I thought
about for you, specifically foryou, this morning.
Here's, here's the quote foryou you make your choices and
(00:38):
then your choices make you.
I love that you make yourchoices and then your choices
make you.
I love that you make yourchoices and then your choices
make you, and I thought thatthis quote was important for you
because you've made some reallyimportant choices in your life
and you've made them and youkept making the right ones.
(01:00):
Over time, of course, we makethe ones that throw us off the
path, but I think it's importantand we talk about you know, it
really is the small things tinyhinges, swing big doors, all the
difference in um, in our lives,and how.
It's not any magical big thingthat's going to happen yep, no,
(01:24):
it's not I agree so you knowyour journey.
Like, let's talk about yourjourney how it started and how
you got to where you are rightnow yeah.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (01:38):
Well, we can go all the way back.
We can start as far back as asI can remember, or we could
start more on the work side, um,but I'll tell you.
You know, there's some pivotalmoments in my life that have
happened over the years.
One is recently, as late lastyear, and then you know the
first one that I think I cantalk about very confidently as
being one of those hinges rightthat have opened more doors is
(02:02):
back in the day.
Most of those people who aremost of you all listening to
this may know, but I've been anathlete my entire life.
I started swimming competitivelyat five and that was a big, big
part of my upbringing.
I was not really like the partygirl.
I did go out here and there,but for the most part I put my
head down and I swam a lot and Igot really good grades.
But with that, there was asaying that my dad said to me
(02:25):
for years and years and years ofalmost all 20 years of my
swimming career, and after everyrace, no matter if I won, no
matter if I got a personal besttime, no matter if I got dead
last and totally sucked, thequestion was always the same,
and it was.
You know, honey, was that thebest you could do today?
And I remember, as a youngergirl, being very frustrated by
that question and kind ofirritated of like dad, didn't
(02:46):
you just see me win?
Or you know, dad, what are youtalking about?
Didn't you just see me totallycrap the bed?
Like that was horrible.
But it was always the samequestion.
And what I didn't understandthen that I understand now is he
was priming me for my adultlife no-transcript.
(03:31):
So in the moment, you knowyou're frustrated, you're like
what do you mean, dad?
And and as I've grown up overthe years, right, and especially
starting my entrepreneurialjourney in 2014, you know the
question stayed very poignantfor me of was that the best I
could do today?
And did I show up with 100% ofwhat I had that day?
You know, in some days we don'thave 100% of ourselves.
(03:53):
Some days we only have 70 or80% of who we normally are.
But then even the questionstill lies, right, did we give
ourselves 100% of the 70% thatwe had that day, or the 80% we
had that day?
And, um, you know, I'll neverforget when I had the flu, when
I got home about a year ago froma trip I was at, a big work
trip came home and it was myhusband and my son had had the
(04:14):
flu before I left but I thoughtI had circumvented it.
Thankfully, of course, that wasnot the case.
Get home and it was the worstflu I have ever had.
It was eight days of just on mybutt like did not, could not do
anything.
It was horrible.
Um, and I just kept tellingmyself throughout the week all I
have to do is get the onepriority thing done today.
That's it Just the one prioritything done.
(04:36):
You know most people would belike, well, I have the flu, I'll
just take the whole week off.
And there were deadlines thathad to be made, there were
clients that needed things,there were stuff that needed to
get done.
So, yes, a lot of that stuffthat wasn't priority got pushed
off.
But I made a commitment everysingle day of those eight days,
even though I felt like shitright, that I was going to get
that one thing done that neededto really get done.
(04:56):
And I did and I'm proud of that.
So it all comes back to thatquestion again of did you give
yourself or did you give yourpeople 100% of what you had that
day, even if it was only youknow half of your normal
capacity.
Maria Quattrone (05:10):
I love that.
Was that the best that you cando today?
Because really it's what itcomes down to, and we don't
always have a hundred percent.
For lots of reasons, sickdidn't sleep all night.
For lots of reasons, sickdidn't sleep all night, baby
(05:38):
crying you know, something wokeus up in the middle of the night
and we were up for three hours.
But can we accept that?
Michelle Berman - Mikel (05:48):
Yeah, I mean, I think that's what we
can do today.
I think it even goes down tosomething as simple as like
working out right, like thereare many a days where I don't
want to do it because I'm tiredor I've had a long day.
But every time I say, you knowwhat I've had, I'm tired, I've
had a long day, I'll just skipit.
I feel like crap about it.
I feel like crap about myself,right, it's like that almost
thing in the back of my mindthat I'm just like, oh, I should
have just done it Right.
So in the moment, yeah, theanswer would have been easy to
say, nobody would have beensurprised.
Oh, michelle didn't work outtoday, or Michelle didn't do a
(06:09):
run today because she was onZoom for seven hours, or you
know, this happened or thathappened, whatever we can
justify it however much we want,but we, we are the only ones
that really feel that feeling onthe inside of man.
I really should have just donewhat I said I was going to do,
or what I was capable of doing,and I chose not to.
Maria Quattrone (06:26):
Right.
So integrity doing what you sayyou're going to do and the only
person that integrity affectsreally is yourself, because each
time you don't do what you sayyou're going to do, a little bit
of your confidence is destroyed, is gone, Because then we stop
trusting ourselves.
So if you don't trust yourself,you don't you're going to trust
(06:47):
anybody else.
You have to trust yourself.
In order to trust yourself iskeeping the commitments that you
say you're going to do,whatever it is.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (06:57):
Yep.
Maria Quattrone (06:57):
It's really that simple.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (06:59):
It really is that simple.
Maria Quattrone (07:00):
It's that simple because that simple.
It's that simple because, youknow, I thought about a time
when I started to lift weightsand I would say, okay, I'm going
to do it these days.
And then each time I did it andI got a little bit better, I
got more confidence.
And when you had the moreconfidence, the confidence gave
(07:26):
you more confidence and made youwant to do more, because now
you're winning.
So I don't know anybody thatdoesn't want to win.
Michelle, do you?
Michelle Berman - Mikel (07:31):
no, I don't, I mean, and no, I mean
even people that are not insales, right, I mean, I know a
lot of my close friends that areall not in sales, that you know
, just work a normal I don'twant to say normal because that
sounds bad, but like just a, atraditional nine to five that
isn't rooted in commission oranything like that, and they
still want to do the best theycan do every day.
(07:52):
You know they they visit oremotionally, not physically, but
they emotionally attach almostlike their self worth right of
to did I do the best I could doat my job today.
Right, one of my next doorneighbors, a couple doors over,
um, her and I have gotten superclose since they've moved in and
, um, same thing, she works fora big or not a big mortgage
company, I'm sorry.
She works for a big companycalled train, very popular
(08:14):
company, most people know it.
Um, and she describes her workday to me and I'm just like damn
girl, like what you have to doevery day.
That's, it's crazy what youhave to accomplish in a day, you
know, and she's not commissionbased, she just gets her salary,
but you can hear it when she'stalking about what she does, how
important showing up her bestor in her best capacity for her
job really is, not just to hercompany but to her Right.
(08:36):
So I think you know we'reobviously commission based
employees, as I'm sure mostpeople listening to this are,
but it doesn't matter if you areor aren't.
I think the principle isfull-fledged.
Maria Quattrone (08:47):
It's pride, and the pride of doing the best
that you can do, yes, and thatcarries into other areas of your
life, because we don't live ina vacuum.
It's not just like you know,work, michelle, and real life,
michelle, and Maria, it's likefor me.
Me, it's the same same there'snot a different person that's
(09:10):
going to show up.
No, this is, I guarantee you,you're this, it's the same.
Where we're showing up rightnow is how we show up across the
board.
Yes, you know the old saying ofhow you do one thing is how you
do everything.
Absolutely, I love, I'm like, Ilove quotes.
I'm a quote person and I Ireally take like them to meaning
.
You know, one of my favoriteones is um and I talked a lot
(09:35):
about this in sales is whetheryou think you can or think you
can't, or think you can't.
Either way, you are right.
So your belief system aboutwhether you could do something
or not, and even if you haven'tdone it, you can take a borrowed
(09:55):
belief from somebody who hasdone it before, because is there
somebody that came before youthat is doing what?
Michelle Berman - Mikel (10:04):
you want to do 100%.
Maria Quattrone (10:06):
And if there is , then you can do it as well, as
long as you put the time,energy, work into it and goes
back to the tiny wins.
So I want to talk about that.
You know, before we got ontoday, I asked you about your
speaking and how you started toget involved in speaking and
being on stages and trainingcompanies, and so I want to go
(10:28):
back to how you went from hereto over to this side and what
that looked like and what youhad to do and who, most
importantly who you had tobecome to do it.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (10:42):
Yeah, it's.
This is is a.
It's an interesting world to bein.
Right, being a speaker is areally challenging um dynamic.
It's a.
It's a space that breaking intois an uphill battle.
Every day, every day right, andalso every at bat of being on
stage directly correlates to thenext one, and I think that
(11:03):
that's something that I'velearned over the years.
But I will tell you, I startedspeaking in very late 2021 and I
had a baby in August of 2021,during COVID, and right after
that, I had a random companyreach out and ask if I would
come do a training in theiroffice.
Okay, that that was a coolintroduction to it.
Well, there happened to beabout 150 real estate agents in
(11:24):
that office.
So this wasn't a small littlething and I had no concept of
you know what I was reallywalking into.
Other it was other than it wasin a Keller Williams office at
the time.
Um, so I walk in and I'm, youknow, training in front of this
room of 150 agents, and I wasn'ta speaker at the time.
I was very much so more of ateacher, and I still am more of
(11:44):
a teacher than I am a speaker.
But what I can tell you is.
I caught the bug right.
I started seeing all theselight bulbs go off all over the
place in the room with people.
People were coming up to me andwhen I was done talking, it was
a 90 minute training session.
At the end I mean I could notleave.
I had a line of people thatwanted to talk to me and wanted
to pick my brain about thingsand I remember going home and
(12:06):
just telling my husband I waslike, man, that was freaking fun
but I'm exhausted.
Like that was hard, you know.
But it was so much fun and Icaught this bug of wow, I can
really serve on a one to manylevel and I can do it in a way
that feeds my pipeline for mycompany and for what I do.
So I started actively pursuingmore of those and one of the
(12:33):
things that I did was makingsure that I would market.
Hey, I had done this thingpublicly on social so that other
companies would see that I wasavailable quote unquote to do
that.
So it became a part of mymarketing strategy to post this
to the world that, hey, I wasdoing this, but 2022, 2023, I
was doing this, but um 2022,2023,.
Every year it's progressed,it's gotten bigger and bigger.
(12:54):
Um, this past year, in 2025, um, some of the biggest speaking
opportunities I could have everimagined happening have happened
.
Um, I spoke at mastermind summitin Vegas a couple of weeks ago
and you know about 500 people inthe room, at least even on the
last day of the event, which wasamazing, and it was on a big
stage in a big hotel in Vegasand it was wow.
Why is this happening to me?
And I'll be speaking later thisyear at Fuse, which is a big
(13:16):
broker event for the mortgagebroker community, which is wild
to me.
I never, three, four years ago,ever would have expected to be
on that stage, especially not insuch a short timeframe.
Um, but what I can tell you,marie, to answer your question,
is it was a daily decision thatI made every single day to do,
and that daily decision I talkso much about in every keynote.
(13:38):
It's in my book coming out.
It's a big part of myphilosophy of beyond the method,
um, but it's one single dailyact that I must do every single
day without fail in order tocreate an opportunity for myself
, and that one single daily actis sending a message to someone
that I do not know with theintention of creating an
opportunity and doing it throughleverage.
So I'll say it again for youknow, I know you like let's
(14:03):
unpack that, because there's alot in that.
So much yeah.
But also I'll say, even though,yes, I've been very successful
at getting on stages, nowthere's still that dopamine that
happens every time you get anemail that says, hey, so-and-so
wants you to come in and speak,or hey, are you available on
this day.
But I will also tell you I'mnot necessarily where I want to
(14:24):
be, in that you know I stillhave to fight the fight every
single day to get theopportunities.
Now, I'm not saying that evergoes away.
I think you always have tofight your fight and put your
name into the hat and say, hey,I'm available.
But I do think that you know itgets easier, right?
I would say half of myopportunities come to me and the
other half I have to go find,whereas in, you know, 2022, 2023
(14:46):
, I had to go find all of them,every single one of them, and so
that pendulum kind of switchesback to the other side, right?
Maria Quattrone (14:54):
In the beginning, Kind of like listing
real estate.
People call and say I want tolist my home with you, and then
the other people we have to findthem.
Maybe they expired and we'recold calling them from a list.
It's the same thing same thingnow you've taken it to one to
many instead of one to one yeah,I mean, that's the only way to
(15:17):
scale right.
That's the only way it is trulythe only way to scale, but
there's a mindset around it.
So the question is who did youhave to become for that to
happen?
Michelle Berman - Mikel (15:29):
Well, I think I already was her back,
you know, all the way from thevery early stages of my life.
But you know, I have a coupleof words that I would use to
describe who did I have tobecome, and the two words I
would use is disciplined, andthe other word I would use is
relentless.
Relentless is a personalitytrait.
It's not in your DNA, right?
(15:50):
It's a, I guess, kind of it isin your DNA, but the reality of
it is is it's a choice to bethat way, right?
So it's a personality trait ofI am choosing to be this person.
But on the DNA side, I wouldsay the discipline it was just
ingrained in me from a veryearly age.
I had a very easy, I would say,in some circumstances,
(16:12):
upbringing great family.
Dad worked really hard, momworked really hard, I got to
swim all over the country allthe time.
Yeah, we weren't rich by anymeans, but we certainly weren't
poor, and it was kind of thatnormal middle class life that I
was living.
So for me, discipline came fromthe choice that my parents made
, which was to put me in a pool,and then the relentlessness
(16:34):
came from.
I wanted to win, right.
So discipline was showing up tothe pool every day because my
parents were dropping me off atclass or at practice, and the
relentlessness came from mydecision of when I was there.
I wasn't just there to be there, right, my parents were
spending money and time andeffort to put me into something,
to give me a choice to createor to give me a chance to create
a good life for myself and tolearn skills, and that is where
(16:58):
the relentlessness was reallyborn in my mind.
So, from a very early age,discipline was ingrained in me.
Relentlessness was born in me,and fast forward to today, I
don't know anyone that's morerelentless than I am.
I've met some that are veryclose, but I get complimented
(17:19):
regularly.
Michelle, I've never metsomebody better at follow-up
than you.
I get recruited to come be arealtor or be a mortgage
professional, like I swear everysingle day because people are
like oh my gosh, you would makea great realtor.
Oh my gosh, michelle, you'dmake a great lender.
Because my follow-up game isparamount.
Nothing overshadows myfollow-up game.
That is always first on my listevery single day, of following
(17:39):
up with the people that need tobe followed up with.
So that's that relentlessnessthat's in you and you have to
make that a choice right.
The discipline of doing thethings that make relentlessness
make sense.
Right, because if Irelentlessly pursued
opportunities but didn't have astructure behind me, then it
would fall flat and it wouldn'twork right.
So it's not one or the other.
I really think that both ofthose words feed into one
(18:01):
another.
Maria Quattrone (18:04):
All of the uh, all the business, the
opportunities I don't care whatindustry you're in all come from
the follow-up.
If you look at what sales are80, 80 of sales come after the
fifth to 12th conversation.
In some industries it may be alittle bit more, but very few
follow-up is that many timesmore, but very few follow-up is
that many times?
And in regards to say, yourfollow-up strategy, what does
(18:28):
that look like?
Yeah, that can be.
That can go into any industry.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (18:34):
Oh, no matter what industry, absolutely
.
So I have a list that I makeand a lot of it's in my head.
But also I have these littlecards.
I don't know if everyone'sgoing to be able to see us, but
I have these little cards that Iuse and I can send you the link
, maria, if you want to give itto people.
But it's called analog Icouldn't say the word for a
second analog and it wasrecommended to me by my coach,
(18:54):
renee Rodriguez, back about ayear and a half ago when I took
his amplify course.
And it's these little cards thatyou write down on and you like,
highlight the circle halfwaynext to the whatever the thing
is you wrote down.
You highlight it halfway onceyou started the project and then
you highlight it the whole wayonce you finished it.
And, unlike a planner which Iused to be a planner person,
(19:17):
like hardcore, like a writtenplanner, I'd bring it everywhere
with me, never left my side,right, and the thing with a
planner that was reallyinteresting to me
psychologically, that I thenlearned on, learned about later
on, is with a planner, we closeit Right, so it's closed and
it's next to us, or it's closedand it's in our backpack when we
write our notes down.
The thing with these cards isit sits on my desk right next to
(19:38):
me in this little thing and itstares at me all day, right?
So I know exactly what's infront of me and I know exactly.
Hey, I made a list of seventhings and I only did one of
them today.
So my work isn't done todayuntil I get through another one
or two more of them, right?
So it's sort of this analogstyle system that
(19:59):
psychologically breeds get shitdone.
But I write the names on of thepeople.
I also have a sales call log,so I have probably 10 to 15
sales calls a week, um, and whenI have a call with someone, I
obviously take notes on them.
But the most important thing Ido and this is for everybody,
regardless of what industryyou're in, if you're in sales is
(20:19):
I schedule my followup callwith that person before we get
off the phone.
So if I don't sell, them if Idon't sell them on the phone
which happens, you know, atleast 50% of the time then I
will put them on my calendar andI always say to the person I
have a very strict 48 hour rulefor following up.
I'm looking at my calendar.
Today is Thursday.
(20:39):
I know we're heading into theweekend, so are you available
tomorrow?
Or I can talk to you firstthing Monday morning.
Monday, I've got a 9am.
Does that work for you, right?
So I don't give.
Let them tell me what works forthem.
I give them a time and let themsay no, and then we find a new
time, right.
And by putting them on mycalendar it also creates that
need in them to hopefully notghost me, which people still
(21:01):
ghost, you know.
Whatever, that's just sales,but it creates a significantly
smaller amount.
That will do that, especiallyif they accepted the calendar
invite for the next call.
Maria Quattrone (21:12):
And yeah, yes, that's really important.
I always stress that schedulethe call when you're on the call
, the next call, and sometimesI'm guilty myself of giving them
too much breathing room.
Yes, I just thought aboutyesterday's meeting with
somebody.
I met with them and I didn'tnail down specifically the next
(21:36):
time based on the way themeeting went.
And I think back to that nowand I have to question myself
for why I didn't nail that timedown.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (21:49):
Yep.
Maria Quattrone (21:50):
So that's an interesting system.
I don't know, because you knowI have a little notebook right
here I write in, but you know itgets closed.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (22:00):
Yep, that's the difference.
It gets closed and then guesswhat happens Gets put away and
you forget what's on there.
And it gets closed and thenguess what happens gets put away
and you forget what's on there.
Um, my mind gets closed.
I'm telling you it's such asimple thing and you would be
like, wow, that's.
You know, I, I'm a plannerperson, whatever, I'm good.
But, like I'm telling you, itis game changing for
productivity.
Um, and I did some research onthe gentleman who created the
(22:22):
system the formal name of it islike Ugmonk, but it's called the
analog system and I did someresearch on the guy, watched
some of his YouTube videos andjust like kind of went down the
wormhole and I'm like this guyis brilliant, like all he's done
is getting us back, or gottenus humans back to the basics
right, which is what I knowyou're teaching all of your team
(22:43):
members and all of the peoplethat are learning from you, and
I know for sure that's what I'mteaching my people of just
getting back to the basics.
And psychologically, we spend somuch time trying to find the
next new thing or the next shinyobject to keep us excited, when
in reality, the true thing, thetrue differentiator between me
(23:03):
and somebody else is that I doexactly what I say I'm going to
do and I do not stop Right.
And I do the basics of thatCalling people, following up
with them via text message,right, and if I say I'm going to
call you in 48 hours, Iactually call you in 48 hours
and if you don't answer, I'mgoing to text you right
afterwards and say we had a callon our calendar, don't see you?
(23:28):
Right?
Text me if you want toreschedule and if not, feel free
to call me back Right, like, soit's.
It's just the basic principlesof sales and I also believe that
the best people who aresuccessful in sales are the ones
that one are the best attelling stories, but, more
importantly, are the ones thatfind a story to connect with the
person on, to keep theirinterest, to almost make them
(23:49):
feel like they have to answeryour call when you call them
again in a couple of days.
So we can certainly unpack that, but I think that's a big part
of tracking and maintaining yoursales pipeline.
Maria Quattrone (24:02):
So let's talk a little bit more about that and
what you mean by stories a storyof somebody else's success.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (24:09):
No, a story about the person find a
connector right.
So a big thing that I teach inmy world is finding connection
with someone right.
What makes you?
You and you know I teach aspecific pillar of content
called value series.
And what value series does isit allows you to combine your
passions with your pain pointsinto a video series, and the
(24:30):
beautiful side about this seriesis that you record your videos
in the element of the passion.
So, if you love wine, if youlove reading, if you love card
games, if you love hummingbirdsI don't care what it is you're
recording your video content inthe element of the passion,
meaning wine, guess what.
You're going to a winery oryou're recording in a wine
cellar or you're, you know,poker.
You're in the element of poker.
(24:51):
You got a poker table in frontof you.
Um, I just had a lady submit aseries to me.
Um, she's a God person, a womanof faith who I love.
Um, and she actually found areally cool church that has a
big, beautiful wooden cross outfront and she recorded all five
of her videos in front of thebig cross.
Uh, just came out super, supercute, but it keeps us out of the
(25:11):
elements of our offices right,or like the environment of our
offices is a better word wherewe're just sort of sitting with
our phone in our face or withour phone and a tripod, um, and
recording the way that everyoneelse records.
So there's a couple of thingsthere.
Everyone wants more engagement,but they're not willing to
create opportunities for peopleto engage.
That's number one.
Number two is if you're havinga hard time with showing up on
(25:33):
video, which I'm sorry, thereare way too many people out
there shoving video downeverybody's throats.
But I will tell you like, yes,you need to be on video.
But here's the thing aboutvideo itself is it's being
taught wrong, because the bestthing about video, in my mind,
and the best way to do video isto put the person that you're
trying to get to do them insomewhere or in an element that
(25:55):
makes them feel safe, so thatthey are confident and does and
they desire doing it Right.
So, for example, if my clientgets to go do her videos in
front of a church and buy across and she's a big woman of
faith, does several missionsevery mission, trips every year
went just got back fromGuatemala to do a really fun
trip.
They built a whole playgroundfor an orphanage.
(26:16):
I mean, it was so fun to watchand be a part of the journey
with her, but she hates video,she hates doing them, she hates
the sound of her voice, which isisn't that what we all say.
And so, by putting her in theelement of something that makes
her feel safe and makes her feelgood, you would never know in a
million years watching her onvideo, that she was nervous
about it at all zero.
(26:36):
And you can tell she's havingfun, because the next time I met
with her she even said to meshe was already planning her
next series, and to me thatmeans that I succeeded in moving
this person's needle towardsbeing on video more.
And then, thirdly so that wasnumber two.
But thirdly, what happens is thepeople that consume your video
(26:57):
are significantly more in sortof invited into your world.
They feel more towards youbecause they can tell that
you're more passionate and moreexcited about what you're
talking about.
Right, like if, if I love dogswhich I do right and I'm on
video and on camera and I, youcan feel my love and energy
towards these animals You'remore likely to want to watch my
(27:19):
video versus if I look reallyuncomfortable and awkward.
You're kind of like what isMichelle doing, right, and it
sort of gives off a weird energy.
So if you create that, yousound more confident, people are
more likely to believe you andmore likely to stay engaged or
tune into more of what you'redoing.
So it's better for you, it'sbetter for them, it's better all
(27:40):
around to create the thirdthing, or, in this case, the
first thing I mentioned on thelist, which is engagement.
Maria Quattrone (27:45):
Engagement.
I guess I have to move to Italy.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (27:49):
Or you have to create an environment
that makes it feel like that Doyou have an Italian restaurant
you can go to that has anambience and a vibe that reminds
you of going to Italy?
Right, is there somewhere thatyou have in your home that you
designed a space that makes itfeel like that?
Right, that's where your safespace would be.
If that's something that makes,you know, kind of lights you on
(28:10):
fire, so, yeah, you got to goput yourself in the element.
Maria Quattrone (28:11):
So let's talk about how you you built beyond
the method.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (28:16):
Sure, what do you want to know?
Maria Quattrone (28:19):
I want to know all of it as much as you want to
share.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (28:25):
Yeah, so um, beyond the Method was
born in 2019.
It was originally called theInstagram Power Method when we
first launched in that year,july of that year.
The name changed in late 2021.
Early 2022 was the officialchange, but we got slapped with
a trademark lawsuit with theword Instagram being in our name
.
I guess somebody was mad at mysuccess enough that they wanted
to be that guy.
(28:46):
So we got slapped with a littletrademark lawsuit, ended up
having to pay a lawyer totrademark the name beyond the
method and that was the ultimatekind of transition away from
the word Instagram in our name.
And at the time it was actuallya really beautiful thing when it
happened, because my companyhad evolved so much that it
wasn't just Instagram.
It really was a lot more thanthe Instagram power method.
(29:08):
It really was this sort ofbeyond concept.
So it was kind of a rebirth,phoenix rising kind of moment
for me in my life when thathappened.
But I built it in 2019 afterabout a year of life trials and
tribulations and some stuff thathad happened to me in 2018, um,
I was in a really, really toxicand unhealthy relationship that
(29:29):
ended in January of 2018, goton a plane, um, in a couple, a
couple months after that, andflew to Manchester in the United
Kingdom, um, to meet with acoach that I had met online but
had never met in person, um, soI spent it was the first time I
had ever left the country, bythe way, um in 2018, never even
been to Mexico, even though Igrew up in California, it was
(29:50):
just like never did it, um, butflew all the way across the
world to the United Kingdom, ummet my coach in real life.
We spent eight days inManchester, um, going to coffee
shops here and there, all overthe place.
He knew how much I loved coffeeand his wife and I had become
friends over the years ofworking with them, and so she
knew all of the cute littlecoffee shops for us to go to.
(30:13):
And we mind mapped out what isnow known as Beyond the Method,
and the best visual example Ican give you is there was a big
white poster board paper infront of us with a black Sharpie
, and by the end of the week, Imean, we had gone through stacks
and stacks of these papers, andI still have the picture saved
in my phone.
I really should get it framed.
I don't know why I never have,but I just I still have the
(30:35):
photo and then you can see theword Instagram power method
circled at the bottom in thebottom corner.
And when he sent me back homeand I got back to the States, he
told me I had to fire all myclients that were not in the
real estate or mortgage spaceand I had to go to work on
building the Instagram powermethod.
And you know, again, laterbecame beyond the method, but
that was how it was born and itwas born out of the desire to
(30:59):
serve people on a level thatwasn't virality based.
So most social media classes,most social media courses, if
you will, that you're taking areall rooted in how to get more
followers, how to combat thealgorithm, how to make better
content, which I just again, notsaying that you don't need
those things, but I think it'sthe wrong way to coach someone
(31:20):
on something because, at the endof the day, virality does not
pay my bills.
Having a DM come in or mesending a DM that creates an
appointment on my calendar iswhat pays my bills.
So my course beyond the methodis solely rooted in how do we
utilize what we have to createappointments and how do we
create leverage for ourselves toget more appointments?
Content matters yes, I'm notgoing to discount the fact that
(31:43):
we have to have great content,but I'm going to tell you that's
not the end all be all.
In the overall scheme of things.
So that's really how it was allborn, but I was in 2014, before
I created.
Many years before this happened,I was buying and selling
Instagram accounts.
Like you would buy and sellreal estate and flipping them
for profit, very similar to howa flipper buys and sells and
(32:06):
holds and renovates and thensells.
It was the same exact concept,but it was on Instagram.
So I bought my first twoInstagram accounts in 2014 for
$20,000.
I sold both of them for alittle over 100,000 in 2018.
Pretty good ROI on aninvestment, and in the process,
I was buying and selling ads forcompanies, while also growing
the accounts throughout those umalmost five years, and so I got
(32:30):
really really good at sniffingout fake things, right.
Fake video views, fake content,um, fake followers, all of the
fake stuff, the bots, all ofthat that everybody knows is out
there.
Um.
I also got really good atunderstanding what kind of
things actually make an audience, make an action or drives
decision making.
So like, for example, if acompany would reach out to me
(32:52):
and ask for something or askedme to promote this you know
product, they would tell me hey,here's a chunk of money.
You take this chunk of moneyand you can use it.
However.
You want to get our adpositioned on other accounts,
you've got to write the copy,you've got to make the ads OK.
So now it was my job to go findother Instagram accounts that
would make sense for that ad togo on.
So I had to understand audiencedemographics and understand how
(33:15):
to actually drive a mom or awife, or a man, for that matter,
or a young teenager to drive itto purchase something.
So you've got to really tapinto the brains of people.
All of that then became thefoundation of how I built Beyond
the Method and what ultimatelyhappened, and I'll stamp or you
know, kind of mic drop momenthere and say what I discovered
(33:38):
truly was that if we can createemotion in someone enough where
they feel inclined to stickaround, it is up to us to send
the message, to create theopportunity, because they will
not do it on their own Right.
Maybe some will one in ahundred but the other 99 are
literally waiting for you to bethe one to send a message.
(34:00):
So in 2018, I got really goodat sending the messages and I
was like, oh my gosh, this isworking.
Hence the build of beyond theMethod, with the foundation of
it being content matters.
Yes, we need to understand that, but the true secret sauce is
converting the opportunitiesthat we have, or the eyeballs
that we have, into ROI.
Maria Quattrone (34:24):
That's interesting, people won't reach
out.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (34:28):
They're sitting there waiting for you
to, but they're giving you allthe signs.
Maria Quattrone (34:34):
It's like dating yeah.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (34:36):
Yeah, I mean it's, it's truly, it's
like dating, right, you thinkabout it.
It's like, oh, there's a cuteguy at the, at the gym, and he's
, he's clearly like payingattention to you, but he's
probably too fricking nervous todo anything himself.
Um, and in my case I speak fromexperience because I married
him Right.
So it's, you know, it's kind ofa funny thing.
He, my husband, was the guy thatshowed up at the gym on time
(34:57):
every time, no matter what.
He was always there right ontime, sat in front of the same
blue door in the gym that wewere in, with his headphones in.
He was so structured and Iremember texting my best friend
at the time and said I think Ijust met my husband Now.
We had never spoken before,never said hello, nothing, right
, it was just I freaking knew it.
But the reality of it was hewas never going to be the one to
(35:20):
shoot the shot the first.
The first time it was going tohave to be me.
So I did, and we've beenmarried for six and a half years
and have a beautiful almostfour year old that we're
planning his birthday.
Maria Quattrone (35:33):
Oh, have a beautiful almost four-year-old
that were planning his birthday.
Oh my gosh, what a story.
That's beautiful.
Shoot your shot, shoot yourshot.
You have to have the confidenceto shoot the shot I mean yes,
but also like no, in one sense.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (35:46):
Right, like you have to have the desire
to shoot your shot and then theconfidence follows.
Right Now did I have theconfidence to shoot my shot only
because he was giving me allthe signs that I probably could
shoot the shot?
But no, I really, at the timewhen I met my husband, I was in
a very dark time of my life.
I document a lot of this in thebook but or in my book coming
(36:11):
out, but I was in a very, verydark place personally.
So, no, there wasn't a wholelot of confidence involved in
who Michelle was, but there wasa lot of um seeing the signs on
on the wall of like this guy'sclearly into me and I think he's
super cute and there'ssomething about him that I can't
really understand.
But God is telling me to that.
That's my human Uh, understand,but God is telling me to that
(36:32):
that's my human, Uh, so I thinkit's desire Such a beautiful
story.
Maria Quattrone (36:36):
My gosh, you knew and you didn't even go out
with him yet.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (36:40):
Nope, we got married two months after
we went on our first date.
Wow, wow, yep, two months tothe day, almost we got.
Our first date was January 9thand we got married March 7th.
(37:01):
Wow, that's incredible.
Yeah, I'm, I'm I'm notrecommending it necessarily Um,
in the sense of the first yearwas pretty tough for both of us,
but, um, we were very much soall in and you could tell, and
he asked me to marry him whilewe were driving to the gym one
morning.
Um, we were stopped at a redlight and he was just like hey,
by the way, I know we want to,you know, get rid of the house
that you lived in and get ourown house, but that means we
should probably get married,right.
And I'm like, what Did you justask me to marry you?
And I get out of the car and Icall my best friend and I was
(37:22):
like I'm pretty sure.
Well, nope, he did.
And, yeah, I, you know, thefirst year was was turbulent.
Of course, when you're brandnew with someone, there's always
those moments of, well, whatthe heck did we just do?
But wait, we're already married.
So we got to figure our waythrough this.
But, yeah, I mean, honestly,it's been a beautiful six and a
(37:45):
half years that I wouldn't tradefor the world.
I'm sure he would trade somemoments, is my guess, but
wouldn't we all?
Maria Quattrone (37:54):
That's great.
I love your energy.
It's so amazing.
Oh my God, what a story.
It's a great story.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (38:00):
So the book you're 30 days out.
I'm 30 days out.
It's that is crazy to say outloud, but yes, we're about 35 to
40 max, but yeah, really 30.
Our goal is August 25th.
We're at the day we'rerecording.
This is July 17th.
So yeah, we're.
We're right around that 30 to40 day mark.
Maria Quattrone (38:21):
And you know, a lot of people want to write a
book.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (38:23):
They sure do, but a lot of people
don't write a book.
Maria Quattrone (38:29):
A lot of people don't write a book.
What do you think the definingline is of making the decision
to actually do it, and do itBecause it's not a real easy
thing?
Michelle Berman - Mikel (38:43):
No, it was the hardest thing I've ever
done.
I'm not even done with it, andI'll tell you it's the hardest
thing I've ever done.
Only thing harder, honestly,was losing a baby at the end of
last year.
There's nothing that's harderor has been harder in my life.
But I will tell you, writing abook came from a lot of life
experiences and I'll tell you, Igraduated college in 2012.
(39:05):
And there was a moment atgraduation where I remember
telling my father hey, dad, I'mgoing to write a book someday.
I have no idea what it's goingto be about.
I have no clue what the titleis going to be.
I don't know what the storyabout it or what's involved in
it.
Don't have any idea, but what Ican tell you is I feel like I
have a voice and I feel likesomebody needs to hear this or
to hear my story, but I don'tknow what it is yet, but when I
(39:32):
do, I'll let you know.
And that was in 2012, when Igraduated, and it's now 2025.
And I didn't start writing thebook until the latter half of
2024.
And I'll tell you whatultimately happened for me.
I got there's so many definingmoments and I have one of my
best friends in our world, thespeaking world.
Her company's name is DefiningDifference Cindy Yertman, if
you're familiar with Cindylistening to this.
(39:53):
But her and I talk about mydefining moments a lot, and
there was a couple, but one inparticular was actually when I
went to Amplify with Renee forthe first time in February of
2024.
Last year I walked into theroom and he said you know
everybody, not just me, all ofthe 10 of us that were there.
He's like everybody.
You know who are you and whatdo you do.
(40:15):
We all failed this assignment.
Let me just go ahead and saythat out loud.
Like, we all royally failedthis assignment and we all were
like what do you mean?
That is what I do Like, and itwas very interesting because
what he helped us understand waswe're not somebody that just
has a product, right, we createa solution for someone or for
(40:36):
something to a problem thatsomeone has.
And what I discovered in thatconversation and ultimately in
those two and a half days, wasthat I was trying to put myself
into a world, or trying to fitinto a world that I didn't
belong in, right?
So I was trying to be a socialmedia person because I thought
that's what I was compared toall these other people.
(40:59):
But what I really was was aprospecting expert, right Cause,
when you really look at thebaseline of who Michelle is and
how Michelle has been successful, I was really really good at
prospecting every opportunity Ihad ever gotten.
When you look back on it andyou're's been successful, I was
really really good atprospecting every opportunity I
had ever gotten.
When you look back on it andyou're like, wow, how did I get
that one?
How did I get that one?
None of it had to do with mycontent going viral, because my
content doesn't.
And still to this day, I havenever gone viral on any social
(41:22):
platform, right?
So?
But you look at my content andyou're like, wow, it looks
really good and, yeah, it'sreally valuable and informative
and I can really feel whoMichelle is.
So I was doing that part of itreally really well, but I was
trying to teach that instead ofteaching what I was really good
at.
So when I was at the Amplifyevent, by the end of it we
determined Michelle's job title,meaning, like, what Michelle's
(41:45):
company does is I teach mortgageand real estate professionals
how to understand the power ofleverage to create opportunity
for themselves.
And how do you do that?
Through the art of activeoutbound prospecting.
So when that happened, I gothome and I had literally written
that exact sentence down.
I kid you not, it was one oflike those insane light bulb
moments when you write asentence down and you're like,
(42:06):
hold on, whoa, right, like thatis what it is and it was.
It sounds really like dramatic,but it honestly really was that
dramatic, like it was thatcrazy um sitting at a dining
room table and a man I just methouse Right, um.
But when I got home I did someresearch on this concept of
prospecting to understand trulylike the root word and really
(42:29):
just kind of dug into it.
Um, and about three months laterso that was in May, about three
months later, I called one ofmy dear friends who runs a
company called buildingchampions, daniel Harkavy, and I
said, daniel, I think I'm readyto do this.
He's like are you sure you'reready?
And I'm like I think I'm readyto.
You know, I think I, I think Igot it.
And so he introduced me to mycopywriter, who I will release
(42:51):
publicly his name here very,very soon.
He's actually coming to ourofficial book signing in October
, which I'm very, very excitedabout.
But I met with him and on thevery first call I knew instantly
that this guy was the rightperson for me because of how he
understood what I wasarticulating.
But, more importantly, heunderstood the way I wanted the
(43:12):
message to be presented and hedid a phenomenal job at getting
it out of me.
But, um, that was my likedefining moment was when I
realized that I had a story ofall of these things that had
happened to me in my life andhow I had gotten successful and
become successful had nothing todo with what I was trying to
fit myself into.
And I woke up and I was like Ihave my voice.
(43:35):
I now know what it is.
And throughout the journey ofwriting my book, I lost my
husband and I second baby and itwas another defining moment in
writing the book for me and Iactually called my copywriter
when it was as it was happeningand we had talked almost almost
every day throughout mymiscarriage and we ended up
rewriting the table of contentsright in the middle of my
(43:57):
miscarriage.
And I believe the book that iscoming to market here now, in
about 3040 days, is a directreflection of all of those
things and having such a clearand defined voice in a very,
very crowded marketplace of alot of other people who want to
say that they're social mediaexperts or say that they're
social media coaches, and in mymind, let them be that, because
(44:20):
that's not who I am and I don'tneed to be that because I am who
I am.
Maria Quattrone (44:24):
Wow, that is so exciting, so powerful, and you
can see and hear the passion inyour voice about what it is that
you do and really figuring outwho you are, and I got
(44:45):
goosebumps.
I'm so excited to read thisbook and you and I have so many
things in common that you don'teven know.
Yeah, that's a story foranother day, but, my gosh, this
is like amazing.
You certainly are, michelle,the solution and your process
(45:08):
and your systems.
I can't imagine that anybodythat knows you cannot wait to
read this book.
And I don't know.
I'm excited.
I'm excited for you.
I'm like, I'm like I don't know, oh giddy.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (45:24):
Well, I appreciate that so much and I
just appreciate the support it'sbeen.
You know, whenever you decideto do something big, you're kind
of like is anybody going tocare?
Is this going to matter?
And I think that's my numberone insecurity around writing a
book and I'm sure every authorhas that which is, you know,
when you put a book to market,you want it to matter, right,
(45:45):
you want it to create an impact.
And I, one of my absolutefavorite humans on this planet
and one of my biggest, biggestmentors she said to me she's
like you better be prepared,because what if you become the
next Mel Robbins?
And I'm like, well, that's notgoing to happen.
But and she was like, wait aminute, whoa, whoa.
Like hold on, like you'reassuming that that won't happen.
But Mel Robbins didn't thinkthat was going to happen when
(46:05):
Mel Robbins wrote her first book, or when she was, you know,
starting off in the beginning.
And I was like, well, you know,that's not what I feel like I
was necessarily put on thisplanet to do, but I do believe
that, um, god has given me atalent and I hope he's smiling
down on me, knowing that I trulybelieve I'm doing what he put
me here to do, which is servingpeople, creating disciples in
(46:29):
our world.
Of other people I've had, I'vegotten messages of people who
have said like that I've beenthe reason that they've gotten
back in touch with their faith.
Right, and to me that's a hugewin.
What, what better reason to dowhat you're doing than to bring
other people back to faith, orto faith in the first place?
Um, you know.
So for me it's just about.
I have a story, I havesomething that I think other
(46:49):
people can resonate with, and ifI can serve and save one person
, or if I can serve and helpsomeone save their own business
right, meaning like someonewho's in business who might be
struggling if I can help saveyour business, then I'm going to
do it.
Yeah.
Maria Quattrone (47:06):
That's great.
It's beautiful message.
I want to thank you so much fortaking time today to get
together and learn a little bitmore about you and what you do,
and it's exciting.
The sky's the limit, right,michelle.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (47:21):
I agree .
You never know until you know.
Maria Quattrone (47:24):
You never know until you know, and we'll look
for that book coming out inmid-August, august 25th is our
goal.
I'm Maria Quattrone and this is the Be the
Solution podcast, and today I'mvery excited to bring Michelle
Berman-Mikel on.
Welcome Michelle.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (00:11):
Thank you so much, maria, excited to
be here.
Maria Quattrone (00:13):
Excited to spend some time with you.
We've known each other throughsocial media, but it is great to
connect on the podcast and ifyou know anything about me and
my podcast, I have a quotespecifically that I thought
about for you, specifically foryou, this morning.
Here's, here's the quote foryou you make your choices and
(00:38):
then your choices make you.
I love that you make yourchoices and then your choices
make you.
I love that you make yourchoices and then your choices
make you, and I thought thatthis quote was important for you
because you've made some reallyimportant choices in your life
and you've made them and youkept making the right ones.
(01:00):
Over time, of course, we makethe ones that throw us off the
path, but I think it's importantand we talk about you know, it
really is the small things tinyhinges, swing big doors, all the
difference in um, in our lives,and how.
It's not any magical big thingthat's going to happen yep, no,
(01:24):
it's not I agree so you knowyour journey.
Like, let's talk about yourjourney how it started and how
you got to where you are rightnow yeah.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (01:38):
Well, we can go all the way back.
We can start as far back as asI can remember, or we could
start more on the work side, um,but I'll tell you.
You know, there's some pivotalmoments in my life that have
happened over the years.
One is recently, as late lastyear, and then you know the
first one that I think I cantalk about very confidently as
being one of those hinges rightthat have opened more doors is
(02:02):
back in the day.
Most of those people who aremost of you all listening to
this may know, but I've been anathlete my entire life.
I started swimming competitivelyat five and that was a big, big
part of my upbringing.
I was not really like the partygirl.
I did go out here and there,but for the most part I put my
head down and I swam a lot and Igot really good grades.
But with that, there was asaying that my dad said to me
(02:25):
for years and years and years ofalmost all 20 years of my
swimming career, and after everyrace, no matter if I won, no
matter if I got a personal besttime, no matter if I got dead
last and totally sucked, thequestion was always the same,
and it was.
You know, honey, was that thebest you could do today?
And I remember, as a youngergirl, being very frustrated by
that question and kind ofirritated of like dad, didn't
(02:46):
you just see me win?
Or you know, dad, what are youtalking about?
Didn't you just see me totallycrap the bed?
Like that was horrible.
But it was always the samequestion.
And what I didn't understandthen that I understand now is he
was priming me for my adultlife no-transcript.
(03:31):
So in the moment, you knowyou're frustrated, you're like
what do you mean, dad?
And and as I've grown up overthe years, right, and especially
starting my entrepreneurialjourney in 2014, you know the
question stayed very poignantfor me of was that the best I
could do today?
And did I show up with 100% ofwhat I had that day?
You know, in some days we don'thave 100% of ourselves.
(03:53):
Some days we only have 70 or80% of who we normally are.
But then even the questionstill lies, right, did we give
ourselves 100% of the 70% thatwe had that day, or the 80% we
had that day?
And, um, you know, I'll neverforget when I had the flu, when
I got home about a year ago froma trip I was at, a big work
trip came home and it was myhusband and my son had had the
(04:14):
flu before I left but I thoughtI had circumvented it.
Thankfully, of course, that wasnot the case.
Get home and it was the worstflu I have ever had.
It was eight days of just on mybutt like did not, could not do
anything.
It was horrible.
Um, and I just kept tellingmyself throughout the week all I
have to do is get the onepriority thing done today.
That's it Just the one prioritything done.
(04:36):
You know most people would belike, well, I have the flu, I'll
just take the whole week off.
And there were deadlines thathad to be made, there were
clients that needed things,there were stuff that needed to
get done.
So, yes, a lot of that stuffthat wasn't priority got pushed
off.
But I made a commitment everysingle day of those eight days,
even though I felt like shitright, that I was going to get
that one thing done that neededto really get done.
(04:56):
And I did and I'm proud of that.
So it all comes back to thatquestion again of did you give
yourself or did you give yourpeople 100% of what you had that
day, even if it was only youknow half of your normal
capacity.
Maria Quattrone (05:10):
I love that.
Was that the best that you cando today?
Because really it's what itcomes down to, and we don't
always have a hundred percent.
For lots of reasons, sickdidn't sleep all night.
For lots of reasons, sickdidn't sleep all night, baby
(05:38):
crying you know, something wokeus up in the middle of the night
and we were up for three hours.
But can we accept that?
Michelle Berman - Mikel (05:48):
Yeah, I mean, I think that's what we
can do today.
I think it even goes down tosomething as simple as like
working out right, like thereare many a days where I don't
want to do it because I'm tiredor I've had a long day.
But every time I say, you knowwhat I've had, I'm tired, I've
had a long day, I'll just skipit.
I feel like crap about it.
I feel like crap about myself,right, it's like that almost
thing in the back of my mindthat I'm just like, oh, I should
have just done it Right.
So in the moment, yeah, theanswer would have been easy to
say, nobody would have beensurprised.
Oh, michelle didn't work outtoday, or Michelle didn't do a
(06:09):
run today because she was onZoom for seven hours, or you
know, this happened or thathappened, whatever we can
justify it however much we want,but we, we are the only ones
that really feel that feeling onthe inside of man.
I really should have just donewhat I said I was going to do,
or what I was capable of doing,and I chose not to.
Maria Quattrone (06:26):
Right.
So integrity doing what you sayyou're going to do and the only
person that integrity affectsreally is yourself, because each
time you don't do what you sayyou're going to do, a little bit
of your confidence is destroyed, is gone, Because then we stop
trusting ourselves.
So if you don't trust yourself,you don't you're going to trust
(06:47):
anybody else.
You have to trust yourself.
In order to trust yourself iskeeping the commitments that you
say you're going to do,whatever it is.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (06:57):
Yep.
Maria Quattrone (06:57):
It's really that simple.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (06:59):
It really is that simple.
Maria Quattrone (07:00):
It's that simple because that simple.
It's that simple because, youknow, I thought about a time
when I started to lift weightsand I would say, okay, I'm going
to do it these days.
And then each time I did it andI got a little bit better, I
got more confidence.
And when you had the moreconfidence, the confidence gave
(07:26):
you more confidence and made youwant to do more, because now
you're winning.
So I don't know anybody thatdoesn't want to win.
Michelle, do you?
Michelle Berman - Mikel (07:31):
no, I don't, I mean, and no, I mean
even people that are not insales, right, I mean, I know a
lot of my close friends that areall not in sales, that you know
, just work a normal I don'twant to say normal because that
sounds bad, but like just a, atraditional nine to five that
isn't rooted in commission oranything like that, and they
still want to do the best theycan do every day.
(07:52):
You know they they visit oremotionally, not physically, but
they emotionally attach almostlike their self worth right of
to did I do the best I could doat my job today.
Right, one of my next doorneighbors, a couple doors over,
um, her and I have gotten superclose since they've moved in and
, um, same thing, she works fora big or not a big mortgage
company, I'm sorry.
She works for a big companycalled train, very popular
(08:14):
company, most people know it.
Um, and she describes her workday to me and I'm just like damn
girl, like what you have to doevery day.
That's, it's crazy what youhave to accomplish in a day, you
know, and she's not commissionbased, she just gets her salary,
but you can hear it when she'stalking about what she does, how
important showing up her bestor in her best capacity for her
job really is, not just to hercompany but to her Right.
(08:36):
So I think you know we'reobviously commission based
employees, as I'm sure mostpeople listening to this are,
but it doesn't matter if you areor aren't.
I think the principle isfull-fledged.
Maria Quattrone (08:47):
It's pride, and the pride of doing the best
that you can do, yes, and thatcarries into other areas of your
life, because we don't live ina vacuum.
It's not just like you know,work, michelle, and real life,
michelle, and Maria, it's likefor me.
Me, it's the same same there'snot a different person that's
(09:10):
going to show up.
No, this is, I guarantee you,you're this, it's the same.
Where we're showing up rightnow is how we show up across the
board.
Yes, you know the old saying ofhow you do one thing is how you
do everything.
Absolutely, I love, I'm like, Ilove quotes.
I'm a quote person and I Ireally take like them to meaning
.
You know, one of my favoriteones is um and I talked a lot
(09:35):
about this in sales is whetheryou think you can or think you
can't, or think you can't.
Either way, you are right.
So your belief system aboutwhether you could do something
or not, and even if you haven'tdone it, you can take a borrowed
(09:55):
belief from somebody who hasdone it before, because is there
somebody that came before youthat is doing what?
Michelle Berman - Mikel (10:04):
you want to do 100%.
Maria Quattrone (10:06):
And if there is , then you can do it as well, as
long as you put the time,energy, work into it and goes
back to the tiny wins.
So I want to talk about that.
You know, before we got ontoday, I asked you about your
speaking and how you started toget involved in speaking and
being on stages and trainingcompanies, and so I want to go
(10:28):
back to how you went from hereto over to this side and what
that looked like and what youhad to do and who, most
importantly who you had tobecome to do it.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (10:42):
Yeah, it's.
This is is a.
It's an interesting world to bein.
Right, being a speaker is areally challenging um dynamic.
It's a.
It's a space that breaking intois an uphill battle.
Every day, every day right, andalso every at bat of being on
stage directly correlates to thenext one, and I think that
(11:03):
that's something that I'velearned over the years.
But I will tell you, I startedspeaking in very late 2021 and I
had a baby in August of 2021,during COVID, and right after
that, I had a random companyreach out and ask if I would
come do a training in theiroffice.
Okay, that that was a coolintroduction to it.
Well, there happened to beabout 150 real estate agents in
(11:24):
that office.
So this wasn't a small littlething and I had no concept of
you know what I was reallywalking into.
Other it was other than it wasin a Keller Williams office at
the time.
Um, so I walk in and I'm, youknow, training in front of this
room of 150 agents, and I wasn'ta speaker at the time.
I was very much so more of ateacher, and I still am more of
(11:44):
a teacher than I am a speaker.
But what I can tell you is.
I caught the bug right.
I started seeing all theselight bulbs go off all over the
place in the room with people.
People were coming up to me andwhen I was done talking, it was
a 90 minute training session.
At the end I mean I could notleave.
I had a line of people thatwanted to talk to me and wanted
to pick my brain about thingsand I remember going home and
(12:06):
just telling my husband I waslike, man, that was freaking fun
but I'm exhausted.
Like that was hard, you know.
But it was so much fun and Icaught this bug of wow, I can
really serve on a one to manylevel and I can do it in a way
that feeds my pipeline for mycompany and for what I do.
So I started actively pursuingmore of those and one of the
(12:33):
things that I did was makingsure that I would market.
Hey, I had done this thingpublicly on social so that other
companies would see that I wasavailable quote unquote to do
that.
So it became a part of mymarketing strategy to post this
to the world that, hey, I wasdoing this, but 2022, 2023, I
was doing this, but um 2022,2023,.
Every year it's progressed,it's gotten bigger and bigger.
(12:54):
Um, this past year, in 2025, um, some of the biggest speaking
opportunities I could have everimagined happening have happened
.
Um, I spoke at mastermind summitin Vegas a couple of weeks ago
and you know about 500 people inthe room, at least even on the
last day of the event, which wasamazing, and it was on a big
stage in a big hotel in Vegasand it was wow.
Why is this happening to me?
And I'll be speaking later thisyear at Fuse, which is a big
(13:16):
broker event for the mortgagebroker community, which is wild
to me.
I never, three, four years ago,ever would have expected to be
on that stage, especially not insuch a short timeframe.
Um, but what I can tell you,marie, to answer your question,
is it was a daily decision thatI made every single day to do,
and that daily decision I talkso much about in every keynote.
(13:38):
It's in my book coming out.
It's a big part of myphilosophy of beyond the method,
um, but it's one single dailyact that I must do every single
day without fail in order tocreate an opportunity for myself
, and that one single daily actis sending a message to someone
that I do not know with theintention of creating an
opportunity and doing it throughleverage.
So I'll say it again for youknow, I know you like let's
(14:03):
unpack that, because there's alot in that.
So much yeah.
But also I'll say, even though,yes, I've been very successful
at getting on stages, nowthere's still that dopamine that
happens every time you get anemail that says, hey, so-and-so
wants you to come in and speak,or hey, are you available on
this day.
But I will also tell you I'mnot necessarily where I want to
(14:24):
be, in that you know I stillhave to fight the fight every
single day to get theopportunities.
Now, I'm not saying that evergoes away.
I think you always have tofight your fight and put your
name into the hat and say, hey,I'm available.
But I do think that you know itgets easier, right?
I would say half of myopportunities come to me and the
other half I have to go find,whereas in, you know, 2022, 2023
(14:46):
, I had to go find all of them,every single one of them, and so
that pendulum kind of switchesback to the other side, right?
Maria Quattrone (14:54):
In the beginning, Kind of like listing
real estate.
People call and say I want tolist my home with you, and then
the other people we have to findthem.
Maybe they expired and we'recold calling them from a list.
It's the same thing same thingnow you've taken it to one to
many instead of one to one yeah,I mean, that's the only way to
(15:17):
scale right.
That's the only way it is trulythe only way to scale, but
there's a mindset around it.
So the question is who did youhave to become for that to
happen?
Michelle Berman - Mikel (15:29):
Well, I think I already was her back,
you know, all the way from thevery early stages of my life.
But you know, I have a coupleof words that I would use to
describe who did I have tobecome, and the two words I
would use is disciplined, andthe other word I would use is
relentless.
Relentless is a personalitytrait.
It's not in your DNA, right?
(15:50):
It's a, I guess, kind of it isin your DNA, but the reality of
it is is it's a choice to bethat way, right?
So it's a personality trait ofI am choosing to be this person.
But on the DNA side, I wouldsay the discipline it was just
ingrained in me from a veryearly age.
I had a very easy, I would say,in some circumstances,
(16:12):
upbringing great family.
Dad worked really hard, momworked really hard, I got to
swim all over the country allthe time.
Yeah, we weren't rich by anymeans, but we certainly weren't
poor, and it was kind of thatnormal middle class life that I
was living.
So for me, discipline came fromthe choice that my parents made
, which was to put me in a pool,and then the relentlessness
(16:34):
came from.
I wanted to win, right.
So discipline was showing up tothe pool every day because my
parents were dropping me off atclass or at practice, and the
relentlessness came from mydecision of when I was there.
I wasn't just there to be there, right, my parents were
spending money and time andeffort to put me into something,
to give me a choice to createor to give me a chance to create
a good life for myself and tolearn skills, and that is where
(16:58):
the relentlessness was reallyborn in my mind.
So, from a very early age,discipline was ingrained in me.
Relentlessness was born in me,and fast forward to today, I
don't know anyone that's morerelentless than I am.
I've met some that are veryclose, but I get complimented
(17:19):
regularly.
Michelle, I've never metsomebody better at follow-up
than you.
I get recruited to come be arealtor or be a mortgage
professional, like I swear everysingle day because people are
like oh my gosh, you would makea great realtor.
Oh my gosh, michelle, you'dmake a great lender.
Because my follow-up game isparamount.
Nothing overshadows myfollow-up game.
That is always first on my listevery single day, of following
(17:39):
up with the people that need tobe followed up with.
So that's that relentlessnessthat's in you and you have to
make that a choice right.
The discipline of doing thethings that make relentlessness
make sense.
Right, because if Irelentlessly pursued
opportunities but didn't have astructure behind me, then it
would fall flat and it wouldn'twork right.
So it's not one or the other.
I really think that both ofthose words feed into one
(18:01):
another.
Maria Quattrone (18:04):
All of the uh, all the business, the
opportunities I don't care whatindustry you're in all come from
the follow-up.
If you look at what sales are80, 80 of sales come after the
fifth to 12th conversation.
In some industries it may be alittle bit more, but very few
follow-up is that many timesmore, but very few follow-up is
that many times?
And in regards to say, yourfollow-up strategy, what does
(18:28):
that look like?
Yeah, that can be.
That can go into any industry.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (18:34):
Oh, no matter what industry, absolutely
.
So I have a list that I makeand a lot of it's in my head.
But also I have these littlecards.
I don't know if everyone'sgoing to be able to see us, but
I have these little cards that Iuse and I can send you the link
, maria, if you want to give itto people.
But it's called analog Icouldn't say the word for a
second analog and it wasrecommended to me by my coach,
(18:54):
renee Rodriguez, back about ayear and a half ago when I took
his amplify course.
And it's these little cards thatyou write down on and you like,
highlight the circle halfwaynext to the whatever the thing
is you wrote down.
You highlight it halfway onceyou started the project and then
you highlight it the whole wayonce you finished it.
And, unlike a planner which Iused to be a planner person,
(19:17):
like hardcore, like a writtenplanner, I'd bring it everywhere
with me, never left my side,right, and the thing with a
planner that was reallyinteresting to me
psychologically, that I thenlearned on, learned about later
on, is with a planner, we closeit Right, so it's closed and
it's next to us, or it's closedand it's in our backpack when we
write our notes down.
The thing with these cards isit sits on my desk right next to
(19:38):
me in this little thing and itstares at me all day, right?
So I know exactly what's infront of me and I know exactly.
Hey, I made a list of seventhings and I only did one of
them today.
So my work isn't done todayuntil I get through another one
or two more of them, right?
So it's sort of this analogstyle system that
(19:59):
psychologically breeds get shitdone.
But I write the names on of thepeople.
I also have a sales call log,so I have probably 10 to 15
sales calls a week, um, and whenI have a call with someone, I
obviously take notes on them.
But the most important thing Ido and this is for everybody,
regardless of what industryyou're in, if you're in sales is
(20:19):
I schedule my followup callwith that person before we get
off the phone.
So if I don't sell, them if Idon't sell them on the phone
which happens, you know, atleast 50% of the time then I
will put them on my calendar andI always say to the person I
have a very strict 48 hour rulefor following up.
I'm looking at my calendar.
Today is Thursday.
(20:39):
I know we're heading into theweekend, so are you available
tomorrow?
Or I can talk to you firstthing Monday morning.
Monday, I've got a 9am.
Does that work for you, right?
So I don't give.
Let them tell me what works forthem.
I give them a time and let themsay no, and then we find a new
time, right.
And by putting them on mycalendar it also creates that
need in them to hopefully notghost me, which people still
(21:01):
ghost, you know.
Whatever, that's just sales,but it creates a significantly
smaller amount.
That will do that, especiallyif they accepted the calendar
invite for the next call.
Maria Quattrone (21:12):
And yeah, yes, that's really important.
I always stress that schedulethe call when you're on the call
, the next call, and sometimesI'm guilty myself of giving them
too much breathing room.
Yes, I just thought aboutyesterday's meeting with
somebody.
I met with them and I didn'tnail down specifically the next
(21:36):
time based on the way themeeting went.
And I think back to that nowand I have to question myself
for why I didn't nail that timedown.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (21:49):
Yep.
Maria Quattrone (21:50):
So that's an interesting system.
I don't know, because you knowI have a little notebook right
here I write in, but you know itgets closed.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (22:00):
Yep, that's the difference.
It gets closed and then guesswhat happens Gets put away and
you forget what's on there.
And it gets closed and thenguess what happens gets put away
and you forget what's on there.
Um, my mind gets closed.
I'm telling you it's such asimple thing and you would be
like, wow, that's.
You know, I, I'm a plannerperson, whatever, I'm good.
But, like I'm telling you, itis game changing for
productivity.
Um, and I did some research onthe gentleman who created the
(22:22):
system the formal name of it islike Ugmonk, but it's called the
analog system and I did someresearch on the guy, watched
some of his YouTube videos andjust like kind of went down the
wormhole and I'm like this guyis brilliant, like all he's done
is getting us back, or gottenus humans back to the basics
right, which is what I knowyou're teaching all of your team
(22:43):
members and all of the peoplethat are learning from you, and
I know for sure that's what I'mteaching my people of just
getting back to the basics.
And psychologically, we spend somuch time trying to find the
next new thing or the next shinyobject to keep us excited, when
in reality, the true thing, thetrue differentiator between me
(23:03):
and somebody else is that I doexactly what I say I'm going to
do and I do not stop Right.
And I do the basics of thatCalling people, following up
with them via text message,right, and if I say I'm going to
call you in 48 hours, Iactually call you in 48 hours
and if you don't answer, I'mgoing to text you right
afterwards and say we had a callon our calendar, don't see you?
(23:28):
Right?
Text me if you want toreschedule and if not, feel free
to call me back Right, like, soit's.
It's just the basic principlesof sales and I also believe that
the best people who aresuccessful in sales are the ones
that one are the best attelling stories, but, more
importantly, are the ones thatfind a story to connect with the
person on, to keep theirinterest, to almost make them
(23:49):
feel like they have to answeryour call when you call them
again in a couple of days.
So we can certainly unpack that, but I think that's a big part
of tracking and maintaining yoursales pipeline.
Maria Quattrone (24:02):
So let's talk a little bit more about that and
what you mean by stories a storyof somebody else's success.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (24:09):
No, a story about the person find a
connector right.
So a big thing that I teach inmy world is finding connection
with someone right.
What makes you?
You and you know I teach aspecific pillar of content
called value series.
And what value series does isit allows you to combine your
passions with your pain pointsinto a video series, and the
(24:30):
beautiful side about this seriesis that you record your videos
in the element of the passion.
So, if you love wine, if youlove reading, if you love card
games, if you love hummingbirdsI don't care what it is you're
recording your video content inthe element of the passion,
meaning wine, guess what.
You're going to a winery oryou're recording in a wine
cellar or you're, you know,poker.
You're in the element of poker.
(24:51):
You got a poker table in frontof you.
Um, I just had a lady submit aseries to me.
Um, she's a God person, a womanof faith who I love.
Um, and she actually found areally cool church that has a
big, beautiful wooden cross outfront and she recorded all five
of her videos in front of thebig cross.
Uh, just came out super, supercute, but it keeps us out of the
(25:11):
elements of our offices right,or like the environment of our
offices is a better word wherewe're just sort of sitting with
our phone in our face or withour phone and a tripod, um, and
recording the way that everyoneelse records.
So there's a couple of thingsthere.
Everyone wants more engagement,but they're not willing to
create opportunities for peopleto engage.
That's number one.
Number two is if you're havinga hard time with showing up on
(25:33):
video, which I'm sorry, thereare way too many people out
there shoving video downeverybody's throats.
But I will tell you like, yes,you need to be on video.
But here's the thing aboutvideo itself is it's being
taught wrong, because the bestthing about video, in my mind,
and the best way to do video isto put the person that you're
trying to get to do them insomewhere or in an element that
(25:55):
makes them feel safe, so thatthey are confident and does and
they desire doing it Right.
So, for example, if my clientgets to go do her videos in
front of a church and buy across and she's a big woman of
faith, does several missionsevery mission, trips every year
went just got back fromGuatemala to do a really fun
trip.
They built a whole playgroundfor an orphanage.
(26:16):
I mean, it was so fun to watchand be a part of the journey
with her, but she hates video,she hates doing them, she hates
the sound of her voice, which isisn't that what we all say.
And so, by putting her in theelement of something that makes
her feel safe and makes her feelgood, you would never know in a
million years watching her onvideo, that she was nervous
about it at all zero.
(26:36):
And you can tell she's havingfun, because the next time I met
with her she even said to meshe was already planning her
next series, and to me thatmeans that I succeeded in moving
this person's needle towardsbeing on video more.
And then, thirdly so that wasnumber two.
But thirdly, what happens is thepeople that consume your video
(26:57):
are significantly more in sortof invited into your world.
They feel more towards youbecause they can tell that
you're more passionate and moreexcited about what you're
talking about.
Right, like if, if I love dogswhich I do right and I'm on
video and on camera and I, youcan feel my love and energy
towards these animals You'remore likely to want to watch my
(27:19):
video versus if I look reallyuncomfortable and awkward.
You're kind of like what isMichelle doing, right, and it
sort of gives off a weird energy.
So if you create that, yousound more confident, people are
more likely to believe you andmore likely to stay engaged or
tune into more of what you'redoing.
So it's better for you, it'sbetter for them, it's better all
(27:40):
around to create the thirdthing, or, in this case, the
first thing I mentioned on thelist, which is engagement.
Maria Quattrone (27:45):
Engagement.
I guess I have to move to Italy.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (27:49):
Or you have to create an environment
that makes it feel like that Doyou have an Italian restaurant
you can go to that has anambience and a vibe that reminds
you of going to Italy?
Right, is there somewhere thatyou have in your home that you
designed a space that makes itfeel like that?
Right, that's where your safespace would be.
If that's something that makes,you know, kind of lights you on
(28:10):
fire, so, yeah, you got to goput yourself in the element.
Maria Quattrone (28:11):
So let's talk about how you you built beyond
the method.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (28:16):
Sure, what do you want to know?
Maria Quattrone (28:19):
I want to know all of it as much as you want to
share.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (28:25):
Yeah, so um, beyond the Method was
born in 2019.
It was originally called theInstagram Power Method when we
first launched in that year,july of that year.
The name changed in late 2021.
Early 2022 was the officialchange, but we got slapped with
a trademark lawsuit with theword Instagram being in our name
.
I guess somebody was mad at mysuccess enough that they wanted
to be that guy.
(28:46):
So we got slapped with a littletrademark lawsuit, ended up
having to pay a lawyer totrademark the name beyond the
method and that was the ultimatekind of transition away from
the word Instagram in our name.
And at the time it was actuallya really beautiful thing when it
happened, because my companyhad evolved so much that it
wasn't just Instagram.
It really was a lot more thanthe Instagram power method.
(29:08):
It really was this sort ofbeyond concept.
So it was kind of a rebirth,phoenix rising kind of moment
for me in my life when thathappened.
But I built it in 2019 afterabout a year of life trials and
tribulations and some stuff thathad happened to me in 2018, um,
I was in a really, really toxicand unhealthy relationship that
(29:29):
ended in January of 2018, goton a plane, um, in a couple, a
couple months after that, andflew to Manchester in the United
Kingdom, um, to meet with acoach that I had met online but
had never met in person, um, soI spent it was the first time I
had ever left the country, bythe way, um in 2018, never even
been to Mexico, even though Igrew up in California, it was
(29:50):
just like never did it, um, butflew all the way across the
world to the United Kingdom, ummet my coach in real life.
We spent eight days inManchester, um, going to coffee
shops here and there, all overthe place.
He knew how much I loved coffeeand his wife and I had become
friends over the years ofworking with them, and so she
knew all of the cute littlecoffee shops for us to go to.
(30:13):
And we mind mapped out what isnow known as Beyond the Method,
and the best visual example Ican give you is there was a big
white poster board paper infront of us with a black Sharpie
, and by the end of the week, Imean, we had gone through stacks
and stacks of these papers, andI still have the picture saved
in my phone.
I really should get it framed.
I don't know why I never have,but I just I still have the
(30:35):
photo and then you can see theword Instagram power method
circled at the bottom in thebottom corner.
And when he sent me back homeand I got back to the States, he
told me I had to fire all myclients that were not in the
real estate or mortgage spaceand I had to go to work on
building the Instagram powermethod.
And you know, again, laterbecame beyond the method, but
that was how it was born and itwas born out of the desire to
(30:59):
serve people on a level thatwasn't virality based.
So most social media classes,most social media courses, if
you will, that you're taking areall rooted in how to get more
followers, how to combat thealgorithm, how to make better
content, which I just again, notsaying that you don't need
those things, but I think it'sthe wrong way to coach someone
(31:20):
on something because, at the endof the day, virality does not
pay my bills.
Having a DM come in or mesending a DM that creates an
appointment on my calendar iswhat pays my bills.
So my course beyond the methodis solely rooted in how do we
utilize what we have to createappointments and how do we
create leverage for ourselves toget more appointments?
Content matters yes, I'm notgoing to discount the fact that
(31:43):
we have to have great content,but I'm going to tell you that's
not the end all be all.
In the overall scheme of things.
So that's really how it was allborn, but I was in 2014, before
I created.
Many years before this happened,I was buying and selling
Instagram accounts.
Like you would buy and sellreal estate and flipping them
for profit, very similar to howa flipper buys and sells and
(32:06):
holds and renovates and thensells.
It was the same exact concept,but it was on Instagram.
So I bought my first twoInstagram accounts in 2014 for
$20,000.
I sold both of them for alittle over 100,000 in 2018.
Pretty good ROI on aninvestment, and in the process,
I was buying and selling ads forcompanies, while also growing
the accounts throughout those umalmost five years, and so I got
(32:30):
really really good at sniffingout fake things, right.
Fake video views, fake content,um, fake followers, all of the
fake stuff, the bots, all ofthat that everybody knows is out
there.
Um.
I also got really good atunderstanding what kind of
things actually make an audience, make an action or drives
decision making.
So like, for example, if acompany would reach out to me
(32:52):
and ask for something or askedme to promote this you know
product, they would tell me hey,here's a chunk of money.
You take this chunk of moneyand you can use it.
However.
You want to get our adpositioned on other accounts,
you've got to write the copy,you've got to make the ads OK.
So now it was my job to go findother Instagram accounts that
would make sense for that ad togo on.
So I had to understand audiencedemographics and understand how
(33:15):
to actually drive a mom or awife, or a man, for that matter,
or a young teenager to drive itto purchase something.
So you've got to really tapinto the brains of people.
All of that then became thefoundation of how I built Beyond
the Method and what ultimatelyhappened, and I'll stamp or you
know, kind of mic drop momenthere and say what I discovered
(33:38):
truly was that if we can createemotion in someone enough where
they feel inclined to stickaround, it is up to us to send
the message, to create theopportunity, because they will
not do it on their own Right.
Maybe some will one in ahundred but the other 99 are
literally waiting for you to bethe one to send a message.
(34:00):
So in 2018, I got really goodat sending the messages and I
was like, oh my gosh, this isworking.
Hence the build of beyond theMethod, with the foundation of
it being content matters.
Yes, we need to understand that, but the true secret sauce is
converting the opportunitiesthat we have, or the eyeballs
that we have, into ROI.
Maria Quattrone (34:24):
That's interesting, people won't reach
out.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (34:28):
They're sitting there waiting for you
to, but they're giving you allthe signs.
Maria Quattrone (34:34):
It's like dating yeah.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (34:36):
Yeah, I mean it's, it's truly, it's
like dating, right, you thinkabout it.
It's like, oh, there's a cuteguy at the, at the gym, and he's
, he's clearly like payingattention to you, but he's
probably too fricking nervous todo anything himself.
Um, and in my case I speak fromexperience because I married
him Right.
So it's, you know, it's kind ofa funny thing.
He, my husband, was the guy thatshowed up at the gym on time
(34:57):
every time, no matter what.
He was always there right ontime, sat in front of the same
blue door in the gym that wewere in, with his headphones in.
He was so structured and Iremember texting my best friend
at the time and said I think Ijust met my husband Now.
We had never spoken before,never said hello, nothing, right
, it was just I freaking knew it.
But the reality of it was hewas never going to be the one to
(35:20):
shoot the shot the first.
The first time it was going tohave to be me.
So I did, and we've beenmarried for six and a half years
and have a beautiful almostfour year old that we're
planning his birthday.
Maria Quattrone (35:33):
Oh, have a beautiful almost four-year-old
that were planning his birthday.
Oh my gosh, what a story.
That's beautiful.
Shoot your shot, shoot yourshot.
You have to have the confidenceto shoot the shot I mean yes,
but also like no, in one sense.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (35:46):
Right, like you have to have the desire
to shoot your shot and then theconfidence follows.
Right Now did I have theconfidence to shoot my shot only
because he was giving me allthe signs that I probably could
shoot the shot?
But no, I really, at the timewhen I met my husband, I was in
a very dark time of my life.
I document a lot of this in thebook but or in my book coming
(36:11):
out, but I was in a very, verydark place personally.
So, no, there wasn't a wholelot of confidence involved in
who Michelle was, but there wasa lot of um seeing the signs on
on the wall of like this guy'sclearly into me and I think he's
super cute and there'ssomething about him that I can't
really understand.
But God is telling me to that.
That's my human Uh, understand,but God is telling me to that
(36:32):
that's my human, Uh, so I thinkit's desire Such a beautiful
story.
Maria Quattrone (36:36):
My gosh, you knew and you didn't even go out
with him yet.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (36:40):
Nope, we got married two months after
we went on our first date.
Wow, wow, yep, two months tothe day, almost we got.
Our first date was January 9thand we got married March 7th.
(37:01):
Wow, that's incredible.
Yeah, I'm, I'm I'm notrecommending it necessarily Um,
in the sense of the first yearwas pretty tough for both of us,
but, um, we were very much soall in and you could tell, and
he asked me to marry him whilewe were driving to the gym one
morning.
Um, we were stopped at a redlight and he was just like hey,
by the way, I know we want to,you know, get rid of the house
that you lived in and get ourown house, but that means we
should probably get married,right.
And I'm like, what Did you justask me to marry you?
And I get out of the car and Icall my best friend and I was
(37:22):
like I'm pretty sure.
Well, nope, he did.
And, yeah, I, you know, thefirst year was was turbulent.
Of course, when you're brandnew with someone, there's always
those moments of, well, whatthe heck did we just do?
But wait, we're already married.
So we got to figure our waythrough this.
But, yeah, I mean, honestly,it's been a beautiful six and a
(37:45):
half years that I wouldn't tradefor the world.
I'm sure he would trade somemoments, is my guess, but
wouldn't we all?
Maria Quattrone (37:54):
That's great.
I love your energy.
It's so amazing.
Oh my God, what a story.
It's a great story.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (38:00):
So the book you're 30 days out.
I'm 30 days out.
It's that is crazy to say outloud, but yes, we're about 35 to
40 max, but yeah, really 30.
Our goal is August 25th.
We're at the day we'rerecording.
This is July 17th.
So yeah, we're.
We're right around that 30 to40 day mark.
Maria Quattrone (38:21):
And you know, a lot of people want to write a
book.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (38:23):
They sure do, but a lot of people
don't write a book.
Maria Quattrone (38:29):
A lot of people don't write a book.
What do you think the definingline is of making the decision
to actually do it, and do itBecause it's not a real easy
thing?
Michelle Berman - Mikel (38:43):
No, it was the hardest thing I've ever
done.
I'm not even done with it, andI'll tell you it's the hardest
thing I've ever done.
Only thing harder, honestly,was losing a baby at the end of
last year.
There's nothing that's harderor has been harder in my life.
But I will tell you, writing abook came from a lot of life
experiences and I'll tell you, Igraduated college in 2012.
(39:05):
And there was a moment atgraduation where I remember
telling my father hey, dad, I'mgoing to write a book someday.
I have no idea what it's goingto be about.
I have no clue what the titleis going to be.
I don't know what the storyabout it or what's involved in
it.
Don't have any idea, but what Ican tell you is I feel like I
have a voice and I feel likesomebody needs to hear this or
to hear my story, but I don'tknow what it is yet, but when I
(39:32):
do, I'll let you know.
And that was in 2012, when Igraduated, and it's now 2025.
And I didn't start writing thebook until the latter half of
2024.
And I'll tell you whatultimately happened for me.
I got there's so many definingmoments and I have one of my
best friends in our world, thespeaking world.
Her company's name is DefiningDifference Cindy Yertman, if
you're familiar with Cindylistening to this.
(39:53):
But her and I talk about mydefining moments a lot, and
there was a couple, but one inparticular was actually when I
went to Amplify with Renee forthe first time in February of
2024.
Last year I walked into theroom and he said you know
everybody, not just me, all ofthe 10 of us that were there.
He's like everybody.
You know who are you and whatdo you do.
(40:15):
We all failed this assignment.
Let me just go ahead and saythat out loud.
Like, we all royally failedthis assignment and we all were
like what do you mean?
That is what I do Like, and itwas very interesting because
what he helped us understand waswe're not somebody that just
has a product, right, we createa solution for someone or for
(40:36):
something to a problem thatsomeone has.
And what I discovered in thatconversation and ultimately in
those two and a half days, wasthat I was trying to put myself
into a world, or trying to fitinto a world that I didn't
belong in, right?
So I was trying to be a socialmedia person because I thought
that's what I was compared toall these other people.
(40:59):
But what I really was was aprospecting expert, right Cause,
when you really look at thebaseline of who Michelle is and
how Michelle has been successful, I was really really good at
prospecting every opportunity Ihad ever gotten.
When you look back on it andyou're's been successful, I was
really really good atprospecting every opportunity I
had ever gotten.
When you look back on it andyou're like, wow, how did I get
that one?
How did I get that one?
None of it had to do with mycontent going viral, because my
content doesn't.
And still to this day, I havenever gone viral on any social
(41:22):
platform, right?
So?
But you look at my content andyou're like, wow, it looks
really good and, yeah, it'sreally valuable and informative
and I can really feel whoMichelle is.
So I was doing that part of itreally really well, but I was
trying to teach that instead ofteaching what I was really good
at.
So when I was at the Amplifyevent, by the end of it we
determined Michelle's job title,meaning, like, what Michelle's
(41:45):
company does is I teach mortgageand real estate professionals
how to understand the power ofleverage to create opportunity
for themselves.
And how do you do that?
Through the art of activeoutbound prospecting.
So when that happened, I gothome and I had literally written
that exact sentence down.
I kid you not, it was one oflike those insane light bulb
moments when you write asentence down and you're like,
(42:06):
hold on, whoa, right, like thatis what it is and it was.
It sounds really like dramatic,but it honestly really was that
dramatic, like it was thatcrazy um sitting at a dining
room table and a man I just methouse Right, um.
But when I got home I did someresearch on this concept of
prospecting to understand trulylike the root word and really
(42:29):
just kind of dug into it.
Um, and about three months laterso that was in May, about three
months later, I called one ofmy dear friends who runs a
company called buildingchampions, daniel Harkavy, and I
said, daniel, I think I'm readyto do this.
He's like are you sure you'reready?
And I'm like I think I'm readyto.
You know, I think I, I think Igot it.
And so he introduced me to mycopywriter, who I will release
(42:51):
publicly his name here very,very soon.
He's actually coming to ourofficial book signing in October
, which I'm very, very excitedabout.
But I met with him and on thevery first call I knew instantly
that this guy was the rightperson for me because of how he
understood what I wasarticulating.
But, more importantly, heunderstood the way I wanted the
(43:12):
message to be presented and hedid a phenomenal job at getting
it out of me.
But, um, that was my likedefining moment was when I
realized that I had a story ofall of these things that had
happened to me in my life andhow I had gotten successful and
become successful had nothing todo with what I was trying to
fit myself into.
And I woke up and I was like Ihave my voice.
(43:35):
I now know what it is.
And throughout the journey ofwriting my book, I lost my
husband and I second baby and itwas another defining moment in
writing the book for me and Iactually called my copywriter
when it was as it was happeningand we had talked almost almost
every day throughout mymiscarriage and we ended up
rewriting the table of contentsright in the middle of my
(43:57):
miscarriage.
And I believe the book that iscoming to market here now, in
about 3040 days, is a directreflection of all of those
things and having such a clearand defined voice in a very,
very crowded marketplace of alot of other people who want to
say that they're social mediaexperts or say that they're
social media coaches, and in mymind, let them be that, because
(44:20):
that's not who I am and I don'tneed to be that because I am who
I am.
Maria Quattrone (44:24):
Wow, that is so exciting, so powerful, and you
can see and hear the passion inyour voice about what it is that
you do and really figuring outwho you are, and I got
(44:45):
goosebumps.
I'm so excited to read thisbook and you and I have so many
things in common that you don'teven know.
Yeah, that's a story foranother day, but, my gosh, this
is like amazing.
You certainly are, michelle,the solution and your process
(45:08):
and your systems.
I can't imagine that anybodythat knows you cannot wait to
read this book.
And I don't know.
I'm excited.
I'm excited for you.
I'm like, I'm like I don't know, oh giddy.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (45:24):
Well, I appreciate that so much and I
just appreciate the support it'sbeen.
You know, whenever you decideto do something big, you're kind
of like is anybody going tocare?
Is this going to matter?
And I think that's my numberone insecurity around writing a
book and I'm sure every authorhas that which is, you know,
when you put a book to market,you want it to matter, right,
(45:45):
you want it to create an impact.
And I, one of my absolutefavorite humans on this planet
and one of my biggest, biggestmentors she said to me she's
like you better be prepared,because what if you become the
next Mel Robbins?
And I'm like, well, that's notgoing to happen.
But and she was like, wait aminute, whoa, whoa.
Like hold on, like you'reassuming that that won't happen.
But Mel Robbins didn't thinkthat was going to happen when
(46:05):
Mel Robbins wrote her first book, or when she was, you know,
starting off in the beginning.
And I was like, well, you know,that's not what I feel like I
was necessarily put on thisplanet to do, but I do believe
that, um, god has given me atalent and I hope he's smiling
down on me, knowing that I trulybelieve I'm doing what he put
me here to do, which is servingpeople, creating disciples in
(46:29):
our world.
Of other people I've had, I'vegotten messages of people who
have said like that I've beenthe reason that they've gotten
back in touch with their faith.
Right, and to me that's a hugewin.
What, what better reason to dowhat you're doing than to bring
other people back to faith, orto faith in the first place?
Um, you know.
So for me it's just about.
I have a story, I havesomething that I think other
(46:49):
people can resonate with, and ifI can serve and save one person
, or if I can serve and helpsomeone save their own business
right, meaning like someonewho's in business who might be
struggling if I can help saveyour business, then I'm going to
do it.
Yeah.
Maria Quattrone (47:06):
That's great.
It's beautiful message.
I want to thank you so much fortaking time today to get
together and learn a little bitmore about you and what you do,
and it's exciting.
The sky's the limit, right,michelle.
Michelle Berman - Mikel (47:21):
I agree .
You never know until you know.
Maria Quattrone (47:24):
You never know until you know, and we'll look
for that book coming out inmid-August, august 25th is our
goal.
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