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Notes
There is one missing piece almost all financial advisors and insurance agents overlook when trying to be seen and heard by their prospects. Here’s what Michael Gerber, whose voice has global, best-selling, thought-movement creating power, says it is.
Michael Gerber is the worldwide phenomenon and thought leader behind the ground-breaking “E-Myth” bestselling series of books. He is widely acknowledged as the World’s #1 Best Small Business Guru, and has helped millions of small business owners, entrepreneurs, and companies. Check out his “E-Myth” books specifically for Financial Advisors and Insurance Agents to rise above the ordinary and pursue the extraordinary in your practice today.
Here’s a quick look at what you’ll learn from Michael Levin and Michael Gerber in this episode:
- How to cut through the digital clutter to get all eyes on you
- The ONE fundamental thing you need to develop to stand out for your prospects
- The #1 tool for capturing and KEEPING attention in crowded markets
- The CRITICAL lesson all advisors and agents need to learn from musicians
- What the pursuit of extraordinary in your practice actually looks like
- The single thing you need to focus on BEFORE jumping on social medias to reach your prospects
- How to develop a voice your prospects feel is worth listening to
- The habit you can start building TODAY that will exponentially increase your reach and impact
- The one “W” everyone forgets that makes their communication efforts meaningless
- The fundamental work every advisor needs to do to see GENUINE success in their business
Transcript
Note: This Advisorist Podcast transcript was created in part by computers – Please forgive any grammatical or spelling errors…or sentences that just downright don’t seem to make sense! Please compare to corresponding audio if clarity is needed.
Michael: Hi, this is Jeremiah DesMarais. Welcome to episode number one of Advisorist. I am so grateful and excited to be with you here today. This is something that has been going on in the background for well over a year in planning and structuring and I couldn’t be more excited to be with you here today. I’m on this podcast with you today with my good friend, Devin Ambron, who is, in my humble opinion, one of the top digital marketers in our space – kind of a guy who flies under the radar. Devin, say hi.
Jeremiah: Hi, this is Jeremy Desmarais, Founder of Advisorist and it gives me great pleasure and really it’s an incredible honor to introduce to you one of the hosts of the Advisorist podcast, Michael Levin. Michael is not only a personal friend, but he’s one of the most established ghostwriters in the nation and a New York Times best-selling author who’s written, co-written, or ghostwriter over 550 books. Hundreds of them in the financial services arena of which 18 are national bestsellers. You would be hard pressed to find somebody that hasn’t been in more outlets than Michael. He’s been on Shark Tank, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Politico, the LA Times, The Boston Globe, Writer’s Digest, CBS News. I mean, the guy has even had his work optioned and made for film by Steven Soderbergh of paramount, HBO, Disney, ABC, Frank Perry, and so many more. He ghostwrote for some of the biggest names in sports and business including Dave Winfield, Pat Summerall, Howard Bragman, former Schwab CEO David Pottruck, Marketing legend Jay Abraham, NBA star Doug Christie, and the list goes on and on and on. As the host of All Eyes on You, Michael will bring his unique blend of insights and wisdom as it relates to using books to get to the level of your dreams that you’ve always desired. They are one of the most powerful introduction tools that financial advisors and insurance agents can use today. I know when I got my book written, oh my, did the doors open up. That’s why I’m so excited to have Michael hosting All Eyes on You as part of the Advisorist network. Michael, take it away my friend.
Michael G.: Good morning, Michael Levin. This is Michael Gerber speaking to you from Carlsbad, California. How are you today?
Michael L.: Very good. Michael, how are you?
Michael G.: Wonderful. Since this is your podcast, why don’t you begin?
Michael L.: Well, that’s very generous of you. I was about to welcome you to the podcast. Let me introduce the man who needs no introduction. Michael E. Gerber is the iconic worldwide acknowledged phenomenon and thought leader whose E Myth books have transformed the lives of millions upon millions of small business owners, entrepreneurs, and managers. His very first landmark book was published in 1985. Speaker, author, creator, and imagineer extraordinaire, Michael Gerber has challenged the imaginations of millions to rise above the ordinary and the pursuit of the exceptional in everything they do. You can read from Michael E. Gerber’s most recent book by going to www.freebook.michaelegerber.com. As Michael E. Gerber would say, “Enjoy and take it home to do.” Michael, how’s your day go?
Michael G.: It’s just well, Michael. And yours?
Michael L.: Oh, delightful. Michael Gerber has been a friend and mentor of mine and that’s a huge privilege for me to say that for many, many years. I love Michael dearly. I’m honored that Michael you’ve taken time to come on the show. Just before we started, you made a comment that I found absolutely outrageous. You said that my life is considerably simpler than yours and I’m wondering if you can tell me why you make that outrageous assertion.
Michael G.: Oh, I just made that as an assumption knowing how confused my life can be from day to day. I just figured your life has to be easier, more blissful, more considerate of you and my life is oftentimes.
Michael L.: Michael, why is your life that way?
Michael G.: No, it just happened, Michael. It just happened. I woke up one morning, long time ago, 82 and a half years ago and here it was and I thought, “Oh, my God. So this is what living is all about.”
Michael L.: I understand when you’re born, the doctor gave you the pat on the behind, the nurse got in a few shots too, is that correct?
Michael G.: I don’t know, Michael, here we are. So what do you do on your podcast?
Michael L.: Well, what I do is I bring in wonderful, influential people like you. I ask them for guidance as to how the listeners can get more attention for their services, their products, whatever they offer because just cutting through the clutter and getting attention in this age where everybody has a website, and everybody has a Twitter feed, and everybody has this and everybody has that, it’s just gotten harder and harder. So the question is, what do you do and what do you recommend that people do in order to get some attention so that people can actually start thinking about using the services and products and classes and speeches and everything else but these individuals off?
Michael G.: Well, it’s an absolutely spectacular question, Michael. A question which we are confounded by every single day. Every single person who’s listening to us has identically the same problem differently from every single person listening to us. But when everybody’s speaking, when social media has captured the attention of every human being anywhere and when they’re told their job is to become famous and the way you become famous, everybody tells them, is to write a book. And as you know, being the preeminent ghost author of all time, you don’t have to write the book yourself even. Somebody else can do it for you. Then there are all forms and shapes of social media broadcasting that you have to do in order to get your book out there to attract people to you. So you can then begin to speak about what you’ve done, not just to write a book, but to become famous. You begin to understand when everybody, the billions, billions upon billions idiots all are doing the very same thing. How problematic it is. So when you ask that question, all you need to do is go online, and you’ll find the answer tens upon tens upon tens of thousands of times. Actually the answer is incredibly simple, but incredibly problematic. So I say the answer is, you have to go up a voice. In short, you have to become someone who possesses some thing that the people you’re reaching out to crave, need, desire, etc. and so forth without perhaps even knowing it. So that’s the job. You got to develop the voice. The voice has got to be a voice that breaks through all the noise that everybody’s sending out there. So you know that Michael, shall we talk about that?
Michael L.: Yeah. When you start off by saying voice, it reminds me that if I’m not mistaken, before you started writing the E Myth books, you were a jazz musician, and you had a voice as a musician. Is that correct?
Michael G.: Yeah, it is. The voice as a musician is different than the voice as an author. Now, you know that because you’re an author and I know that you sing, and you sang in large choral groups, great works of all time. When you hear the voice of that choral group, you’re suddenly captured in a way that we all are hungry for. You know the voice I’m speaking about there.
Michael L.: Yeah.
Michael G.: We’ll talk about that for a moment, the voice of that choral group. When you’re in that choral group singing your part in that group, what do you feel? What do you hear?
Michael L.: Oh, my gosh. I say with the time with Festival Chorus, which is the greatest chorus in the country, a lot of people believe, and it’s part of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. You’re talking about using your voice to stand out. When you’re in a chorus, you’ve got to use your voice to blend in.
Michael G.: Absolutely.
Michael L.: So the trick is that you’ve worked so hard on knowing every single note and every single pronunciation of every German or French or whatever syllable, and every entrance and every cut off so that’s the price of admission. When you’re singing, you’re not listening to yourself, you’re listening to everything that’s going on around you so that you are matching the timbre of your voice with the sound of the chorus. Certainly the pace obviously is being dictated by the conductor, but you’re trying to be one part of a small part of something that the conductor is creating and it’s up to him to decide what the voice is and it’s up to you as the individual singer to contribute but certainly not to stand out. If somebody comes to the concert says, “Hey, I was up in the second back and I could hear you”, I’d be like, “They’re going to throw me out.”
Michael G.: Well, you’ve actually addressed it in what I was offering if you will. It’s the coral voice. When you say the finest, or the best, or the whatever how you describe that choral group as they perform, and have performed in the world, by best of the best of the best, they have a voice. You of course within that group, your voice is contributing to that great voice. What you had to do in order to contribute in the way that every single voice in that great choral voice had to do is you had to let yourself go and practice assiduously exactly what you had to practice in order to live your part in that voice. The way that made that voice that voice and that took an immense amount of discipline. One incredibly critical part about this thing we’re talking about this, this how do you create a voice is an assiduously committed this practice that one must undergo in order to be able to rise to the level where your voice can stand out among all the voices creating attention. That’s critical part of this thing that you’re talking about, Michael. Now you know that because you’re a New York Times best-selling author. You listen to the voices of those clients of yours who are committed to find their voice to the written word, the book, the story that you’re helping them to tell. You practice listening for that voice to the point where you can identify that voice and you might say live that voice, produce that voice in a way that your clients are heard. It isn’t an easy thing. It’s an incredibly difficult thing. That’s one of the things that is so disappointing in this age where everybody presumably has a voice, Twitter, Facebook, on and on and on and on. Essentially, we’ve come to the place where nobody has a voice. And so, what then occurs is all the trickery that one is presumably needing to become apt at in order to create something that sounds like a voice, but really doesn’t have what a coup voice possesses at the heart of it. That’s an immensely important thing that everybody who’s listening to us right now needs to understand. You don’t get to do this just because you want to do this and just because the tools to presumably do this are available to everyone. Just because you can tweet doesn’t mean what you tweet has the reach and the impact that you’re looking for.
Michael L.: What I do think is that you take several examples from my own personal experience as a singer and as a ghostwriter, and it’s very nice of you to do that. What you’re saying is that it all comes down to voice. So if you want to be heard, what I hear you saying is that the focus should not first be on what medium am I going to use. Is it Twitter, is it a ghostwritten book? Before you even get to the question of medium, you have to ask what is the voice that will be transmitted through one of those media? I have to work on my voice before I can work on the channels to which that voice will be carried. Is that what I’m hearing?
Michael G.: Yeah, exactly. Let me add a dimension to it. In order to do become a voice, you have to be a voice first.
Michael L.: That is then my cookie.
Michael G.: It’s there but it’s very true. Everything we’ve spoken about, everything you’ve done, Michael, to excel at what you do, every single thing you’ve had to do to excel at what you’ve done in your life has required an intense amount of practice, and commitment, and zeal to discover the truth. In effect, you’re not taking it. In effect, you have to be it. That’s what’s missing in all of these parade you might say. A voices out in the media, they aren’t real. They’re simply wanting something that they are told they can get because of the tricks available to all of us today that make it possible for us to speak in large numbers, whatever it is, we’re told, we need to speak in large numbers when in fact, it’s exactly the opposite of that. Your voice must become a singular voice in order for you to truly have a profound impact. It’s learning how to find your voice that in fact is significantly important to you in your life that you wish to share in your life with others who you’re attracting to your life. You need to do that with an energy that takes you beyond the ordinary by miles, miles and miles and miles. That’s what moves me so when I read someone who I absolutely know has done the work.
Michael L.: Tell me about the work. What is it that you propose that the listeners consider doing if they are going to develop a voice well listening to?
Michael G.: Well, very, very importantly first of all, they’ve got to read the most important voices on the planet. By reading the most important voices on the planet, I don’t just mean in business. In fact, I mean exactly the opposite of that. You need to read the most important voices on the planet. I’m looking at my bookshelf, and I can just give you a list of some of the most important voices on the planet and those voices are literary voices. Those voices are philosophical voices. Those voices are spiritual voices. Those voices are musical voices. Those voices are poetic voices. You have to truly begin to dig down in how great speakers, writers, authors, speak right, and create. You have to engage in that and you have to engage in that as a serious student of “The Voice” in order for you to begin to internalize what that feels like, what that looks like, what that sounds like. That’s one of the most important practices everybody who’s listening to us right now must do. It’s not a practice you do for a year. It’s not a practice you do for a month. It’s not a practice that you get a degree in. You know all this, Michael. I’m just sharing this with you because it’s your podcast. You know all this. You do all this. You felt all this. You’ve experienced all this. You’ve gone through all the changes of all this. You’ve been moved by all this. When you come to that chorus to sing your part, you’ve been moved deeply by the author of what you’re there to sing. The astonishing ability that author had, that composer had to create this work of genius that just touches you so deeply, moves you so deeply that you can’t imagine what you would be without having had that experience. So you know what I’m talking about?
Michael L.: Yeah, Michael. What you’re talking about for me is all that I feel at the greatness of the human spirit that’s revealed when a composer has clearly first heard something in his or her head, and then is able to put it down on paper so that the rest of us can hear it. And to me, that’s just astonishing. What I do in my own work is just try to touch that for a moment with what these people did as a daily practice. Does that make sense?
Michael G.: Yes, absolutely and it isn’t something that you just whip out.
Michael L.: Yeah.
Michael G.: It isn’t something that you just do in a minute. It’s something that you live through continuously. Otherwise, you would not be singing in that choir.
Michael L.: So what I hear you saying is that the focus for the individual listening needs to be on what am I being, and what informs me, and what drives me, and what moves me and work that through. Only then do you start thinking about, “Well, how often should I be tweeting and on what topics?” Is that correct?
Michael G.: Yes. And we’re using the tweeting, messaging, if you will here, and what it really is communicating, and what it you’re communicating is, and why is what you’re communicating life lastingly important to you and why is it you’ve devoted yourself completely to communicating that which you are communicating to those in the world you’re attracting to you. They must feel that. Otherwise, you’re a fraud. Unfortunately, with our now almost obscene ability to communicate to everyone we wish to communicate to, being a fraud has become much easier. Because your audience isn’t reading the way I’ve just described, because your audience isn’t pursuing just the way I described the most significant voices in the world, because your audience has no understanding of what that is, your audience is likely to be a fraud top.
Michael L.: Michael, I can’t have you insulting my audience in this manner. This is outrageous.
Michael G.: Yeah. I hate doing that but it’s so true. It’s so true. In short, we all have to do the work. So when I say the work, I mean the serious work. The serious, serious, serious work of becoming human. So we have to be someone to become someone. We have to be determined not just to get a voice, but to be the voice. We’re determined to get and to be the voice were determined to get. We have to be serious, serious, serious human beings. There is so much each of us can contribute to each of us, but only to the degree we each of us pursue that the significance that’s called for in order to make something serious happen. So in my case, I write about all of that in what I call my dreaming room monologues. My dreaming monologues are simply a weekly introspection, you might say, into something that comes up for me at that moment when I’m sitting to write. I don’t prepare to write, I don’t rehearse to write. Every single week, I sit down to find my voice. In some weeks, I find it in space. In some weeks, it just goes right by. In some weeks, something fails to happen. In some weeks, something actually happens. And every single week, 199 weeks, I have done this. Every single week, something does occur that impact contributes to this process that I’m talking about, the practice each and every one of us must do. It’s like if every single person listening to us right now, we just sit down and write their own personal monologue every week, and send that monologue out to their subscribers every week, they would then come face to face with the embarrassment of how little work you might have done in your life, the embarrassment of the emptiness in what you’re writing, to whom you’re writing, and how you then reach to the pragmatic in order to turn it into money rather than to meaning and the process of turning into money rather than into meaning you suddenly lose all hope of becoming that soul that you’re being is calling you to be. I hope that helps.
Michael L.: Michael, it helps a lot and we’re out of time. So I want to ask, where can people find your writings and where can people find programs you’re offering now? Where would you send them to get more of Michael Gerber?
Michael G.: Just go to [email protected], go to Amazon and look up Michael E. Gerber E Myth books. The E myth revisited is probably the most important book they might read of mine because it will give you a true understanding of how to turn the ordinary pragmatic business into something beyond an ordinary pragmatic business. That book is sold millions upon millions upon millions of copies. It’s in the minds and hearts of millions upon millions of small business owners worldwide in 31 languages, I would do that.
Michael L.: Michael, I gotta let you go.
Michael G.: You’re a delight, Michael. Thank you.
Michael L.: Thank you. I love you and thanks for being my friend.
Michael G.: Take care. Bye.
Michael L.: All the best. Bye now.
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