Michael Levine (The PR Consultant for Michael Jackson, Prince, Nike, & More) Shares the Traits of “Super Successful People”

Audio Transcription

What would it be like to work one on one with Michael Jackson? What would it be like to be the advisor for print? What would it be like to be the personal public relations expert of choice for 58 academy award winners, three Grammy Award winners and 43 New York Times best selling authors, my good friend and the PR consultant of choice for some of the most successful people in the history of the planet. Mr Michael Levine stops by the thrive time show to teach you the mindset of super successful

It’s my pleasure to introduce to you my dear friend, Mr Michael Levine. Michael, how are you sir?

I am. Well, I, I’m impacted by your passion. I see much apathy amongst, uh, so many people that just hearing your voice and, and the passion underneath it is, is a appealing and a, an interesting to me. So thank you for the. Sure, you’re valuable audience with with me

now, Michael, I appreciate you saying that you. You’ve been to the PR consultant of the public relations consultant of choice for so many successful people. I’d love to tap into the mindset of successful people versus the mindset of the average person. Could you talk to me about something maybe that super successful people know about that, that, that, that secret, that super successful people know about that most people don’t.

Yes sir. I can and will, and I’m honored by the question. Let me first just explain to your audience and something that I think you may know, which is that I was born in New York City. I was born two and a half miles north of ground zero. I was born into a, a, a, a, a not ideal family. There was an alcoholic parent and I in addition to that and anyone who’s ever been raised in an alcoholic home knows that’s, that’s very, very, very difficult. But in addition to that, I had another significant problem, a disability that wasn’t known very well at the time and that is now referred to as dyslexia. And I say now because 40 years ago we had a different word for dyslexia. It was called dumb.

So these disadvantages, right? Being raised in an alcoholic home, I was a very, as virtually all dyslexics are a very, very poor student, barely graduated high school. And these disadvantages, a row really helped form me. And essentially what I team to conclude about my situation, I left the house at age 17, is that, uh, I, since I wasn’t formally educated and since I’m not that smart, I better increase, uh, my powers of observation, right? So I tell people all the time, and I mean it, and I know it sounds kind of humorous. I’m not very bright, but I’m significantly above average at watching what bright people do. And I’m also significantly above average if I may say, watching what not so bright people do, came to conclude the obvious, which is success leaves clues and so does failure.

And again, since I’m not very bright, I figured out that if I increased my powers of observation, if I watched the world very keenly and people very keenly, I would learn what successful people do when I’d learn what idiots do or, or, or maybe a more polite way of saying it is I’d learn what affluent people do and I also learn what people are exhausted, broke folks do. And I would try to do more of the, uh, the better actions since I’d like to eat. And since I didn’t have much edge any education. And so that was it. And, um, success does leave clues and sodas failure. And Mark Twain had it, right? Clay never ever, ever let school interfere with your education. And so you’ve put an army of people together listening to this podcast. I think the army now about a half a million in size and these people clearly are trying to listen, to gather, to observe from you and others things that will assist them in their journey. And I commend you because I have an army of a half a million is pretty impressive. And so I’m happy to share with you some observations that I’ve had over a very long and unusual and unexpected career about what super successful people do and, and what people who underachieved too.

Greg is currently the pastor of the largest Protestant church in America and we interviewed him today and that the podcast will be released here in the coming weeks. But Craig has a church overall over 100,000 people, over 100,000 people. And I asked him, you know, what time did you get to work? And he says, Yo, you know, between five and 6:00 AM, Nora talking about waking up. It’s just between five and six. I said, he’s in great physical shape. And I said, are you crazy? Are you, are you taking steroids? Just kind of jokingly. And he says, oh no, I just eat meat and vegetables. No carbs. That’s what I do. And I’m like, well, how do you find time to write your sermons? I’m asking these questions and it, it doesn’t matter whether I’m interviewing Craig Rochelle or Michael Levine or the guy who used to manage Walt Disney world.

All of you guys are not scared of waking up before 7:00 AM, none of you run around making excuses, talking about how you just don’t have time to get things done and you all have this burning maniacal passion to succeed and I. My goal of today’s show is to, is to give people a seed of the burning passion needed to succeed. It’s up to them where they’re going to water it or not. So I want to ask you, can you show the difference in the goals between the goals being set by successful people and the super successful people like Michael Jackson like prints, like the founders of Nike?

Well, look, if I were, if I were sitting in a starbucks with any individual listening to this show right now, what I would first say is, look, it all begins with one question. There was one question and it is exactly the same question. In the professional part of life is the personal part of life. It’s not a different question. It’s the same question. It has two parts and until you can answer this question comfortably, clearly, effectively you are basically driving in a circle. You’re, you’re wasting massive amounts of time and energy. And so the question is this, and, and anyone listening to this, write it down. The question is, and it’s the same for personal as professional. What do you most want and what are you willing to give up to get it? That’s the question. And until you get real clear on the answer to that, you’re basically just driving in a circle. You’re wasting a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of energy, probably a lot of money. You’re probably tired, frustrated, and broke and um, and probably belittling and blaming the world for those conditions.

I want to give a lot of examples for the listeners out there, John, because John’s, our, our program observant. He’s going to take notes here, but I just want to give the listeners an example. Bill Gates knew what he was looking to build. And so bill gates isn’t his overnight success story started in 1975 and in 1986 he went public. But for 11 years he asked himself what did he most want and what was he willing to give up to get it? He actually moved to albuquerque from Seattle to get his first deal. He actually moved their apple Steve Jobs. He turned his parents’ garage into a, the founding place of apple in 1976. And they really didn’t do well until about 1984. Um, Google. Think about this, Larry and Sergei, he started a google in 1996 and they didn’t make a profit. Michael, and you know this, but until 1999, facebook started in 2005 and they lost three point six, $3,000,000 after their first two years. Amazon did not, or did not report a profit for seven years. Ah, I met you I think four years ago, five years ago, and I think we had a one subscriber to the podcast and now we have half a million people listening. Can you?

Brilliant. Brilliant notation. Bill Gates says, the human being inevitably overestimate that would that which they can do any year and underestimate that which they can do in 10 years

that listened to that. Friends my friends in the audience listened carefully. I want you to write it down. Bill Gates says, human being inevitably under overestimates overestimate that which they can accomplish in a year and underestimate that which they can accomplish intent. Isn’t that interesting? See, that’s worth the whole price of the show. See if you write it down. If you think about that. Now, Mark Zuckerberg, mark was at Harvard. Mark called five of his friends at Hartford to a meeting on a Saturday afternoon. He called them all and he said, and they were all friends of his and he said, look, gentlemen, I am working on something. I’ve been working on something very important, very, very significant. Please join me at my dorm room on Saturday for a meeting, a two hour meeting. It’ll be a very important opportunity to meet and discuss. I’ve been working on of the five people he invited, right? These are friends of his at Harvard, young and ambitious and smart. How many of the five showed up?

What I would see in the world? It’s usually about 20 percent of people aren’t even trying.

Well, the answer is two.

Oh,

we’re too busy.

Too busy, too busy.

The two that did show what happened to their story? Well, they’re both billionaires

just showing up.

So just showing up right now. The other three were too busy. Isn’t that fascinating? See Friends, um, you, you, you, you have to think about this and all successful people. And I don’t mean most. All successful people have what I would refer to as a reverence for time. So I’ll tell you something, a little quirky about me. Clay, I live in a home and in every room of my home I have two things, right? I have a large clock and I have a timer in every room. Wow. That’s kind of interesting. Michael, why do you do that? Well, because I’m evidently and evidently is one of my favorite words, cleve. Evidently, I have a reverence for time evidently. So Mr MIchael Levine, let me see if I understand you. You have in every room of your house or clock on a timer. Yes, I do. Really? Yes I do. In your kitchen. Yes I do. In your bathroom? Yes I do.

I’ll make it quick.

Oh, so why is that? Mr Levine. Well, evidently I have a reverence for time. See,

I blew my mind the first time I had a chance to interview you. First off I’d read it. I read your books and I’d read the broken window theory and the and the Pr Bible and I, I just big fan of your stuff and you talk about how successful people are from planet epic, which I didn’t know you at the time, but my marketing company, which is arguably one of the largest ones in Oklahoma, is called make your life epic. My photography company I started was called epic photography. I love the word epic. Uh, talk to me about the planet and

what I would say to your audience members if I were in a starbucks and clay just walked away from our meeting. Here’s what I’d say. Hey friends. Evidently clay likes the word epic evidently. See? And that’s the words. And the things that we surround ourselves with are very telling and very important. And do you have a reverence for time? Because I’ll tell you this, all, virtually all people who have great success have a reverence for time and all underachievers have no reference for time. Now you gotta figure out which team you want to play on. Evidently

very few people play on team epic.

Yeah. They don’t even want to play.

I think it’s mean when you end the meeting at the agreed upon time. I mean today I did the interview with Mr Craig Rochelle, pastor Craig. He let me know I have a hard out with a heart out that that’s code and the podcasts and broadcast and the world of media that I am definitely going to end at this time whether you’re ready or not, but. But most people have a soft out or a piece out or no, they just basically talk and they, they, they, they lived. They lament about their feelings for an hour and a half after the event that just took place day. They lament about it for an hour and a half. Then they go on social media and talk about it with a bunch of knuckleheads for two and a half hours. Then they post a picture of a cloud on social media. Right? Feeling

the good news is that if you don’t do those top things right, you’ll have a pretty easy path. You’ve been born into a generation at exactly the moment in which your competition overwhelmingly stupid. Lazy.

Yes. Yes. It’s so true.

Means stupid. I don’t mean academically stupid. What I mean to say by stupid is there their mind is distracted with nonsense,

right?

Their mind is incapacitated. They may have a inherently smart computer on the top of their shoulders, but their brain is incapacitated with distraction.

If it’s okay, I would like to insert a little science to go with what you’re saying. Uh, we just interviewed a silicone valley, a former executive by the name of Ellen Petri, Leanne’s. She was featured on the Megan Kelly show and she wrote a book called the happiness hack. It in that book, they discovered shockingly, that the Amygdala, the almonds size part of the brain, prevents the massive part of your brain for making critical decisions. You can’t think critically when you’re emotional, so when you’re angry, you can’t think. When you’re laughing, you can’t think when you are sad, you can’t think, and according to psychology today, we’ll put this on the show notes. The average American. Now, Michael Levine received 85 interruptions per day from their smartphone, which means that your smartphone is now making you dumber than ever before. So you have a smartphone. You can’t pay attention to your if you’re perpetually distracted. So I asked Craig Rochelle,

stupid.

That’s correct. I asked Pastor, pastor Craig, that’s Craig. You’ve got 100,000 people going to your church. You have the biggest church in the world. How often do you check your social media? And he says, well, I have two phones, but the one is always off basically, and I have one that I deal with important things. The point is he doesn’t even go on there. He said it’s set where he. He’s made a lock on there for his own mind freedom where he cannot check social media on. He locked it up when he has no apps, no push notifications. And if you’re competing against people that are distracted, that’s what like boxing against a guy who is, you know, uh, you know, your, your, your, your beard, a boxing ring with somebody and you’re going head to head with a guy that’s on his smartphone. I mean, you’re just going to describe the gun

and people, not young people. Disease is now a transmuted beyond young people. The Look of addiction on the face is just primal and visceral.

One hundred percent for many people out there, planet epic. I want you to talk about these goals of super successful people. How are, how are the goals of Prince? How are the goals of Michael Jackson? How are they different from that of the average musician that reached out to you?

The people that I represented in this most unusual life and career I’ve had had a relationship with destiny that they felt internally that they were, they were destined for extraordinary things. And so that relationship, um, with destiny, I think created a, an epic life. Now, not always a happy life. By the way. There is an enormous sacrifice, enormous sacrifice to success or super success, you must say, as Steve Jobs taught us a thousand no’s to get one big yes. So let’s, let’s talk straight. If you want to be a worldclass anything, you’re going to have to give up a lot. You’re going to have to turn down a lot of distractions, um, and some of them are going to be difficult and some of ’em may be even painful, but that is the price of greatness. It just how it is and sodas. And so it goes.

Colby Bryant has a notable quotable I wanted to read to you and I also wanted to read to you a notable quotable from the late great Martin Luther King Jr. Koby bryant was coached by a friend of mine named paul pressey. Paul was the assistant coach on the laKers and I became a big fan, big kobe fan after hearing about his work ethic. And he writes, I can’t relate to lazy people. We don’t speak the same language. I don’t understand you. I don’t want to understand you. CoBy, ride

precious little time, precious time. Remember I told you I was born two and a half miles north at ground zero, which means that a witness, uh, I was there and witnessed nine slash 11. Life is short and life is unpredictable and to, to, uh, to, to lose the opportunity of doing something you’ve been meant, born to do. Just doesn’t. I just don’t relate to it. I wish them well. I don’t wish anyone ill. If you say to me, michael, I, I deeply desire to waste my life. I don’t wish you ill. I just don’t relate to you. it’s, it’s not, it’s not something that.

Michael, real quick, this is something I want to make sure the listeners get. People who’ve been around the tulsa area know that I hang out a lot with certain people in town. People that own banks, they own businesses, they’re well and we don’t. We didn’t make it. We didn’t just sit together and say, hey, let’s make a list of elite people that we want to surround ourselves with because we’re awesome. No, because we all grew up poor or my case. I stuttered and grew up without money. Dr. [inaudible] case, he had a speech impediment. We all grew uP with something. You were dyslexic, right? We can.

I will note to you that I believe the disability, the disadvantage turns out in the end, Painful though, was to be an advantage.

People don’t know this. Coby bryant played a game and seventh grade basketball and he never scored a single point and he said the ridicule that he received because his father was a professional basketball player, motivated him to have the most intense work ethic ever. So just

it can turn out to be an advantage if you Play your cards right. And that’s what life is. Life is a series of us. Get bad cards and play them well. Some of them, some of us get good cards and playing bad. Some of us get medium cards and play a medium. how you play your cards will determine your destiny. and, uh, there, there, I’m so honored to be talking to people in your audience, a large audience that are determined to try every day to learn how to play their cards better.

Our listeners are people that we teach this at our conferences. I know you’ll be at the december conference by the way, very excited to have you add the december conference. If you’re out there Listening and you want to attend a conference where you get to ask questions directly to the man who has given advice to three United States presIdents, to prince, to Michael Jackson, to, to nike, to a charlton heston. I’m missing other people, nancy, kerrigan, mike, who else am I missing most of your costars,

you know, celebrities. But, uh, the, the two, the three us presidents, one of the things that I’m proud of is both political parties. So, uh, you know, I, I, uh, I, I’m very grateful to this nation, which I am deeply, deeply, deeply concerned about. I’m very grateful. I what happened to me could only have happened in America. And um, and so I, I want to share with people in whatever, you know, whatever remaining years I have left some ideas particularly attracted to sharing them with underdogs. And that means anyone who didn’t come from privilege. And that means my minority friends, my african american friends, my hispanic friends, my friends that come, I have, I was an underdog and I have an attraction to talking to underdogs and uh, it can be done. it can be done. Now, is it simple? No. Is it easy? No. Is the, is the game fair? No. Will you have to do sometimes more than your, than the what? Then fairness would require? Yes. Um, if you want to be broKen America, the number one thing you got to do, all you gotta do is think like a victim. And this is what I’m so deeply concerned about, is too, too, too, too many americans unfortunately, are thinking like victims,

victors, not victims. People who are going to be wanting to become better, not bitter. They’re going to all arrive in tulsa, Oklahoma on December 7th and eights. And rumor has it, you’re going to be attending the workshop. Is that, is that correct to my friend?

It is true. I’ve never been to tulsa. I’m excited about the chance to talk to some of your friends. give it to them straight, you know? Uh, uh, I’m looking forward to it. I think it’ll be a great opportunity for me to share some of my ideas and values and listen to some of the concerns and ideas and, and, and, and challenges that people are having in their lives.

My goal, my final question for you. I know you gotta go, you gotta move on and do some other things with your life today. I appreciate you hopping on the show here, but Michael Jackson, you were in the physical presence of the king of pop. Could you describe for the listeners just whAt the aura or, or mindset was of probably one of the top musicians of all time, Michael Jackson,

speaking about him personally, I think that this is something that can be said about him and, and others you can. You were unwise in the extreme. If you judge geniuses by normal people standards and that genius could be Michael Jackson or steve jobs or bill gates or barack obama or any anyone who has achieved that level of success, they’re operatIng on a different with a different frequency, and so we must not judge. We are unwise to judge by just, uh, the normal contemporary standards of the day. It just, they’re just not there. They’re playing a different game.

Michael, thank you for writing books even though you’re dyslexic. Thank you for fighting the fight for moving from the, from the right coast to the left coast and rounding up the world superstars and distilling it into your books. And thank you for agreeing to come out there to the workshop. And for the listeners out there, we have a special going right now. If you would like to get your tickets free, all you have to do, you got to take some action. Go onto itunes, subscribe to the podcast, leave us an objective review, and then email us proof that you did it to info at thrive time. Show.com. Subscribe to the podcast on itunes. Leave us an objective review, email us proof that you did it to info at thrive time, show.com, and you not only get to meet Michael Levine, but you also get to attend for the low, low price of free and it’s just $37 for the workbook and the food, but it’s gonna be a game changer. Life changing event for somebody. Michael, we’d like to end the show with a boom, which around here stands for big, overwhelming, optimistic momentum and so we always ended with a three to one and a boom. So mike, are you ready for a boom? Are you ready? Here we go. Three, two.

Want to attend the legendary thrive time show business workshop for free. Subscribe on itunes, leave an objective review and send this confirmation at info at thrive time. Show.com to claim your tickets. Want to live in a van down by the river. Come by and see us in our river walk offices and we’ll be able to make your dreams come true.