This week I have been lucky enough to be able to attend a training given by the great Michael Port. It has been a real luxury to be in a petit comité with one of my great references. Michael has been the creator of Book Yourself Solid and has been focused on his Heroic Public Speaking project for a few years now. It accompanies leaders, entrepreneurs, and professionals to “think big about who they are and what they offer to the world”. In addition, it has a life and professional philosophy that I love, and I feel very identified with it: “Design your business or your professional activity so that it is at the service of the ultimate lifestyle you want”.
And I wanted to share with you, THE MAIN IDEAS THAT I HAVE TAKEN FROM THIS GREAT MEETING;
- BE VERY CLEAR ON YOUR “RED VELVET ROPE POLICY”. It is based on the analogy of the red rope of clubs of a certain level, where it separates the people who allow entry from those who do not. Port frequently says, “Choose your clients as carefully as you choose your friends.“ It means being very selective who you work with. Whether you are employed or self-employed, Port recommends that you only choose to work with those people who give you energy, who motivate you, who inspire you to offer the best version of yourself. As Michael himself says “If you’re not working with people with whom you do not do your best work, you are out of integrity.”
- WORK ONLY WITH “HUNGRY” PEOPLE. Michael Port recommends working only with “hungry” people, with people who are motivated to achieve challenges. It doesn’t matter if they are university students, factory workers or clients of your company. The only way to provide a great service to others is to work with people who are really motivated to achieve the challenge in which you can help them. He recommends being selective and paying close attention to differentiating the “hungry” ones from the rest.
- DON’T TRY TO BE GOOD, TRY TO BE USEFUL. Michael affirms that many professionals try to do a good job and analyze their performance in detail, but many times, it is better to focus on being useful, on adding value to others. Do not focus only on yourself, on what you do or how you do it, and focus on others: what is the use of what you do, what value do you bring them, what problems or challenges do you help them achieve.
- CRITICS OR PERFORMANCE. Michael says that there are 2 types of people. Those who criticize, complain, and see problems at any opportunity, or, those who fight to achieve results, the performers. And it says that both options are incompatible. Either you are on one side, or you are on the other. You decide if you bet on criticizing, or you are going to forget about criticism and fight hard to achieve your goals and be a performes.
- EMPLOYEES ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT IN A COMPANY, IN SECOND PLACE, THE CUSTOMERS. I couldn’t agree more with this idea. Having the right workers, taking care of them and managing your teams well is the most important function of any entrepreneur or manager. Focus on your workers, take good care of them, motivate them and they will take good care of your customers (so you will get good results). As Richard Branson said “customers are not the most important thing; The most important thing is the workers. If you take good care of your workers, they will take good care of your customers.”
And to keep things short, I’m saving you the following 5 ideas from my meeting with Michael Port for next week’s post “10 Lessons from Michael Port (Part II)”, don’t miss it!
