Building INFLUENCE SHOW
WATCH SEASON 1 EPISODE 5
MICHAEL SAYS
“Stop leading with what you want. Work on building the relationship first.”
Michael P Toothman
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
This is Episode 05 from Season 01 Education which contains eight episodes featuring guests from the education sector. Each episode takes a deep dive into the guest’s career highs and lows with a focus on building visibility and their network. Interviews are candid and unfiltered.
ABOUT MICHAEL P TOOTHMAN
Michael helps people become future-proof so they won’t be replaced by technology. He has led some of the world’s coolest projects, integrating consumer electronics, digital content, software interfaces, and blockbuster films to form elegant entertainment systems, thrilling millions of airline and business jet passengers.
As a university educator, Michael has mentored and trained over 5,000 project managers from over 1,000 companies in 48 countries.
In June 2020, Michael was featured in Forbes for his expertise in digital learning and he was interviewed on China Global Television that same year about the future of online education. He has developed and delivered customised educational solutions to companies as diverse as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Yahoo!, People’s Republic of China Ministry of Commerce, Southern California Edison Company, and the India Ministry of Communications.
Michael is the 2018 Excellence in Teaching award winner through the University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA).
“We tend to be very inactive when we don’t believe in ourselves. Believe.”
Michael P Toothman
SHOW NOTES
- Started out with a career in the air force, then worked as a project manager on probably some of the coolest projects in the world and happenstance made me an educator (for the last 17 years) (03:03)
- Everything is so transactional these days, people are so focused on what they want but try to become an expert collaborator. Don’t feel like it’s always gotta be you driving the boat. (4:38)
- All your mentors don’t have to be alive. Many of my mentors are dead which means that I read their books. (7:04)
- What has been key in me building a strong digital profile? Content, content, content. (9:08)
- The best way to document? Keep a journal at work. When you go through a situation, take a few minutes to review. What was the situation? What was so challenging? What did you do that works and equally, what did you do that was a failure? Too many people on social media are perfect – don’t be perfect. It will empower others to share what didn’t go well and that’s how relationships are built (11:39)
- I picked the top six people I wanted to collaborate with. Read their posts, and every day, I would put in a comment on their posts. I would amplify what they were saying and back that up with my own experience. Over time, they saw me as an equal partner (13:27)
- Good networking tip: stop leading with what you want. Work on building the relationship first (15:07)
- One tip for building relationships is to have the other person recommend a book that you should read (15:47)
- 70% of success is about showing up. Get on the channel and engage with people. (16:41)
- When I get a connection request, I check them out. I want to see longevity. I want to check their content. (21:25)
- The amount of time I spend on social media (24:10)
- Education without a purpose is kind of worthless at times. So I make sure that people can walk away from every interaction, every class, knowing that there’s something they can do tomorrow (25:38)
- How I discovered my strengths (28:36)
- Stumbling blocks in my career (34:48)
- My body of work: future-proofing people (39:41).