In this episode of the One Small Change Podcast, Yvonne McCoy welcomes Michael Roderick, an innovative business thinker who went from high school teacher to Broadway producer in just two years. They dive deep into the concept of discovering and leveraging your innate talents—whether you're a scientist, celebrity, or magician—to foster transformation, build authentic connections, and approach growth with small, yet powerful changes. The conversation highlights how recognizing and embracing your unique strengths creates ripple effects in your professional and personal life, and why implementation and community matter more than ever in today’s fast-moving world.

Guest Bio:

Michael Roderick is the CEO of Small Pond Enterprises which helps thoughtful givers become thought leaders by making their brands referable, their messaging memorable, and their ideas unforgettable. He is also the host of the podcast Access to Anyone which shows how you can get to know anyone you want in business and in life using time-tested relationship-building principles. Michael's unique methodology comes from his own experience of going from being a Highschool English teacher to a Broadway Producer in under two years. Michael uses Broadway-informed branding techniques to helps his clients find their I.F. (Innovative Framework) and create offers where they get paid for their brains.

Chapters:

00:00 Mastering Fundraising Through Practice

05:19 "The Triple Threat Concept"

08:47 Natural Talents and Their Strengths

11:29 Magicians as Science Translators

13:57 Value of Delegation and Expertise

18:42 "Test, Adapt, Fit Your Market"

21:30 Focus on Problems, Not Solutions

24:36 Daily Experiments Yield Insights

27:03 Genuine Giving Builds Connection

30:29 "Podcast Growth and Engagement Tips"

Quote from the Guest:

“The keys to all the doors we need open are in other people’s pockets. And the most important component of that is that you, right now, in this moment, are sitting there with a pocket full of keys.” 

Link:

Discover your referability with Michael’s quiz: www.myreferabilityrater.com

Hi, everybody. Welcome to the One Small Change Podcast. And I'm thrilled,

as always, to embark on this journey of exploration and transformation with

you. I'm your host, Yvonne McCoy, and I bring almost 30 years of

entrepreneurial experience, and I have a passion for discovering

growth through the power of seemingly small change.

I'm really happy that you're here. And of course, one of the reasons that I

do this is so that you can also be exposed to some of the wonderful

people that I've met in my journey and help you to grow your business

and. And. And, you know, just have a total different outlook

on life. And this week, we are talking to the amazing Michael

Roderick, and he's going to share how a smaller, unexpected or

insignificant decision sparked a remake.

We're Live and my lips moving Today, a remarkable

transformation and how it. How it sparked growth in

either their personal or professional or both. Michael,

thank you for coming. Hopefully my brain will start working.

No worries. Thanks for having me. I'm very excited to be here.

Tell everybody what I know about you, what you do,

and why you're the best at it. Sure.

The work that I do is focused on helping subject matter

experts who are feeling overwhelmed by their own

expertise come up with what is that

big idea? What is that thing that's going to make

them more. More referable? The type of person that everybody wants to reach

out to and connect with. And the reason

why I do this very, very well is

I personally went from being a high school English teacher to becoming a

Broadway producer in under two years. So

I've spent a lot of time thinking about how to package things, how

to present things so that more people talk about them and how they

can appeal to a mass audience. So

what made you go from being a high school teacher to being a

Broadway producer? I mean, that's gotta be a story in itself. Yeah.

Well, I was always interested in theater. I

had done a lot of work in the industry

in different capacities. But when I found out

about Broadway, I just became really fascinated with sort of how that

system, sort of like, how that side of things worked. And the thing that I

learned was you needed to basically raise money. You need

to get people to write checks for these very, very

large, sort of elaborate productions.

And in that side of things.

A lot of my colleagues were selling one show, so

they'd go to different investors and they'd say, hey, I'm working on

this one show. Do you want to write a check? Kind of thing.

But me, I was actually just more interested in getting better at

raising money. So I went to a bunch of

producers and I said, listen, I don't even need credit right

now. I just want to get out there and sort of get my reps in,

in terms of raising money. So I had a lot of producers give me

paperwork. And the other side of it was that I ended up

with basically a portfolio where basically if I was with an

investor and they weren't interested in one show, I had three or four

others. And then word got around that I started raising money and then I was

good at it. So I eventually started getting offered opportunities

to get credit on the Broadway shows that I worked on.

So there's a lesson there. To put this into a

lesson. What would it be? I mean, how would you. Yeah, I would

say the lesson is every industry

has a system. Every industry has a way that things

are executed on and that are done. And

in all, in every industry, there are people who are

moving through that system. And if you take the

time to make those people more successful, if you find out what

it is that they aspire to, then you're probably going to

move faster. Right. If you look at what it is that's going to

help them grow and you become part of that, word's going

to get around. People are going to talk about you as the person

who made those connections, made those opportunities

happen. So there are two things that I want to point out.

Yeah. One is that you took

it from the perspective the other side of the

coin, which is what so many entrepreneurs don't do.

I do this, I do this, I do this. And I say to them, we

don't care. Tell me what you're going to do for me.

You made it convenient for investors to go to them

and say, you don't like this one? I've got something else. So it was kind

of like a one stop shopping and it was a collaborative effort.

It was do it alone. You did it with a group.

Yeah. And that was probably one of the lessons that I learned

was getting more into community and getting into

affiliations and things like that. So that's amazing.

That's amazing. But that's not what I know you

for the most. Yes. So tell us about

that because that I find this amazing. I love this. Yeah. So

this comes from my theater, this comes from my theater background. And

basically there's this concept I've developed called the Triple Threat. And

in the theater world, there's the idea of being an actor, a singer and

a dancer. And what a lot of folks don't know about that

unless you're in the industry is that the order of those things is

actually very important to your success. So if acting is your top

talent, for example, then you should be focusing on film and TV,

should be focusing on musicals with a really good book. You should be focusing on

straight plays and really playing to your top

talent. Well, in the expert world, there is

another form of Triple Threat, and that is the scientist, the celebrity, and

the magician. And if your top talent is the

scientist, you tend to be very good at the analytical side

of thinking, sort of breaking things down. But you usually

aren't as thrilled about sort of being out in front of people. And

if you're. If the celebrity is your top talent, then

you're very good at the people side of things. You're very good at connecting, being

out in front of people. You're also very good at making other people feel like

celebrities. But you may not be nearly as excited about the

science. Right. And really breaking things down and understanding things. It's

for you, it's more about the people. And finally, if

your top talent is the magician, you are 100%

wired for novelty, Meaning that you really are

a very, very innovative thinker. You're always kind of looking at all the different

angles, all the different ways that you could potentially do something.

And you're very inventive, you're very creative, but

you hate repetition. So even if something is

making you successful, you will stop

it if it feels too repetitive, if it feels too

redundant. And I think that

all entrepreneurs have a touch of music magician in

them. Yes. We're so easily bored. I mean, when

I started doing my workshop and someone said, you do the same

workshop, I'm like, oh, you know, because I've been like, okay, this month I'm going

to do that, you know, God, this is going to be horrible,

you know, however, what I learned, apparently

I entertain myself quite well. So,

so learned is, you know, one

of my things is curiosity and

enticement. And each workshop, even though the

skeleton of it is the same and, you know, like

90% of it is the same, there's some little something

that's different either because of the people in the room or

because I've found something. And what I find from that is that

I'm able to kind of go deeper rather than just broader.

Yeah, but I love that. So I think the other

thing that we're saying is play to, you know, if. Play to your

strengths. Yes. Which is what my workshop is

about. It's, you know, attract your right client by unlocking your

unique powers and Your unique powers are something

that are ingrained in you. And it does that you're,

you're. Or I should put this in a question.

I'm the interviewer, right? I

should say to you, tell me about how people, you know,

you don't have all one Small Change. How do people, you

know, that kind of thing? Yeah, well, I think

that there's just a, there's a talent that just comes

very, very naturally to you. And so if,

let's say being a magician is your top talent,

ideas just sort of flood for you. Like,

you don't really have any trouble coming up with a new angle or sort of

a new way of doing things. Whereas if scientists is your top

talent, you really don't struggle at all with

really complex stuff. Like you can just like sit and

read a research study and you're not bored by it. Like

you're happy to like dig in and sort of figure out like all the components

and all of the, all of the elements. And if celebrity's your

top talent, you don't really worry about

connecting with people. There's really kind of no like social anxiety

there. There's no real challenge of like getting out in front of a crowd.

Like, it's super. It feels just very, very

natural to you and very, very easy to you. And usually

whatever that natural thing is, that's usually your top

talent. But then you have something else that you're pretty good at

still, right? And that's the second talent. And then the last talent,

it's usually the one that you don't use as much, you don't spend as

much time on and maybe you need to work on, right? So for me

personally, I am magician, celebrity, scientist.

That's the, that's the order of my triple threat. I am

very, very good at sort of coming up with innovative ideas and sort of coming

up with interesting things. But I also love people. I

love connecting, I love meeting folks, I love sort of

the relational sort of component of it. And I

think in a very sort of organized, scientific

way. But you're never going to find me sitting there, you're never going to find

me reading like a 56 page research study. I'm

gonna want to hear like the Cliffs Notes of that study.

That's me. And, and I also find that because

I'm so visual and I think this is where people, you know, where

I like kind of a matrix approach. Like, I love this,

what you're saying, which gives light to some other things.

So for me, scientific stuff is the most interesting.

When I see it. So. So, you know, my

husband will hook me into YouTube about, like,

he had me watching. I don't know, some

kind of killer fish thing the other night, which

I would have never picked up a book. Yeah, you have read

about, you know. Yeah. How does this. How does this impact

the kind of clients that you have? Or what is your.

Yeah, yeah. I do find

that a lot of the time you'll attract

more scientists when you're a magician. And

basically, a lot of the time, magicians are very

good translators for people. So scientists tend to

kind of be in this. Like, I have all these ideas, I

have all these things I want to do, but I have no idea how to

talk about it. And magicians tend to be very good at sort of looking at

that whole mess of things and saying, oh, this is how to talk

about it, this is how to think about it. This is how to

break it down. But conversely, you wouldn't go to a

magician if you were looking for somebody to build a system

for you and break everything down and sort of live in

that, you know, that kind of world. Because scientists are more

attuned to that idea. Right. They're better

at coming up with, okay, this is the exact process.

Whereas magicians are much more. They're going to lean into

experimentation a lot more, and they're going to

often enjoy experimentation a lot more. Whereas the

scientists, a lot of the time, they're like, I want a clear

sort of journey here. I want to know exactly what I'm doing,

exactly sort of what's, you know, what's happening. So I do think

that you'll have instances where you do have

to pay attention to what are those things that those people

want, but also recognize that some of them are going to be

more attracted to your skill than others. Like, there

are some people who really need that translation, and that's at the top

of priorities for them. But then there are other people who. They're not

really actually interested in translation right now. They feel like they kind of know what

they have, but they might actually be more interested in

growing that thing or building that thing, or they might be interested

more in developing a system. And I think it's important to identify,

like, where are those strengths for you and where are

those areas that it just doesn't really make sense and you would probably

do better to pass it off to somebody else where it would be a little

more complimentary. So I. So the first thing,

regardless whether you're looking at this as your. Your three

things or something else, I think you know, my

thing is, you don't need to be fixed, you need to be found. And

nobody is good at everything. True.

So sometimes it's a. Not a waste,

but it's not as effective, I think, to spend a lot of

time on something you're not good at when somebody else can do it

really quickly. And part of our problem is the

things that we're good at come so naturally

to us. We don't realize that other people struggle with it.

I mean, I was helping one of my clients. We were, you know, kind of

putting together her client's journey and what the price range and the package

titles and, I mean. And, you know, we went in about 20 minutes, I had

taken what she had and rearranged it and, you know, whatever. And she was like,

you didn't tell me that you were going to help me with my packaging.

And I was like, oh, doesn't everybody do

that? Yeah, because it feels natural. Right. Like, it

just feels like I just do this. It just comes. Right.

Yeah. And. And I think the thing is that,

you know, there are certain words that you said to describe things that I

just went, that's me. That's me. Yeah, the translator

and. And some of the other

archetypes and stuff. There's like, also the Small Change.

Yes. I want to know why it works. You know, that

kind of. And so, you know, the. The bottom

line is.

You have talents that other people need.

Yes. So first you have to be aware of what

your talents are, and then

you need to know who are the people who need

it. And sometimes it is not as

obvious as it seems. Yeah,

yeah. Very, very often. And I think that a lot of the time,

we. Whatever our strength is, like, whatever. The thing is that we do

really well for others, it's really tricky

to do it for ourselves. Right. Like, it's really tricky to sort of

flip that on because we just don't have the gift of

distance. Right. Like, we can't see it. So I will

have lots of instances where I'll meet people who are very much

magicians. They're very good at packaging and solving other

people's problems and, like, coming up with really interesting phrasing

and all that kind of stuff, but they try to do it for themselves

and it falls flat. And it's not really, you know, it's not really strong. So

they end up looking to somebody with an outside

perspective to help them see the things that they can't

see. I find it really interesting that when I

point something out to somebody that, to me, is really obvious.

And they're like, why didn't I know that?

Yeah, I, I'm smart. I should know that.

Yeah. And the same thing is true with me. It's

like, oh, my God, somebody said something. It was

like, how come I didn't know that? Yeah. So.

So I think that, you know, probably one of the biggest lessons is you

as an entrepreneur. You cannot grow your. Your business in a vacuum.

Yes. A couple of reasons for that. One is that

the world is constantly changing. Whether you are or not, the world

is changing. It is different every day. And

you can't put your finger on the pulse of everything that's

going on. So people, you know, so you're shooting at a moving

target is the way that. Yeah. And you can do

that so much better in a group. You know, whether it's a community,

whether it's a coach, whether it's a mastermind or something like

that. Then you can by yourself, because

you just can't take in the information that you need. I mean, because there. Yeah.

Information is everywhere. And what I say to people now is the trend

is not information. That used to be the gold of

expertise. Now the gold

is implementation. Because you can get information anywhere.

Yeah. You know, it's. Right. But you can get it anywhere.

Right? Yeah. But being able to use it is really

the thing that is so, so important.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's a, It's. It's essential. And

I think that what tends to happen is

we'll get information or we'll read something or

we'll see something, and we'll have this thought of, oh,

okay, now I know what I need to. What I need to do.

And the fact of the matter is, until you actually test

whatever that thing is, you're not going to know if

it's actually going to work for you for the One Small Change

that you have. And I see this all the time where somebody will learn

something or see something on a. On a video or a course, and

they'll try to do the exact same thing, but

it doesn't fit who they are or it doesn't fit what their market's actually

looking for. And that's why I am very, very bullish

on the aspect of you need to

test, like, you need to see what kind of

reaction you get from something that you're creating

and then decide, do you want to double down on that? Do

you want to go deeper into that, or is it not really a fit for

you? Is it not really a fit for your market? Well, it's funny

because it's really taken me a long time to go from

building a whole thing and putting it out there to

putting it out there and seeing if I have any nibbles. Yeah. I am very

excited about The One Small Change Podcast. Have an idea of what I want it

to be. Putting it out there to see if I have any nibbles. And then,

you know, so I am not. That is probably one of my

weaknesses. I am not a big tester. I want to really focus on The One

Small Change Podcast. Yeah. I can be really impulsive.

But I am now about to do a pre Something

survey, which I've never done before. Nice. So

you can learn as you go along. You can get better. Exactly.

Let me, before we run out of time, because really enjoying

this, tell me three things you think

people should do and be sure. We need to talk about your gift as well.

Sure, sure. Yeah. So I think, you know, the first thing

is that I think a lot of time we don't

really look at who we already know. I think we spend

so much time on relationship acquisition and not enough time on

relationship retention. And I think, like, if you

just take the time to sort of sit down and say, who, who do I

already know? Who do I already have? Converse. Have I already had conversations

with? And who would I like to deepen the relationship with?

I think there's a lot of opportunity there that most people

don't really pay enough attention to.

Yeah. I just want to interject this. And I think

one of the things that people forget is that

the people that you met before.

There. I don't know how to say this. You know, you know how, like, in

retail there's always, like new customers. Only. People

who have been customers feel like, well, you know, why are they getting a deal

and I'm not. I'm. I'm a loyal customer. Yep.

And so though going back to those people just

really deepens that relationship. And it really. I mean, I think

it's like gold mine that people ignore them and don't

nourish them at all, you know, as much as they should. I'm sorry, that just.

Yeah, no, no, I. I appreciate that. And I think it's a very, very important.

It's a very, very important point for everybody to be thinking,

you know, be thinking about. Second thing I'll say

is that most of the success that I've

experienced in my life has come from

focusing more on people's problems than

on the solution that I provide to those problems.

Meaning I spend far more time

having conversations with people to understand what the actual

problem is, like, what the actual issue is. And I make

that part of the content and the things that I create, I write about

problems, and I have far more interest

from clients when I've taken the time to help them understand

the problems as opposed to talking about the solutions. And I think

it's a very, very important thing to just, like, always be thinking

about for yourself is, are you

a understanding the problems that your clients have

and be communicating that you understand those

problems, like helping them understand those problems, naming

those problems for them, because that is one of the best

tools that you have from a selling standpoint

that. That there is. Well, it's funny because,

you know, one of my first coaches said to

me, you paint your door red with what they think the

problem is, and when you get them inside, you actually

help them, you know, solve the real problem. And so for me, when

I was, you know, doing productivity, most people thought that meant

time management. Yep. I'm like, no, it's not, you know, but

rather that. Rather than, you know, go into the no, it's not kind

of thing. It was like, yes, we're going to do that, but

we're going to do more. Right. Okay, give me the third one because these

are gold. Oh, thank you. So I would say

the last one. I call this the gate

strategy. And every day, challenge

yourself to open and close the gate. So every day,

give without expectation of return. Just do something

for somebody. No ties, Just help

somebody in some particular way. But every

day, in addition to that, ask for something

that you need. Let your network know

if you need something. Communicate that.

Make sure that you work that muscle of asking every

single day. The T is for

thank. And every day,

identify somebody that you can send a

meaningful thank you to. Thank them, tell them

what they did, what it meant. And finally,

every single day, the E is for experiment.

Look for something within the work that you're doing

that you could do a small test on. It doesn't have to be anything

really big. It could be you're going to change a subject line, you're going to

change the way that you describe something, you're going to choose something else to talk

about on a Podcast, whatever it is, Every

single day, come up with at least one Small

experiment. And if every single day you open and close the

gate, after a while you're going to start to notice patterns in

all of those areas. You're going to start to notice, oh, well, when I give

here, these are the types of reactions that I get when I ask

these people. These are the things that work, these are the things that don't. When

I say thank you. These are the opportunities that show up when I do these

experiments. These are the experiments that work the best. If every

day you open and close the gate, you're going to notice

a marked difference in your business

and in your life. Okay, so first I want to go back.

Give me the word again that the acronym is for gate.

Gate. Okay. Give.

Something, think, and experiment. I don't. Yes,

ask, Ask. Which is probably the reason I don't remember.

Yep. Something that that is. Is. Is a muscle

that I don't use. I mean, the simple thing of, you know,

just building it into. When you interview somebody on a Podcast saying, do you know

anybody else that. That might be a good guest on my Podcast, or

do you know anybody else that I might be a good guest. And I always

forget to do that. Yep. Yep.

And. And it creates, like, a ripple effect. And I

think is. Particularly.

I think particularly women, because so many of

us were alive during that. Women, hear me roar.

You know, you can do everything that asking seems like

it's a weakness. Yeah. In fact, asking is

a strength. Oh, 100%. I mean, that is,

I think, the reason why so many people get overwhelmed. And, you know.

You know, it's just, you know, and. And I think.

I don't know. This is a personal thing. It's kind of. I asked for

something. What's it going to cost me? I mean, emotion, the

price. And. And so that is, you know, I think, you know,

when someone said to me when I first started doing affiliates, when you work

with more secure people, you don't have that

issue. Yeah. You know, willing to give

without any kinds of con. And I found that to be true. I mean,

it is. I am in a place right now where

I feel like when I ask people, like, do you want to be on my

podcast or do you want to be on my summit? And stuff like that, I

am, like, so amazed at how fast the answers come back. Like, I'm so glad

you asked me, or, I can't do it this time, but will you make sure

to make, you know. You know, and it is. It

is. I think when you show up as your genuine self

and you can give the gifts that you can give that other

people can't give. Right. Want to

be with you. You know, I find it interesting now

when I go networking, somebody will say, oh, you need to make

sure you talk to Yvonne. Or, you know, and I'm like, wow.

I'm just, like, totally amazed by that. Okay, we're running out of time, and I'm

having Fun. Let me ask you this.

You didn't name what your GIF was. Yep. Yeah.

So I have a tool called the Referability Rater. If you go to

my ReferabilityRater.com, basically, this

is a tool that will help you understand how referable you

actually are. So it actually takes you through a number of

things that you can see how referable you

are as an individual, as a business, et cetera.

And if you go and you use that, you're going to notice

those areas for yourself. You're going to start to be like, oh, wait a

second. Here are the areas where I could use some

improvement. Here are the areas where I'm really strong. And

that'll help you get a better sense of, like, what's working and

what's not. And not only that, when

you contact other people from the fat, and you know that

then you're probably going to get more results from it.

Absolutely, Absolutely. Okay, so when was the last time you did something

new for the first time? Yeah, I was thinking about

this because there are so many things that end up

feeling like, wait a second, I've done this.

You know, I've done this before. I've sort of gone through, you know. So I'm

thinking as I think back to it.

We went to a water park, and it

had been a very long time since I was a kid,

that I had done any of the, like,

scary ones. Right. Like, like, you always kind of did, like, the safe

ones. Right. And I've got two little girls, and

they wanted to get on. They wanted to go down one of these ones

where it's like, you sit on a tube and that thing, like,

spins around like, as you're going, I did

it. I don't know if I'll ever do

it again, but I did it.

No, I think that. I think there are lots of things that we do for

our kids. Yes. That, you know. And,

you know, one of the things that, you know, I have a. I have a

child that's like 12 years younger than my oldest child.

People go, she's going to keep you young.

So, you know, you. You do things that you. You thought you had been

finished doing. Right. 100.

Oh, I can't believe. All right, so let me give you the commercial and

we'll wind this up, even though I don't want to. So, everybody,

as a first step, please subscribe, share, and engage on social media

with the podcast. And, you know, the reason that I do this is

to introduce you to people that maybe you haven't met and supercharge

your business through new connections. And it's my way of giving back

to this vibrant community and fueling your, your quest for growth.

And I hope you'll continue to join me for the one small change as

you're making these tiny shifts that, that are going to yield

monumental transformations. And for

those of you who don't know, every quarter I do a quarterly clarity

chat where I talk about what I think is coming up in the trends. And

so you might want to also look. So Michael, what are your last words you

want to leave us with? So I always like to say that the keys to

all the doors we need open are in other people's pockets.

And the most important component of that

is that you, right now, in this moment, are sitting there with a

pocket full of keys. You have no idea

how much you can benefit somebody else until you start having

those conversations and finding out where they could use help, where they could use

support. So make sure that you, you use those

keys. Don't just walk around and

with these heavy pockets full of keys. Not only that,

that means that people who are starting out have keys as well.

Yes, indeed, very much so. They discount

themselves and they really should not because is

kind of ahead of somebody and you can help and

share and, you know, be of value just by your

presence. I mean, I, I, my goal is

that we both leave better for having met each other.

I love that, whatever that is. Do you know?

Yeah. Oh my God. Okay, so

everybody remember, change is simple, but it's not always easy. And

it requires courage, resilience, and a willingness to step out of your

comfort zone. And let me tell you, if you're comfortable,

it actually means you're stagnating because the world is changing

all around you and you are not keeping up.

I just want you to know that so many things

are possible just by making a small change or making a

small connection. And you will be amazed at the things

that change in your world. Anyway, so join me for the one small

change every week as we embark on this journey. And

until then, stay very, very curious.

Michael, thank you so much. Thanks for having me. It's an absolute

blast.