We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Michael Leon a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Michael, thank you so much for joining us today. Let’s jump right into something we’re really interested in hearing about from you – being the only one in the room. So many of us find ourselves as the only woman in the room, the only immigrant or the only artist in the room, etc. Can you talk to us about how you have learned to be effective and successful in situations where you are the only one in the room like you?
This is such a good question and something I have faced a bunch, but truly have never noticed (or at least paid full attention to it) until 2020 & the George Floyd murder. At the time, I was working in the golf industry, which is a predominantly white industry, and the company I worked at was trying to figure out how to message to employees (similar to the way you saw messages on social media from all these companies around that same time). And I said to our CEO & others on the call “the fact that you are looking to me and there is no one else around, is part of the problem folks.” And even looking back at other little moments that I felt isolated in the workplace or in a social situation because I was the only person that looked like me, the only thing I can point to as to how I got by it is through my words and actions. I just started to not care and became more confident in myself and my belief that I could get the job done or communicate with someone on a personal/work level and just pushed through. And on the flip side, I realized the need to give back by mentoring others on the come up that either want to break into the industry, or want some advice for entering the field, or even ones that graduated from my college, anything I can do to just guide others, I am happy to do it.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Well first off, thank you again for featuring us! I am Mike Leon, host of the ‘Can We Please Talk?’ news commentary podcast, and also CEO of Leon Media Network, LLC. We recently launched this past year as a podcast & production company, with shows in news, sports, education, wellness, politics & more, including a production arm that works with companies to shoot high quality content, testimonials, etc, to help businesses promote their products or services. Our leadership team consists of my CFO Rick Sanchez Jr, a finance veteran & former podcast network CFO, as well as John Archibald, my Chief Marketing Officer & the owner of Resolution Promotions. And our programs feature hosts that you have probably seen on tv or podcasts everywhere. From Curran Bhatia, the host of the ‘Ask The Experts’ boxing & MMA podcast, who has the biggest names in boxing and MMA on his show, and his work has been featured on Fox Sports, ESPN & Amazon Prime. To Rich Quinones, the hosts of the ‘Back Your Play w/ Q’ sports pod and has been featured on ESPN Radio, to even myself, who has been on news commentary podcasts across MSNBC & The Muckrake Political Podcast. Our goal is continue to entertain & inform across different verticals and we hope you check us out at https://www.leonmedianetwork.com/
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I think three qualities or skills that have been most impactful to me, and I continue to use, are listening, determination, patience. Listening to what others that know more than me in their respective spaces are saying, and putting it into practice. Determination meaning just put the head down and be determined to accomplish the goals I set for myself and for my company. From content creation to booking guests to securing advertisers to even getting featured on a publication like this, I know through determination and hard-work, I will achieve what I set out to achieve. Patience meaning I know this all won’t happen overnight, and to just enjoy the ups and downs that come with all of this. Staying patient and knowing that if we keep putting in the work, it will pay off.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
We are always evaluating people that are good storytellers for the podcast network. If you feel you have a story to tell in a certain space we are not in, and you have a game plan for how to tell that story (i.e. through interviews or video or some other way), I would be willing to collaborate with anyone that knows they have something interesting to share with the world but they don’t know how to get that message out to everyone.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.leonmedianetwork.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/canwepleasetalkpodcast/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-leon-43949963/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/mikeleeeeon
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsJdwipYkr7RgS_ZPIvQjDQ
