As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.
Mark 2:14
Here is good old Levi, sitting and minding his own business, a million things on his mind, when all of a sudden Jesus walks by, tells him to drop what he’s doing and follow him. No questions asked.
Who the hell is this Jesus and BTW I got stuff to do. The centurions are down the block and if you think I’m tough to deal with………….
This passage is special to me because I’m one of those people who makes quick decisions. It’s part of my DNA. I don’t weigh, reflect or study. I operate mostly on a feeling level. I’m not always right. Sometimes my decisions create more problems then they solve. But sometimes………………
Us entrepreneurs, we talk a lot about trust and integrity. I want to be sure I can trust you before I hand you a check. Buy ya know what. I hate to sound jaded, in the end it’s all just one piece of a lotta pieces of a sales conversation. My goal is to get you to buy and if you are a student of writing copy and SEO and all those mysterious things I have yet to unravel you’d know it’s all a hook.
Somehow, sales has become a dirty word. Back alley stuff. Aluminum siding and used cars. We buy from the people that resonate with us.
Lemme ask you something. Let’s say you need a new vehicle. Yours unexpectedly passed away last night. Do you wait six months to develop a relationship with a dealer or sales person or do yo quickly honor whatever deity you worship and hope for the best? Now on top of being good looking I read minds. I know what you’re thinking Well what if I’ve been buying my cars from the same person for years? Yeah, but there had to be a first time and it didn’t take forever to get to writing a check.
One of my mentors told me that when they first encounter a new connection they make a decision on how they will answer the question …..And what do you do?
If they get a less than great vibe they simply say I’m in internet marketing
If they get the inklings of a warm fuzzy they proceed in detail.
If we’d written about Jesus encounter with Levi today it today it might have read something like this:
Jesus approached Levi and asked him if he had a few minutes to talk. Levi smiled and told Jesus he was busy counting the taxes he’d just collected. Jesus told him it would only take a minute. Levi sighed and told Jesus he had five minutes so he better hurry up.
Jesus painted a picture of travel, education and salvation. He told Levi he’d see things he’d never imagined and it was a sure sight better than sitting on a stool, in the hot sun having people sneer and curse at him after he took their money. He left out the death on the cross part. Better to spoon feed him. Jesus was struggling to get his email list over a thousand and he couldn’t afford to freak anyone out.
He was going to invest whatever it took to sign him up. A few free gifts, bit of pressure, a webinar maybe with a countdown timer. An email blast every hour or so. “Levi, come follow me.” (Here’s your free gift!)
Levi asked if he could have until the close of business. Jesus tried a few “guilt lines” and told Levi he’d be back. He set an alarm on his smart phone and headed down the road.
But, Jesus said none of that. Matter of fact the Scripture tells us that Jesus spoke just one line and if you look close enough Jesus never stopped walking when he spoke. As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.
That’s it.
No elevator speech. No warm introductions. No 1–2-1’s for lunch or coffee. No carefully navigating towards a sales conversation. I mean, you have to have a sales conversation at some point in time. Don’t ya? ( I have nightmares about one of my coaches getting apoplectic and yelling at me for not getting to the sales conversation quickly enough.)
If you’re coming, then come on.
Jesus built relationships as he went along. He didn’t need six months and a huge list.
He didn’t need testimonials, dissertations and the like. He simply said Here I am. Follow me.
Take it or leave it.
Levi was a publican. That meant he was one of the last people to be considered anyone’s client let alone part of Jesus first century master mind group. His job was to make sure that the Roman emperors taxes were collected. Anything above and beyond the tax that he was able to collect was his. Can you say “crook?”
Don’t fall asleep with your mouth open, your gold teeth might be missing when you wake up.
Jesus didn’t hesitate. He walked right by and didn’t ask Levi to follow him. He told him.
I’m not gonna get all theological on you. You can draw your own conclusions as to why Levi followed. Tell the angels to go on break and let the harpists rest their fingers. Jesus and Levi connected in some way shape or form and Levi, for his part respected Jesus approach. You don’t get rich collecting taxes by giving people options.
Believe it or not, despite all the poo the gurus sling at us, people know what we’re up to when weave those fancy tales. They know we want a dip in their pockets so ours appear much fuller. What they really want to know is are WE going to make THEM better?
We live in a monkey see, monkey do sorta world. We’re copycats or as my mom used to say is “if everyone jumped in the lake would you jump too?” (It’s Wisconsin, the lake gets awfully cold.)
Our ideal client is a mirror of us. Take a good look at yourself. The stuff that revved your engines is going to do the same to the people that work with you. I mean why would we work with someone who doesn’t.
We work with folks who “get us.”
Jesus knew that when he walked by Levi that day. He knew their sparks would ignite and amazing things would happen.
I guess, that makes us a bit like Levi.
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Post Script (AKA P.S.)
On July 20, 2020 I will celebrate being married to the same person for forty six years. The first time we went out on a date, five minutes into the conversation I knew I would marry her. Least ways I hoped I’d marry her, lol. She DID have a choice. I proposed one month later and we were married eight months later. Along the way we’ve manages to create six great kids, accumulate more pets than I can count and share some great times. Happy Anniversary Joan.
Just call me Levi.
The Next Chapter 