“Be There. Be Useful.”

Michael Bushong has a knack for distilling leadership into deceptively simple mantras. One of his classics? “Be there. Be useful.” Like most good advice, it sounds obvious until you realize how rarely it shows up in the wild.

To me, it’s not just a leadership principle; it’s a way of showing up. And I try to carry it with me, whether I’m mentoring someone or fielding cold calls from tenacious salespeople.

Yes, salespeople. Stick with me.

Most of us treat sales calls like telemarketers in the 90s: an interruption, a nuisance, a number to block. But I try not to hang up. Instead, I listen. And if there’s a chance, I try to help them sharpen their pitch. Not because I’m in the market. But because someone else will be, and they deserve a better shot at making their case.

That might sound like a waste of time. It’s not. I spend five minutes giving them something their enablement team should have: actionable feedback. Most of them haven’t been taught how to tell a coherent story. That’s the real problem.

Case in point: someone recently found and called my personal cell number after I ignored their emails (sent, I might add, to an unpublished work address). I picked up, let them go through their script, and then walked them through it, step by step. Turns out, their pitch broke trust in the first 60 seconds. Their claims didn’t hold water, and their story had no substance. It wasn’t dishonest, exactly. Just not believable.

They didn’t sell me. But hopefully, they walked away with something more valuable than a "no, "a better shot at the next call. A better story.

And that’s the common thread: story.

I get dozens of AI-written pitches every week, mostly from people who want their founder on my podcast. They lead with awkward flattery and a half-hearted tie-in: “Hey Andy, I loved your last episode on XYZ. It totally reminded me of our founder, John Smith…” You can feel the cut-and-paste energy radiating through the screen.

The subtext? “You said a thing. We sell a thing. Let’s pretend that’s synergy.”

I don’t respond to these. Maybe I should. If I want to live the “be there, be useful” philosophy, it can’t be selectively applied. Those folks also need a better story, and clearly no one’s told them.

Next week, I’m giving a talk about a moment that changed the trajectory of my life and career. I crafted the story carefully, not for applause, but for resonance. I want it to connect viscerally with the folks still holding onto the beliefs I used to have, the ones that quietly limit their potential.

If just one person sees themselves in my story, then I was there. And maybe I was useful.