[Mike] How do you get attention when you’re saying the same words as everybody says in personal development and business development? You got to change it up. So, the rocket fuel concept, the stubborn concept, I talk about… you know, Grant talks a lot about moving forward, you got to keep moving forward, you got to lean into it. I say thrust is a must. You have to move forward and fast. And so, yeah, I’m always looking for these little things to grab people’s attention. And I think that’s how people get celebrity status in this business as well, besides the results, is they come up and frame things differently so that people can understand it, but it’s new.
– [Jason] You know your business can change people’s lives, but you don’t yet have the right words to inspire them to take action. Imagine, the changes you will create in your business as you tap into the secrets of ethical influence and positive persuasion, to not only better serve your clients, but also to supercharge your financial freedom. I’m your host, Jason Linett, and welcome to the Hypnotic Language Hacks podcast.

[00:00:59]I help entrepreneurs and business owners just like you to close more premium sales. And no, this isn’t about tricking or manipulating people. Not at all. It’s about helping your prospects to appropriately sell themselves into your products or services. Please, hit Subscribe, and get all the episodes now at jasonlinett.com. Now, there’sa theme that I’ve talked about for a number of years now that it’s not necessarily just the events of your life that define who you are. The events that you live through do have a part in terms of your overall story. The bigger picture question is, what do you do in response to those events? There’s a story I share briefly in the conversation you’re about to listen to about how one specific turning point for one of my clients was every reason that they created success. And for the other person, it was possibly every reason that they just kind of threw in the towel and gave up. And I’ll tell you the theme that I’ve lived by is that everything is an asset.

[00:02:00]I go back to when I was first opening up one of the businesses that I’m now running, which has been running now for well over a decade. And early on, there was a lot of, let’s call it, well-meaning negativity. There were a number of people who were expressing one part concern, but one part fear that here I was launching something new, as they put it, in one of the worst economic climates ever, a phrase we have probably heard at least a dozen times over the last 10 years, if even that. It’s always the worst economic climate, by the way. Create your own economy. And little did these people know that their concern, their negativity, their fear, I live by the premise that everything is an asset, or my guest, who you’re about to meet this week, refers to it as rocket fuel. The question is, again, what do you do with it? How do you put that into use? So, by taking that moment of well-meaning concern and fear, which was external, and internalizing that now into a motivational system to get out there,

[00:03:00]reach a global audience, and make some awesome stuff happen. Awesome stuff as in, hey, you’re listening to me right now. Thanks for joining me. And you’re about to meet this week’s guest, Mike Ciorrocco, C-Roc. Mike Ciorrocco is the CEO of People Building Incorporated and the powerhouse behind the “What Are You Made Of?” movement. He’s a performance coach. He’s an author. He’s a dynamic public speaker. And he was recently featured by Yahoo Finance as one of the top business leaders to follow in 2020. And he’s on a mission to help people to build themselves up to be even greater and even better. There’s some cool nuances inside of this conversation you’re about to listen to. We’re always with our guests here looking for those specific turning points, and a very specific turning point, where here is a conflict, and more importantly, here’s what he did with it. Plus an amazing conversation around the theme of taking specific words, and if we can reclaim them as our own, they become our assets,

[00:04:00]or as Mike puts it, they become our rocket fuel. So C-Roc had a fire lit in him at an early age, and this fire has ignited him to be out there, coaching people, speaking to people, and his book, Rocket Fuel just came out. It’s available now on Amazon. Head over to the show notes of this specific podcast episode over at jasonlinett.com. This is episode number 26. So, jasonlinett.com/26. That’ll bring you over to the show notes of this specific episode. And C-Roc, no stranger to setbacks himself, has also built a highly successful mortgage division with his best friends twice. And you’re going to hear that story in terms of building up, a potential setback, and building up even stronger. If you want to have some incredible inspiration to break past the fear of failure, if you want to hear an incredible conversation about breaking past fear of success, and again, some incredible metaphors and mindsets around taking potential setbacks and turning that

[00:04:59]into your own rocket fuel, buckle up for this week’s episode. Before we get start of the day, if you want to easily grab people’s attention, naturally build authority, and organically have your prospects wanting more from you, even before you’ve made an offer, I’ve created a step-by-step program to help you to do just that. It’s called Business Influence Systems. And this is your opportunity now to visit jasonlinett.com to get a free behind-the-scenes tour of the exact hypnotic persuasion strategies that you can ethically use to better start up or scale up your business. If you want a proven framework to boost your confidence, attract premium clients, and inspire more people to take action with you, get Business Influence Systems now at jasonlinett.com. All right. So, I’m here with Mike Ciorrocco, or C-Roc. Mike, how are you doing today?
– Good, Jason. What’s up, man? Hey, thank you so much for having me.

[00:05:59]I always like to start the shows that I go on with gratitude. I’m really honored. And I feel, like, really gracious to be in the position to share something with you and your audience, and anybody that’s willing to listen to my voice. So, thank you.
– Awesome. Best way to live life. So, for those that don’t yet know you, could you share a little bit about yourself?
– Yes. So, I’m a guy that helps people that get stuck in setbacks, and show them if they could figure out ways, which I can show them, how to eliminate everything that comes the way that would stop them normally, and actually store it in their tank instead of their trunk, convert it to rocket fuel, and propel, and not just be resilient and come back, but go way beyond. And that’s what I’m all about. I do a lot of things, but that’s the problem that I solve, Jason.
– Nice. I love that. So, let’s rewind some of that story back in terms of where did this come from? What’s kind of your journey up until now?
– So, you know, I came from a broken home, I don’t remember my parents ever together. You know, I dealt with all the conflicts that come along with that, which I’m sure a lot of your audience and listeners can relate to.

[00:07:00]Conflict with child support, custody battles, you know, all that stuff. And then you have the step-parents coming in, and their agendas get in the mix. And then other kids that are born, and it just becomes a hodgepodge of conflict and not knowing, like, what you have to do with it and why…it’s just a mess. Anyway. So, I lived with my dad after eight years of doing the every other weekend thing going to his house, I’d moved in with him and his new wife. And from 8 to 11, I dealt with a lot of emotional, verbal, psychological abuse, there was a really conflicting time at that time. And after three years of it, I just had enough, and I asked my mom to, you know, get me out. And I explained to her what was going on. And she said, “Mikey,” they used to call me Mikey back then, “that’s not normal. That’s not ordinary. Despite what you think, it’s not, and you don’t need to deal with that.” And here, I was afraid that I would get into trouble if I shared with someone, you know, because as a kid, your parents or your step-parents are doing certain things, and you think that if you say anything about what they’re doing, you’re going to get in the doghouse.

[00:07:59]So, she shared that it wasn’t ordinary, and she went and filed court papers. And she reminded me, though, that if she filed court papers, that I needed to stick to my guns, like, I have to understand in life, when you believe in something, and you know that it’s the right thing, you have to stick to your guns because people will try to talk you out of it. They’ll try to do it to justify their position in life or their agenda. And she knew that that would be the case in this scenario. So, that, I took literally and became really stubborn. And I like to talk about stubborn a lot, Jason, because stubborn, to me…I looked up the definition, which I love doing that. And there’s two words that really stuck out to me and really get me fired up, and that was “perversely unyielding.” And when you could think about something in life, if you want to accomplish something, and you’re perversely unyielding towards it, that means you’re going to get it. And, you know, stubborn has a negative connotation most of the time for people. But I think, you know, it’s the right thing when it’s on the right thing. So anyway, my dad got these court papers, I came home from school one day, he had this legal envelope in his hand and sent me back to my room.

[00:09:02]Very, very tense time, awkward time, I didn’t know what was going to happen. I walked back to my room. My hero, my dad was a mason, he had his own business, he had big forearms and rough hands. I looked up to him for he’s hard a worker and the success that he had in his business. And he always carried a wad of $100 bills in his pocket with a rubber band around it. And I always thought that was the coolest thing. He would show me a flash and show what we get with it and this and that, so. He confirmed the idea that was in that legal envelope, and basically tried to talk me out of it, said that my mom didn’t have it that well. And I don’t understand why you would want to go there when you have everything you need here. And basically, it came down to him about the money, right? It was, you know, as long as you have money, you’re good. And, you know, that wasn’t the case there. So, I just stuck to my guns. And he said, “If that’s the case,” and he takes that wad of $100 bills out, he peeled one off, crumpled it up, and threw it at me, and said, “you’re going to need this then when you’re living on the streets with your mother.” And, you know, at 11 years old, remember, I’m stubborn.

[00:10:00]I’m like, Yeah, bud, that ain’t happening.” No, I didn’t say that to him, but I’m just thinking to myself, “There’s no way I’m going to need that.” And number two, I thought to myself, you know, my mom always told me I was going to be a leader, and I inspired people. And like, 3, or 4, or 5 years old, I remember hearing this, and I never knew what…I didn’t really know what it meant. But when somebody programs you that way, at a younger age, you start living that, you start talking that game, you start wanting to help people, you start realizing that people are looking to you for guidance. And my mom was relatively young when she had me, and I feel like, you know, from a young age, I was able to lead my mom into some things and guide her. And that gave me confidence to be the leader that I am today. So, I just knew that in this ordinary situation, there had to be other people that had been given up on. And I would be somehow able to lead them and show them that they don’t have to be labeled that way. And they can accomplish great things despite that. So, just…
– That’s incredible. Thank you for sharing that. I want to go back to two specific moments inside of there.

[00:11:01]Because again, as I was chatting with you before we jumped on, we’re always looking at, you know, yes, we can get into specific words, and you beautifully…and it’s the second one we’re going to talk about, stubborn, because I love that. But looking at how suddenly when we change the dynamic of how we look at the situation, that that turning point of being in that experience where up until a certain point, it was almost that…let’s use the word here, the victim part of the story of, I’m the one at fault because I’m in this situation yet to simply learn this is not how that goes. Could you take us inside of that moment of, again, where that learning that this is not how it ought to be?
– Yeah. So, you know, I guess, just after a while, like, you get this feeling inside of you, and it’s like, “I don’t have to put up with this shit.” Do you know what I mean? Like, as a kid, even like, this is horseshit. I’m not dealing with this Like, why would I do this? I don’t know how I came up with that idea that I was not meant for this.

[00:12:00]This is not the way it’s going to be. And what I did, though…and I told that story, not like you said, not for the victim, but it’s this situation where I realized about 2 years ago, for 30 years, I’ve been fueling off of that moment, not really being conscious of it, but knowing that that was…I’m proving something, I’m going to do that. So, my graphs, when I talk about a graph on a line, a line graph going gradually up, that’s a good graph, gradually increasing. And I always thought that, you know, I’m always going to be successful. I don’t know why it’s that way. It just is, and I’m just going to keep fueling myself. But I realized that it was this moment that was fueling me. And I was able to take not just that moment, but other moments where people took advantage, or I was too trusting, or my responsibility. But I was converting these things into fuel. And once I realized it and put a label on it, my graph took a high trajectory that just took off. And now, I’m just riding the momentum wave to be able to share with other people and get exposure to do so because you need to get exposure, you need to create yourself

[00:12:59]into a celebrity status to be able to impact millions of people.
– Well, that message can be good. But what good is it if people aren’t actually hearing? Exactly, yeah. I love that aspect of taking that part of the story and, you know, changing the dynamic of it. And I always go back to a singular moment, I had two clients came in to the office one day, they didn’t know each other, they didn’t cross paths, but they both had the same story. And the story aside, for one, it was every reason why I’m so excited to create this change. And the other one, same exact story, it was every reason why, “Hey, this is probably going to be impossible right now, should I even be doing this?” I mean, and I love that moment of, again, going inside of the singular experience, and realizing that we can change up our reality, you know. Is there a moment in the shape of your business where that came to be true as well of kind of calling out that moment of, “This is not how I do this, I’m out.”
– Yeah. You know, I’m in the mortgage business, by the way, as well. I don’t work in the business, I work on it.

[00:13:59]Forty employees, we’ve developed a great team, great culture, we were growing like crazy. But we were on a different…
– Congrats on that.
– Thank you. We were on a different platform. And it took us, I don’t know, seven to nine years or something like that to build up to 10 million in revenue. And it came crumbling down because the culture wasn’t there. And I got complacent, honestly. And the owner of the company did some things he shouldn’t have done with money that came from us, like, he took it from us. When I found that out, I was crushed because I was so loyal, and I was a company guy. And I didn’t believe a lot of the things that I was being told by other people in the company, I just couldn’t wrap my head around it. And so, when I found out and confirmed that that was the case, I had 22 employees at the time, and everything that we worked for, so hard for, and the sleepless nights, you know, the business stuff, man, everybody deals with it, it was just going all down the tubes. And I came to the realization…I was so pissed, man. I was so pissed that this happened, and at the time, I really didn’t take 100% responsibility for it.

[00:15:00]I was pissed at the person that did it. But I came to a realization, I broke down in the kitchen in front of my wife, which I’ve never done before. One night, I just couldn’t take the pressure anymore. I felt like all these people were, like, relying on me. They’re like, “Now what?” And I didn’t know what to do. I’ve never been in that situation before. And, you know, I was acting like a little bitch probably, to say it lightly.
– To use the professional terminology. I’ve been there, too.
– But it was a bad feeling, man, that feeling, like, I’d never forget that. And that moment, probably that’s my…like when you go and run out of fuel and you got to stop at another gas station down the road on your journey, that’s another pit stop that I had to make. Because I’m fueled off of that, because that moment, I told my wife, I’m never doing this again, like, I’m not going to be in this situation again. I’m never feeling like this again. I will never be complacent. I’ll never let anybody hold me over a barrel. And if I have to do everything by myself, because everybody in the company leaves, and I got to start fresh and add one person at a time to the right culture, that’s what we’re going to do.

[00:16:01]In that moment, instead of getting legal and deal with all that stuff, because I don’t think that would’ve moved fast enough, and I don’t think it would have had the impact, we chose to be successful, and that was the punishment that we would give the person. I don’t know if that makes…. It wasn’t about…
– It does, yeah.
– It wasn’t about revenge, it’s not about…
– At the end of the day, probably could have been some sort of settlement, or this, or that. But really, the thing that would have served you the most is exactly what you’re talking about, just become insanely successful at it, and move on.
– Yes. And every time it gets tough, every time we feel like we had a good spot…like, we just had a great year this year, and we’re grinding like we’re broke. Like, I want to remember that feeling. I don’t want to ever have it again, but I want to keep it somewhere in my chest somewhere, just knowing that it’s there any moment, and remind my team of that feeling so that we’re always going to the next level. And the problem that people have, they…you know, people talk about limited mindsets and all that. We’re put on this planet, to me…and I don’t apologize for my beliefs,

[00:17:00]I believe in God, I believe in an omnipotent God, a God that’s all-powerful. It would be naive of me and anybody else to think if you believe that way that we’re limited on our mind, and spirit, and our financial situation. So, with that being the case, I can’t imagine not continuing every day to go for my potential and encouraging the people that are around me to reach, go further. You don’t know how far you can go. Jason, it’s like climbing a mountain. Like, somebody asked me the other day, “Do you know what’s at the top of your mountain that you’re climbing?” And I’m like, “No, I don’t.” You know, they didn’t say, “Do you know?” They said, “What is?” and I’m like, “I don’t know.” I mean, that’s for something for me to figure out maybe at some point, but right now, I feel like there’s a level of clouds right above me, and I can’t see the top of that mountain. I just know it’s way up there. And I’m just maybe just trying to get my head above those clouds so that I can really see it. And I’m going to keep going until I do that, so. – I think right there you’ve just described one of the big formulas around the sustainability of success, which take that, you know, as a big header, and let’s throw that to business, let’s throw that

[00:18:01]to relationships. Let’s throw that to fitness. That if we’re the person who’s putting all the happiness and all the outcomes, you know, on the outcome, the end result, we’re not going to be satisfied with that journey of getting there, we’re going to be chasing frustration. If we can enjoy every part of the journey the entire way there, which, no, I’m not spoiling the end of the new Pixar movie, Soul, if we can enjoy every part of the journey, getting toward that…you’ve seen it. Getting towards that specific outcome, that’s where we find that sustainability and that drive to keep doing better and better. This is why I wanted to have you on here on this program to have this chat about, you know, how we can take a situation, and it’s the frame that we put around it. It’s the energy that it creates, and more importantly, what we do with it. I got to go back to the stubbornness, though, which I’ll tell you a quick story, which brings up why I want to go back to this. A guy who I worked with years ago, there was a part of his business that he

[00:19:00]was getting stuck on. And the whole thing was that like podcasting, like putting out videos, consistency was going to be the thing that had to be the foundation to make this part of his business work. And he kind of sat back for a moment, and he goes, “I think for the next year or two, I need to become responsibly addicted to this.” And I’m like, “Oh, that’s so good. I’m using that.”
– That is great. I like it.
– To take a word, and this is a modern theme now, to take a word and reclaim it as your own. So, to reclaim stubbornness, which I’m right there with you, buddy, to reclaim stubbornness is now, as you would say, rocket fuel, as I would say, an asset. What has that opened up for you? What has that created?
– Yeah, you know, first of all, we can do whatever we want with words. Like, there’s people that say, “Oh, that word means…” It’s not bullshit. This word means what I tell you it’s going to mean to me. So, first of all, that’s [inaudible] right? But, you know, I think there’s a thing called the lullaby effect.

[00:19:59]When you hear persistence, or you hear resilience, or you hear these different words that people all…pivot’s a big one right now, like, the pivot, we had to pivot. I’m so sick of hearing the word pivot. But I think that that lullaby effect goes… – I pivoted three years ago. So we’re on track now.
– Okay. But I really think that you got to come up with some new things, new concepts, new ways to frame things to get people’s attention. And to me, you know, I’m mentored by Grant Cardone. So, Grant, it’s the big thing that he’s always told me is attention, you got to get attention. Attention, money follows attention, people follow attention. You know, you got to get attention. How do you get attention when you’re saying the same words as everybody says in personal development and business development? Now, you got to change it up. So, the rocket fuel concept, the stubborn concept, I talk about… you know, Grant talks a lot about moving forward, you got to keep moving forward, you got to lean into it. I say thrust is a must. Partly, because thrust…when I…my partner, one of my partners said that he hates it because he talked to some friends and they said, “It’s too sexual.” But that’s part of getting attention, right? I don’t get that part. I don’t even… I’m like, “Whatever, dude.”

[00:21:00]But that’s the case, great because more people will be like, “Woah, what did you say? Thrust is a must?” Yes, thrust is a must, you have to move forward and fast. And so, yeah, I’m always looking for these little things to grab people’s attention. And I think that’s how people get celebrity status in this business as well, besides the results, is they come up and frame things differently so that people can understand it, but it’s new.
– That’s something we haven’t yet talked about here on Hypnotic Language Hacks, that a while ago, I talked in the program about, take what you do, and turn it into a proprietary process, as in here’s Step 1, here’s Step 2, here’s step 3, which the benefit is that, yes, from a business perspective, it’s now easier to sell because you could walk people through what it is. But the other side of it goes back to the theme you brought up earlier, that of culture, that for the people who are inside of our systems, now we have a common shared language. So, one of the most frequent language patterns that I talk about is that

[00:21:58]of product pacing, pace your communication to sell people into the action steps that they’ll already be doing after they’ve made the buying decision. This way, we’re bypassing that decision point, but instead talking about what’s going to be happening once they’re in the program, what steps they’re going to be taking, and it’s going to have the same result. But now, we’ve got a common shared language around it. The beauty of this, though, becomes is that now we’ve created that cultural aspect where the people inside of it now have that common shared language, and they can claim these words as their own. Curious to ask you, as somebody who coaches others, is there a story of working with somebody where they hit upon their own words, they hit upon their own phrasing, their own framework, to create their own success? – I’m trying to think off the top of my head.
– Or even that of just simply reclaiming the story to now become the hero of that story rather than the victim?
– Yeah, I mean, I’ve got a lot of them.

[00:22:59]I’m trying to think of a good one to tell right now. You know, I think…well, I’ll tell you this, I don’t know about terminology, but I’ve had several employees that we’ve built, they’ve taken the action and, you know, bought in and built , and they’ve grown themselves out of our company. So, but, you know, as a coach, and as a people builder, you got to be prepared for that and be understanding of that, that’s what you’re doing, you’re building people to their maximum, pushing towards their potential. And at times, they’re going to want to try to take it out on…take the show on the road, so to speak. And you got to be cool with that. You got to have confidence in yourself that you’re going to have a steady line of people that you’re building. And that’s…you know, but as far as terminology, I can’t think of anything off the top of my head. I might come up with it later, though.
– Yeah, there’s a cool thing inside of that, just to kind of share a quick anecdote, that the ability to connect back with your values, ask yourself, why are you doing what you do? What’s the audience that you’re speaking to? And how are you serving them? So, here’s a local business that I’ve run for going on about 11, 12 years.

[00:24:00]And as I’m moving to a different area, the opportunity to go, “Well, it’s geographically named, here’s all my local students. Does anyone want to open up a conversation about buying this?” And the consistent feedback received from five or six of them were to go, “Well, you taught us how to build our own thing so well, we don’t need it. But thank you.” And to look at that and go, that satisfies me more than here’s the, you know, pay cut for selling out the name and moving that onward. To really connect with that resource inside us, to go, “Here is why I’m doing this.” Let’s kind of sidebar for a moment because very often people, let’s say, in mortgage are, you know, solo office, working for a different company. Talk me through some of what you went through in terms of scaling this to something much bigger than that.
– You know, I think the key to our success is that when I started, I started with my best friend, and the people that we added

[00:24:58]around, you know, they fit in with the relationships that we had. And it didn’t necessarily…they weren’t necessarily mortgage people, I think the main people that we have, there’s only a few that have had mortgage experience prior to coming to us. So, we developed people that have will, not necessarily the skill, and we taught them the skill. But my best friend, and then I added two other best friends that I went to high school and college together with, and there’s four of us that are part of our leadership team. And then my little brother works with us as well. So, you know, there’s a problem with that in one aspect because some people that may come in, say, “Well, they get special treatment, because they’re friends and this and that,” but we approach it a little differently. We approach it to where we have to work harder because of that. We have to provide a great example and be role models beyond if we were just a leadership team that didn’t have that past relationship. But I think that’s part of the key to our success, and that they’re bought into it as well, like, the whole rocket fuel thing, what are you made of, we talk about this all the time, and going for our potential, and they buy into it,

[00:26:03]and then that resonates throughout the whole group. And we’re really careful of who we add, and we have no tolerance whatsoever for anyone that’s not buying in. You know, we make sure our goals for the group align with the team’s goals. And if they don’t, we just part ways.
– So, let’s go into this rocket fuel concept, which, perfect timing, this is coming out right after your book comes out. Walk us through, when you say rocket fuel, what exactly do you mean by that?
– So, in life, the things that stop us are not the encouraging people, it’s not the wins and successes we have, and all the support and confidence, it’s all the opposite of that, right? It’s all the toxicity, things that weigh people down, depress people, make them anxious. You know, I’ve seen that, you know, when people have a setback or a disappointment, sometimes it ruins their day, ruins their week, or maybe even their career. And so, I don’t like that feeling, first of all, I don’t think anybody does, so I want to eliminate that for myself and others.

[00:27:01]And so, if we have a way to find out how to take that stuff and store it in our tank, and not in our trunk, where it weighs you down, and convert it into rocket fuel, not only do you recover, but you blast, you go way further than that. And by the way, the other thing I was thinking about the other day, you know, if you’re way above and have a better vantage point of others that stay down here, you have an advantage as well not in just relationships, business, finances, like, in life in general. So, that’s what it does for you as well. The closer proximity you are to an adversity, the harder it is to see all this stuff. You know, it’s chaotic, confusion, that feeling’s in there, you can’t think clearly. So, this concept is a proactive concept. This is something that you have to know going into it. That, one, when a setback comes my way, I need to acknowledge it. I need to know, “Okay, this is a setback. This is what C-Roc was talking about.” I need to accept the fact that this might be a little more difficult than I anticipated. And then I need to take action immediately on the steps that it’s going to take

[00:28:01]to get opportunity out of this. blast off from it, whatever the case is. So, here’s an example. Usually, people have a setback, and then they play the victim card, “Why it was me? I can’t believe this is happening to me, I’m such a good person.” Bad things happen to good people, by the way. And so, instead of, like, figuring out something right there, and acknowledging it, and taking action right away for that opportunity, they’re waiting on down the road. And then they look back in their life and say, “Well, man, I see the good that came out of that. That’s why that happened.” Now, when you’re going through an adversity or a setback, why doesn’t matter? The why does not matter at that moment, what matters is what’s in this, what opportunity is in this? And if you can just start immediately taking action to look for the opportunity, you don’t have to go through all that time that you wasted. So, that’s what it’s all about. And when you get into outer space, this is an analogy, obviously, but when you’re get into outer space, you’re away from the gravitational pull, which is all this negative stuff.

[00:29:00]And so I’d rather pick my problems in life than have people just throwing problems on my lap. And if you don’t look for setbacks, you don’t look for the fuel, the problem’s that other things will find you but it’ll be other people’s problems, and the ones you don’t want to deal with. So, this is what it’s all about. And this is something that, you know, I found that works so good. And I’ve seen it in other people. And when Grant Cardone wrote the foreword for my book and explained what that concept meant to him and his business, and his life, with the success that he had, that validated it even further in my mind, to push this further. So, my book has stories in it of my life, little anecdotes, to share how I came up with this concept and also how to implement it into your life.
– That’s awesome. And congrats on that foreword, too. I got to flip the question in a slightly different way. Because we can put everything you’ve just talked about, someone put that into a category of, let’s say, fear of failure, that here’s the setback, and the person kind of shuts down, almost from the internal dialog of,

[00:29:59]”I don’t want to get into this situation again.” There’s a funny little category that I tend to find people who are not in business don’t tend to understand as even being a possibility. But it’s that next-door neighbor of fear of success. And I’ll tell you the pattern that I’ve noticed with some of my folks, and I can think back in moments of my story, which if this is the biggest problem that we face sometimes, things are clearly going all right. The person has a really successful moment. And not just for the sake of pausing to be as we started this conversation with gratitude and celebrate that experience, they start to procrastinate when things are going exceptionally well.
– Complacency, too.
– Yeah, I can think of a moment when suddenly, okay, I built this audience online in another industry. And it was the first time officially putting out a webinar and drawing in the audience and sitting there, and I had a whole hit list of things to do that week that were vitally important, thinking back. And suddenly, that moment, it’s like the first time ever seeing

[00:31:01]upwards of $25,000 income in one day. There was this moment of, “Okay, that’s awesome.” But then everything else fell aside, and kind of looking back, I can, you know, partially compartmentalized, let’s say, and that sort of complacency, that fear of success pattern, would you put that into the same rocket fuel analogy? Would you label that differently? Or how do you go about handling that?
– You know, success, a lot of times doesn’t feel as good as you think it’s going to feel. And that’s why we talk about just continuing your journey to your potential. And I also think success can be lonely. Because the things you have to do to get successful, be successful, the people around you generally aren’t on the same path. They’re not down to do what it takes. And so, a lot of times, you can get isolated because of it. And nobody ever celebrates your win and success as much as you want them to. So, I have a saying, too, with this. It’s like, when people are watching, like, they’re watching me on social media,

[00:32:01]they watch me on these podcasts and all this other stuff. You know, I have people say, “Man, C-Roc, you’re killing it, man, you’re killing it, this and that,” that just charges me up more and tells me I got to push harder. But people always see it from the outside better than it actually is. And from your point of view, it’s not as ever as worse as you think it is, or as bad as you think it is. So it’s a funny phenomenon there. But now, I think the fear of success has to do with, one, when you hit success, it’s not as good. Two, it’s lonely. And three, you understand that getting there, and if it does feel good, or if you do hit that, you have, like, a now what kind of feeling, or I got to go hard to do work again, to keep going, and complacency is my kryptonite. So, just ever since that moment with that one company, I just never want to feel that again. And I just reset, man, we hit the target, we reset, hit the target, reset, and just keep looking for problems to solve.
– So, you mentioned stubbornness before, this is where years ago, probably out of one of those moments, I crafted a little bit more of a longtail

[00:33:00]phrase, that of a constant, positive dissatisfaction with incredible success. So, here’s the campaign that goes exceptionally well. Here’s the book launch that I put out in 2019. And to see what happens as a result of it, and yes, to have that moment and celebrate it, but then to go, “Yeah, but if I did it this way, it would have happened that way better.” And then to go, “Okay, good. I’ll do that on the next project.” So, this place of…that positive criticism, but also that positive success of that. Yeah, I’d throw in a reference. And I may get the details of this paraphrased. But it’s actually, I think, a quote I heard from George Carlin, that why he would go on HBO every year and do the comedy special. Yes, it was an amazing payday. But by doing the act on TV, he burned at the material, which is what the comedians would call it, because now he couldn’t go on tour, and do that act again. Otherwise, they’d go, “Oh, he’s doing that bit again.”

[00:33:59]Which is funny, because in his later years, it became a little bit of a combo of new comedy and greatest hits. But that idea of we can publish it, we can share it. So, then what I heard in that was this positive leveling up to go, “Now I got to do it better. Now I got to level up that game.”
– Yeah. The other thing is the reason it’s very important to have big, giant, massive goals, like, beyond what you even think is possible, is because if you don’t…you know, a lot of people talk about setting realistic goals, and you’ll come up just short and all that. I think that the reason people come up just short is they’re not excited enough about the goal, and then when they get close to it, they’re like, “Well, if I hit it, it’s not a big deal, so I can just roll off and stop right now.” But if you make it so damn exciting, and it’s just, like, crazy, and you never get to hit it, you keep going after it, and as you level up, you’re like, “Okay, I got to get there a little closer. Get there a little closer,” and you never really get to feel that really excited feeling of actually hitting that big goal. I don’t know, there’s probably a lot of psychology that goes along with it.

[00:34:59]I’m funny because I don’t care about not being able to put psychological terms on things. I just tell you like I’m thinking in my mind, it just comes out. And I don’t really give a shit. I just…I roll because I think a lot of people can relate to that. And I’m not talking over their heads.
– Right. My phrasing around that is to go, “Well, the current research says it might be this, but then again, the research is getting better. Here’s what it actually means for you today. And let’s put this stuff to use.”
– Yep, yeah.
– So, where can people check you out? How can they find your book? And how can they best get in contact with you?
– Well, it’s a couple of things. Clubhouse is a new app out, right. I’m on Clubhouse, speaking all the time, in the rooms giving value. That’s Mikey C-Roc, and that’s on Instagram, too, Mikey, M-I-K-E-Y, C-R-O-C. Check me out there. I love answering your DMs, and I would love to see you in a Clubhouse room. But the book is available on Amazon when this comes out, as well as if you want to go to the site. It’s mikecroc.com/book, mikecroc.com/book.
– Awesome, we’ll make sure to put that in the show notes and all the details

[00:36:00]over at jasonlinett.com. Thank you for coming on and sharing, again, an incredibly inspirational story. And I love this mindset of rocket fuel, that it’s not the event, it’s what we do with the event that really matters. It’s not the situation or the event, it’s the reaction to it, that all of our actions are influential. And it’s a matter of how do we take it and turn it into something that’s useful. And I love that idea of rocket fuel, and even better, going into outer space where we just kind of coast. But while we’re there, let’s put more fuel into that engine and keep it going. Any final thoughts for the listeners out there, C-Roc?
– Yeah, thrust is a must. I’ll leave you with that.
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