Blaze Your Own Trail - S3:E1- Turning Setbacks into Rocket Fuel with Mike "C-Roc" Ciorrocco

Episode Date: January 11, 2021

C-Roc is a motivator, facilitator, dynamic podcast host, public speaker, fierce friend and coach. At his core, he’s a grinder – just a guy who had a fire lit in him at an early age. That fire has led him to inspire others to see the greatness inside of themselves using past life events to fuel their fire. Mike is an executive manager at Nations Lending, a residential mortgage company. He and his three best friends have built one of the most profitable divisions within Nations Lending from the ground up. His passion is truly helping others. Whether it’s his employees, partners, real estate agents, or anyone else looking to better their business, personal life, or mental game, C-Roc always is up for the challenge. He has spoken in front of thousands of real estate agents, showing them how to grow their business not only via traditional marketing methods, but also by using outside-the-box digital and social media marketing. On his podcast, "What Are You Made Of?" He dives deep into his past to show how you can feed off good and bad experiences. C-Roc lives in Ocean City, MD with his wife Jennifer and their two children, Nicolas and Sophia  In this episode we discuss:  Where Mike grew up.  Some adversity he faced as a kid  What sports he is into  What he does today  Was his new book is about  Some tips for entrepreneurs  And more! Connect with Mike:   Linkedin:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-ciorrocco/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikeycroc/  Pre- Order Mike's Book "Rocket Fuel" https://www.mikecroc.com/book  Connect with Jordan:  Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanjmendoza/  Instagram https://www.instagram.com/jordanjmendoza/  This episode is sponsored by Neeraj Negi, make sure to follow him on Linkedin ➡ https://www.linkedin.com/in/neerajnegi/ Installing strategic sales systems & processes will stop the constant revenue rollercoaster you might be facing which is attainable through our 6 Week Blazing Business Revenue Coaching ProgramBook a discovery call with Jordan now to learn more! Are you an entrepreneur?Join my FREE Group Coaching Community where we have live calls, Q&A and more! Our Trailblazer Ecosystem also enables you to network with other entrepreneurs and creator hub eliminates multiple subscriptions and logins creating a one stop shop to take action!Use code: FOUNDING100 for 12 months access FREE and Founding pricing for life! (While Supplies Last)Join now! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Are you ready to find out how to blaze your own trail? Welcome to the Blaze Her Own Trail podcast with your host, Jordan Mendoza. In this podcast, Jordan interviews people from around the world to find out about their journey to success. If you're looking for valuable content with actionable advice, you've come to the right place. And now your host, Jordan Mendoza. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. I'm your host, Jordan Mendoza. And I've got a very special guest today.

His name is Mike C-Roc-Sarocco. And I'm going to give him just a second to tell you a little bit about who he is and what he does. What's up, Jordan? Happy to be here. Thank you so much for allowing me to come on and share with you and your audience. My name is Mike C-Rocco. My friends call me C-Rocke because they're not smart enough to pronounce my last name. No offense to you because you asked that same question.

I'm not talking about you, though, Jordan. I run a large division for nation's lending. It's a home loan company. We have 40-plus employees in our group. We've been setting crazy records lately. Doing the mortgages is not a passion of mine. Mine is building people. So I also started a company called People Building Inc, which is all about just building

people that are broken mindsets and having weaknesses in certain areas. And we're going to be just going crazy with helping people, individuals and businesses, build themselves. Love it, man. Love the intro. And on my show, one of my favorite parts is to take a rewind. Let's look back in history a little bit. So where did you grow up?

And when I'm asking that question, I want you to share with the audience. from like adolescence up to maybe high school years. So where did you grow up? And what kind of kid were you? Grew up outside of Philly from a young age. I grew up from a broken at home. I don't remember my parents together. Growing up, it was very difficult times with being around people that were having mental

issues and alcoholism and addictions, you know, all those kind of things. When I was growing up watching that, I was very confused because as a young kid, you're seeing adults fighting and conflicting and parents being fighting over child support and custody and step parents involved. It's just very, very confusing time for a kid. But being around that, it turned me into a situation where I was like, I could either be miserable because of this kind of stuff and go down a wrong road, or I could start working on people and seeing what I can do to maybe make a change

and have some kind of control of my environment. And so I decided to become a people builder. And I didn't know it at the time, but I just at heart, I always try to help people, even if they didn't want help sometimes. But, you know, I played sports as a kid, great point average, 4.0 great point average, did really well. I always strived hard, but it all came back. I don't want to know if you want me to get into this part. I started a little bit, but, you know, my dad, and when I was 11 years kind of gave up on me. At least I felt that way. I was living with him and my stepmom for three years from 8 to 11 and went through a lot of conflict and emotional and psychological abuse. And, you know, I just had an opportunity to get out of there when I shared that information with my mom and she filed court papers to get me out as a kid. You know, I came home from school one day. My dad had court papers in his hand, that feeling that you get when you're like, oh, shoot, something's going to happen here. So he said, go back to your room.

sitting there and wait for me. So I went back in my room and sat there for about five minutes. It felt like five hours. Waited for him to come back. And when he did, by the way, my dad was my hero. He always had rough hands and big forearms from carrying cinder blocks. Him being my hero, I looked up to him. But the problem I had is I'm in a situation now where I'm trying to get out of the environment away from my hero. He didn't like that too much. So he says, here you want to move back with your mom. Is that true? You know, they don't have it very well where they live. They don't have a lot of money. I shook my head. Yeah, it's true. I want to go. And I remember my mom saying, stick to your guns when you believe in something.

Because when you believe in something, there's going to be others around you that try to talk you out of it. So she said, stick to your guns. And so I remembered that. So I stuck with it. And he said, OK, well, that's the case. He takes this lot of $100 bills out of his pocket. Now, I always looked up to my dad for this watt, $100 bills with a rubber band he had around it. He always used to carry and flash it and all that.

But he whipped this watt, $100 bills out. It takes one of the $100 bills and crumbles it up and throws it at me and says, here, you're going to need this when you're living on the street with your mother one day then. If you can imagine a fighter in a boxing match, this is what I felt like as a kid, by the way. I'm fighting my fight, right? And my trainer throws in the towel on me when I'm not ready to quit. That's what it felt like to me. I remember thinking two things.

One, I'm not going to let you win. If I was a fighter in a boxing match, I would have just kept fighting. And number two, I was going to help other people that have been in this situation because Jordan, when I was in that situation, and I think all kids go through this feels like it's ordinary. It feels like this is what's supposed to happen, right? I didn't know any different. So I knew that other kids have probably been in that situation before.

going to help them if they had been given up on, help them show them that they can continue to thrive and take things to unbelievable levels despite where they came from. So that's a little bit of background. I hope that's what you're looking for. Perfect, man. I appreciate you sharing that context. When you're in those situations, I know I had an opportunity to come on your show and share a little bit about my story. And I grew up in kind of similar circumstances. And when you said it earlier, you're 100% right. You get to make a decision, right? You get to make a choice. Do I want to have this affect me in a negative way or do I want to shed a light on this? And feel it. And feel it. You're a hundred percent. You're figure out a brighter way that I could look at this situation. You know, to be as young as you were

and to have that self-awareness, I mean, that's huge, right? And what your mom said, sticking to your guns and to actually do it, that's huge. You made a choice and we never know what the other outcome's going to be, right? Because we made the choice that we were going to make. Yeah, and you know, the funny thing is talk about stick to your guns. I'm 43 right now. So that was, what, 32 years ago? And I still, to this day, have some things come bubble back up. Now, I don't get to talk to my dad, it's not by choice. But things still come bubbling back up with people that were involved. And, you know, they've heard me on podcast, telling a story.

I'm not telling a story to tear my dad down. I love my dad. I don't get to talk to them, but I'm telling this to help people. I'm telling people to hear my story so they can see where I came from. It's just funny how sticking to your guns, like I've had people reaching out to try to get me to stop talking about my story, to share and help people. I just continue on, man, because I know that I believe in this. I know it helps people. And the other thing is, if somebody was so worried about me telling the story, I would hope that they would reach out to me.

and have a conversation and communicate. Because I think communication, by the way, is the root. It's the fix of everything. You know, communication, proper communication, two-way communication, solves most problems in the world. 100%. Absolutely, yeah. If you don't give people the opportunity to express themselves,

and then they also aren't reciprocating that. And yeah, there's going to be a lot of problems. There's plenty of large organizations that the biggest reason why they don't perform as well as they could is because there's a communication issue. You know, there's too many people. people speaking that might not even need to be involved in the conversation. There's too many three-hour meetings that should be 30. You know, there's those types of things, but people aren't communicating. So I think that's a really great point. Talk a little bit about sports. So you mentioned

you played to sports. So what sports did you get into? And do you still have a passion for sports or fitness and things like that today? Yeah, I played baseball, wrestling and football. In high school, I played those three. I excelled at football. Basically, that was it. Wrestling, I was really, really not skilled at all, but I was willed. There's a difference between. skill and will, right? You've got to have both of them to be really excellent at something, but I'll take a guy that has will over skill any day. So that's what wrestling taught me. Wrestling taught me, okay, learn as much as you can, but you've got to have willpower and you've got to be willing to do what it takes. So that's what I did in high school and in college, I played

a Division III football. By the way, working out to me, this body that I have on this planet right now, everybody's got different beliefs. I believe this shell right here is a vehicle for me to use while I'm here on Earth. And I got to take care of it. And just like your home, just like your car, I got to take care of this thing. So I'm at 43 years old, probably in the best shape of my life because I focus on it. And I'm intentional about taking care of my vehicle. To answer your question about physical and fitness and all that, man, it's important. And so when you played football, what position did you play?

Did you play offense and defense and then switch to any particular role? And I'd love for you to share some things you learned from some of your coaches then that maybe still resonate with you. High school, I played both ways running back and linebacker. And then I went to college and I played linebacker. And one thing I'll tell you what I learned in high school, we had 20 people on our team. For a football team, that's not many for those that don't know football, you have to have 11 people on each side in a football game.

That's 22. We didn't have enough to practice against each other, like in a full practice. And what I learned from that is that was the circumstance that we were in, but we didn't let it define us. We actually won a lot of games that went to the playoffs as a team that only had 20 players on it. And that's if everybody was healthy. So I learned that right there that no matter what your circumstances are, it doesn't define you, what you're willing to do and willing to give up and willing to go after is within you. So that's one thing I learned from that small school.

The other thing I learned was when I got to college, my defensive coordinator, a guy named Wayne Bradford, he's listening. What's up, coach? But Wayne Bradford was a maniac. He was absolutely full of energy and passion. And that's something that, you know, even if we didn't do the right plays or make sure we were in the right place on the field, sometimes just that passion would get you to make the play. That was something that I saw about how he was just a maniac.

And so, like, to this day, I don't have a problem with being a maniac because I saw control, by the way, controlled maniac. I saw what it could do for you and how that energy transfers into other people around you. And so those are the lessons I think made the most impact on me. What great lessons, you know. It's funny how we can always see ourselves in people that, you know, we've surrounded or immersed ourselves in. So one question I have for you before we get on, I would love to talk a little bit more about the college journey here in a second. But I want to find out it's behind you. for those of you that end up seeing this on IGTV or YouTube, you'll be able to see he has something

written on the brick wall behind him. It says, you know, what are you made of? And how meaningful is that question to you to where you put it behind you? And where did that come from? What made you want to have something like that represent the type of people that you're building up, the type of businesses that you're building, right? Really, it's become a mantra for you, as I've noticed, on social media. So I'd love to hear more about it. I talk to myself a lot. I got voices in my head. And, you know, one of the things, I believe in positive self-talk.

You know, what are you made of is something, you know, that I told you up from outside of Philly. I say, what are you made of? Instead of what are you made of? Some people tease me about that. But I talk to myself a lot and when I'm in tough spots or if I have a setback or if things are going great and I just want to push it harder, I'll say to myself, what are you made of, man? Look, come on, let's go.

Look at all the stuff you did when you were growing up. Look at the courtrooms that you were in and dealing with attorneys and child psychologists and conflict with your parents. I dealt with all this stuff. So this business stuff, this setback stuff up here when I'm adult now, this is nothing. So that's something that I do to remind me where I came from. But it also, another question you can ask somebody about their story. And I believe sharing your story connects you with other people.

A lot of people, Jordan, don't share their story because they think it's ordinary. Like I mentioned, my life was ordinary. They don't share it because they're embarrassed by it. You know, I've talked to several people and they said that they were molested as a kid and they're embarrassed by it. They don't want to share it. But that leads to the next one, the reason people don't share it is, because they underestimate the power to inspire millions of people with their story. So the podcast got started when I started sharing my story and people were inspired by the feedback

that I got. And then I'm like, wait a minute, I have something here. Now I'm going to go bring other people on, share their story and people were lining up to come on. That's where it got started. But then as I did the podcast, I started having things evolved. And I started noticing different things come about that I would say over and over again or different principles that I live by. And I came up with the dominating rule to turn all setbacks, letdowns, negativity, difficulties, anything you run into that appears negative or bad, converted into rocket fuel for your future. Because what that does for you is, is if you can understand this principle ahead of time, and be proactive about it, you're looking for problems. You're looking for setbacks that you can

fix, that you can use and convert to fuel to get into orbit. And when I get into orbit, that rocket fuel is the only thing that can get you there. You're away from the gravitational pull, which is all those suppressors, that negative, other people's problems. Like, we're all trying to to get into orbit. So if that's the case, and in orbit, you don't escape from all problems. That's not the point of this. You need problems in your life. Problems are a purpose to be alive. But what you do is you get to pick your problems that you deal with. And that's what we're all aiming for. Like when somebody says about working someplace and they hate their work and they hate their job, but they got to do it for money, they would trade that at any time for a still job

or a career or something that they choose to do if they can make the money they want to make. So I know everybody's searching for that. So if we can, all think about turning setbacks and letdowns and everything into rocket fuel for your future to get to orbit. That's what it's all about. And this is what this shows all about. This is what my movement is all about. Appreciate you sharing that context. So let's rewind again. Let's go back to college. You're playing D3 football. So while you were there, while you were competing, did you have those aspirations? Did you want to go to the next level? Is that something that was in your purview? Or were you thinking, like, I love this game, but I want to go down this path when I finished

school. I just loved football. And from a young kid, I always wanted to play and I always thought I could be in the pros or I wanted to be a sports broadcaster. Those are my young aspirations. But as I got into college, I realized I'm five, six and three quarters, bro. I'm not a big guy. People see me in person. They're like, man, I thought you were a lot bigger than that. I'm wide this way, but not this way. And so I knew that I didn't have the size, the prototypical size for a D1 football player, even. I was pretty quick, but it just didn't have that. When I got around the other people, even at the D3 level, I just realized, like, there's people that are just like great athletes, right? So, but I just knew that while I was there, I was going to give it my all, and I was going to try to

make those around me better. So that's another lesson that I learned while I was there. If you're not going to be the best and you're not going to be able to do anything else, lift everybody else out that's around you and support those that can. And that's a great lesson for business, man. 100%. Yeah. It sounds like through from being a kid up into that collegiate level of age, you're always about figuring out how to help people. It makes sense that you're doing that every day. You're getting to add value and to empower others through the work that you do through the content. So you finish up school.

What happens next? Did you get a job right out of school? Did you have something lined up? By the way, when I was a freshman in college, I didn't start, right? So I would be on a scout team. And this is a great example. I want to point out something. There's players around me that I knew that we're going to be playing that Saturday.

They were going to be on the field starting. They had to prepare for the game, right? And I'm out there and I'm like, look, this ain't like just a practice to me. This is my game. I want to make you better. So I would go hard like Rudy, right? I would go hard and they would get pissed at me sometimes. They're like, dude, this is practice.

And I'm like, no, dude, I'm trying to get you better. I'm here. I'm a freshman talking to upperclassmen. I'm trying to get you better, bro. And they would not be happy about it. But see, this is a lesson here is just because somebody's not happy about you trying to push them and trying to bake them better. It doesn't mean that you should stop.

Remember, you got to stick to your guns if you believe in something. That was a little lesson too. I want to throw in there. But when I got to, I guess I had 13 classes left, I had a 4.0. And I decided that I had enough of school. One day I went to take a test and I came back to my dorm about 15 minutes later. My best friend and my roommate, Chris, he was like, dude, you're fast to taking test, but not that fast. What happened?

I said, I'm done, man. I'm done. I sat down on my desk. I looked at the test and I said, nope, went back up to the teacher. I put it on the desk and said, I'm tired of being tested. And then I walked out. And I got into the restaurant business for a year or so. And then I ended up in home sales where I really started cutting my teeth on how to

closed deals, how to negotiate, how to handle objections, how to build rapport with people. And I did that for nine years. Nine years. Wow. So thinking back to that moment, do you have any regrets whatsoever of just having enough, right? 13 credits away. You look at the test and you just say, I'm done being tested. Have you thought about that at all of like what would have happened if I would have taken and finished? What would things be like now? I don't regret that at all. I will tell you, though, I wasn't necessarily always thinking clear, like hanging out and party with my friends. You know, at that moment, I wasn't always like on my A game. I can tell you that.

But I don't regret it because there's people with degrees right now that work in our organization. They work in all my team. They spent, I don't know how much money on college and all that. I don't have any student loan debt. I paid mine off a long time ago. I didn't have that much. And I don't have that debt now. And I don't know what that degree would have got me.

What gets me places, Jordan, is street smarts and hustle and hustle and hustle. And hustle. Now, I will tell you, probably about two, three years ago, I hit a ceiling where I was like, dude, this action, this hustle is not getting me anywhere, the places that I want to go. I'm hitting a ceiling. So then I had to start taking a step back for a second and saying, okay, what am I missing here? What I was missing was mentors, coaches, and knowledge on what I wanted to do. So when you get that into the mix, which is the book smarts, then you're unstoppable. Because if you have the action from the street smarts and the hustle and you add the knowledge

and the coaching and the mentoring, look out. But I can tell you that if you just had knowledge, you wouldn't get very far because you don't have the action. So these are things that have going through my head, especially over the last three years, where I've really had me be able to be in a position to excel helping other people. I love it, man. And you know, I relate a lot to that. You know, grew up in very similar circumstances and environments and, you know, having that hustle, being able to go door to door and sell things, being able to cut people's grass, right, figure out those little side hustles. I mean, all of that compounds over time. And it gives you an innate ability to communicate, right? You hit on that earlier. You know how to

to read people. You know how to relate to people. You know how to build that rapport and break that ice in conversations. And those things really go a long way when you're able to effectively communicate, as you have mentioned. So you get nine years into home sales. What was the next step? So I started my own company, took my wife and uprooted her from her hometown, got real uncomfortable. And we moved to Hartford, Connecticut, and we did it in one of the worst winters that they've ever had there. And we're beach people. So it was like, hold up a stack of here, man. This is not working. So we decided probably after six months that we made a wrong move, which is fine, but we learned a lot. We learned a lot about starting her own business, employees, hiring, training, all that jazz.

After that six months from there, I decided to get my real estate license and then it was on. I spent a year in real estate was the top producing real estate agent, Sussex County, Delaware, lower Delaware. And then from there, decided that mortgages was my game and I wanted to get in the mortgage side of the real estate. In 2006, did that, started building the team. Started with two employees. and now we're up to 40 plus. Wow. Let's give the audience some context. First of all, congrats from 2 to 40.

I don't care what you're doing, what type of business you're in. It's not easy to go from 2 to 40. Okay, so for everyone that's going to hear this, that's amazing. Let's talk about the early days when you had to. What are some things that you did that you think were fundamental in getting to the 40? Well, first of all, like when we decided to go out on our own and start,

it was my best friend Chris and I. And I said, listen, let's do this. Now, by the way, to do this, he had to pick up his whole family and move to a different area two hours away. And when he got his wife on board, I knew that was the opening that needed to get us going. And I said, let's do this. And if whatever we come in contact with that gets in our way, we're going to remove it, we're going to go through it, around it or over it, we're going to just make it happen. And that was something that I said, one of the first phrases that I'd used when we started this mission. And then from there, we just realized, okay,

I think we were too stupid to fail, by the way. I really do, because we just started going and found out a lot of things that we didn't know as we were going. We thought we had money coming in from a certain thing and it realized that we had a front money first before we got our money. There were some surprises along the way, which was fun. And looking back now, it was fun, not fun at the time. But it's good for you because you learn how to adapt and how to move on the fly and change direction if you need to. So then from there, really, we just started really understanding that time is limited and we needed to start buying time from people. So we hired, employee one at a time. And as we hired that employee and we started to grow from it, then we would

bring another one in. And then before you know it, we created an attraction model where people wanted to come work with us. Yeah, it wasn't easy. The first company that we did this with, because in the mortgage industry, you work under a platform. The first company that we did it with, the culture wasn't right. It was terrible. Like, when you don't have good culture in your business, you can make some money for a period of time, but it won't last long because what will happen is people will start being faced with decisions. During those decisions, they'll be thinking about themselves rather than the team. All the years, I did that under that platform.

We made some money, but it was tough. It was always come home from work, miserable. The people that we worked with at the time, some of them were draining. And so eventually at some point, that thing came crumbling down. We got it to about $10 million in revenue, and it came crumbling down. So the next time we went to this new company

where I am now, nation's lending, we decided we're going to start with culture. Anybody that doesn't buy into the culture that we're trying to establish, they can go work somewhere else. It's okay. But we had to have the confidence to be able to say that, to know, like, look, dude,

We'll go me and my partner, Chris, and we'll do it again by ourselves and we have to because we're not going forward without a great culture. From there, it took us two years to get back to that 10 million more after it took us, what, 12 years the first time. I love it. Yeah, culture is so imperative. You know, you have to have the right culture because it's essentially the heartbeat of the organization, right?

If people aren't bought into the mission, the vision, and the values, then they're going to become toxic in the culture, and they could bring people with them. They could actually drag people down with them. So I love what you said, man. It's 100% true. You got to look at culture first. If you're not a good culture fit, then, you know, it's probably not going to be a good match. So what are some things that have evolved for you? Because I'm just going to assume, you know, the first 12 years, marketing looked a little different than it does today. So what are some things that are involved or that have evolved for you in your business from the marketing perspective? We used to do a little

bit of marketing. We used to be mainly lead-based where we would go, there's lead generation companies out there for mortgages, right? And we didn't really have Facebook when we first started out. But we would basically buy leads and we would work those leads and go that route. But then you come to the situation where you're starting to say, we're relying on this company to provide us leads. And if they don't provide them anymore, we're stuck. You're basically a prisoner to that company. What we did to evolve, one, we stopped just doing that and stopped just waiting for the phone ring. And we started attacking and going out, making phone calls, touching base with people, getting out of obscurity, getting people to know who we are and what we do and just letting them

know that we're here with them when they're ready. The other thing is we had no confidence. Now what I mean by that, like when you don't have any confidence that you can get more business, you have a scarcity mindset. You're always hanging on to every single deal. You're putting up with all kinds of BS from people that you really shouldn't be putting up with in your life. Because the way, Jordan, like to me, I don't know about you, but life's short, right? And I want to live my life the way I want to live it. I don't want to be living my life putting up with people that I don't want to put up there any bull crap from people. people that are negative and complainers. But what happened was at first, we were in that realm

where we would have to put up with those kind of people. We'd have to work with every single buyer, borrower out there because we were so scared about getting the next one. And same thing with real estate agents. We'd have to deal with real estate agents that weren't ethical, that weren't problem solvers. They were more complainers and drainers. So what we switched up was, all right, look, if we can control our marketing and control, like, creating our own economy over our marketing and our prospecting and getting out of obscurity and making sure that we controlled it so that we didn't have to hang on to every single deal if they were paying and just irrational people. A lot of companies and a lot of salespeople will just cling on to every single possible deal that they can have to

because they have no confidence in themselves. And so being held over a barrel is not something that's fun for anyone. What I mean by that is you're like held over a barrel by that person. You can't do anything about it. I don't like that feeling. I don't like women I'm not in control. So that's the big evolution for us is that we decided that we're not going to do that anymore. We're going to go after it and we're going to make it happen.

We're going to put so much outflow out that it's going to be hard to stop us in any economy. I love it. And so just to give the audience some context, when you're talking about output, so you're talking about content and where are you showing up? You know, where, what platforms do you focus on? And have you noticed there's any platforms in particular that you maybe have more viewership because of how you've been able to sustain growth because of the amount of content you put out? So there was a day where I was like, guys, you know, telling my team, we need to get out on social media more. You guys got to be promoting more.

You got to get out there. You got to make phone calls. You got to this and that. And then I was like, man, I'm not doing enough of it myself. And I'm telling them to do it. So I said, you know what? I've had it. I got to make a switch right now.

So one day I decided I have to get known. I have to get known not just locally in my local markets. I got to show these guys and gals that are on my team. This is how you do it. Just once you make a decision and attention, to do something and you take enough action behind it, nothing can stop you. So every morning I would wake up, how can I get known? How can I get known on a global level? If I get known on a global level and people on Mars, like Martians know who C-Rock is, then my local market takes care

of itself. Nobody thinks about that, like aliens knowing who you are. If there's aliens out there, I want them to know who I am, I want them to know who my team is. So that's the thought process that goes into it. And then from there, once you commit to that, things start working for you. podcasting, social media, all platforms, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, all of them. And it doesn't matter which one, just be on all of them. Don't even care if one works better than the other. Just be omnipresent like Grant Cardo and my mentor. Just be omnipresent, be everywhere.

That's the point. And you want people dreaming about you. It sounds crazy to say that, right? But if you say that and you think that big, then you're definitely going to check all the boxes of making sure that you're creating your own economy. But if you're not thinking that big and you say, I just want to get known by all the real estate agents in my market, you're not going to get to where you need to be. So that's the way I approached it. Everything that I do now, Jordan, is I try to be a role model, like I said when I was

a kid, to my employees to show them, if you do this, this is what will happen. Now, go do it. Love it, love it. Let's talk about the team for a second, right? You got 40 people on the team. You're putting out tons of content. I'm seeing you on all these different platforms. Who do you want to give a shout out to on your team? Who is really taking it on as a challenge and said, you know what, C-Roc can do this? I'm going to start putting out tons of content as well. Is there anyone you want to shout out that's actually been doing it and doing it at a high level? Yeah, a couple of my partners, Jason and Bo Cox have been doing a great job with this. And our processing manager, Beverly, actually has been doing a great job with it, along with one of our loan officers, Andrew Wagner and Mitch Mariner.

They've been doing fantastic jobs. Still not to the level where I expect it from them, but they're getting there. I think it's important that you recognize, right, when people, you say, hey, listen, I have this challenge out for you. You have been shining, you've been succeeding at it, but you've also been putting in the rep. So I wanted to ask you that because I think it's cool to acknowledge the folks that are. But also let them know that, hey, listen, you're doing great, but I think you're not doing it to the level that I feel like you can. So hopefully if they're listening to this episode, they know they're doing great, but they could step it up a little bit as well, right? A nice little motivation.

Yeah, and by the way, they're not just going to hear it from here. Like, they hear it all the time. So. Love it. Love it. I would love to find out a little bit. You know, you talked about coaches and mentors. You know, you talked about the importance of them in your life.

But who would you say are the biggest two people in your life that have really helped you along your journey? You know, when I was in the sales training, this guy named Joe Aida was a good mentor for me. And then from there, growing at some point, we get to a different stage where Joe's never been before. And he knows this. I would say this to him. But at some point, you get to a place where you're even higher than where your mentors are on a business scale, where you're going and where you want to go. So then you've got to re-figure out who's the next mentor, next step up. Who's where I want to be?

Who is on the way to where I want to go? who's got what I want and you go find them and immerse yourself in their content. And that's what I've done with Grant Cardone and his whole team with Jared Glant. And then Brandon Dawson, I don't know if you know Brandon, but Brandon Dawson is a monster

in scaling businesses. Great guy. As far as coaching and working with people, Richie Dolan, fantastic guys. So these are the guys I'm listening to now and I try to keep it in that community right there because I don't want to get conflicting information

from all over the place. And I just stay focused on that until I get to the point where hopefully one day I'm going to pass where Grant is, which is going to be very difficult task. But if I'm not aiming for it, I never will get there. 100% true, right? You got to shoot for the stars, right? You got to shoot for, in your case,

the galaxy. You want to shoot for the galaxy. So awesome, man. I would love for you to share just some tips, you know, the audience that listens to the show, got a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs. We've got some new entrepreneurs and also some veterans in the space. And so what are maybe three tips that you could share for people that either are looking to get started or maybe have gotten started but are kind of spinning their wheels? They're not at a place where they've noticed a lot of growth yet. What are some tips you'd be able to share? making sure you're very clear on what you want to do and where we want to go. I'm going to break this down for you, but there's no shiny bells and whistles.

It's very simple, fundamentals. Being clear and intentional what you want to do and writing it down and being consistent about writing it down to remind yourself. Going through building a business or starting a business, you're going to run into hurdles, you're going to have setbacks. You're going to have times where it doesn't seem like there's any progress. You've got to keep reminding yourself what you want and why you want it, where you're going to go. Once you do that, then from there, I like to set micro targets up to lead me in the direction of the things I want to accomplish. And then I always talk about my three Cs. Commitment.

Are you committed to it? Are you consistent with it? And then check your confidence levels. Because your confidence will come from those first two Cs. And that's what I always look at. And once you do that and you're taking enough action to get to where you want to go. So a lot of times people get discouraged because they're not seeing results. Well, you either got to put your head down and keep going after it or just double

check and make sure you're on the right path and you're doing the right actions that you need to hit your goal. I don't think personally, I think everybody can figure out. out pretty easily micro targets to get towards their goal. And every decision, action, word thought you do in your head is either going towards your vision or it's going away from it. So just think about that as you're doing these things. And if you do, keep it that simple, it's not that difficult. Definitely some great advice. And so I would love to find out what are some things that are on the horizon for you? What are some goals looking into 2021 and beyond? Well, first of all, I'm focused in continuing my knowledge and bettering myself as a person, better myself as a coach,

myself as a dad and a husband. So that's my focus going forward. I have a book coming out called Rocket Fuel. I mentioned the term Rocket Fuel over and over again, but Rocket Fuel is coming out at the end of this year. And we're going to follow that up with a launch and celebration of that with a mastermind, working on details of that now. Best thing to do, though, is if you follow me at Instagram at Mikey C Rock, you can follow me and I'll be keeping all that information out because I'm big on promoting things. And I'll make sure that information is out there. If you have questions, DM me on Instagram. Awesome, man. Appreciate you sharing that. And I'll make sure that all of the info is down in the show notes so people can reach out to you and connect, become part of the Waymo

crew, as you like to say. It's been great, man, having you on the show. And is there any parting words you'd like to share the audience? Guys, start thinking big and thinking about anything that comes in your way. You're either going to remove it, go through it. You're going to convert it into fuel for your future. If you could just grasp this concept, man, and be proactive about it. Going forward in your life, it'll change your life, man. I just want to get that message out the people because it's been such an impactful message and principle to live off for me. I see, Rock. Thank you so much for coming on the Blaz Your Own Trail podcast. I know my audience is going to get a lot of value out of everything that you shared with us today. Thank you very much for

having me, man. Appreciate you, but.