Determined Society with Shawn French | Adversity & Mindset - Beds Build Weak Men. Mick Hunt Builds Leaders

Episode Date: September 1, 2025

From humble beginnings shaped by childhood promises to his mother, to building and selling multi-million-dollar companies, Mick Hunt is proof that leadership and determination are forged in action—not theory. In this episode of The Determined Society, Shawn French sits down with Mick, executive coach, keynote speaker, and host of Mick Unplugged, to dive deep into what it takes to scale businesses, run a #1 podcast, and live with purpose. Mick shares the powerful story behind his “because”—a driving force that helped him transform adversity into growth and impact. This episode covers: -Why the most successful leaders are the best listeners -Mick’s journey from UNC basketball hype songs to top-ranked podcaster -Scaling insurance agencies to multi-million-dollar exits -How to build culture that actually drives business success -What modern leadership requires—and what too many CEOs get wrong -The truth about monetizing podcasts (and why most fail) -“Getting rid of your bed”—Mick’s system for eliminating limiting beliefs Connect with me : https://link.me/theshawnfrench?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaY2s9TipS1cPaEZZ9h692pnV-rlsO-lzvK6LSFGtkKZ53WvtCAYTKY7lmQ_aem_OY08g381oa759QqTr7iPGA Mick Hunt https://www.instagram.com/mickunplugged/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Message privately with everyone. Learn more at WhatsApp.com. If you're to ask me, Sean, what's the one thing I fear? And I don't fear anything. except this one thing. When my life is over, whatever you believe, whenever that next thing that I'm supposed to see, I don't want to see the person I was supposed to have been. And so for me, that's determination.

I'm going to go through success so that when that time comes, that person that I'm supposed to see is the person that I am. My fear is that I get to Heaven's Gates, and I don't recognize the person that Jesus introduces me to as myself. This is who I had envisioned. this is what you were capable of becoming. You didn't do it. That to me is the ultimate judgment. Yes, sir.

My boy Mick Hunt, welcome to the show, man. Yo, Sean, I am so glad to be here, man. It's like, we've been boys for a while now. So to finally get some time out of our busy schedules to sit down together, I'm honored, brother. Yeah, bro. I mean, we got, you know, maybe a week and a half ago. We got to get on a call together to talk about some other business stuff that you're doing that I'm very interested in.

And, you know, now we get this whole 45 to 60 minutes to wrap a little bit with each other and catch up and bring some value to the audience, man. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Hell yeah, dude, you've done so many different things in your life, man. You're serial entrepreneur. You're an executive coach. You help people scale their businesses.

But, you know, the one thing that I really admire is your journey with Mick Unplugged. You've done so well. And I'm so damn proud of you, man. and watching you excel with your podcast. I mean, last week, you were number one on Apple. You edged out Rogan and, you know, doing some amazing things, man. So walk us through this journey of you behind the mic, baby. The journey of me behind the mic started when I didn't want to start.

The crazy thing was, Sean, man, like, I just wanted to do some YouTube content on this theory that I have around your Because. Rinse takes your laundry and hand delivers it to your door. expertly cleaned and folded. So you could take the time once spent folding and sorting and waiting to finally pursue a whole new version of you. Like tea time you. Or this tea time you. Or even this tea time you.

Said you hear about Dave. Or even tea time, tea time, tea time you. So update on Dave. It's up to you. We'll take the laundry. Rinse, it's time to be great. It's deeper than your Y. And so I'm talking to, I just mentioned Les Brown.

I was talking to Les Brown on the phone and he's like, you need to do a podcast. And I'm like, Les, I don't listen to podcast really. Like I'm not into it in that sense. Like there's a handful that I listen to. I don't think it's me. And he said, I promise you if you do a podcast, it's going to be amazing. I was like, okay, I'll think about it. Talk to my buddy Robert Irvine.

He's like, Mick, you should do a podcast. Then three of my very best friends have podcasts. Sean French is in my ear. Dude, podcast, podcast, podcast. So finally, I'm like, okay, I'm going to do a podcast, really to prove people wrong that it should be a YouTube channel, not a podcast. But three months later, man, we started ranking six months after that.

I signed a big deal and it's been rolling ever since. But it's really about my guest. It's about your because. Again, that thing that's deeper than your why, your true purpose, and we turn that into self-improvement to leadership, to growth. And it's just been a phenomenon, man. Like, I'm truly honored every day by folks to reach out.

They don't reach out because to me, it's always about my guess, like I said. But we're really trying to help people understand that there's a reason that you do what you do. When it comes to what your family eats and drinks, you know your choices matter. You're the expert because you know what fits your life. And getting it right starts with good information. That's why America's beverage. companies are sharing more information about our ingredients at good to know facts.org. No spin, no judgments, just the facts straight from the experts for more than 140

beverage ingredients. Visit good to know facts.org. And oh, by the way, here's a couple of tips and tricks that you can maybe impart into your life as well. I feel that, man. The first thing is you started when you didn't want to, man. And I don't know about, you know, fully your journey, but I started recording in a freaking S-U. TV, dude. That's where this show started. We were 207 episodes in, so 206 episodes ago, I was in my vehicle and ripping off conversations and just doing it solo and started with what I had, man.

And it was just this deep-seated purpose and this feeling that I needed to do it. And to your point, you didn't want to, but there are two types of people, like you said. ones who listen listen and the ones that don't and you listen to your mentors that said like and your best friends like hey dude like you should really do this show because you bring so much value to the people and when we do this you know and to your point man you said you know people contact you it's all about the guests right like people like holy shit Sean you had jlinna one like oh my god you had jamie kennedy on you had you know lana cardo like all these different names and it's like that's what they're gravitating to but but at the end of it like and i think

where a lot of podcasters get it wrong. And I did at the very beginning, Mick, and I want to touch on this because, you know, ego drives a lot of it sometimes. And like, well, dude, what about me? Like, what, what do you like about me? But now I take it as such a compliment. I want the focus to be off of me because all I want

is for them to come and listen. Dude, same thing. You know, for me, that's exactly how I built. You know, Sean, like I do a ton of keynote speaking as you do. And even the same way, it's about the audience experience. And so this is what I tell everybody that's in podcasting, whether you're established or you're starting out or you want to start out. Always think about the guest experience.

And when you do your show, and again, it doesn't have to be elaborate. You don't have to have guests. It could just be you going solo. Think about what the other person on the other end of that. So you're about to make a trade based on a friend's text. But which you do you listen to? Is it, we could buy a house in Tulum? Get optioning those options.

We could lose everything. Or let's do a little research. Get your head in the trade and make the investment decision that's right for you. Learn more at finra.org slash trade smart. That earpiece or that video is consuming and talk to them. And when you do that, you'll win every single time. Well, that was the hard part for me at the beginning, right? Because I was wanting to get my message out, like me, me, me.

But I think that that wasn't egocentric driven. That was just like, I don't know how to do what I want to do yet. Right. Because there's this massive learning curve in podcasting that I don't think many people are talking about, but it is very freaking difficult to run a consistent show. I mean, even outside of production, post-production, show notes, et cetera, is really keeping your mind in a frame where you can, actually serve the people.

And when you tailor conversations and reactions to help them, that's what attracts them to the platform. And, you know, I just love, like, a lot of the stuff that you're doing, just like me, you're really focused on the audience, man. That's just the audience experience.

I'm the gatekeeper. You're the gatekeeper. You know, and, you know, my secret weapon, my pelvis is vows. She's also my gatekeeper, right? So when people just say,

hey, I want to come on your show, it's like, it just doesn't work like that anymore. it's hard. And I want to get your opinion on that, but let me get to where I'm going first, right? Because it's hard because it used to be a platform where I would be like, all right, cool, you got a great story. Let's just throw you on. Let's have some fun. But now there's different metrics that we have to hit. There's, you know, there's a lot of PR in the background going.

And then names like Jay Leno, like, why would somebody like that want to come on my show? We have to continue to build this roster. Right. So like in your opinion, as you've, you know, gone upward in your rankings and just like for me it really hit me when I just saw like the airy spears. I'm like wait a second. Like my guy Mick is doing it. I always like your show. You know, I always listen to your show. Um, but you know, once you hit that, it was just like it was, then it was Damon John. Then it was like Gary Vee. It was like all these. I'm like, dude, you know, how have you handled the, the possibility and the, the possibility and the to disappoint some people closest to you because you just can't have them on anymore.

Yeah. So even before the big names that people know, and by the way, my show isn't built off of big names, right? Like, I truly believe that everyone has a story and everyone has a because. But even before that, we wanted to make sure that the people we brought on and that we continue to bring on do have that story. And we're going to take a quick break to hear from our powered by sponsors. We're proud to announce a partnership between White Sands, Treatment Centers, and the Determined Society. With multiple locations across Florida,

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So we do a ton of research on the engagement. Because there's this big misnomer. People think that big names also have big engagement. Well, here's the story, right? Damon John's one of my mentors. Huge following. Just because I have Damon on doesn't mean that Damon's followers are going to listen to his podcast with me. Why? Because if they're true followers of Damon, they pretty much know

everything he's going to say, right? Everything. Right. And so when we bring people on, we really want to make sure that you have the engagement on social and digital, that you're not like a bad person in the world. But then more importantly, that what you're going to share is going to impact someone's life, right? My, my best friend, my mentor, my coach, Robert Irvine, and challenges me weekly. Just got a text from him. Like, go make sure you're impacting someone today. Because that's what it's about.

And so we make sure that our guests bring impact. So how do I handle, I'll say family members, friends that want to be on the show? Well, I've never had them on. So it's one of those things where it's like it makes it easy. It makes it easy for me to say, hey, I don't want to disappoint you by having you on. But there are times. Like I'm working on a couple of theories right now where I am. I am going to do like a family episode that's going to be more video centric.

My mom is definitely going to be on my podcast because she's a big part of the story. So we're working on some things that this fall, we're going to change a little bit of the script. But it's always going to be about people that have a mission to impact lives and that we can see it through their engagement, not just the words that they say. That's a good point, man, because that's the first thing I do. When I have someone in the request box, it's, you know, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, you know, it, It comes from a lot of people that, you know, and as you know, you probably get this too, right?

Your inbox is probably flooded with people that, hey, would love to share my story. You get this big, long message, right? Right. And then you go and you look at the socials. And it's like,

you have to understand that it's not just an auditory or visual play on YouTube versus Spotify versus Apple, whatever the platform is. It's also converting from social media is so hard in podcast. right so you have to know you have to i don't care if someone has 12 000 followers i look at their the ratio of engagement and i can tell if it's real or or or fabricated and from that point it's like okay cool then i can back into and take it to my pelvis it's like hey i think this is a good interview because right i like the story and the engagements are well it is not us being snobs everybody

that's listening and watching right now it's not what it is this is our baby this is what we've created and in our job is to make sure that the audience has the most impactful conversations blaring in their dome when they're at the gym and the car, you know, doing chores around the house. That's our job. Yeah. Absolutely. And, you know, not going deep into how the algorithms work on all the, the platforms, but new followers, new engagement, new listeners, new downloads matter. right and so you have to continue even if you're not a podcaster if you're in business and you want to grow right like you've got to get new engagement so you need to make sure that you're connecting from a prospect standpoint with with people that can help bring that value that attention to your business

well that's a big deal man you know because to your point about the social engagement and and things like that that's not how let's be honest that's not how we get paid initially right but it's it's a slow fade right new audience new followers new listener more impressions more downloads more you know more everything then yeah we that's how we make money but you know when we talk about business versus podcasting you know there are a lot of people that do this as a hobby and um you know i would challenge them to turn it into a business as quickly as possible because it can be quite lucrative but for you and i this is i mean you have so many other things going on. Like, I'm, I'm involved. Yeah, I do own a payroll company, right? But my main bread and butter is simply this. So, yes, I'm an entrepreneur because I've built a platform out of thin air.

Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, that's a great point, Sean. Like, I would say everyone that has a podcast is a hobby. And if you're not doing it to make money, understand that might not be your motivation. But I promise you, from a production standpoint, it's the same time, energy and effort. So, you might as well figure out what's the right way to grow this thing so that it can become an asset because, oh, by the way, you're about to see Netflix get in the game. You're going to see Prime get into the game from a streaming service, from a streaming perspective podcast. And it's only going to continue to elevate from there. So, you know, if you want to be seen, again, even if money isn't your thing or your purpose behind it, which is great, you still want to be seen. You still want to be heard. You still want that message out there. Run it like. it really is a business. Side hustle gives you only so much gratification. And that was like the big turning point for me, Mick, when I left corporate America in 2004, I left the medical industry.

I was like, dude, I'm making impacts on patients and their health. And that's great. Like, I loved that. But for me, I was slowly dying inside because I wasn't able to do what I loved every single second. Right. And when I transitioned out, it put the pressure. on me to you've got three beautiful children a beautiful wife you've got this big house you have to

pay for all two cars like you know food bills all that kind of crap right dog you better get off your ass and make this thing work so i work really well in in pressured situations like that and not everybody does and it doesn't always happen right away but it was always at the right time right You know, always. Big for me, man. It was big for me. So it's like taking that gamble, right? When you, as you feel it to the point of, hey, turn your hobby into a monetization effort, right?

Go all in. Some people don't have that luxury or they have this limiting belief that they cannot do it. What would you say to somebody that that lacks the belief in themselves to get something like this done? I will give you a phrase out of one of my keynotes, get rid of your bed, right? And that bed is the beliefs, the excuses, and the decisions that are holding you back. Right. I love that. And there are times that sometimes changing the mattress isn't enough.

Washing the sheets, making up the bed isn't enough. Sometimes you have to just get rid of the bed. And so you've got to get rid of those limiting beliefs. You've got to quit making excuses. and you've got to be willing to make the bold decisions that are going to change your life. I mean, we can make a ton of excuses on why we shouldn't podcast or why we shouldn't do the things that we do. And take podcasting out of the equation.

We can make a ton of excuses just in general on life, right? At the end of the day, you've got to be able to change your beliefs. If you're trying to change the person that you are, you've got to change your belief system. Right. Like you have to be able to say to yourself, I can do this or I can step outside of my comfort zone because growth is on the other side. And so to me, that's the biggest thing. You got to get rid of your bed, man. You know, I love that, man.

You know, it's one thing to change those limiting beliefs. You know, I also feel that they don't change by themselves just because you try to start thinking differently. Right. You have to start acting differently, right? And that may mean giving up the booze. It may mean, you know, you know, cleaning up your. diet. It may mean waking up at a certain time to get a workout in because the thing that I found when I really started to just evolve as a host and my show got so much better, to me, it was like

right around January, February. If I was evaluating myself, then to me, that is when it got better, right? It started to stand out a little bit more because I was becoming the man that I wanted to be because of the action I was taking. So, and this is not even just about, podcasting, right? Like, I know we're talking about that because that's what we do. But for the people listening and watching, I want you to really think of this. It could mean going after the career you want. Yeah.

You know, it could be if you want to leave like a like a business to business and you want to go, you know, to medical sales or if you want to start an insurance company, get with Mick, because he can walk you through that shit, right? But like, you know, it's about making those, taking those risks and they're calculated and they're backed with massive amounts of action. And I want to be very clear on that. It's not just like, oh, I'm going to change my bed. I'm going to think differently.

You have to freaking act accordingly. Yeah. You definitely have to. And that's why I call it getting rid of your bed, not just changing it, right? Because there's the action of lifting the mattress. There's the action of putting together a new frame, right? And that's your mental compass or your physical compass. Like, you've got to work on the framework of who you are physically and mental.

In order to really put action behind what you do. To your point, Sean, it's not just thinking about it, right? We all think right now, everybody that's watching or listening has thought of five or six different things that they'd like to do better or improve on. I guarantee it because it's human psyche that we do that every hour. Very few people start putting action behind it. And so for me, I'm a person that's going to work on no more than two things at a time. So if I need to fix something or improve something, there's two things I can do and do it right now. And I try to get to the root cause of what those two things could be.

And so that's my tip for everyone is when you're trying to really change your beliefs and put action behind it, find two things that have to happen. And then make those two things happen first. Like don't try to change 10 things or, you know, I need to lose 50 pounds. No, lose two. Right. Lose two pounds. Lose one pound. Whatever it is.

Like focus on the. the smallest denominator that you can to get a quick win for yourself. You know, that's an interesting point because that was my journey, right? You know, as far as my fitness from December until now, the one thing that I realized, man,

is I always kind of thought, man, there's something really holding me back. And I don't know what it is, but at the very forefront, I really did. It was how I felt about myself and how I looked, right?

And there's people out there right now listening that are living in their own jail cell or their own prison. Like to me, if you look at your life and if you're not making the money you want to make or you don't have the wife or husband you want or you think your friendships suck or your kids are disrespectful, man, turn that mirror around. And are you attacking the one thing that is holding you hostage every single day? And a lot of people will say, well, I don't know what that is. Like, no, you do. You're thinking about it right now.

Like the people listening right now and watching, they're literally thinking about the one thing that's holding them back. maybe it's porn, maybe it's nutrition, maybe it's yelling at their kids. Fix that one thing. And you'll see yourself evolve to a point where, man, you are firing on all cylinders. And now you can lead. Now you can go be that big executive that you want to be, whatever that is. Yeah. All day, brother.

All day. Oh, man. I love it, man. I love it. Yeah, dude, that's just something that I always think about. And I'm like, you know, the thing that holds people back is the thing that you think about the most. And it's not ever independent. It all works together.

Absolutely. I always say keep your side of the street clean, man. You know, if you can clean that side of the street up, man, you, yeah, you'll be looking pretty good, dude. You know what I'm saying? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Let's transition a little bit.

You know, you've been involved in many companies scaling them. I believe your whole career was in insurance, correct? Yeah, you're doing a lot of, yeah, insurances. And then you're doing a bunch of keynote speaking. and you're an executive coach and you're leading entrepreneurs and personal brands to make massive movement in their in their checkbook. So talk to us about that. Yeah, man. So I'm going to go back to to my because, right? So my because was to change my mother's life. I was 10 years old and I'm sitting on the bed and my mom's crying. And I knew what those tears meant. I knew what those

Sobs meant. You know, I could literally go back to every day of life for the first 10 years. I witnessed my mom, go through some type of abuse for my father, sometimes physical, a lot of times emotional, sometimes financial, right? And it got to a point to where for the first time I could feel hurt. And I don't know if anyone's ever had that moment where for the first time you felt pain that wasn't yours, for me, that was life-changing, man. Like that was life-changing.

And I said, I don't want you to feel like, because if I feel this, I can only imagine what you feel. And I didn't want her to feel that anymore. So I made a promise that I was going to not make that normal. And I was 10. I knew there was nothing I was going to do at 10, 11, 12, or 13 that was going to make that go away. But I promised that one day it would. And so I knew that I needed to be the best athlete, the best student, the best student, the best whatever to get the opportunity to make that happen.

And so my life changed again when I was 16 and I was sitting at a doctor's office and I'm reading a hip-hop magazine and I see Damon John's picture and face there. And I was like, wait, he's not an actor. He's not a rapper. He's not an entertainer. Like he's a businessman. And I said, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to be a business person.

And so I go to college, University of North Carolina. And the first job I got out of school was an insurance. and I haven't looked back ever since. But what I realized was there's a way to impact lives. And so, you know, the first five years, I'm helping someone build their dream. You know, and then I said, I want to build this dream for myself. And so at 27, the entrepreneur spirit hit me and I've never looked back. And so, you know, started my own insurance agency, grew that to, you know, a value of over 17, 16, 17 million.

Jesus. Sold it, headed up another company, grew that. value from 50 million to 70 million. And then I said, I want to help other businesses and people understand that scale and growth isn't as challenging as we think. It's not easy. Like anyone that tells you that becoming a millionaire, becoming a nine, 10 figure person is easy or business is easy. They're lying to you. There's a lot of work. There's a lot of change that has to happen. But it's not as dramatic as you think. And so I just started that, that process of helping people get wins, helping culture become better, helping leaders become better leaders. And so that's how

that journey started, man, and really was going back to a promise I made my mom. And I realized the best way to do that was to be a business person, a business leader versus trying to be someone who just showed up. And I know that sounds very vain. And I don't mean it in the sense of just showing up. But that's how I categorize things at that time, right? You either own something, or you showed up for someone who owned it. And I wanted to be the person that don't. You know, I'm listening to this. And thank you for that.

You know, it's the thing that I'm getting from your story, and a lot of people talk about scaling me, how we are in a cesspool of social media. And everybody's talking about, I could scale your company and this, this and that. But you look at their resume, they haven't fucking done shit. Like they haven't done anything, right?

Right. And you look at you, you respected the stages. My good friend, you know, E.T. Eric Thomas, right? He did a talk in the middle of, well, the beginning of June. And he was talking about, that's a good story. He's on stage and everything that Eric Thomas does is a sermon. And it's really cool, man. It's just, it's dope, man.

But he gets on the stage. It's like everybody in this audience wants to be the speaker. You want to be on the stage, but you're not respecting the stages. Yep. Follow me? The process. You respected the process. you had a because, right?

You became an empath at one point and felt your mom's pain. You knew that you had to be the best athlete and the best student to get the opportunities to go to UNC Chapel Hill. And then you saw the magazine of Damon Johns like, oh, I can be a businessman. And then you started in something. You built someone dream for five years. And then you went off and did your own. And you scaled it to 17 million. And the next company from 20 to 50 million.

You had evidence. You have the tools. and you did those things. And so it made sense when you decided to break off on your own and help other entrepreneurs, you had that resume. How important has that experience been in delivering your message to these potential entrepreneurs that you're going to help? So I go back to a saying that Les Brown first gave me when he became my mentor. He said, Mick, you know, society tells you that experience is the best teacher.

Well, if you're experienced losing, right? Is that really a good teacher? Wisdom is the best teacher. And so when I help entrepreneurs and why that's important for me is I have wisdoms and the things that I know. I am never going to teach things, talk about things, help people in areas that I can't help. I'm not a do it all for you kind of person. And again, when you see those people or those entities, you should run the other way. But what I do have is a blueprint.

What I do have is a story. what you can do is Google the things that I have done, and those are the things that I help people with, right? You know, if you are an entrepreneur and you're trying to go from a million to 10 million, I can show you the path to get there. If you're trying to grow a podcast and it's like, hey, I'm starting from nothing.

I can definitely tell you and show you how to get there because I have wisdom in those things. I have connections. I have people that if I don't know the answer, I know who to reach out to in certain things. And so for me, it's about having the wisdom to help people, not just experience and trying different things. Like, I could beta test a whole bunch of stuff.

Sean, in our industry, we beta test a lot. We do. Daily, bro. Daily. And it ain't cheap either, bro. No. And we don't usually have everything figured out. But the wisdom of what doesn't work is what we can help you with.

The wisdom of, hey, you need to do Riverside because you're going to try all the other platforms. Riverside's going to be solid and it's always going to be dependable as glitches, but you can live with the glitches that they have versus the other platforms, right? It's that type of knowledge and wisdom that not just me, Sean, but you also, that we're able to imparting people in different facets of business or life because we have the wisdom. To me, that's it.

Yeah, man, we know the potholes, right? I mean, when it comes down to podcasting, I can tell you down to a T what it's going to look like if you choose one path. if you decide on another one, I go, okay, that's a better path because of X, Y, Z. The problem that I find is a lot of people are ask holes. Right. You know, and those are the people that want it for free, right? They go, hey, how can I grow my show?

You connect them with people. And then you're looking at this group message and they're ghosting the person. It's like, man, you ask for help. I'm trying to help you. And, you know, you're not responsive. And so it means to tell me you're not ready. Or they want it tomorrow. And again, that thing of, dude,

There's millions of podcasts, right? There's hundreds of thousands. Right. There's hundreds of thousands of folks that podcasts that don't make money even when they're trying. It took me six months to make the first dollar for my podcast. And again, Sean and I are just using podcasting as an example, but take your business and same thing. Success doesn't happen overnight. But it does leave clues.

And you just have to be willing to play those clues out because things take time. Like there's no such thing as a get rich quick in most businesses and most professions. And again, Sean and I are going to keep saying it when people tell you that run and turn the other way because it's just a money pit for you. Things just take time, right? Like Sean, I want to lose another 30 pounds. I can't do that in two weeks, bro. No, I can't. You can, bro. It's impossible.

And if there were a way that I could, I would be skeptical and scared. But for whatever reason in business, and I'm not saying everybody, but a lot of folks want that instant gratification because social media is given that to us, right? But business and personal development just doesn't happen overnight. It's a lot of work that goes into it. But consistency pays off. And at some point, the results do happen. Dude, it's crazy because you say six months. Do you know how long it took me to monetize my show?

How long? Four years. Wow. But also, I mean, like, look, there's a reason for that, right? Like, I wasn't who I am now. I have a ton of growth to do. I don't want anybody to think that I think I haven't figured out because I don't. I'm a hot mess 24-7 in a lot of different areas, right?

But for me, you know, it came at the right time. It's like, you know, you stumble into things. Like, you can call it on accident, but it's really not on accident. And it finally took me until December of 20th. 2024 to truly monetize, right? And man, it is what it actually know. We were getting sponsorships, you know, in the beginning of, I'm saying June of 2024. But it wasn't anything significant. It was always like, where's the next dollar coming from? Right. Now, we know to a T based on a formula, how many impressions we get, you know, like as far as like, how much money are we spending on marketing?

What are the impression amount? I know if I get 626,000 downloads in a month, I'm probably getting two 2.2, 2.3 million, you know, impressions. Now, if I get that to a million, how many more am I getting? I'm probably at, you know, a good 4 million impressions. What's that bring? But it's gotten down to a science now that I know if I spend $1,000 here, I'm going to yield $7,000 to $8,000 net. But I figured out that formula. It took forever to do. But for me, man, like, dude, kudos to you for being able to monetize after six months. Because for me, it was just a painful experience. But it built me, man. It built me.

And then now I know what it takes. No, absolutely, man. And I would say for me, it was, I'm not going to say I had a goal to monetize. I didn't have a goal to monetize. But when I found out that people made money in podcasting outside of the names Joe Rogan and Mel Robbins, I thought everybody else just did it for the fun of it. When I found out people made money, I was like, oh, well, I might want to do that too. And so then for me, it just became.

the thing of, again, it's going to be its own LLC for me. I've got employees under my podcast umbrella that I have to make sure that they live comfortably and wonderfully every day. And so in order to do that, I had to have a plan to make money. Well, that right there too, it's a great point, Mac, and thank you for pointing that out, because the people that are there for your support, right? All minor subcontractors, right? You know, right out for production to PR to everything. But when we have actual employees doing the back-in things because eventually I'm going to, I want an assistant. I want that assistant to feel comfortable and excited to go to work every day and to bust his or her ass for me because they know they are being compensated fairly.

And that's important because at that point now we're talking about building culture within a company, dude. Right. Absolutely. You know what I'm saying? Like that's important. Yes, sir. I mean, and that's the way it has to be. You know, I teach and preach modern leadership. and that's one of the pillars, right? Like your culture is not what you say. It's what you feel, right? Like your culture is what runs your business.

I tell CEOs all the time. You don't run a business. You run the culture. Your culture runs the business. Your culture is what is said for you when you never have to say it word. And as a CEO, there's two things you should always be working on. The vision of the company and the culture of the company. And nothing else because those are hard jobs.

Right? Like those are full-time responsibility. So for anyone that's watching or this listening that is the CEO of a business or you're entrepreneur or you're a solopreneur and it's like, what are the things I need to be doing next? Vision and culture should always be your focus. Remember, I'm two things at a time kind of guy. Vision and culture. That's it. It's a great point, man, because I look at myself as a visionary dude. You know, now I have a team that helps me implement these things because I can't do it all and I don't understand how to do it all. But the thing about culture, man, it's super important because nothing drives me more crazy

than, because people listening, if they're in, you know, a Fortune 500 company, the culture that the leadership is stating on sales calls and even the sales conferences

can be completely contradictory to how the people feel, right? Some people perform out of fear and then the corporation's going, well, man, they must be really happy. That's not necessarily the case.

They can be having a very, very underlying toxic culture that is fueling production, but they're going to lose those performers very, very quickly for another company that states they have a better culture. It's about feel. I agree with that 100%. Yes, sir. Good stuff. Yeah, man. Good stuff. So what else is next for you do? What are working on? Man, so I have a book that comes out September 23rd, How to Be a Good Leader when you've never had one. So excited about that. We've sold a ton of pre-orders right now. So that's That's going really, really well. I'm continuing to do my lead loud series,

so leadership events and summit. So I like to do, they're one day, but they're really like three-quarter day, right? So it's, you know, you're listening to some really great experts. In August, I have Chris Voss coming down. Oh, nice. Damon Jones coming down. Cool.

I say coming down, but coming up. Les Brown's coming back again. I'm in November. I'm doing some things with Robert Irvine. So really just getting the world focused on leadership, man. We talk about so much. These are all in person events. These are all in person, yeah.

Cool. I'm going to swing in for one, dude. Let's go. I'll have you. Okay. We'll chat afterwards. Where are they out of? Are you just, do you go around the country or you stay stationary with your events in one place?

Yeah. So I try to do them selfishly in Greenville, South Carolina. That's my hometown. Oh, cool. to bring awareness and to bring people like the last event we did in June. We had 200 people, 65% of them were from out of the state of South Carolina. So like people are flying in because it's really about enhancing your leadership, enhancing your leadership brand, your leadership authority. And so I wanted to selfishly do it in Greenville because it's my hometown.

And then also I don't have to fly as much. I can be husband. I can be husband and dad when I'm at home more. Isn't that special? Yeah, man. That's a hard balance, right? Oh, it totally is. I mean, as much as I try, like I'm still on the road speaking or with clients or corporations,

180 to 200 days a year, right? Which is a lot. Which is a lot. And so I want to make sure that I can be the person that I speak about, too. I have to be present. And so I want to make sure that I'm present for family, for friends, and for my people. I love that, man, because it's not just about being a leader in your business, about being a leader at home. Right.

I mean, come on, man. I mean, you know, families need their daddies, dude. And there's too much of a narrative going around like, I don't need no man. I don't need my dad. You know, like I wholeheartedly disagree. We need everybody we can. Yeah. Yeah.

You know? I'm right there with you, man. And like, again, just going to how I was raised in a two-parent household. And as much as I say my dad was a butthole, like, he still was there. You know what I mean? Like, he might have been a but when I needed to have a conversation, I could go have that conversation. And that matters, right? That matters in your business.

But like you said, Sean, that also matters at home. And so are you present to have conversations? Are you the person that you think you are in the eyes of your children, right? Or in the eyes of your spouse, right? Like, are you looking at things from everyone else's viewpoint to be the best version of yourself that you can be? That's a hard one because I always test myself, dude. You know, I mean, I always think of this. I always think like, I just want to be the dad that my kids think I am.

Yeah. And, you know, maybe I am if they think that, right? but there's many checkpoints throughout the day where, you know, I lack in patience, you know, even towards my wife. I mean, I think that's a normal human emotion at times where if you're so bogged down with other things and, you know, this business never stops moving. And you know that. Like, it's so hard to stay present in certain times because your phone never stops moving.

stops. Like if you're truly busy and doing great things in this podcasting world, dude, you don't have a moment sometimes to breathe. How do you manage all that? Do you have certain blackout times? Because for me, that's difficult. Yeah. So I'm a person that lives by my calendar during work hours. And I'm going to use air quotes work hours. So like I have on my calendar, hey, this is time to catch up on social or this is time to check email. So I don't I don't leave my email box open 24 seven. I don't have my texts available to disturb me 24-7. But I have moments on my calendar that I do that because if not, I'm going to be distracted and nothing ever gets done.

After work hours, man, like the first thing I do every day is give my wife a big kiss and a hug because I need to make sure again, I'm present. So I'll have moments where every day we're outside or we're on the porch or we're doing something together so that I can make sure she knows how important she is. and she's getting the attention that I know she wants a need. It's not assumed, but know that she wants and needs. And then I'll have, you know, 20 minutes while we're making dinner or right after dinner that I'll check emails or social because you're right.

Like we get hit up all the time. And then I'll make sure I give Wi-Fi another hour, hour and a half of whatever it is we want to do. Sometimes it's just listening to music and just chatting, right? Yeah. And then before bed, I'll make sure I check. or I'll check, I don't really check email, but I'll check social to make sure I haven't missed anything or get my world updates. That's what's up.

Careful on that one, right? I purposely, I put intention behind making sure I'm present, bro. Yeah, man. That's dope. What I try to do is when the kids get home, right, I will carve out, you know, like 4 p.m. to 7.30 or 8. I need to do better at it. I think I need to hide my phone for those four hours so I can completely be present.

But those are the times right there for me that I do my best to disconnect as much as humanly possible. Sometimes there's things that, you know, are like emergencies like, you know, a big interview and, hey, can you do this tomorrow that I have to be responsive to? Because again, I also feed the family from the performance of this show. So I do have to give that some latitude as well. But yeah, for the most part, man, I really try for those three and a half, four hours to leave that for the family. I cook dinner every night. And then when the kids go down, you know, my wife's a teacher. So she's starting on this path where, you know, it's about to be back in session.

So she's working at night. So we'll be in bed and she'll work and I'll work a little bit, get some stuff done. And then we'll watch them TV together. So, you know, I do my best. But I would like to do more things one-on-one with my wife, but my damn kids. are so little, they don't let that shit happen. No, unfortunately. For the most part, I mean, not for the most part.

My kids are out of the house. They're all, one is in grad school. The other two are grown and have good paying jobs. They're off daddy's payroll. There you go, baby. They're off daddy's payroll. But not, man, like, again, you're right. It's just being intentional.

At the end of the day, it's about being intentional. And I know this isn't you, Sean, but I'll say for the, the listener, the viewer that's easily distracted by their phone after hours and their own social, have two devices. Have your social device and then your actual phone. So if someone does need you, you don't have to turn your phone off. But have your social media device. Like everybody has an old phone.

Like go use that and that be your deal. Oh, dude, I didn't even thought of that. Yeah. You know, and fellows, that's not an excuse to have a burner phone. No. This is not what Mick is talking about. No, guys. That's a little humor.

It's a little humor. See, I'm not distracted so I don't need it. But I do have folks, men and women, and that's what they do. But it's like, again, it's just right there. It's just your social media, your social media phone. That's a good point, man. Damn, I'm going to have to work on that. That'd be cool.

Yeah. It'd be cool. Look, man, as we land the plane here, I've got one more big question for you. You know, this is the determined society. So what is your definition of determination? Wow. determination for me, bro. And you know, I love your podcast, so I've been prepared for this question.

Determination for me is not giving up on the success that you're supposed to have, right? If you're to ask me, Sean, what's the one thing I fear? And I don't fear anything except this one thing. When my life is over and whatever you believe, but whenever that next thing that I'm supposed to see, I don't want to see the person I was supposed to have been. been. And so for me, that's determination. Dude. I'm going to go through success so that when that time comes, that person that I'm supposed to see is the person that I am, bro. You know that's my worst fear too, right? I don't

know if you know that. But that is, that's why I had such a reaction. I'm like, dude, that is, you can ask anybody. My fear is that I get to heaven's gates and I don't recognize the person that Jesus introduces me to as myself. This is. is who I had envisioned. This is what you were capable of becoming. You didn't do it. That to me is the ultimate judgment. Yes, sir.

I can't because the other thing, man, as we go through life and as we get older and maybe get sick, like, you want to be able to sit there and say, like, I did this, man. Like, I, I, the only thing I have to worry about is that my kids are ready to be without me. Yeah. Or my wife. Yeah. You know what I'm saying, dude?

like, but man, like that, that has me stuck on stupid, bro, because no one has ever answered that question the same as me. That's wild, bro. Nobody. We are brothers from another mother. We might be, bro. That's proof. That's proof.

It might be, bro, for sure, dude. Like, I just, I've enjoyed this conversation, man. It was very insightful. There's a lot of value given to the listener, to the viewer. And I'm not freaking surprised. That's why I had you on the show, man. And, you know, I just had a blast with you, bro. Same, man.

Same. We got to do one together, do. We got to figure out how we can really collaborate together, man, and do some amazing things outside of podcasting potentially. I'm ready. Cool, man. Cool. Well, thanks again, my brother. And to the audience, man, share this show with someone you know, love and trust and understand, you know, sometimes you've got to change your damn bad. Get rid of your limiting beliefs, your excuses and go make some good decisions, guys. And until next time, stay determined. Next up is a little song from CarMax about selling a car your way You want to sell those wheels You want to get a CarMax instant offer So fast Want to take a sec to think about it Or like a month

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