Becoming the Best Student Possible for Your Business Mentor with Mike “C-Roc” Ciorrocco

All right. Good morning and welcome, Wicked Smart listeners. You know, I realize I've been saying good morning for about, I don't know, 7 or 8 years. And you guys might be hearing this at other times of the day, but I'm a morning person. So good morning. Welcome to another episode here. It's Chris Prefontaine. My focus again this week is to empower you in some shape, form, or action to take action to change behaviors. And this guest is no different, guys. We're going to buckle in here and bring you the next Wicked Smart Masters Class. And today I get to hang out with Mike C-Rock. You're going to love Mike. Mike is a— I'll call him a futurist. He's a serial entrepreneur. You're going to hear that come out in our talk. And he's a luminary in the world of business, really. And for a lot of reasons. As the founder of That One, the brand and agency, That One. By the way, go to YouTube. You got to see his gear on that brand, That One. He's demonstrated literally unparalleled knack for launching and scaling successful enterprises. And what I asked him in the show here, as you're going to see, in here is I asked him to address what he does and the celebrity status that he's established, but to do so from a solopreneur standpoint. So many of you who are solopreneurs or many of you want to leave your job and be a solopreneur, and I wanted you to hear that straight from him because I could tell you till blue in the face what to do in the real estate world. He's going to talk about different vehicles, but all while utilizing what he does. It doesn't matter what your vehicle is. I don't care if you sell popcorn on the street corner. You're in real estate, you're in mortgages, you're— you own a— it doesn't matter. You're going to love the takeaway. So enjoy my chat with Mike C-Rock. All right, guys, I want to make sure you remind you about our QLS Live event. We've been hosting this thing since 2016 in a basement, and now we have a brand new facility in Boston, Massachusetts. This year, 2024, it's going to be September 23rd and 24th. That's a Monday and a Tuesday. Makes it easy for travel. It is literally right next to the airport. Go to smartrealestatecoach.com/QLSLIVE and use the coupon code PODCAST50. That's going to give you 50% off. I'll see you there. All right, Mike, with that as a backdrop, welcome to the show and great to see you again, buddy.

Thanks, Chris. What's happening, man? Hey, I just want to express gratitude for your listeners and then for you as well, too. You know, I'm always humbled that people want to listen to me. And so for this opportunity, I just wanted to make sure, you know, and your listeners know that I'm very grateful.

Well, I appreciate it and I love that. That's how we got in here, hanging out with you on your show. That's why I mentioned it in the intro. It's a writer-downer, guys, for the Wicked Spot listeners to know. It's a writer-downer. You got to follow what Mike's got going on. It's absolutely amazing. Mike, give them— I know, but give them a little backstory about how you landed here, where you are today, and what you got going on. And most importantly, how that can benefit the Wicked Spot listeners.

Yeah. So, Chris, I spent 20 years in the mortgage real estate business after being in in-home sales for 9 years. I started as a real estate agent, and then about a year after becoming the best top-selling agent, top listing agent, went into the mortgage business because I got tired of showing people around the houses and things. It just wasn't my cup of tea. And I saw some friends of mine making money in the mortgage industry. And so I said, you know what, let me be a loan officer. So I moved into that. And, you know, sometimes you have to move around a little bit to find your your lane. And then I had great success as a loan officer. This is actually back in 2006, right before the crash. And in doing that, I did better every year, even through the crash. But I always wanted to level up and figure out what I was doing here, master it, and then move to the next level and then expand and help other people. That was a common recurring theme for me in my life. And so after spending 20 years in the mortgage real estate business, I ended up building a large organization from Delaware to Miami. 7 branches, hundreds of employees over the years. You know, we were doing anywhere between $10 to $13 million a year in revenue depending on the rates. And eventually, 5 years ago, Chris, I realized that this is not fulfilling for me. You know, money's great and everything, and I need money to support the family, have the lifestyle that I wish to have. But at the end of the day, if I'm miserable doing it, what kind of life is that?

Yeah.

So I, at that moment, 5 years ago, I said, you know what? I gotta create an exit strategy. I gotta get known. I gotta figure out how to get known on a global level. I just started thinking big and doing mind expansion thought processes. And, uh, you know, my background is a performance expert. I know how to build brands and scale businesses. So I said, if I can get known for that, I'll create an attraction model versus a chase model. Most of us are still in this chase model where we're chasing everything, revenue, sales, employees, You know, when I was younger chasing women, you know, like chase, chase, chase. And I just said, you know what, there's gotta be an easier way. So I, I started thinking about getting known and creating an attraction model and drawing things into me, drawing people into me, opportunities into me. And I, I really truly believe, and I'll stop here and I'll continue the story, but I'll let you chime in here for a second. I truly believe we can have whatever we want and we can create whatever story we want. And some of us are stuck in these stories that we've grown up with, these belief systems we've grown up with. And I believe that we can cause and create what we want. So I cause and create global notoriety for myself and my brand, and also an attraction model.

So a couple of things come to mind right off the bat. I love taking this organically. This is fun. You talked about moving around and finding your path at the very beginning when you started talking. So I want to couple that with my next question. But first, let's explore that a little bit because I think people beat themselves up if they feel like they pivoted because they made count that as failure or whatever else is attached to that changing path. So could you expand a little bit on that? And then I've got a follow-up to something else you said.

Yeah, that's a great question. So, you know, I had to do the same thing when I decided to exit from mortgages and real estate. I had to figure out what I was going to do next. Right. And I didn't know for sure. I started going on podcasts and different things. And when I saw podcasts, the power of podcasting and how my confidence level being interviewed on podcasts shot through the roof. I said, if I can bottle this, I'll be unstoppable because confidence turns the world for you.

Yeah.

But lack of confidence will make it— your heart will shrivel up and run from you when you're not confident. And I started to realize that. So I started going on a lot of shows. In doing that though, I was trying to figure out different revenue streams that I could create because I needed to get back to that money level and then go beyond, of course, because I'm always trying to uplevel. And, um, you know, of course when you start chasing passion, you gotta sometimes take it back, take a, step back or 2 or 12, which I did. You might have to sell assets. You might have to burn through some savings you have. You might have to sacrifice some things to live a life of passion until you finally make this money that you need to make. So what I did in that time, and this is a funny question that you asked me, because I was talking about this to somebody yesterday. I was exploring different options and my eyes and my attention were all on different things that were coming to me because I was creating an attraction model. And I had this one lady who's had some success in her life because she was told by a coach at one point, you need to focus on one thing because if you don't focus on one thing, you're not going to be successful at anything. And that's true to an extent. It's true at a certain stage early on before you figure out your passion and your lane that you're going to dive into. You need to explore several things. So she was telling me this for a stage that I wasn't in. And thank God I was smart enough to realize, like, and be able to differentiate that. She was trying to help, but I knew that I had to find that lane. And I did. I ended up finding that lane, which is helping people do what I've done, grow their brand, grow celebrity in their, in their space by being booked on top podcasts consistently and teaching people how to leverage the attention and leverage the relationships through the show hosts. Just like you and I have, like we have a relationship now because of podcasting and who knows what will come from that. So yeah.

100%. So many of them too. Yeah. All right. Well, how does— I'm trying to put myself in the solopreneur shoes right now. Let's just take a couple of steps back. So how does a solopreneur run with some of these things that you and I know are so effective? Because I know it's intimidating, Mike, for some people. Like when someone said to me, have a podcast, that might go on one back in '16, I think it was. I'm like, well, I don't know how to do a podcast. I don't know what to say. I don't know who's going to come, you know, the imposter syndrome. So talk about the solopreneur and how and why they should be listening to this, because I don't want them to say, oh, that's not for me. I want them to grab this and run with it.

Yeah, yeah. So 5 years ago, I had no idea what a podcast was. And I was going down to a Grant Cardone event at 10X back in, I don't know, 2018, '19. And some guy was going down there too, Chris Donaldson, shout out to him, Office Hours. He's the first podcast I ever went on. He said, hey, I'm bringing my podcast equipment and I'd love to interview you. And I was like, dude, I don't even know what a podcast is, man. I'm not doing a podcast. Why do you want to interview me? Right? And I was thinking that I had to be Somebody, somebody out there in the real world from other people's perspectives. I already knew I was valuable and I could do it, but I thought I had to be known out there. Otherwise, like, what am I doing? So I understand what people think. Number one, you hear podcasting and you never thought of it before. You're like, well, I don't have the equipment. I don't know what I need to do it. Like all this stuff, right? All this doubt, negative talk comes in. And also you think that you need to already have made it to be interviewed, which is not the case. Okay. So I did all that. Then I said, you know what? He, he asked me again. I said, all right, I'll come on. Thank God I did because my emotions, confidence, everything went up. I realized the power of it, all the different benefits, which we'll talk about on the show here. And, uh, so my, my advice is listen to what we're talking about here. Um, check me out on Instagram and see some things I'm talking about, but at the end of the day, lean into it. Trust me. I mean, I, I was a guy that was just a real estate agent doing loans, helping people make money, helping people, you know, building and scaling a business. And then, um, had no interest in doing that at all until I saw it and got into it. And I was like, wow, this— by the way, the other thing, Chris, as a solopreneur, by the way, I get passionate about this. I'm excited about all this stuff. So it's awesome. As a, as a solopreneur, people have everything we need, right? So, so how do you get in touch with more people? How do you build relationships? You can go to events and fly all over the country, or if you live in a city, you're gonna be spending money on a bunch of tickets to go to different events and network like crazy, which takes up a lot of time. That's fine. It's better than nothing, but I believe you should mix in getting together with people that have podcasts or starting your own and just do it as a, a networking tool. Don't even think about pushing the content out there right away. Just build, just record your calls with people and let them know you're filming a podcast. And if anybody has a podcast, that's a smaller show, specifically when you're first starting out, just go on there and say, hey, I'd love to be on your show and share some of my stories and lessons I've learned. And what'll happen is eventually you'll have the recording. You could start repurposing that content and then start pushing it out on your socials. And what happens is you start to become omnipresent. People start to pay attention to you. When people start to pay attention to you, it's because they're seeing you being interviewed by multiple people, different people, which raises your credibility and authority. And when people see that your credibility and authority is raised, they wanna pay more attention to you. And then your messages stick. And they listen to your messages and then you can make more money.

I wanna pause and have you hit the, uh, any way they can get ahold of you, Mike, 'cause you mentioned, uh, Instagram. And then I know you've got Rocket Fuel, it's right beside you, and I wanted to make sure you mentioned that. So if you could do those 2 things so I don't forget. Yeah, sometimes I get rambling too and I forget.

Uh, no problem. So That One Agency is our company. that1agency.com is our link where you can contact us, see what we're doing. And then I'm all over the, uh, Instagram is my favorite platform. Um, I'm on all platforms just so you know. If you have a favorite platform, look me up, but DM me on Instagram @mikeycrock. I did, Chris, DMs on Instagram have made me millions. I, I live in the DMs. I talk to people in the DMs. I reach out to people. I mean, it's, it's such a great opportunity to provide value, make connections, and make money in the, in the DMs on Instagram. And then the book's called Rocket Fuel: Convert Setbacks, Become Unstoppable. I wrote this book. It's more of a mindset performance book than an entrepreneurial book. Gino Wickman wrote a book called Rocket Fuel. It's a great entrepreneurial book. This is more about getting your mind right and being resilient. And it was powerful enough to get this guy, Grant Cardone, to write the foreword, which he never wrote a foreword for a book before. And I did this right as he was coming out with Undercover Billionaire. And he wrote, you know, a good, good message in there that aligns with my story about the Rocket Fuel Law.

Sweet, sweet. And side note, I absolutely 100% need one of those shirts. And if you're not seeing this on YouTube, you need to go check out Mike's shirt on YouTube.

Got it on the back. That one. See, there's a little 1 hidden in the, in the, in the tee.

I love it.

And so when I go to the airport, Chris, I have hats too that say That One on them. And people don't see the 1 right away. So they always say, what is that? And I'm, I always look behind me. I'm like, what are you talking about? I mess with them because It's a marketing branding. You get people's attention and get 'em asking questions, it's over.

I love it. Talk about your— you've made these pivots, right? Quite successfully, Mike, and you're super passionate. I can feel your energy along the way. I forgot on your show if we talked about this. What mentors did you tap into? Did you not? How important is it? Like, talk about that a little bit.

Yeah, so this was very important for me. I had mentors in my life, but I didn't realize they were mentors when I was younger. I played college football, high school, college football. And then I got into business and the people that I worked for were really great people and were mentors to me. I didn't really understand the time that that was the case. I just thought they were supposed to show me the way because I was making money for 'em, right? So when I started to really understand mentorship, unfortunately it was in my 40s, early 40s, 6 years ago. And I started reading books more often than not. And I started saying, you know what? I want to learn from this person. You know, I want to learn from these people. And the power of mentorship doesn't have to be in person. And here's a little secret for people too, Chris. And I wrote about this in my book. It's part of the journey in there. It's my life growing up and the stories that I've learned, but also my mentorship journey. You don't have to have a mentor in person. You can be mentored from afar without the mentor even know that you're being mentored by them. And that's what I did. I dove into Grant Cardone, you know, and I learned a lot from him, from the basics all the way up to real estate investing and how he does it and the marketing genius that he is. You know, I don't always agree with everything he says. Okay, let's just make sure that's clear. I'm a different person than he is. But the fact of the matter is, I looked at his stuff and I was like, man, this is— I vibe with this. And I dove into everything he had before he even knew who I was, before I ever met him, before I went to an event. I studied and learned and dove in so that, you know, if somebody— you're going to ask for help from someone, they're going to say, well, have you read my books? Have you looked at my videos on YouTube? Have you looked at my Instagram? Like socials? Have you— what have you done so far? Because a lot of people will come to me and they'll ask me a question that's so simple, which there's no stupid questions. But the fact of the matter is, I can tell that they didn't read my books. They didn't go online. They didn't check me out. And that's kind of disheartening in a way. So yeah, I like being mentored from afar without even meeting the person and then eventually meeting the person. And like Sharon Lecter is another one. I've read a lot about Sharon Lecter ahead of time, studied her from afar. And then I was at a mentorship, uh, I mean a mastermind one time at a big mansion. I had no idea she was going to be there. And I was at lunch and they had pizza sitting out on this bar in this big kitchen. And I looked over and I saw this blonde hair and I said, is that Sharon? I did. What are the chances? And, and, and because I had just been thinking about meeting her at some point. And then I said, Sharon, and she was right there and she looked over and said, hello. I said, hey, C-Rock, nice to meet you. And we just had a conversation like we've known each other for years because I was able to, because I mentored from afar.

I love it.

I love it. So, but you know, by the way, I'm sorry, questions. Grant Cardone was one. His partner, Brandon Dawson, who's done amazing things at Cardone Ventures. Shout out to them. Richie Dolan, who's Doing amazing things in performance and money. Sharon, of course, I got tons of, tons of them. Brian Johnson just came out with a book. Arete has been phenomenal. He's a mentee of Phil Stutz. So yeah, there's been plenty.

Needless to say, you've tapped into it and you're a big proponent. Yep. I love it. Let's, let's dive into— you and I were talking at the beginning about a little more of this identity stuff. You want to go a little bit deeper on that? I think that's a good way to kind of segue into them wanting to kind of get into your ecosystem too.

Yeah. So one of the things that troubled me my whole life is I was starting to always identify with what I did, Chris. And I believe that what we do is more of a vehicle than our identity. So if you're an athlete, right, you're doing athletics, that doesn't mean your identity is an athlete. You're a veteran or in the military and coming out of the military. This is where we see a lot of problems with vets coming out of the military or athletes retiring or super successful business people with their business crashes, or they sell, they exit a business. They tied their identity to what they were doing. And some people say that's necessary. I don't believe so. Because I'll tell you why. I believe what we do is a vehicle. We need to really identify who we are. We need to do some self-exploratory work. Okay. That, that means finding out what our standards are, what our non-negotiables are, what the life we want to live is. What our core values are, personal core values are, and start using those things to filter our thoughts, words, actions, and the environment of people that are around us, making binary decisions, either going towards this identity that I've established or away from it. It's building this identity that I've established or away from it. And once we establish that, we can filter those, those things. Now we have vehicles that we can decide to get into, which is our careers. Our businesses, our revenue streams, our hobbies, our relationships, whatever those things are, we're not identified with those things. Those are our vehicles to go on the mission that we've identified so that if we have a vehicle, like, uh, let's say I'm, I was in the mortgage business. Okay. When that mortgage business crashes or has problems or business is down, my emotions now, my identity is not tied to that. This happened to me back in 2018. I built a company with 2, 3 of my best friends. We built this company to, to 8 figures. However, I didn't know anything about culture. I didn't know anything about systems and process. I got to there without knowing any of that with hustle, sales ability, right? But it was miserable, man. It was the most difficult thing ever. Come home miserable, dealing with pain in the butt people because I didn't understand the other, the foundations of a business. So when that happened though, the whole business came crumbling down one month. Okay. People were leaving. Everything just like, I had 22 people at that point, uh, employees. I felt like their families and them were on my shoulders. It was the weight of the world. And my identity was in that. Like I was the owner, the manager, whatever you want to call it, of that organization. And when it came crumbling down, I came crumbling down. And I vowed at that time that I would never ever do that again. I would never identify with what I did. That thing that I did is my vehicle. So when that crashed, all I need to do is figure out, okay, what other vehicle do I need to get into to continue on with the mission or have several vehicles ready to go, which could be multiple income streams, multiple opportunities at any time to hop into, which are vehicles to get to the mission.

This is a huge lesson. This is super helpful that you went that deep, Mike, because in '08, that was me. What you just described was me in '08. So for 4 years I was in my head saying that was all me. And it was just jumping in a new vehicle, which is what we do now, right? But I didn't know at the time. So if you guys out at the Wicked Survival listeners could just pull that nugget from you, and if they're going through struggles right now, then maybe this is the pathway for them to switch vehicles. That's super cool.

Hey, Chris, sometimes I've heard these lessons from other people, not this specific one, but other ones, and I haven't been through it before, so I didn't get it right. It didn't click for me. But what I want people to do is if it doesn't click for you right now, that's okay. at least now you know what to look for so that if you do get into this situation where you feel your identity attached to this vehicle or you get to the point where that vehicle starts to crash, flat tire, gas runs out, whatever, you can understand what I remember what C-Rock said about, hey, wait a minute, that's not my identity. It's just my vehicle. Not a big deal. Okay, so very powerful stuff. And I'm actually— I'm working on writing a book called Who Am I? And it's going to talk about this topic and how this affects performance, creativity, productivity. And people's lives in general. Lives in general.

Well, when you do, I'm going to put this out publicly. I want you back on. But more importantly, I want you at one of the live events because you can really touch a lot of people there. And we do that every, every fall. So I'm sure we'll be in touch for sure. C-Rock, what didn't I ask you, buddy, that we want to share today along these lines? Or frankly, anything you want to share that I didn't ask? Because I know you and I both do shows and we get off sometimes going, oh man, I didn't get to nail that. So what is it? Anything else you want to share before we wrap?

Yeah, I'll just say, you know, one thing is people need to really dial in. If you're an entrepreneur, solopreneur, if you're trying to build a brand, you need to get more exposure and become omnipresent. And the way to do that in the most efficient, effective way is figure out a way to get on podcasts. I'm telling you, like, from experience, I'm practicing what I preach. And also, if you do decide that you don't want to do it yourself and you want somebody to help you connect you with warm connections, You gotta find somebody that's doing it themselves, not somebody that just started a business 'cause they thought it was a needed opportunity and they're not actually living it on a day-to-day basis. I'm actually living it. I'm still going on podcasts, obviously. Um, I still do my own show and I also know how to leverage the show host, uh, relationship with that show host and help that show host so that we can build relationship, leverage the attention, and then more importantly than anything, take the content myself and repurpose it out and become omnipresent and not necessarily rely on the show host. The show hosts work that they do on their own show with promotion of it and everything. That's icing on the cake. We know how to do all that at That One. So I just want to encourage everyone to explore this because again, it changed my life. I'm an evangelist about it. And you know, that's, that's where we are right now with it. I mean, it's, it's, it's a game changer.

Well, guys, you heard it from the man on the podcasting front here. I want you guys to reach out and I want to make sure that you, you stay on Mike's radar. So Mike, awesome hanging out as usual, buddy. And I'm really digging your shirt and your gear so that these people have to go check it out. And I'll watch for mine in the mail.

Thanks, Chris. Appreciate it. I'll get it to you.

You bet, buddy. Okay, Wicked Smart listeners, that wraps up our time together with Mike. Now, you heard him say that he wants you to reach out on a DM on Instagram. Do that. Take that action today. If you do nothing but that, your life could be changed. Make it an outstanding week. I want you to be able to meet great people like Mike, guys, because as he said, and as I say in most of my shows, especially my solo casts, who you hang out with really, really freaking matters more than you can imagine. You just can't even put your finger on it. I can't quantify it for you. So come hang out with us at this year's QLS live event in Boston, Massachusetts. First time ever on the 23rd and 24th. We've been doing this since 2016. And we have moved it for the convenience of most of you to Boston. Go to smartrealestatecoach.com/QLSLIVE and use the coupon code PODCAST50. That'll knock it down to 50%. I want you physically there. You're going to have a life-changing experience. Make it an outstanding week. I'll see you in September.

Thanks for listening to the Smart Real Estate Coach Podcast. If you're ready to invest in yourself and take your investing to the next level, Check out our 90-day Jumpstart Program by going to smartrealestatecoach.com/jump. That's smartrealestatecoach.com/jump, because now is the time to act boldly in this unprecedented market shift.