How to Push Through Setbacks and Discouragements to Become Successful

Intro (00:09):
Welcome to innovations and breakthroughs with your host, Rich Goldstein, talking about the evolutionary, the revolutionary, the inspiration and the perspiration and those aha that change everything. And now here’s your host, Rich Goldstein.

Rich (00:33):
Rich Goldstein here, host of the innovations and breakthroughs podcasts, where I feature top leaders in the path they took to create change past guests and Roland Frazier, Gregory Reed and Brian Smith. This episode is brought to you by my company, gold steam patent law, where we help you to protect your ideas and products. We’ve advised and obtained patents for thousands of companies over the past 28 years. So if you’re a company that has software product or a design, you want protected go to gold steam patent law.com, where are amazing free resources for learning about the patent process. And you could email my team@welcomeatgoldsteinpc.com to explore if it’s a match to work together. You could also check out the book I wrote for the American bar association that explains in plain English, how patents work it’s called the ABA consumer guide to obtaining a patent. I have with me here today. Mike crock, Mike crock is a performance coach, author dynamic, public speaker tech visionary, and thought leader. He is co-founder of the innovative tech platform. Blueprinted the powerhouse behind the, what are you made of podcast? And he is the best selling author of rocket fuel convert setbacks become unstoppable. I’m very pleased to welcome you at today. Mike crock. Welcome Mike.

Mike (01:45):
What’s up Rich. Thanks for having me, man.

Rich (01:47):
Yeah, my pleasure. So, uh, let’s see, I guess let’s talk a bit about your entrepreneurial journey. I know you’ve done a lot of things, but how did you get started in this whole kind of crazy world of entrepreneurship?

Mike (01:57):
Well, I lived, uh, when I was living with my dad, when I was about eight years old, we lived on a golf course and I used to go on the golf course and dig golf balls outta the pond and then sell ’em to the golfers. So I think a lot of, uh, successful entrepreneurs have a story like that, whether it’s lemonade or candy or gum or golf balls. So that’s where it started for me. But, uh, I, I witnessed my dad and uncles and my grandfathers have their own business. You know, they were in construction and, uh, I just watched them and realized that they controlled their, you know, their schedules and how much money they made. And at a young age, I realized that that’s kind of what I wanted to do. However, when I got to school, we were taught to go to college and we taught, we were taught, we needed to go to college.

Mike (02:43):
If we, or we weren’t gonna make it. And I also witnessed my dad and uncles and grandfather be their bodies beat up from construction work. And I realized, you know what, I better go to college. So, um, yeah, so that’s kind of, kind of where it started. But then from college I dropped out with a 4.0 and I got into sales right away, restaurant, business, and sales. And to me, if you’re in sales, you you’re a business yourself. Mm-hmm <affirmative>, most people don’t operate that way, but when you’re in sales, you’re a business and that’s kind of where it started for me.

Rich (03:13):
Got it. So, yeah, when you’re in sales, like you control when you’re a destiny, you could either, um, be extremely successful. You could fall on your face. Um, and it really is all up to you and your ability to sell. So it’s like it it’s like a, um, it’s a business really, it’s your, you’re an independent operator. Um, because you know, you are, um, your boss, if you have a boss can tell you, okay, you’re on the phone are in these hours, but what you actually make out of that is up to you. It’s just as I see it,

Mike (03:44):
What you’re seeing. Yeah. I mean, the revenue generated is up to you. You know, it’s not a sale salary, hourly job. And although you may be w two or 10 99, depending on this, the setup at the end of the day, it’s what you decide and calls and create that, that generates what you may, right. So, yep.

Rich (04:02):
I’m a big believer in that big believer in the power of sales. I think it’s probably the most valuable skill. Anyone could attain anyone going into business. It doesn’t matter what type of business you’re going into. I mean, even if you want to be an artist being a, a, your sales ability is going to be the biggest factor in what of you’re successful

Mike (04:22):
100%, 100%. And, you know, rich I’m in a startup right now, uh, actually two startups mm-hmm <affirmative>. And, you know, as a co-founder and a startup, you need to either you or the other person, or somebody needs to be able to sell <laugh>. And, you know, a lot of startups have issues because they can’t generate sales and, you know, cashflow fast enough. And so for me, being in sales since 1998, officially, um, how many years is that now? Geez. A long time. Uh, I I’ve, I’ve got the, the unique ability to be able to do something that startups absolutely must have, and I don’t have to go looking for it, which is which by the way, has led me, I generated over a hundred thousand dollars in revenue for a tech company prior to even being developed all the way and launched because of my sales abilities. So very important for those out there listening, uh, to, to develop your sales abilities.

Rich (05:16):
Right. Or you have to find someone like you <laugh>.

Mike (05:19):
Yeah. But that’s a, that’s a liability when you have to do that.

Rich (05:22):
Exactly. Yeah, exactly. So, um, you know, that it’s, um, again, the ability to control your own destiny to, to get good at sales. Um, and, um, and, and it’s like, even if you have something that’s very technical, uh, like a tech startup, you still need to develop that skill. Otherwise you’ll forever be attempting to outsource it, which just isn’t as good as doing it yourself. Um, but I’m, I’m curious, so now you book rocket fuel and, um, and the subtitles convert setbacks become unstoppable. So, um, tell me about setbacks, kinda like what that means to you, what you’ve experienced and kind of how you’ve turned those around, what you’ve learned about turning those around.

Mike (06:07):
Yeah. So I’m not telling the story to play a victim or making a sob story, but, uh, I grew up in a broken home. I don’t remember my parents ever together, and this all line ends up with where this rocket fuel concept or this rocket fuel law that I developed comes from. You know, I, I did the, every other weekend thing with my parents, child support, custody battles, stepparents, you add them into the mix and the conflict and chaos ensu is ridiculous. And no kid really should ever have to go through that. Uh, except for the fact that it can develop you and develop certain skills and that can help you in life further. So when I was about eight years old, my mom was moving on to her third marriage. And I just, you know, I was like, I don’t wanna learn another man’s rules and another man’s house.

Mike (06:50):
And so I said, you know what, lemme get my dad’s house a try. So my dad had just moved on to his second marriage and they took me out to dinner one night. And me into moving in with them, promised me the world, puppies, water bed. If you remember water beds, <laugh> my own room. You know, all these kind of things like, Hey you. So as a kid, I just decided, you know, breaking my mom’s heart, Hey, I wanna move in with my dad. So I did that. And from eight to 11, I went through a lot of a, a period of time, a lot of abuse. Uh, there was issues and conflicts with my parents, my stepparents, and, you know, a lot of it was taken out on those kids. And for a long period of time, rich, I thought that was normal. I thought that was an ordinary thing.

Mike (07:28):
Like, this is what happens. I, I mean, I dealt with fights and arguments and cursing and you know, and I, I didn’t know any different, you know, it’s a weird thing when you’re in something, all the I’m from a young age, you’re just like, oh, this is the way life is. So I started going to friends’ houses and, and visiting their families, you know, doing sleepovers and stuff. And I started seeing loving families and I’m like, wait a minute. You can have that. I want a piece of that. And so I realized that, you know what I, and, and this is a really important lesson for everyone. I realized that a young age, rich, somewhere around 10 years old, did I cause and create what happens in my future? And I realized, wait a minute, I don’t want this right now. I don’t wanna go through this abuse I’m dealing with, I don’t wanna sleep with my baseball bat at night because I’m scared.

Mike (08:12):
I’m done with that. And I made a decision which all of our futures, all of our businesses, all of our lives relationships are all based on decisions. We’ve made. I made a decision to get the hell out of there. So I went to my mom and told her what was going on. And she decided to file court papers to, to get me back to her house. And she told me that, you know what, when you believe in something like this, this is very important. Lesson two, when you believe in something in life, there’s gonna be people that try to talk you out of it. Cuz she knew my dad and stepmom were gonna try to talk me out of, there are gonna be people to try to talk you outta your beliefs, your decisions. And if you firmly believe in it, you gotta stick to your guns because they’re either gonna try to talk to you out of it.

Mike (08:49):
Talk you out of it because of their own agendas or because it makes ’em feel better. And you need to make sure that when you decide on something, you stick with it. And so that lesson carried through my whole life. She ended up filing the court papers after weeks going by of me walking on ice and eggshells or whatever you wanna call it. The papers finally got delivered to my dad’s house. And when that happened, I came home from school one day and attention in the room was thick. I knew something was up. So I walked in and my dad had these papers in his hand and he said, you know, it says here, well matter of fact, he sent me to my room first and I went to my room, waited for him. And uh, my dad, by the way, was my hero. He, you know, I mentioned he was in construction.

Mike (09:28):
He had a masonry business, he had big forearms and rough hands. And you shook his hand. You could tell how hard of a worker he was. You know, he worked with you, you know, concrete and all that. And I always looked up to my dad, you know, like he was my hero. Like he, he, he, he was a hard worker. He always had a wa a hundred dollars bills in his pocket. Italians, man, you don’t care wallets. You carry a wa. And so he used to have a wa of money with a rubber band around it. He used to show us all the time, money and, and uh, you know, I just always looked up to him for that. Well, when he came back with those papers and confronted me with those papers, the first thing went through my mind is what did I do?

Mike (10:07):
You know? Like, like, did I do something like, I, you start to get this regret feeling, oh man, what do, and I just remember my mom saying, stick to your guns. So he confront to me about leaving. And I said, you know what? I made my mind up. I don’t wanna get in discussion. I wanna leave. He said, okay. So he takes that wad that he always carried around a hundred dollars bills and he peeled one off. He crumpled it up and he threw it at me. I said, here, you’re gonna need this. Then when you’re living on the streets with your mother one day, and at that moment, a spark was lit that still isn’t put out to this day, by the way that I was like, I’ll, I’ll show you. I’m not gonna live on the streets. I’m not gonna need that money.

Mike (10:44):
And so whenever my life, as I went forward, whether it was school sports work or what have you, things got tough. I would push through. And I was saying, thrust is a must. When things get tough, you gotta push through. You gotta thrust through there. Things got great. And I needed to take it to the next level. I thought about that moment as well. I’m not gonna let my dad win. I’m gonna show him. And here now I’m 40 some years old. I have a house on the water, which I came from. I didn’t have anything. Like I didn’t never, never was given anything. I earned everything that I’ve get. That’ve gotten in life. And I look at this place that I have for my kids. I’ve been married almost 20 years. And, uh, I think that this concept of rocket fuel, which is to convert all setbacks, discouragements, negativities, take it and stored in your tank instead of your trunk, where it weighs you down, where most people keep it, you put it in your tank, you convert it into to rocket fuel and you become unstoppable. And so that’s where all that came from. Am I explain that in the book? Uh, there’s obviously more to it, but that’s a little breakdown.

Rich (11:45):
Got it. So basically use your setbacks as fuel for achieving everything. I mean, essentially, um, taking, taking it and turning it into the thing that fuels you. Um,

Mike (11:58):
I have a friend. Well, think about this rich one, one second, real quick, just to clarify, if you have a target now I have a target with these tech companies. I wanna build scale and sell this company, impacting people, but then sell it for billions. Right? I have this target in my well, if I were to come across adversity, which I’m down to, when you have a big goal, the bigger the adversities, you’re gonna have setbacks, discouragements capital issues, who knows what, right. If I take all those things as I come across those, and instead of letting it stop me or slow me down too much, and I just use it, like, how can I use this? What, what benefit is this? What can I learn from this? What motivation can I have? I remove all the obstacles and not make ’em obstacles anymore, anymore. Make ’em Avan advantageous instead of liabilities make ’em assets. Mm-hmm <affirmative> you become unstoppable. So that’s the concept.

Rich (12:46):
Yep. It become the, it can become the reason that why you succeed the reason, yes. That fuels you. I have a friend who, um, after coming back from Vietnam, uh, he, um, you know, was just very upset about all the things that he did over there. Um, and then, you know, one day he realized he’s like that thing that keeps you in bed could also be the thing that keeps you, that gets you outta bed in the morning. You know, it’s, it’s, it depends on kind of how you use it. Right. And it’s

Mike (13:15):
A it’s perspective change. Yeah.

Rich (13:17):
Yeah. And you could use it as the thing that, that has you down and keeps you in bed all day, or can be the thing that gets you out of bed and motivates you.

Mike (13:27):
Yeah. Then it all stems. It basically goes to the story. You tell yourself, right? What is the story you’re telling yourself, right? Because the story that we tell ourselves and the decisions that we’ve made in the past shape, what our future is. And once people really understand this, and now, you know, if I’m talking, it just doesn’t go one ear and out the other, they really grasp this concept right here, changes everything for you. Yep. You can, you can have pretty much anything you want in life. You can like rich just between you and I. And then listeners. I, I know for a fact that I can access anybody on this planet that I want to, that has impact, or that I need to, because of the belief that I have and the story that I tell myself that it can happen. And I’ve, I’ve proven it over and over again. I want people to understand how powerful this is.

Rich (14:10):
Yep. If you believe you can, or you believe you can’t you’re right.

Mike (14:13):
Yeah. And there’s all cliches with it, but people don’t take it serious. They still don’t believe for some reason.

Rich (14:19):
And I think though it goes deep, right? Like, because there are benefits that we get out of whatever story we tell ourselves. So we tell ourselves that negative unempowering story, there’s some type of benefit that we get out of it. Um, and, um, you, you know, keeps us from a being wrong or keeps us, or it makes us right about the fact that we’re messed up. Whatever that thing is, we get out of it. Then we need to discover that sometimes before we can move on and choose a more empowered story of our life.

Mike (14:50):
Well, and it also keeps us small and safe. And also what I’ve noticed too, is, is that as I’ve progressed in my self development, personal development, I started to realize the power that I actually have and that we all have, and actually experiencing it and seeing it, it scares the out of you sometimes. And people don’t, it’s not just failing and it makes get a story of why you failed to live with yourself. So you could be right. It’s also when you have, uh, advances and you see the actual power that we’ve been given as human beings, you’re like, holy, man. Like, and, and then I don’t know if I can handle this and then you pull back sometimes. Right. So it has to do with that as well.

Rich (15:28):
Yeah. Being like, actually being afraid of success, like reasons why, like, that success would seem like too much that we could handle or too scary. But yeah, that’s the, I guess that’s the thing our mind can create a whole bunch of reasons why it’s, we’re better off playing small. Right. And so yeah,

Mike (15:47):
A

Rich (15:48):
Hundred percent once we discover we can pick and we can do anything we want, we just have to learn those things about ourselves.

Mike (15:54):
Yeah. Yeah. And I I’ll tell you real quick, uh, you know, there’s been times recently where, uh, you know, I needed to reach out to, I didn’t need to, but I wanted to reach out to a celebrity or some very high influential, impactful person. And I found out that I can actually access them. And once I, that, that I could actually access them. That’s when I had the old moment. Like, oh. Now I gotta perform right now. I gotta before, when you didn’t realize you could do it, it’s all fun to say, oh, what if I could? And this and that. But when it actually happens, you’re like, oh man, do I really wanna do this now? <laugh>

Rich (16:28):
Yep. You know

Mike (16:29):
What I mean? It’s like being an airplane and I’m being at the door

Rich (16:31):
Goods.

Mike (16:32):
Yeah. You go up in the airplane now you’re at the door. Cuz you said you wanna sky jump and now you’re at the door and they’re about to push you out. And now you’re like, do I really wanna do this? <laugh> so

Rich (16:41):
Yeah. Yep, exactly. Um, yeah, let’s talk about, um, about, um, blueprinted so, you know, tell me about this, uh, this platform you’ve created.

Mike (16:50):
Yeah. So my whole life, uh, you know, I’m kind of stubborn <laugh> and I, I like the word inexorable, unyielding and unable to be stopped, but uh, <laugh> uh, in my life when I wanted something rich, I went and got it. Like I just go get it. And the problem I always had though is I never knew what the hell I was doing. And I would cost myself stress, time, money, energy, relay relationships, you name it. I wasted a lot of that because I didn’t know the exact granular steps. And even if I took a course or got coached, it was always high level theory, not granular enough, not step by step processes, what to put first, what to do first. And in that, with that being the case, I started to think myself, you know what? It’s all great to commit first and figure the rest out later, it’s better than not doing anything at all.

Mike (17:41):
But what if, imagine what if I had the steps when I wanted to achieve something, I went to this place, which is blueprinted this marketplace. And all I did was start to how to start a podcast. I wanna start a podcast. I have no idea how to do it. How do I do it? How to start a podcast, boom, blueprints, pop up. And then I can pick which creator I wanna choose based on reviews, credibility, what have you. And I can follow, I can buy the, that blueprint and follow the exact steps that person took right in the footsteps. You know, if like I wanted to be like rich Goldstein and be a patent attorney and understand like, well, what do I really need to do to do that? Like what did rich do to be successful? Like you mentioned thousands of companies, thousands of patents you’ve helped. Well, what if I wanted to do that? I don’t wanna try to go just wing and figure out I want, I wanna know, I wanna walk in Rich’s footsteps and maybe rich share the mistakes he made and things he learned along the way. So maybe I don’t have to do that and maybe I can even do it better than rich or go further than rich did. And that’s what blueprinted offers.

Rich (18:44):
Wow. That’s, that’s, uh, you know, really interesting because you could, um, get really tap into someone’s full expertise, tap into their full experience with something that’s like what you want to do and, and avoid making the same mistakes that they did and, and maybe do even better than they did. So.

Mike (19:04):
Yeah. And, and, and I, I like, I, this whole thing came down to thinking about helping people, they wanna achieve something. But what we’re finding also is our creators and experts that are coming into the platform, cuz we’re loading them into the platform right now we’re finding they’re having breakthroughs because they’re realizing that, wait a minute, I didn’t ever document things this granular before. Like if I thought about the mortgage company that I started from scratch and my partner now up to 30 plus employees, how do do we do that? It’s all up here. I never really documented it. Now we’re actually documenting with our creators and they’re finding out like, well, wait a minute, I could replicate this. I could duplicate this. If I had to start all over again, I could do it again. And they didn’t think of that before internally, subconsciously they’re having this thing inside that they’re like, I’m not sure I could do this again. Maybe I was lucky. I, you know, you know, but we’re having these confidence breakthrough. It’s amazing.

Rich (19:56):
Wow. That is something. So, and how’s it going so far with the, the platform? Like, um, how long have you been doing this and kind of what are some of the milestones you’ve hit that are exciting? Well,

Mike (20:07):
The idea came about a year and a half ago and we self-funded the seed round and we started developing the MVP minimal viable product. We call it the minimal lovable because we put a little attention into the user experience and the interface to make sure that when people come to it, it doesn’t look like a, uh, you know, the old school, uh, apple computers or screen screen kind of thing. We wanted to look, you know, good. And we’ve just now launched that part and we’re uploading creators into the platform now because we’ve had just under 50 creators sign up to be a creator and we’re building their blueprints with them to make sure the quality’s there and we’re uploading them. And now we’re selling blueprints like, uh, I, I was on a grant Cardone’s 10 X GRA, uh, he’s a partner in this, by the way I was on a 10 X growth con stage last week. And we had 1,590 people, uh, by one of the blueprints, which was, um, how to get the most outta your event that you go to, which we were talking about 10 X growth conference, but any event, how do you get the most out of an event? And I did a blueprint on that and 1,590 people bought it from one stage.

Rich (21:13):
Wow. Yeah. That’s uh, that’s incredible. And uh, and, and what, like, what’s next for this venture? Like where, where do you want head with it? Like, what’s the, um, kind of what what’s the, the, uh, the big target for this where you’d like to see it go

Mike (21:32):
Well, right now we’re loading creators in and getting experts and we gotta do our own part to get, you know, maybe 500 to a thousand people in this platform. And then it’ll take off by word of mouth. Like that’s, that’s what tech, when, when you get into tech and you get enough of user, uh, volume or user traffic, they start to spread the word. If it’s a good product, they’ll start to spread the word and that’s how tech companies grow. So that’s what we’re looking for. But we’re also looking into getting in situations like a real estate team, or if you’re in your, in your law firm, if you brought a new person in, instead of you sitting with them the whole time and teaching them how to do things, what if there was a blueprint that you just created or several blueprints down a track, maybe it starts at a lower gradient and it goes down a track and they just follow those steps when they come to work the first week, Monday, go follow that blueprint, Steve, go follow that blueprint. If you have questions, let me know. And you have a blueprint established for what they’re supposed to do their first week on the job, their first 90 days on the job. Um, that’s what I see with this. And then eventually what we’re gonna do is I just need, I have a numbers broken down, but I need roughly 184,000 people to be paying on average, a hundred dollars a month to make this over a billion dollar company.

Rich (22:44):
That doesn’t seem too farfetched considering how many people could benefit from something like this.

Mike (22:49):
Yeah. I mean, the end of the day, it’s just to get that momentum, you know, and momentum and anything is always tough at first, right? Mm-hmm, <affirmative>, it’s like the, the hardest push man. And it’s like doing cardio, you know, it’s like that first five minutes of cardio is like, hell, you feel like there’s no way I’m gonna be able to do 30 minutes or 60 minutes. And then you just keep going. And that, I, I, I always say thrust is a must man. Keep going, thrust forward. Yeah. Once you get there, like, oh man, this isn’t as bad as I thought it was. And then you’re rolling, you know? And then you don’t wanna stop. So, um, by the way, I come on this podcast rich and I’m with you talking, and I’m really looking at my, I, I could see myself, right? We’re on a video. I’m talking to myself as we’re doing this. Like, I know that I, I wanna give benefit to the audience, but podcasts are good to go on and have your own podcast because it gives you an opportunity to sit there and talk to yourself and tell yourself what you need to hear. And I’ve had so many cognitions from doing podcasts. It’s amazing. So, uh, yeah. I just wanna share with everybody, I’m not preaching to you all I’m, I’m talking to myself and you just get the chance to listen. <laugh> yeah.

Rich (23:49):
Like you, you, you, you get to get clear on things that, and, and you get to sort it out in your mind and say it out loud and reinforce your own beliefs and your own confidence in it. Um, I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s funny, there’s a, there’s a, an expression in coaching that you’ll always coaching yourself. Right. When you’re coaching someone else, you’re typically, it’s the things that you’re working on for yourself. Yeah.

Mike (24:10):
So, and, and, you know, what’s a fun thing is to watch other people, you know, like the grant Cardones and Gary vs and Tony’s you, you watch them. And then from that perspective, what you just said, most people don’t do that. Like really watch from the perspective of that. They’re really talking to themselves and going through that thing right now, or recently that they’re talking to you about.

Rich (24:30):
Yep. I love it. Pretty cool. And, and by the way, so blueprinted is B L O O printed.

Mike (24:37):
Yep. Dot com.

Rich (24:38):
And so it’s, blueprinted.com, B L O O P R I N T E d.com of people wanna learn more out you again, touch with you, how do they go about doing so

Mike (24:47):
Well, by the way, if there’s any creators or experts out there, or if you have a team in any company or something, and you’re looking for something like this, all you gotta do is go to blueprinted.com. You can become a creator, or you can reach out to me on Instagram or LinkedIn, just look up Mike C ROC, Mike crock. I’m easy to find. I made it really easy for everyone. And I answer my, my DMS so

Rich (25:09):
Awesome. Um, I love it. And I appreciate you being here, Mike. Um, Mike crock, Mike Sirocco, but we like to go on Mike crock and, uh, again, thanks for taking the time and doing this interview, and it’s great to see you. Thank

Mike (25:23):
You, rich. Appreciate you having me, man.

Outro (25:29):
Thanks for listening to innovations and breakthroughs with your host, rich Goldstein. Be sure to click, subscribe, check us out on the web at innovationsandbreakthroughs.com and we’ll see you next time.