From Childhood Trauma to Building High-Performance Leaders | Mick Hunt | E141

Summary

Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Episode 141 | “From Childhood Trauma to Building High-Performance Leaders”
Guest: Mick Hunt | Air date: January 20, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this powerful and heartfelt conversation, host Ilana Golan interviews Mick Hunt—leadership podcaster ("Mick Unplugged") and bestselling author of How to Be a Good Leader When You’ve Never Had One. The episode traces Mick’s journey from a traumatic childhood to becoming an entrepreneur, culture builder, and thought leader in modern leadership. Together, they explore the resilience forged in adversity, the evolution of leadership, and practical strategies for listeners ready to leap into new roles, careers, or ventures.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Mick’s Childhood: Trauma and Responsibility

• Mick’s Background: Raised in Greenville, South Carolina, in a competitive family (03:00).
• The Defining Moment at Age 10: Witnessed ongoing abuse of his mother by his father; on Christmas Eve, urged his mother to leave for her own safety, volunteering to stay behind to protect her and his sister (03:26–06:30).
  • Emotional Intelligence at a Young Age: “At 10, I made my mom a promise I was going to change her life, that she would smile one day and not feel ashamed to smile.” (00:00, 07:59)
  • Shouldered adult responsibilities—protection, self-sacrifice, and hypervigilance (04:30–06:00).
• Internalizing Fear as Duty: Felt a privilege to take on the burden so others could be safe (“No fear, no worry. I just knew that I had to do what I had to do.” 06:44).

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2. Channeling Pain into Drive and Early Ambition

• Became fiercely competitive—wanted to be the best at everything, seeing achievement as the way to fulfill his promise to his mom (07:59).
• Business as the Chosen Path: By his teens, saw business and entrepreneurship as the fastest path to change his family’s life. Built skills in socializing, finance, and networking early on (08:30).
  • “I made myself into the person I needed to be to fulfill the promises I made.” (00:10, 09:19)

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3. Lessons from Entrepreneurship: Myth and Reality

• Entrepreneurship as Emotional Rollercoaster: “You have [all the emotions] sometimes in two minutes of each other.” (09:59)
• First Hire = Real Accountability: From his first business at 27, always ensured he had at least one employee alongside him—“because I need that accountability. I need to make sure that everything I do, someone else can survive and thrive.” (10:45)
• Hardest Moments: Near-bankruptcy and the pain of almost having to fire family. “That was the moment for me where when people talk about the ish got real, the ish got real because that's business, but that's also family.” (12:08–13:28)
• Key Learning: Focus on ideal clients and operating margins: “Who’s your ideal client, and what is your ideal employee? From those, we can now build a path to scale.” (13:53–14:53)

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4. Redefining Purpose: The “Why” vs. The “Because”

• Deeper Motivation:
  • Mick distinguishes between the “why” (“I want to impact lives”) and the “because” (“I never want to feel regret”)—the latter being a driving, visceral motivator (19:08–20:25).
  • Quote: “Your because is your true reason. It's your real intent. Your why doesn’t give you accountability. Your because does.” (20:26)
• Practical Exercise: Write down what success looks like, then map backward to define actionable steps and milestones—“Scaling and growing is simple. It’s blocking and tackling.” (24:10–27:11)

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5. Advice for Listeners at a Crossroads

• Center yourself and step back when everything feels overwhelming. “If you’re just trying to breathe, take a step back and analyze what’s really causing that anxiety or what's causing you to be stuck.” (28:04)
• Journaling: Write down daily what went well, what mistakes were made, and what to improve tomorrow. Especially important for men—permission to self-reflect (45:42).
• Surround yourself with dreamers who can help you see bigger possibilities when you feel stuck (27:11).

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6. Mick’s Leadership Philosophy: "The MC Factor"

• Coined by mentor Les Brown, the MC Factor represents:
  • Mindset: To dominate, to win
  • Investing in Yourself: Through coaching, networking
  • Character: Always doing the right thing
  • Keep Going: Perseverance in the face of hardship
• “The reason I keep going is because I’m afraid… if I stop, I was just right there… I don’t want to meet the person I was supposed to become.” (29:29–31:53)

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7. The Modern Leadership Blueprint: Book Insights

• How to Be a Good Leader When You’ve Never Had One—born from realizing many young people see popularity, not leadership, as aspirational (32:33–33:40).
• Importance of True Modern Leadership:
  • Recognizing the needs of today’s employees (emotional intelligence, active listening)
  • Preparing for mass retirement of Baby Boomers and a leadership vacuum (33:40–35:08)
  • “We don’t talk about leadership enough. We don’t talk about leadership theory and principles of what that should look like. And since society has changed, some of our leadership principles need to change, too.” (00:25, 35:08)
• The decline of leadership training: “I think leadership went away with cursive writing... I think leadership's more important than cursive.” (35:43)

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8. Raising the Next Generation and the Future of Leadership

• Mick uses scenario-based questions to teach his children real leadership concepts; wants them to see the impact of decisions on others’ lives (37:31).
• The workplace of the future: Leaders must accept their teams will have portfolio careers, multiple streams, and shorter tenures. Remote leadership, fostering independence, allowing mistakes, and constant adaptation are essential (39:10).
• “You’ve got to get used to that in this remote world, too… you’re going to make a mistake, you’re going to be outdated. You always need to be updating your workflow.” (39:57)

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9. On Mentorship, Accountability, and Investing in Yourself

• Advice to younger self: Invest in mentors – “It’s cute to talk about the journey… but when you have an elevator, take the elevator.” (41:59–43:39)
• Ilana and Mick agree: waiting too long for coaching and mentors slows progress. The right mentors shortcut unnecessary struggle and provide accountability (43:39–44:36).

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Memorable Moments & Notable Quotes

• On bearing childhood burdens:

  “At 10, I made my mom a promise I was going to change her life, that she would smile one day and not feel ashamed to smile.” (00:00; 07:59)

• On the MC Factor:

  “Mindset, invest in yourself, character, and keep going. The reason I keep going is because I'm afraid if I stop, I was just right there, and I never want to be just right there.” (29:29–31:53)

• On modern leadership's urgency:

  “We don't talk about leadership enough. We don't talk about leadership theory and principles of what that should look like. And since society has changed, some of our leadership principles need to change too.” (00:25; 35:08)

• On taking action:

  “If it stays up here... I can promise you it's never going to go anywhere. ...Write down what success looks like and then go backwards.” (24:10–25:35)

• On learning from mentors:

  “It's cool to take the stairs, but when you have an elevator, take the elevator… For me, if someone would have told me at 16, 21, 25 that investing in yourself and having mentors was powerful, I would have accelerated much faster.” (43:13)

• On dreaming and community:

  “Cover yourself with people that are dreaming… because if everybody in your life is a non-dreamer, guess what? There’s not going to be a lot of dreaming.” (27:11)

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Important Timestamps & Segments

• Mick’s childhood trauma and promise: 03:26–06:44
• Entrepreneurial journey and toughest moments: 09:59–13:53
• Finding deeper purpose ("Because" vs. "Why"): 19:08–20:25
• Building teams; importance of the MC Factor: 29:29–31:53
• Modern leadership and the next generation: 33:40–39:10
• Advice to those at crossroads, and journaling: 45:42–46:39
• Where to find Mick Hunt: 44:59

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Actionable Takeaways

• Write down your vision and success milestones—move from idea to concrete plan (24:10).
• Journaling—track daily wins, mistakes, and intentions for tomorrow (45:42–46:39).
• Invest in mentors and coaching—accelerate your journey and find accountability (41:59–43:39).
• Let your “because” (deepest motivation) drive you, not just your why (20:16–20:25).
• Stay adaptable, curious, and strategic—leadership now demands continual learning and evolution (39:10–41:28).

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Ways to Connect with Mick Hunt

• Website: mickhuntofficial.com
• Instagram: @MickUnplugged
• LinkedIn: Mick Hunt
• Podcast: Mick Unplugged

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Final Note from Ilana:

“Listeners, I hope you just rewind and listen to this whole thing and start taking notes. This was so, so valuable.” (46:39)

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This episode delivers honest insights on transforming pain into purpose, taking action amid fear, and how high-performance leadership is evolving. Whether you’re leaping into entrepreneurship, looking to lead, or simply seeking your next chapter, you’ll find real talk, applicable strategies, and true inspiration.

Transcript

[A]

At 10, I made my mom a promise I was going to change her life. That she would smile one day and not feel ashamed to smile. I made myself into the person that I needed to be to fulfill the promises that I made.

[B]

Mick Hunt. He is the voice behind one of the most popular podcasts on leadership self improvement, which is Mick Unplugged. He's also the author of the best seller how to Be a Good Leader when youn've Never Had One.

[A]

We don't talk about leadership enough. We don't talk about leadership theory and principles of what that should look like. And since society has changed, some of our leadership principles need to change too. When I mentor people, I always say, tell me what your team is going to look like. And you need to start with a few team members, and if you can't do that, then you're not ready. We don't give ourselves enough credit for being really damn good at some things that we do. And if you can zero in on those things that you do really well, you can impact other people's lives.

[B]

How do you see leadership in the future? What do you think are some of the things that are changing?

[A]

Leadership in the future is almost like.

[B]

Mick Hunt. I've been actually following him for a while on his podcast. You might be listening to it as well. He is the voice behind one of the most popular podcasts on leadership self improvement, which is Mick Unplugged. And he's also the author of the bestseller how to Be a Good Leader when youn've Never Had One, which is so fascinating. Mick has built himself and that's why I'm so passionate about this conversation. From one childhood promise that became a lifelong mission and I just can't wait to dive in. Mick, thank you for being here.

[A]

Alana, thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here with you. And I was telling you before, I've been such a huge fan of yours for over a year and just seeing all the amazing things that you've been doing. So this is like a bucket list moment to get to be interviewed by my favorite host in the world.

[B]

So fun. And I'm going to take you back in time. We're going to do like a little time machine here. But I want you to take me first of all to who is Mick as a child but before age 10. How do you grow up? Where do you grow up? Give us a little bit of lay of the land.

[A]

Born and raised in an area in the upstate of South Carolina. So Greenville, South Carolina area Me as a kid before I know the store you want to go to was the most competitive person in the world. Like, I grew up in a family of athletes, of business leaders, and competition was the norm. So I joke all the time. Me and my uncles would have challenges to see who could tie their shoes the fastest. If there was something that can be competed. If there was a competition, we were doing it. So I was one of the most driven kids that there was. I wanted to be the best athlete on the team. I wanted to be the smartest kid in school. And so me growing up from the age of like three or four, I was trying to set the mark. I was trying to set the standard. That was me.

[B]

Wow. Okay, so now you're age 10, and we all have moments that define us, and I think this is definitely one of those moments for you. Mick. Take us there.

[A]

Ilana. It was not an unusual circumstance in my home growing up to see my mother being physically, emotionally, financially, sometimes even sexually abused by my father, who she was married to, who lived in the same household. But I also knew that I couldn't make that feel normal. I knew it wasn't right. And at the age of 10, Christmas Eve morning, which should be the second happiest day of the year, right, my mom is sitting on my bed and she's wailing, right? Not just crying, but wailing. And I knew what that sound meant. I knew what those tears meant. And without saying a lot of words, I just asked my mom to leave. I said, you don't have to deal with this. You leave. At 10 years old, I couldn't define my father as a narcissist because I didn't know what that meant at 10 years old. But I knew his ego, that if I stayed, he would be okay, right? He didn't want to be alone. So I said to my mom, take my sister and you both just leave. And my mom looked at me and she said, no, I'm not gonna leave you. And I said, mom, I can handle it. I can do it. And she said, no, because I love you. I wouldn't feel right if you were going through what I go through. And Alana, I got angry. I got angry because I felt like I was giving my mom a path to be happy, to escape. And she said, no. And so that moment I grew up, I was no longer a 10 year old doing what 10 year olds did. I started to understand what today we would call emotional intelligence in not just myself, but in others. So I got to understand what would trigger my father so that instead of him wailing off on my mom, just hit me, right? Instead of him finding a way to mentally embarrass or punish or psychologically embarrass or punish my mom, just do it to me. Because when I know it's happening, I'm prepared for it, right? It's a game to me. And so at 10, that just became who I was. And so I still was a 10 year old, don't get me wrong. But at the same time, I was thinking future, I was thinking, how can I get my mom out of this situation? How can I understand my dad and make life somewhat easier for my mom? And so I grew up very different. I never wanted to go spend the night or hang out at other people's homes because I had to protect my mom and my sister. When school was over, I'm going home to make sure my mom's okay. When my mom is up at night, I don't sleep much now because as a kid I always stayed up if my mom was struggling. I wanted to be there. I wanted to make sure that she was okay. So I would sit by my door every night, every night, making sure my mom was okay. I never slept as a kid.

[B]

That's incredible responsibility that you have at such a young age. Are you scared at all? Are you scared for her? Are you scared for yourself? Is that fear or is that just worry or responsibility?

[A]

I would call it responsibility now. I would also call it privilege because I could do something about it. At least I felt like I could do something about it. Was I ever afraid? No. Was I worried for my mother? Absolutely. And it's crazy. I've never said this out loud. I've never said this to my mom. I've never said this to my sister, my brother. I'm saying this for the first time to you because I trust you. Growing up, I didn't think my mom would live to see 40. I prepared myself at a young age to say goodbye. And I've never said this out loud because I internalize a lot, but I was prepared. And then I realized that maybe I could do something to not allow that to happen. And so no fear, no worry. I just knew that I had to do what I had to do. And if I could take the abuse, if I could take the blame, the responsibility, but I knew I was purposely doing it, I was okay.

[B]

Wow, that is something incredible to weight on your shoulders as a kid. So where did that take you in your teenhood? And then you've been part of different teams and different Companies. But how did that drive you? Where did that go?

[A]

At 10, I made my mom a promise I was going to change her life, that she would smile one day and not feel ashamed to smile. And so where did that lead me? In teenhood, I was still that competitive person. I still want it to be the best because I felt like the only way to fulfill the promise was to be the best. Whatever comes after the. The best student, the best athlete, the best teammate, the best manager. At Subway, my first job, right? The best. Whatever I was doing, I had to be the best. Because if someone else was better, then I might not have this promise, right? Like, if I didn't get a scholarship, someone else was. If I didn't go to college, maybe I can't fulfill what I need to do. So it just instilled in me and my teens that I needed to be the best. But also what I realized, the easiest way for me to fulfill that promise was through business, right? It was through entrepreneurship. The skill sets that I started learning and that I started developing were social skills and communication. It was networking. It was understanding finance at a young age. How do dollars and cents actually work? And so that became who I became. I made myself. It sounds weird to say it, but I made myself into the person that I needed to be to fulfill the promises that I made.

[B]

So tell me, so you started. It sounds like in Starbucks and other places. And you got a decent salary or whatever it is. What made you decide? Entrepreneurship is insanely hard. We'll probably dive a lot more about it because I think there's a little bit of a myth around how easy it is, and it's not. So take me there to that moment when you're saying, I'm okay with not having a salary, I want to start something. Was that excitement, was that fear. Where did that take you?

[A]

It was all of the emotions. And you know, as an entrepreneur, right, you have them all. And you have them all, sometimes in two minutes of each other. The idea, the excitement of the vision that I can do it, that I can solve a problem that exists. The excitement of, wow, if I do it really, really well, I can make a ton of money. And then the fear of, holy crap, I have to do it, right? And for me, that fear was never about me personally. The fear was, I have employees that depend on me. Every decision that I make, every final sign off that I do, I affects home life for other people. And so the first business I started, I was 27. And every business I've ever started, I've Always brought on at least one employee moment. One, like a W2 employee, like at least one. My other companies I started with 10 or 20 or 100. Right. But because I need that accountability. I need to make sure that everything that I do, someone else can survive and thrive and. Right. Because when it's just yourself, when you're a solopreneur, I can go two months of sacrificing, I can go, you know, a year into savings, but when you have employees, it's not like that. It's not like that. So when I mentor people that are entrepreneurs or they want to start businesses, I always say, tell me what your team is going to look like. And you need to start with a few team members because that's real accountability right there. And if you can't do that, then you're not ready.

[B]

Ah, that's beautiful. And tell me, Mick, because the truth is, I think there's a myth, and it was for me too, that it's going to be the hardest to create all of this. But once you actually have a team, this is where it gets really hairy, really scary, really expensive, really fast. Right? And I think we all have some near death experiences. The times when you're like, okay, like, I don't know if it's going to survive this. Share a moment, Mick. That comes up for you.

[A]

My first business insurance agency, my second hire was my sister in law. And it got to a point where I was a salesperson. She and another person were more like the account managers. And I had a couple of months of low sales and we were literally two payroll periods away from me having to have a conversation with my sister in law. So imagine a conversation with your sister in law of I might have to let you go and I don't have an alternative. I don't know anybody that's hiring. And you came to this industry because of me. Anybody can go into insurance, but you need licenses and you like, no one wakes up and says, I want to be an insurance agent, nobody. But luckily that didn't have to happen. But that was the moment for me where when people talk about the ish got real, the ish got real because that's business, but that's also family. And a lot of things could have gone wrong in life. And so to luckily not have to do that was tough. But you know, I think we all have those moments where as entrepreneurs, yeah, you got to keep the lights on, but holy crap, how do I keep the lights on? What's that moment going to be? They keep telling me Alana, there's going to be brighter days. I need this brighter day right now. Right. I need this grass to be very green right now.

[B]

And it's pretty amazing how creative entrepreneurs become when your back is actually against the wall, you just like hustle your way out of this and you're like, okay, I can breathe again for a little bit and then it comes back again.

[A]

Yeah. For me, it was focus. And it also became a framework for something that I do in all of my businesses now, is it made me understand who my ideal clients really were. Because we all know the 8020 rule, right? We all know that that bottom percentage causes most of your headaches and most of your strife, right? They pay you the least, but they call you the most and you do the most service for them. So I needed to figure out what's a real ideal client and what are the real margins that I need to bring in for my businesses. And so from that moment on, that's principle number one. And people that are my clients that are listening to this are probably laughing because. So first thing we talk about, right, if you work with me and you want me to help scale your business or look at your company culture, I talk about who's your ideal client and what is your ideal employee look like. And from those two pieces, we can now build a path to scale so strong.

[B]

And it's so true, because sometimes from scarcity, we bring in the wrong person and the instinct always knows better and we fight that instinct. But tell me, sometimes those hard moments cause you to rediscover yourself and push you to go deeper into what do I really want? Do I really want to continue in insurance and teen and other things like how did that path to rediscover? Founded the podcast and eventually the book and the leadership. So walk me through a little bit. How did you come with the MC factor and all the things that you're about today?

[A]

What I started realizing was of the things that I do, and we can start with insurance, what do I really love? And what I found that I really loved was building high performing teams and really building culture. And that's what I cared more about. I had gotten to a point in insurance where I really could be the CEO, right? I didn't have to make sales, I didn't have to answer phone calls. My job was to paint the vision and build the culture. But I found out I love that. And so then after I sold my insurance agency, you know, I went to head up another company that I inherited and I immediately changed the culture and built high performing teams and we doubled our revenue in four years. And at that moment I said, this is what I'm supposed to do. And so I started consulting and coaching and all the other things. But it really was for me, reinventing myself was finding out what am I passionate about that I'm also exceptional at. Right. And I think as humans, we don't give ourselves enough credit for being really damn good at some things that we do. And if you can zero in on those things that you do really well, you can impact other people's lives. And for me, that's what it became for me was how do I impact others with culture in high performing teams? And teams could be in the corporate world, teams could be in the athletic world, team could be, hey, I'm a solopreneur trying to get to that next level. That's what really my passion was. And so that led me to why did I start the podcast? It wasn't to start a podcast. What I wanted to do was talk more about what I call my Because. Right. That promise that I made my mom to go deeper than your why? Because to me, that was why my teams outperformed others. That was why my culture was what it was because we were centered around.

[B]

Our because we need to pause for a super brief break. And while we do, take a moment and share this episode with every single person who may be inspired by this. Because this information can truly change your life and theirs. Now I want to check in with you. Yes, you, are you driven, but maybe feeling stuck in your career or a fraction of who you know you could be? Do you secretly feel you should have been further along in your income, influence or impact? Do you ever wonder how to create not just a paycheck, but the life you want with a paycheck? The thought, leadership, the legacy, the freedom. Because that was me. And that's exactly why I created the Leap Academy program which already changed thousands of careers and lives. Look, getting intentional and strategic with your career is now more important than ever. The skills for success have changed. Aq, adaptability, reinventing and leaping are today the most important skills for the future of work. Building portfolio careers, multiple streams of income and ventures are no longer a nice to have. It's a must have. But no one is teaching this except for us in Leap Academy. So if you want more from your career in Life, go to leapacademy.com training. Check out this completely free training about ways to fast track your career and you'll even be able to book a completely free strategy Call with my team. That's leapacademy.com training. Let's talk about the difference that you see in terms of the why versus the because. And why Is that a greater meaning? Or how does that drive people?

[A]

We'll do this together, Ilana. So if I were to ask you what's your why? Be honest. What's your why?

[B]

I wanna change lives because that was one of the hardest times in my life, and I wanna give that to more people.

[A]

Right. So your why is that you wanna give back to more people. Right. You wanna change lives and give back. That's great. And Simon Sinek told us to start with that. That's the starting point. Now I'm gonna ask it again. Alana, why is impacting lives and changing lives important to you?

[B]

Ooh. And that's powerful. So for me, one of the moments I rarely talk about, but I remember holding my mom's hand, she was passing away from cancer, and I was debating, is there regret? Like, you know, what's her regret? And I was afraid to talk to her about it. But, you know, when she passed, it was like a huge brick on me. I was like, I can't feel regret at the end of my life. And I will do whatever I can to live this life in this one precious moment in the most incredible way.

[A]

So that's the because. Your because is because you never want to feel regret. Do you see how deeper that feels?

[B]

Oh, it's crazy.

[A]

My why is I want to impact lives. That's awesome. It's cool. But when you say because I never want to feel regret, that's earthmoving. And so that's, to me, why your because is your true reason. It's your real intent. It's your real purpose. And so I teach people and I talk about being moved by your because, being held accountable by your because. Your why doesn't give you accountability. Your because does. And so my because most of my life is the promise that I keep. I'm always gonna keep my promise. And that's my because if I tell Alana I'm gonna do something, I'm gonna do it. And so I never want to be the person that doesn't fulfill missions or doesn't fulfill promises. And so your because is what really stirs you and moves you.

[B]

And I love that because I think when you do dig deeper, you find motivation and fire and fuel in a way that will drive you and drive the teams and drive everybody. And I think the other element that you talked about is that zone of genius. Which is a big piece of what we try to help people in Leap Academy is like, how do you find that zone of genius? How do you know that you're great with teams? It's amazing. So, first of all, I'm just curious, and I have to ask, with all your success in the podcast and the book with it, how is that creating your relationship with your mom and that promise and your sister, et cetera, what did that do to you as a person of family?

[A]

One, they're my accountability, but I make sure that they're proud of who I am. Right. And that the legacy and the story that we as a family are rewriting is impactful. And so that's what all of the. And I don't even like calling it success, but the things that have happened in my life, it's all going back to that promise. But it's also rewriting our family legacy, because at the age of 10, our family legacy wasn't going to be good. The family name was good because no one on the outside knew what was going on. On the outside, we were a perfect family, right? Outside, everything was great, but on the inside, it was like walking on eggshells every day. And I didn't want that to be our legacy. I didn't want that to be who we were. And it's not about me. And that's what I always make sure. And my family knows it's always about us. So the things that I'm doing, it's for us. My sister is a phenomenal educator. My brother is one of the best creators in the world. Right. My mom is a minister of three churches now. So, like, collectively, we're just doing it. And that's what's honorable for me.

[B]

On our show, we have a lot of people that are right now in that decision point. Maybe they ticked a lot of boxes of success, but now they feel either stuck or they want to do more, or they're trying to figure out what it is and what is my zone of genius? What is my passion? Like, I want to achieve more in life. And again, you've been entrepreneur for a lot longer than most, but I. I want you to take me to that moment when you feel like, okay, I'm gonna do this leadership thing that people don't really understand or coaching or whatever. Right. And I don't know if it can pay the bills, and I don't know if it's gonna work. Take me to that decision point in the beginning, if you will, because I think a lot of our people are afraid to take that action. What if it doesn't work? What if I failed? Do I look ridiculous? What if I can't pay the rent and it's all valid and you do it anyway? So, Mick, take us there.

[A]

We'll make this workshop style because this is how I love to operate. If it stays up here, and if you're listening, I'm pointing to my head in my temple. If it stays up there, I can promise you it's never going to go anywhere. It's going to be really cool ideas, and it doesn't mean that you're not going to start it, that you can't do it. But when distractions happen, when obstacles happen, everything was up here. You never saw a real roadmap. So the first thing that I want everyone to do, and I know, Alana, you do this too, is you got to write things down. I'm a vision board. That's just who I am. So when I first started, I wrote on a wall, here's what I want to do, and here's how success is measured. And that's going to be different for everyone. How you measure success is personal to you. So don't listen to someone that says, these should be the five things that are important. No, it's what's important to you is what's important to you. But write down what success looks like and then go backwards in order to achieve step one, what are the three things that have to happen and when do they need to happen? And that's where people, I think, go wrong of understanding, yeah, these things need to happen. But when, right? Is it the first six months, the first nine months, the first 30 days, whatever those steps are, when do they need to happen? And to me, that's how success really goes in. Like, I've got to see it, and then I've got to go backwards into the steps of whatever the milestones are to track. So now if we talk about me and what I did, it was okay starting an insurance agency from scratch. I'm not buying a business. It's me and one person. Eventually, I knew that there were going to be two, so I needed to write down, what does success look like. So for me, success meant a million dollars of revenue right at the time, a million dollars of revenue within two years. That was success. Part two meant having a team of four to six people to manage this business and grow this business with me. And then the third step was my customers and my clients love me and they send me as much business as possible. And it was as simple as that. I try not to overcomplicate things. Like that's what success was gonna look like for me. And so then for each of those steps, a million dollars of revenue. Okay, let's back into what needs to happen to make that happen. Having four to six team members, okay, what are the milestones of when I hire and my clients? Rewarding me meant we've gotta be great at service. We've gotta be optimal when it comes to providing customer service and being proactive. And so it sounds simple, but scaling and growing is simple. I love football, right? I love tackle football. At the end of the day, football is blocking and tackling. Everything else you see is charades. It's blocking and tackling. So when you can keep things simple in your business and in your entrepreneur vision, like, that's where success will start to happen.

[B]

I love what you just said, and I think this is for our listeners. I think sometimes when you were laid off, you have a rejection, something horrible happened. It's actually hard to breathe and it's hard to dream. And I think sometimes when people ask you, what does success look like for some people? It's like, I just want to breathe again, right? I just want to know that I'm going to be okay. And for me, like, one of the big things that I'll say to people is, hey, first of all, you're going to need to put your own oxygen mask on and save yourself first. Otherwise you. It's true you can't dream, but also cover yourself with people that are dreaming, right? Because if everybody in your life is a non dreamer, guess what? There's not going to be a lot of dreaming. Mick, what do you say to people that are right now just trying to breathe?

[A]

Take a step back and center yourself. And this isn't like therapy or anything, but if you're just trying to reap, take a step back and analyze what's really causing that anxiety or what's causing you to be stuck. Because when you take a step back, you're able to see much more clear, right? When you're trying to analyze while you're in the midst of it, all you see is that one thing that's right in front of you, which may or may not be the problem. And so I'm a huge believer in. All right, take a step back. Let's take a moment, let's visualize, and hopefully the right moves will reveal themselves. I'm spiritual. I'm not going to say I'm overly religious, but I'm definitely spiritual. Like I believe that the universe will show you what you need to do, but you just got to be able to take that step back, exhale, let that oxygen happen naturally. And I promise you everything's going to be okay.

[B]

And I love that because when you actually do what you just said, that's when you bring the data, not the drama. And I think what you just shared, Mick, is also attaching so well to the MYC factor and the mindset investment. I want you to talk about it. Talk to me about where did that Myc factor come from and how do you use that and, you know, what do you do with people, Mick?

[A]

So one of my mentors is the legendary Les Brown, probably the greatest motivational speaker that we have. Les is, I call him my mentor, but he really is more like a father figure. We talk every day, all day. He's someone that I look up to. He knows my story like the back of my hand and his hand. And he said, mick, you know what made you different? And I said, what's that, Les? And he said, the MC Factor. And I was like, what's the MC factor, Les? And he said, think about all the things that you've done really well, like your mentality, your mindset, to dominate. That was at an early age. And I was like, yeah, you invest in yourself. And I think all great leaders and entrepreneurs invest in themselves, right? Like, we never have it figured out. A lot of us are at the top of our organization and we don't have people that we can talk to or that we relate with. So invest in coaching investors, invest in networking, invest in like mindedness. So I've always invested in myself to take myself to the next level. And then the character, everything I do is with character. I'm always going to do the right thing. It might not be the most popular thing, but it's always going to be the right thing. And then keep going has been my mantra for life. Life is going to hit you. Life isn't easy. If life were easy, everybody would be skinny billionaires that walked on the earth, right? We all would if. If it were easy. But it's not. And those that make it are those that keep going. And I tell people all the time, like, the reason I keep going is because I'm afraid. So now we'll talk about what I have a fear. And one thing I'm afraid of, the one thing I'm afraid of is that if I stop, I was just right there, right? And I never want to be just right there. Like, if I stop, I'M going to feel like, man, if I would have just given it one more day or one more push, it would have been there. So I'm afraid of that. And then my fear, the only thing I ever fear is that when this life is over and if you believe in the afterlife, if you believe in heaven and all that, I don't want to meet the person I was supposed to become. So I drive every day for that. So the Mick Factor mindset, to dominate, invest in yourself, character, and no matter what, keep going.

[B]

You're talking our language. Because one of the stories that I tell is, yes, my fear of meeting that person that I was supposed to become. And I didn't because of excuses. Right. I was afraid I didn't have time, like, all the excuses. And now you wrote this incredible book, which I find it fascinating because it's like how to be a good leader when you never had one, which is really, really interesting to look at that. And it's kind of a blueprint for modern leadership. Right. So talk to me about the book and what made you stop everything. I mean, I'm writing a book now, Mick. It's annoying as heck, but okay, so what made you do this?

[A]

So the book. I was sitting down one day with two of my kids, so I have three kids and my two boys. And I said, tell me who some of the best leaders that you know are. And at the time, I think my kids were 21 and 18, and they started giving me the names of popular people. Not necessarily saying that they were leaders, but just popular people. And so I said, great, why'd you choose that person? And I said, oh, because when I'm on the Internet or social media, they're everywhere. And I said, but how do you know that they're a good leader? And then my sons were like, oh, I guess you're right. I don't know. And it made me pause for a second and I said, growing up in school, we were required to learn about some of the best leaders in the world, and we all know who they are. But since then, I don't know if we've put a highlight on good leaders. And it's not a bad thing. So I'm not saying this is a bad thing, but I think because of the Internet and because of social media, popularity and visibility became most important. And so I just started curating a list and doing some studies for my sons of who some good leaders that they should research are. But through this, I also started to realize, wait a second. In the next few years, we're going to have a ton of baby boomers that are going to retire from corporate jobs in C suite, that they're gonna get replaced with people that if my kids don't know who good leaders are, they probably don't know who they are either, because we don't talk about leadership like that anymore. And so that became the pretense of writing the book was how to be a good leader when you've never had one. Because I don't know if we're at a time where people have had good leaders. And I'm not saying we've had bad leaders. I'm just saying we don't talk about leadership enough. We don't talk about leadership theory and principles of what that should look like. And since society has changed, some of our leadership principles need to change, too. And so that's really what the book is about. It's like, hey, you're probably going to go watch a movie and think that that's leadership, or you're probably going to hear from your leader today who's walking out of the door, who doesn't care about emotional intelligence, who doesn't care about active listening, who doesn't care about being present. Well, these are the things that are important to the modern employee. And so that's why I wrote the book.

[B]

Ooh, that's powerful. I actually didn't think of the fact that our kids don't really look at leadership in the same way. That makes a ton of sense for me. One of the biggest mentors in my life is Richard Branson, and he's been embodying this incredible leadership with so much love and so much caring, and so. And I was just like, oh, my God, this is who I want to become. This is what I want to learn from. But you're right. If you don't have that inspiration, you don't know what leadership is. How do you learn this one thing that we definitely not taught in school, Right?

[A]

Not anymore. I think leadership went away with cursive writing, Right? They don't teach cursive writing anymore, and they don't teach leadership anymore. So somebody has to do one of the two. And I think leadership's more important than cursive.

[B]

I vote for that, too. We need to pause for a super brief break, and while we do, take a moment and share this episode with every single person who may be inspired by this, because this information can truly change your life and theirs. Now, every cool opportunity you will ever find is most likely from a hidden market. It's the People who think about you when you're not in the room and bring the right opportunities to you. This means that the people you hang out with truly matter. That's why we created our flagship live event in San Jose, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley. It's February 26 to 28 and it's the number one conference for reinvention, leadership and careers in the United States. It has speakers like the former president of Starbucks and many other leaders, including yours truly, myself, and I'd love to personally welcome you, give you a hug and hear what you think about the podcast. And we'll have many networking opportunities, photo opportunities, and we already know every single person after this event will go supersonic on their reputation and career. So grab your tickets quickly because this event always sells out. So go to leapacademy.com leapcon or you can search on Google Leapcon 2026. It's L, E, A P, C O N. Don't miss out where the most impactful leaders hang out in February. So go to leapacademy.com leapcon I will see you there. How did all of this make you, if that's okay to ask, as a dad, what do you think?

[A]

So I've always believed in raising my kids to be adults. Let them build their journey, but raise them to be adults. So writing this book or going through the process of writing the book got me to ask my kids more questions just about them. How would you handle this scenario? What would you do? If you were in charge of a company or if you were the leader of a department and this situation happened, what would you do? It allowed us to have real conversations about scenarios that at some point they're going to go through. And now my kids are a little bit older because it took me a while to write the book, right. But my oldest son coaches football, so he gets to live leadership principles. My youngest is in grad school in Miami and he's now thinking about his real career, so he gets to think about leadership principles. So this helped me from a father perspective of seeing how they think, helping shape them as adults that are going to be leaders of other people who like me, when I started my first business, realized the decisions that I make are gonna impact others lives. And so that's what this book is allowed or that's what this journey has allowed for me.

[B]

And what do you think, Mick? I mean, I think this world is changing so fast on so many levels. We are big believers in portfolio career, that people will have multiple streams. The tech is moving really Quick. The corporates are moving really quick. Entrepreneurship is easier than ever to at least jump on. I'm not saying it's easy, but it's easier than ever to jump on. How do you see leadership in the future? What do you think are some of the things that are changing?

[A]

Leadership in the future is almost like when you talk about having multiple streams of income, you're gonna have to, as a leader, be aware that your team member isn't there for the long haul. When I was growing up early on, and I'm sure for you as well, too, we were taught, go get a job and stay there forever. Yeah, 40 years, build your 401k, build your pension, do whatever, right? And it is not uncommon. And I see this in the insurance industry. Someone who started as a CSR 30 years ago is still a CSR today, meaning they're not trying to climb the corporate ladder. Well, that's different today. People that get hired today, and I don't mean age, I just mean in general as society, it's like, okay, how can I get promoted? How can I get ownership in the company? How can I get stock? Those are the things that matter. But also understanding, yeah, I'm going to be a creator on the side, too. Or like, I'm going to have my phone out recording while I'm helping this customer over here or doing whatever. So I think the first thing that's going to change in leadership is just understanding that just like we talk about multiple streams of income, there's going to be multiple streams of leadership. Meaning you've got to touch people at different places. My team and one of my companies is 1000% remote. We don't have a corporate office. We don't even meet on Zoom as much. I do because I'm the CEO and I want to paint the vision. But departments, everybody knows what they're doing and they just go do their thing. And, like, you've got to get used to that in this remote world, too. Another thing that's going to change in leadership that I think is critical is allowing your team to stand on their own and make mistakes. Because the world changes so fast. You and I know this just in podcast technology, the workflow that we had two weeks ago isn't the workflow that we have today for anything. Right? Because things change so fast, you're gonna make a mistake, you're gonna be outdated. You're always gonna need to be working on whatever your systems or processes or workflow, whatever terminology that you use within your business, you're always Gonna need to be updating that because you're going to be stale at a much faster rate in 2026 and moving forward, that's so powerful.

[B]

I do believe that there is no stuck in the world today. I think if people don't move very fast forward, they are losing relevance at a pace we've never seen before. And you will need to constantly, constantly be intentional, strategic, with every move you make. You're absolutely right, Mickey. Based on everything that you've done, and you've done so much, Mick, and you talked to so many incredible leaders, what would be something that you wish somebody talk to your younger self and tell.

[A]

You invest in mentors. I figured it out later in life, but if I would have known that at 18 and really asked more than one person to truly be my mentor or my personal coach or my accountability partner, I probably could have done things that I'm doing now much faster. I can't tell you what a Robert Irvine has done to change my life. I can't tell you what a Daymond John has done to change my life. A Chris Voss, a Gary Vee. Who? Your Gary Vee episode is definitely one of my favorite episodes.

[B]

I heard you talk to him. Yeah.

[A]

Mentors. The right mentors. And again, I think you need multiple because mentors have different skills. You talk about opening doors and getting seats to the table and networking. For me, with mentorship, it's about shortcutting the challenges or the problems that I would have run into. It's real cool to take the stairs, but when you have an elevator, take the elevator. It's cute to talk about the journey. I went up 10 flights of stairs. Yeah, well, I took the elevator, had the same journey, but I took the elevator to get there. Right. Like, it's okay to take elevators. And for me, if someone would have told me at 16, 21, 25 that just having mentors being a part of coaching programs, that investing in yourself piece, if I would have knew how powerful that was a long time ago, I would have accelerated much faster. Much, much faster.

[B]

It's funny because I say exactly the same thing, Mick. And unfortunately, it took me a lot longer than you to realize that this is important. And I think a lot of times I came from the military world, which I think comes with, like, you should be able to persevere, anything. And, you know, like, there's a lot of that. And I think then in corporate, it's just an uncool thing because why wouldn't you figure this out on your own? Right? So if I'M being honest, I didn't believe in coaching and I wish, I wish I woke up a lot earlier because I think I had all this ego of I can figure this out and like you said, I can have a vague map or I can take the train. Which one do I prefer? Right? Try to walk around with a vague map and hope that maybe I'll get there or take the train and actually get there fast, you know, like with a lot of energy to breathe and I think you're spot on, Mick. That's incredible.

[A]

There's no secret to my success. It has been the right mentors just being there as a resource and holding me accountable, which to me is the biggest piece the accountability.

[B]

So where do people find you, Mick? And obviously it's pretty easy to look at Myc Unplugged and find you, but where do people find you?

[A]

Website to see the things I have going on. Mickhuntofficial.com, instagram, Mick Unplugged. That's where you'll find me. Interacting a lot. And then LinkedIn, just me, Mick Hunt. Like I spend, I'll be honest with you, social wise, I spend most of my time LinkedIn and Instagram. But yeah, all the cool things I have going on. Mick Hunt official, that's me.

[B]

For those listening and kind of final wrap up, what would you want them to know about themselves or what action except for investing in hope, what action should they do if they're in the crossroad, they're trying to figure things out, they want more from their life, what should they do?

[A]

Write it down, everybody that's listening, journal. Especially for the men that are listening, it's okay to journal. And I don't mean write paragraphs, write novels, write books. I write down three things every day. What went well? In a good sense, what really went well, what mistakes did I make and what do I need to do tomorrow to make sure that I can say I had a good day every single day. And sometimes it's business related, sometimes it's personal, but I make sure that I answer those questions every single day. And when I start my day, I read the day before. Because if something went really, really well and I need that to happen again, I need to know why that happened, what steps happened, if something went bad or if I made a mistake, I don't want to make that same mistake. And then how can I set all this up for success? What did I tell myself I need to do today? I need to make sure I do that today.

[B]

This is so powerful. Meg, there were so many mic drops here. Like folks, listeners, I hope you just like rewind and listen to this whole thing and start taking notes. Like, this was so, so valuable. Mick, thank you for sharing this beautiful story and this calling of yours.

[A]

I thank you for having me. Like I said, the podcast host that I listen to the most is actually you. Your podcast. I can go on record and say it because you know, if you don't say it publicly, then you don't mean it. I'm saying it publicly. My favorite podcast is the Leap Academy podcast. So, like, I need you to know that I am your number one fan.

[B]

Oh my God. You made my day. Mick. Thank you. And I'm incredibly inspired. You had incredible guests. Your journey is insane. And thank you for sharing it with our listeners today.

[A]

Thank you for having me. Dear. Foreign.

[B]

Remember, this episode is not just for you and me. You never know whose life you're meant to change by sharing this episode with them. And if you love today's episode, please click the subscribe or Download button for the show and give it a five star review. This really means the world. Join me in helping tens of millions of individuals reinvent their career and leap into their full potential. Look, getting intentional and strategic with your career is now more important than ever. The skills for success have changed. Aq, adaptability, reinventing and leaping are today the most important skills for the future of work. Building portfolio careers, multiple streams of income and ventures are no longer a nice to have. It's a must have. But no one is teaching this except for us in Leap Academy. So if you want more from your career in life, go to leapacademy. Com Training. Check out our completely free training about ways to fast track your career. You'll even be able to book a completely free career strategy call with my team. So go to leapacademy. Com Training.