Charlie Rocket: The Man Who Turned His Life Into a Dream Machine

Summary

Podcast Summary: Miss Understood with Rachel Uchitel

Episode: Charlie Rocket: The Man Who Turned His Life Into a Dream Machine
Date: November 24, 2025
Host: Rachel Uchitel
Guest: Charlie Rocket (Charlie Jabaley)

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Episode Overview

In this deeply inspiring episode, Rachel Uchitel talks with Charlie Rocket—a once overweight, burnt-out music manager turned endurance athlete, philanthropist, and founder of the Dream Machine Foundation. The conversation traverses Charlie’s journey from the music industry to his battles with health, his radical reinvention, and his mission to bring hope to children and families who need miracles. They explore the power of “delusional optimism,” manifestation, enduring setbacks, and why being misunderstood may actually mean you’re on the right path.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Charlie’s Background and Upbringing

• Charlie describes growing up in Atlanta in a family of hardworking vacuum cleaner salespeople who became millionaires not through high earnings but through relentless saving and savvy real estate investments.
  (08:24–09:44)
• Early exposure to bootstrapping and making something from nothing—the “alchemist” mentality—shaped his future ventures.
  • “I try really hard. I don’t specifically have a talent… My superpower is my delusional optimism.” — Charlie Rocket [06:56]
  • "We could turn it into an empire." — Charlie Rocket [08:35]

Entry into the Music Business

• As a teenager, built a hip-hop website and studio, leading to a gig with Soulja Boy during college.
• Lost his scholarship, needed a miracle, and landed the Interscope job through the network he built himself.
  (10:17–11:38)
• Emphasized creating credible opportunities rather than waiting for validation:
  • “I learned this very early on ... If I have a dream, I’m going to speak it as if I got this thing figured out. This thing’s done.” — Charlie Rocket [13:29–15:36]
  • “I brainwash myself first. And it’s so important to brainwash ourselves ... if your hands are dirty, what do you do? You wash them. Most of the time, our brains are dirty with negative thoughts.” — Charlie Rocket [16:30–16:55]

Building and Reinventing Success

• Managed high-profile hip-hop artists including 2 Chainz; built a major management and merchandising business.
• Success measured not just in money but in innovation and providing holistic services to artists.
  • “I only see their dream… I don’t judge somebody where they’re at today.” — Charlie Rocket [19:40]
• Bootstrapped growth using unconventional, grassroots marketing (e.g., MySpace friend requests, passing out CDs personally).
  • “It’s very hard to boil a lake” — Focused on concentrated, high-impact communities. [21:10]

Health Crisis and Radical Life Pivot

• Passed out during Grammy week, diagnosed with a recurring, invasive brain tumor.
• Realized he was not living his true dream—to be an athlete—even though he was “successful” by every external measure.
  (23:05–24:53)
• Left a booming management company, gave away shares, and set out to reclaim his health and life purpose.

Transformation: Athlete and Nike Story

• Lost 120 pounds, reversed his health decline.
• Manifested his goal of becoming a Nike athlete:
  • Wrote daily in his notebook visualizing being in a commercial with LeBron James and Serena Williams.
  • Produced a high-quality, fan-made Nike commercial for $660, found a filmmaker by trusting in manifestation and serendipity.
    • “Don’t tell me to be realistic. I know somebody can do it.” — Charlie Rocket [38:53]
    • "I would never in a million years speak the words, 'nobody’s coming to save me.' I actually expect it... and that's why they do." — Charlie Rocket [43:09]
  • Nike noticed, invited him to campus, and featured him in their Colin Kaepernick ad campaign.
    • "They said, 'Charlie, we are going to change the direction of our company because of this film.'" — Charlie Rocket [44:03]

Philanthropy: Dream Machine Foundation

• “My heart said, go help kids with cancer.” Sold properties, downsized, bought the Dream Machine bus, and began traveling the country granting wishes.
• Helps children and families in need of miracles, often with life-changing results—like Lila, a young baker with chronic pain whose cookie fundraiser netted $500,000 for her treatment in just 48 hours.
  • “We sold 200,000 cookies in 48 hours. She made $500,000, was able to afford her treatment.” — Charlie Rocket [51:11]
• The nonprofit remains intentionally small and tightly connected to the families it serves.

Mindset, Manifestation, and The “Winning Streak” Philosophy

• Emphasizes reframing every setback as a win; beginning every day collecting “winning streaks,” no matter how small.
  • “Winning is attractive—people are attracted to a winner... am I going to win or am I going to lose today?” — Charlie Rocket [52:57]
  • “Pronoia: the universe is conspiring for me.” — Charlie Rocket [53:53]
• Journal practice: Only start manifesting once you feel like a winner and are tuned into what lights your heart up, not just your brain. Write dreams as if they are inevitable, then speak them to others with unwavering conviction.
  • “Speak it in such a confident way... people can’t even have an opinion.” — Charlie Rocket [59:26]
• On setbacks: “Every loss equals a W. It’s a lesson learned. But this is a W.” — Charlie Rocket [58:28]
• On self-doubt and purpose: Don’t get paralyzed trying to find a “purpose”—do whatever is in front of you with excellence and let skillsets and opportunities stack up over time.
  • "The whole purpose thing... is dangerous." — Charlie Rocket [64:26]
  • “I just keep stacking all these skill sets ... do it with excellence. When I’m tired, I’m going to do something else.” — Charlie Rocket [65:07]
• On being misunderstood: Indicates you are forging a new path and should embrace it.
  • “If you are misunderstood, you’re probably on the right path ... I’m not even attempting to be understood.” — Charlie Rocket [63:13]

On Failure, Resilience, and Learning

• Failing is framed as necessary, like dying in a video game; it’s how you learn and unlock new “levels” in life.
  • “I just look at it as a video game ... You just die.” — Charlie Rocket [67:37]
  • “Now I know not to do that. I just look at it as a win instead of a loss.” — Charlie Rocket [68:23]

Charlie’s Next Dream

• Writing a book: Winning Streak: Mastering the Art of Delusional Optimism.
  • “I know what the cover looks like... I'm gonna actually sell like 30 million copies.” — Charlie Rocket [61:31–62:19]
  • Book is a mix of personal storytelling and actionable lessons.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “If I have a superpower, it’s my delusional optimism.” — Charlie Rocket [06:56]
• “I only see their dream.” — Charlie Rocket [19:41]
• “Don’t tell me to be realistic. I know somebody can do it.” — Charlie Rocket [38:53]
• “I would never in a million years speak the words, ‘nobody’s coming to save me.’ I actually expect it... and that’s why they do.” — Charlie Rocket [43:09]
• “We sold 200,000 cookies in 48 hours. She made $500,000, was able to afford her treatment.” — Charlie Rocket [51:11]
• “Winning is attractive... people are attracted to a winner.” — Charlie Rocket [52:57]
• “Pronoia: the universe is conspiring for me.” — Charlie Rocket [53:53]
• “If you are misunderstood, you’re probably on the right path.” — Charlie Rocket [63:13]
• “Now I know not to do that. I just look at it as a win instead of a loss.” — Charlie Rocket [68:23]

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Important Timestamps

• Charlie’s family background, early lessons: [08:24–09:44]
• Break into hip-hop, self-presentation: [10:17–15:36]
• Grassroots marketing, first big break: [19:11–22:29]
• Health crisis, dream of being an athlete: [23:05–24:53]
• Nike manifestation story: [38:53–44:03]
• Philanthropy, Dream Machine Foundation, Lila’s story: [47:58–51:38]
• Morning mindset & “winning streak” explained: [52:25–54:22]
• Manifestation journaling & daily practice: [59:26–60:00]
• Advice on purpose, failing, and resilience: [64:26–68:45]
• Details on new book, vision for the future: [61:31–62:42]

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Actionable Takeaways and Listener Tips

• Practice reframing setbacks as wins and consciously build momentum by counting even the smallest “winning streaks.”
• Speak your dreams into existence—share them with confidence so others are swept into your vision.
• Keep your heart open to new callings, even if they seem illogical or unattainable.
• Embrace being misunderstood as a sign that you’re breaking new ground.
• Don’t fixate on a single “purpose.” Do each thing with excellence; your path will clarify itself.
• Fail enthusiastically—treat life as a progression through challenges, learning from every “game over.”

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How to Follow Charlie Rocket

• Instagram: @charlie
• Dream Machine Foundation: [Website]
• Coconut water company: Once Upon a Coconut — available at Sprouts, Whole Foods, and more.

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This episode is a must-listen for anyone who feels stuck, misunderstood, or in need of practical hope. Through vulnerability and big energy, Charlie Rocket delivers both wisdom and tools to rediscover your sense of possibility and get back on your own winning streak.

Transcript

[Ali Jackson]

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[Rachel Yucatel]

Today on Misunderstood with Rachel Yucatel.

[Charlie Rocket]

I managed really big rappers, two chains. I built one of the biggest recording studios with my business partners, and we built one of the most innovative management companies in the world. Making money and being a successful manager wasn't my dream. I've been £300. My health was really bad and it had been for a long time. Come to find out I have a brain tumor. I walked away from the music industry. I would write down in my notebook every day, I'm gonna be in a commercial with Lebron James and Serena Williams. I'm writing my dreams down. And we made a fan made Nike commercial. Three days later, Nike calls me. They said, charlie, we are going to change the direction of our company because of this film. And so in this time when all my dreams came true, my heart said, go help kids with cancer. I sold three of my four houses and started giving all my money away and started going across the country and we're making dreams come true.

[Rachel Yucatel]

And how did you pick the kids that you were helping?

[Charlie Rocket]

The ones that needed a miracle? There was this little girl named Lila. She loved pigs and she made little pig cookies. We sold 200,000 cookies in 48 hours. She made $500,000, was able to afford her treatment. I believe somebody's dream Is the answer. This is the best thing that happened to me. This is a winning streak.

[Narrator/Producer]

Every once in a while, someone walks into my studio and completely changes the energy of the room. Not because they're loud, not because they're trying, but because they embody something the rest of us spend our whole lives searching for. That's what it felt like when Charlie Rocket sat across from me in my bokeh studio. Charlie is one of those rare humans who doesn't just talk about dreams. He lives them, he protects them, and he creates them for other people. He's the force behind the Dream Machine foundation, the man who literally travels the country in a dream wagon, making wishes come true for kids and families who need hope the most. He shows up in communities where nobody else is showing up. He gives people moments they never thought were possible. And he does it because he believes in one thing above all else. Dreams are medicine. But what makes Charlie extraordinary isn't just what he does for others. It's the story that got him there. Before he was known as Charlie Rocket, he was a successful music manager who was overweight, sick, and burnt out. Doctors told him the path he was on would kill him. But instead of accepting that, he made a decision. A dream that he wanted to be an athlete. Not someday, not when it made sense, not when people agreed it was realistic. He declared it when it sounded absolutely insane. And then he did the impossible. He transformed his life. He became the athlete he said he would be. And that crazy dream took him all the way to starring in a Nike commercial with all the biggest athletes in the world. That's the thing about Charlie. He doesn't chase logic. He chases magic. And in this episode, he breaks down exactly how he does it. How he dreams, how he manifests, how he stays committed, how he turns visions into reality, and how he helps other people do the same. If you've ever felt stuck, if your goals feel too big, if life beat you down and you forgot you're allowed to want more, this conversation is going to hit you right in the heart. Charlie gives real tools and real mindset shifts that make you feel like anything is possible again. Because when Charlie talks, he's not motivating you. He's activating you. Meeting him in person and feeling that presence, that purpose reminded me why I do this show. It reminded me how powerful one person's dream can be, not just for themselves, but for the world around them. This is one of the most uplifting, inspiring episodes I've done, and I know you're going to love it.

[Rachel Yucatel]

As much as I did.

[Narrator/Producer]

So here's my conversation with the incredible, unstoppable Charlie Rocket.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Charlie, thank you so much for joining me. It is such an honor to meet you in person.

[Charlie Rocket]

Thanks for having me.

[Rachel Yucatel]

So I found out about you by social media. And I remember, like, a year and a half ago, seeing some stuff you did with your dream team, Dream Machine, going from place to place, making wishes come true for people. And I found, like, it was an interesting thing. My relationship with social media was not one where I would start to tear up or cry. But when I saw those videos, it really hit me. I'm a huge fan of the Underdog. I'm a huge fan of, like, changing people's lives that feel like they're in a place of helplessness or they don't see an upside to where they are. Kids with cancer, kids that really are suffering, and even adults, too, that just are having a really shitty life at this point and just need someone to believe in them. Cause usually they're just passed over. And I feel like that's where I first heard of you. And that's when I was like, I like this guy, and I love what he's doing. So for people, you know that scroll mindlessly on TikTok, Instagram, whatever, those are the kind of messages that I think really stand out and are good reasons for people to know what other people in the world are doing. So I just wanted to start with that.

[Charlie Rocket]

Thank you. I appreciate you.

[Rachel Yucatel]

So I want to know, because you have done so many things, you have so many names, you've been featured in so many things. But I want to start with telling people who you are, not as the guy that we know. Like, where did you come from? What kind of family did you come into? How did you get into wanting to make a difference?

[Charlie Rocket]

First of all, I'm a dreamer. Somebody asked me earlier, before the podcast, they're like, what do you do? And I'm like, I don't really know how to explain it, because I pretty much would do anything I dream of. So I'm not ever in a box. Like, I was in the music business, and I won Grammys, and then I wanted to be an athlete, and then I became a Nike athlete and won Emmys. And then I. I want to be, like, a philanthropist, and I build one of the most popular nonprofits in the history of the Internet, and I want to have a coconut water company, and I want to do this, and I want to do that, and I just do everything I dream of. But who am I I'm a guy who tries really hard. I don't specifically have a talent. I didn't come from a rich family. If I have a superpower, it's my delusional optimism. And that's kind of like my little, like, secret sauce of how I achieve a dream. Because I fall, I fail, I get fired, I struggle. I've had a brain tumor. I've been £300. I'm in no way this, like, guy who just, like, accomplishes stuff. But I do accomplish. But I usually, like, go through a very human experience first. I just have a gift of overcoming problems.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Right. So I want to unpack all of that. But just so I know, like, when you were a kid, did you struggle a lot? Were you a happy kid? Sad kid? What kind of family did you grow up in?

[Charlie Rocket]

So I grew up in a family of vacuum cleaner salespeople. So my parents are really inspirational to me because they never made more than $40,000 a year combined. But both of my parents became millionaires.

[Rachel Yucatel]

How?

[Charlie Rocket]

Well, a couple things. Saving money for one. They never spent it. They invested, and they would buy houses for $20,000, $30,000. They would take every penny they made, and, like, we wouldn't even, like, turn the heat on in the wintertime. I grew up in Atlanta, and it gets cold.

[Rachel Yucatel]

They really saved.

[Charlie Rocket]

They saved and they invested. And just one of the properties they bought when they got divorced when I was 18. One of the properties was 1.2 million. Another property was 400,000, another property was 300,000. And it's like, I got to learn how to almost, like, be an alchemist. Like, we don't have much, but we could turn it into an empire. And I've applied that in every business that I've started because I don't use money when I start my businesses, even though I'm successful, I always go this, like, very grassroots, homemade method anytime I do anything, because I saw my parents do it and I saw what's possible. So I grew up in Atlanta. My dad was a blues musician, sold vacuum cleaners. My grandfather sold vacuum cleaners. My mom sold vacuum cleaners. I sold vacuum cleaners.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Which one is the best vacuum cleaner, by the way?

[Charlie Rocket]

I would say back then it was called Electrolux.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Do you use a vacuum cleaner?

[Charlie Rocket]

I do, yes.

[Rachel Yucatel]

What vacuum cleaner?

[Charlie Rocket]

Electrolux.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Okay, love that. Okay, go on.

[Charlie Rocket]

It's a very expensive vacuum cleaner. But I started seeing my friends at school make music, and my eyes lit up, and I was like, I want to be a part of this hip hop thing. Like, it was so cool. Like, hip hop. Like, I asked my mom if I could put a studio in my bedroom, and she didn't know what she was getting into. But every day after school, there'd be, like, 50 kids at the house.

[Rachel Yucatel]

No way.

[Charlie Rocket]

Recording songs. And I built a website. That was my vision. I was like, it's gonna be, like, this big, like, hip hop website. And the next thing you know, I get a phone call to go on tour with Soulja Boy, and I'm his cameraman going across the country. I end up getting fired. What?

[Rachel Yucatel]

Wait, slow down. First of all, how did you get that call? How old were you?

[Charlie Rocket]

I was 18.

[Rachel Yucatel]

And you. Okay. Were you planning on going to college?

[Charlie Rocket]

Well, my mom made me go to college because if I didn't, I would have had to pay rent.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Okay.

[Charlie Rocket]

My mom was like that. You don't go to school. You gotta pay rent. And I was like, all right, I go to school.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Okay. So before you go to college, you get a call from Soldier boy?

[Charlie Rocket]

No, I'm in college.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Oh, you're in college.

[Charlie Rocket]

I'm in college. And I actually, my first year, I lost the scholarship that the state provides, because I wasn't. I wasn't. I'm supposed to be a businessman. Why am I at school?

[Rachel Yucatel]

Right. So you go to classes and you lost the scholarship?

[Charlie Rocket]

Yeah. Pretty. And I needed a miracle because I'm about to have to pay for school now. Yeah. And the miracle came. I got a phone call from Interscope Records, and.

[Rachel Yucatel]

But how did they find you?

[Charlie Rocket]

Well, my website. So Soulja Boy got signed, and he wanted a cameraman to do his world tour, and he liked me. I was like, this media outlet. It was really cool. Like, I was a cameraman. I had a media outlet. Like, he was like, that's who I want to do all my coverage.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Got it. So there is importance to sort of putting something really iconic together in terms of, like, a website or a grounding spot so people can find you. I mean, people always are saying, like, where's the best place to start a brand? Your website seemed to help you. It sounds like.

[Charlie Rocket]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Okay. And then how were you making these relationships? Because you seem like you're definitely. You've become a relationship guy. You have come across some of the most influential people, and they choose you for campaigns or to donate money to. So what do you think about relationships?

[Charlie Rocket]

Relationships? For me, like, I'm a slow dancer. I'm not, like, a networker. I don't go to networking events. I've always been antisocial. Ever since I was a kid. So, like, going to a high school party was, like, scary for me. Even, like, going to, like, the football game was scary for me because it wasn't my environment. So I naturally just have, like, an anxiety. So I needed a way to interact with the world. So I decided I'm gonna build a business. Because if I build a business that solves a problem, then people can come into my world because I'm naturally good at interacting, but only in kind of like my environment.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Yeah, where you're the expert.

[Charlie Rocket]

Exactly. So I liked building businesses so I could interact with people. So in high school, I built businesses and that was my way of.

[Rachel Yucatel]

So let me ask you a question, because people listening will say, okay, well, I can figure out what I'm good at. But the problem is, you know, your parents tell you or society tells you, you gotta finish high school, then you gotta go to college and you gotta study something, and then you gotta work and have some experience. So in your experience, it sounded like you were okay with just creating your own credibility. How do you do that without getting the education and the life experience? Cause you were young when you started working and doing this kind of job. At the beginning, it's practice.

[Charlie Rocket]

Like, you can practice at school and become smart. You practice for like four years and you get smart. You practice in business and get smart. Same difference. So for me, most businesses are eat what you kill. And so if you get really good at hunting, you'll be able to eat. So in my life, I never really gave people an option to have an opinion. If I had a business idea. Because of how I speak, most people, they get frustrated with people having opinions because of how they articulated it. I learned very early on that people are going to treat you exactly how you treat the situation. For example, when I managed really big rappers, if I went to them with an idea and I was like, I have an idea. Like, we're gonna, like, try to go to the different radio stations and, like, talk to them. They'd be like, I'm not doing that because I sounded so insecure, or like it was an idea. I sounded like I had an idea. Versus if I present to my artist, listen, this is what's going to happen. We're going to hit 30 radio stations. This is how many songs, this is how many spots we're going to rise on the charts. This is how much money you're going to make. And then the record deal will be about a million dollars. Because we hit these radio stations. I didn't give them A chance to have an opinion, because they're like, oh, he has it figured out, right? So I learned this very early on, like, with my parents or with my friends. If I have a dream, I'm going to speak it as if, like, I got this thing figured out. This thing's done. I might not know anything I'm doing, but I'm going to say it a certain way. And I'm gonna be like, this is what I'm gonna do. I'll give you an example. When Soulja Boy fired me from being his cameraman. It's a pretty bad day in my life, but I'm on the martyr bus going back to my mom's house. I don't have any money. And I tell my mom, I think I'm fired. And she said. She said, I'm so sorry. I said, no. Like, this is the best thing that happened to me. She said, what? I said, ma, like, this is a winning streak. She said, what do you mean, a winning streak? I said, ma, I was the lowest paid person on the team. Now I'm about to be the highest paid person on the team. What do you mean? The manager is the highest paid person on the team, and I'm going to be the best manager in the world. She's like, what do you know about managing artists? I said, listen, I've got this camera, I've got this website. I know how to make my artists famous. That's what the best manager in the world would do. That's a manager's job, to take them from nothing and turn them into something. I got to go to every radio station. I got to meet all the. And I got to be in every room. I'm gonna be the best manager in the world. You think she had an opinion? No, I backed it up. I spoke it, and she said, you know what? I believe in you. And my mom has always believed in me, but it's because I didn't say, I have an idea. Like, I'm gonna, like, try to be like, I'm, like, brainwashing myself first. And it's so important to brainwash ourselves. And brainwashing sounds so bad. But, like, if your hands are dirty, what do you do?

[Rachel Yucatel]

You wash them.

[Charlie Rocket]

And most of the times, our brains are pretty dirty with negative thoughts, doubts, fear. That's our brain's job.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Yeah.

[Charlie Rocket]

So, like, I've gotten really good at brainwashing myself and actually thinking each thing I want to do is going to be easy instead of hard. It's usually our heart that says, like, ooh, I want something. And then our brain's job is to be like, okay, what's everything that's going to go wrong? And then we usually, like, get paralyzed.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Or how many steps does it take? And they get, you know, weirded out about it or like, oh, that's too much work, so I'm not gonna do it.

[Charlie Rocket]

Bingo. I'm the opposite. I brainwash myself. Get rid of all the negative stuff, and I get my brain thinking, okay, this is gonna be easy. I confirm it. I'm a cameraman. I've been in every radio station. I know how to do this. I just brainwash myself. And that's what gets me to show up, and that's what gets me to actually speak confidently. And the more I speak it, the more I believe it. So you kind of, like, tell a lie enough times, you kind of start believing your lie. But this is a really good lie to tell. Right? Like, I have no proof if I'm gonna be the. Make it a little bit. Yeah. But, like, in the most positive way ever. Like, I'm gonna be the best in the world.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Yeah. So you were managing some of the biggest names in hip hop. What did success look like? I mean, besides, all of a sudden, money was coming in. I mean, did you move out of your mom's family?

[Charlie Rocket]

Yeah.

[Rachel Yucatel]

What was the first thing you did? Like, what was your life like? Because then I know you took a turn and got out of that life. So just tell us a little bit about it.

[Charlie Rocket]

Success for me was acting like my parents. Every dollar I made, I bought a house. And then I bought another house. And I had a decent car. Not like a Lamborghini. I had a nice Cadillac cts. I had my image right. But I really liked investing. I bought stocks, I bought houses.

[Rachel Yucatel]

And did you know anything about real estate?

[Charlie Rocket]

Yeah, through my parents. Okay, you did, you know, just like, buy a house, you rent it out, like it's gonna go up in value.

[Rachel Yucatel]

That's what I'm saying. Okay, so you knew that you could make some income on that.

[Charlie Rocket]

Absolutely.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Okay. Yeah.

[Charlie Rocket]

So success for me was more about how great of a manager could I be? Not exactly the money. I built one of the biggest recording studios with my business partners, and we built one of the most innovative management companies in the world where we handled the merch for our artists. We in the merch. We would have campaigns with my artists, would do $2 million in sales in three weeks, and we would route tours, and we would shoot their music videos, and we would build their websites, and we had I mean, we built a world class organization. So for me, that's what success looked like, not just making more money. I wanted to just do something nobody else did at that level of quality.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Let me ask a question. Do you think it's because you had outstanding artists that you did so well, or do you think it was just the business behind it that you really made them?

[Charlie Rocket]

It has to be both. I had a very unique skill set at being able to see around the corner of what's next. And it's a gift I've always had. I wouldn't know how to teach somebody that. But I think the beautiful thing with me is I don't look at somebody as who they are today.

[Rachel Yucatel]

You look at them at the.

[Charlie Rocket]

I only see their dream. They might be struggling, they might be staying at their mom's house, they might not have a pot to piss in, but I don't see that version of them. And so that allows me to always keep my vision clear. I don't judge somebody where they're at today, so I'm able to find good talent. And we put a good business behind it, and we work our butts off. And we were very unique with how we operated. Because when I first got into the music business, I had no money. And it takes a lot of money to break artists. And there was this one day in particular where my life changed. I took my artist to their show, and there were only four people there, and my heart was broken.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Wow.

[Charlie Rocket]

And I said, I never want to feel this feeling again. Because for only four people to show up, I feel like I'm doing a terrible job and nobody cares about my artists enough. We were good enough to have a show, but it was empty. And so I made a decision that day to run a play. And I was like, I don't have money, but I need my artist to be famous. So what I did at the time is MySpace. So what I did was I took the DJ for that show. And that DJ is in Cobb County, Georgia. He's like. So all his, like 10,000 followers on MySpace are from a neighborhood. So I messaged each and every person that followed him, and I added them as a friend and I left a comment. And I would do this for six to eight hours a day. This is what I could afford to do. It was free. It just requires my time. Next thing you know, my artist is gaining popularity. See, I can boil a pot of water. It's very hard to boil a lake. But like, this DJ and all the people in the neighborhood that follow Him. They need to be at my show. So I need them all to know my artists exist. So we're making personal connection. I started getting carpal tunnel syndrome. But something happened. Word started spreading, and then we would get hundreds and then thousands of friend requests a day. And what I would do for each and every friend request, add my group as a friend. I'd hit follow. I would go to their page, leave a comment, and I would do that all day, every day. And my group got to be the number one unsigned group on the MySpace unsigned top charts. And then I took that play. And when we started making money doing shows, we invested in CDs. And I would stand outside the clubs every night and pass out CDs. This is a play I can run every day. And when we had the number two song in the country, I'm still outside passing out CDs, and the DJ walks out of the club at four in the morning. The last person to walk out, he said, charlie, you have the number two song in the country. You're the manager. Why are you still passing out CDs? I said, this is my secret to success. Why would I ever change it? Wow.

[Rachel Yucatel]

So at some point you change, you get out of this career?

[Charlie Rocket]

Yes.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Can you tell us why and what happened?

[Charlie Rocket]

I was at my artist's house, two chains, it was Grammy week. And I go down. I'm in his closet. I go down to pick up a pair of socks, and I passed out.

[Rachel Yucatel]

And had you been feeling sick?

[Charlie Rocket]

Yeah, I mean, I've. My health was really bad, and it had been for a long time. I was a binge eater. Come to find out I have a brain tumor. And I.

[Rachel Yucatel]

So what happened in that moment? Did you get taken to the hospital?

[Charlie Rocket]

So I went to the hospital the next four days. The room is spinning. The world was spinning. I couldn't make the world stop spinning. I called my mom. I didn't tell her what was going on, and I just told her to come out to California and visit me. I was just scared, and I just wanted to be near my mom. And I made a decision that business and money and music, all of it was great, but it wasn't my dream. And I would have these dreams at night, literally in my sleep, that I, like, died. And my thought in my dream was that I never got to experience my actual real dream. I died before I got to experience my dream. Making money and being a successful manager wasn't my dream. I wanted to be an athlete, but I was always fat, so I obviously didn't chase that dream because I'm short, I'm fat, I'm slow, I'm white. Like, I'm not going to be a professional athlete. You usually chase a dream because you can make money doing it. But how can I make money being an athlete? And so I did the craziest thing. Anybody who's running a fifteen million dollar business, fifteen million dollar a year business, would do. I gave my shares to my business partners and I told them, I'm gonna go chase my dream of being an athlete.

[Rachel Yucatel]

So now why, first of all, while you were in the music business, didn't you feel like that was succeeding? And wasn't that a dream? Or in the back of your mind, were you always like, I want something else? Or was it this epiphany you had when you finally got sick?

[Charlie Rocket]

I mean, you can't get rid of your dream. It never goes away.

[Rachel Yucatel]

So as a kid, you always wanted to be.

[Charlie Rocket]

That's all I ever wanted. I wanted to be an athlete. Right.

[Rachel Yucatel]

So tell me a little bit about your brain tumor, though. I mean, how I know you've reversed this brain tumor. How? I mean, there are plenty of people out there that are not doing well health wise, and they will want some insight from you as to how you make that happen.

[Charlie Rocket]

Well, the first time I was diagnosed with a brain tumor, I was actually in high school, and medication was able to just knock it out. Wow. And it was under control for 11 years until I was 28.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Okay, so was it like stage one? How does that work?

[Charlie Rocket]

No, no, no. It was benign, but it was very invasive.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Oh, got it.

[Charlie Rocket]

Okay. It was wrapped around my eye. It was wrapped around the artery that goes into my brain. And it was there for so long that it started corroding the top of my spine. And it was inoperable. And so I asked my doctor said, would there happen to be any chance that it's how I eat that could be causing, like, an imbalance in my body? And he said, no, son. This just is a certain percentage of people get these brain tumors and this medication will work. I said, the medication's not working. I keep going back and back and back and they keep upping my dose to try to get the brain tumor to shrink. And then it started affecting my heart valves because I'm at such a high dose. And so I'm getting frustrated. I'm like, I have a brain tumor now the medication's affecting my heart, and you want me to be on this for the rest of my life? Is this because I'm so unhealthy I decided to take things in my own hands.

[Rachel Yucatel]

And at this point. Is this when you were 300 pounds?

[Charlie Rocket]

Okay. Yeah, because I would binge eat, like, 15,000 calories in a night. And I would, like, only eat my choice of, like. It was an addiction. So I would eat, like, gas station, like, pastries, like Mrs. Field Cookies or ice cream sandwiches, and I would eat, like, 30 or 40 different things. My stomach wouldn't get full. I would just. It was like ravenous. It was like I couldn't get full. I would almost eat so much to where I would want to make myself sick, to not want to do it again. It was like a real, like.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Where do you think that stemmed from, though? Was that part of your anxiety? You said you didn't like to be in groups of people. Was it just an addiction?

[Charlie Rocket]

It was an addiction. It stemmed from dieting ever since I was 8. So dieting for me, being uneducated was I need to eat less. And eating less for me was like breathing less. It's like if I were to hold my breath for long enough, when I'm done, I gotta catch my breath. And so I would starve myself.

[Rachel Yucatel]

That's a good analogy. Yeah.

[Charlie Rocket]

And then I would, like, be so hungry and ravenous. But the problem was business was, like, triggering. So every part of business led me to my addiction. If I was stressed, it leads me to food. If I'm successful celebrating, it leads to food. And if I'm having just business meetings, that's always with food. So I'm not cooking at home. I'm not even educated. So I don't know. I'm just trying to eat less. But then my business is triggering things, and then the stress of it all, and then I just crack. And I'm like, all right, I'm gonna start again tomorrow. It was that vicious cycle my whole life. I'd been running businesses since I was 11.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Wow.

[Charlie Rocket]

So I was always under stress, and stress, for me, led to food. So when I walked away from the music industry, I moved to California. I went plant based. I'm not plant based anymore, but I just started eating real food. I got all the stress out of my life.

[Rachel Yucatel]

How hard was that to stop eating the cookies? And the.

[Charlie Rocket]

Wasn't hard. Wasn't hard because I had a very good. Why I wanted to be alive. It's not hard when you hit rock bottom. Yeah.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Well, so. And at that point, were they like, okay, maybe getting the weight down will help you with your health in general, but the brain tumor, or was it Just like I need to get this weight off of me.

[Charlie Rocket]

Everything I needed, I needed to heal every part of my body.

[Rachel Yucatel]

And did you miss being in the music business or you were over that at this point?

[Charlie Rocket]

I still miss being in the music business because I'm really talented at what I did.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Do you think you'll ever go back into something like that?

[Charlie Rocket]

No, I love what I do too much now, helping kids. But, yeah, it's hard for me to sit on the sideline and watch the hip hop business struggle the way they're struggling when I know exactly what to do. So it's kind of like, I guess Michael Jordan wants to go play basketball, you know?

[Rachel Yucatel]

I'm curious, if you were back in it though, what do you think has gone wrong and what do you think you would do to fix it?

[Charlie Rocket]

Okay, well, this is great question. Do you mind if I nerd out?

[Ali Jackson]

No.

[Charlie Rocket]

On the music side. So my philosophy with why hip hop has lost its way is because hip hop has lost is experimentation. Mixtapes used to be a thing. Artists would put out mix tapes and they would be able to experiment rapidly with new sounds, new producers, new features. But now that everything streams through Spotify, Apple Music, now everything runs through the record label. And if an artist puts out a project and it doesn't do well, first week sales, their career is over. So it's kind of like being a gladiator. Like, imagine like two basketball teams and like they're playing each other. And if a team loses, like a firing squad comes and kills them. That's how it's like putting out an album. Today, if you sell 8,000 copies, your career is over. When that first week sales number comes out and it doesn't do well, you're done. Record label shelfing you, and the fans, they're like, oh, he fell off. Where back in the day, we used to put out mix tapes and we put out lots of mixtapes. We would put out four, five, six mixtapes a year. We would drop 60 to 100 songs a year. And that gave us a feedback loop and it allowed us to build a fan base and it allowed us to test new sounds. And hip hop lost that there is no mixtapes anymore. Everything runs through record labels, and if it runs through the record label, it makes it very hard for hip hop to find new sounds. So hip hop lost its way back in 2018, 70% of top 100 songs were hip hop records. 70.

[Narrator/Producer]

Wow.

[Charlie Rocket]

The biggest genre that ever existed before then was obviously pop music. And their market share was 51% right and then hip hop came in and did 70% market share. It was the biggest genre that ever existed in history in 2018.

[Narrator/Producer]

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[Rachel Yucatel]

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[Narrator/Producer]

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[Rachel Yucatel]

Who were the biggest stars then? Recording artists then?

[Charlie Rocket]

Now?

[Rachel Yucatel]

No. Then in 2018.

[Charlie Rocket]

Drake. I mean, everybody cardi b like, I mean, it's just got it. Everybody was killing it. Migos. I mean, it's just a very. Just like, cranking out, like, artists left and right. But why all these artists got to practice testing sounds without their career coming to an end? Today, if you want to experiment, your career might be over. So if I were to come in the game, I would come in the game and I would bring mixtapes back. I would get things away from Spotify. I would actually have a mixtape streaming platform and I would team up with the record labels and agree to let their artists go experiment without suing them. Let them put out free music. The fans want to listen to it. I open a Spotify app. I open another app. Like, if they're putting future's putting out a mixtape, I'm going to go wherever he releases it.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Right.

[Charlie Rocket]

So that's what I would do.

[Rachel Yucatel]

So I love that. Who's your favorite artist right now?

[Charlie Rocket]

They're not new. It's a group. It's like a full group called, like, the Strumbellas. I love the Strombellas. I span, like, all. Like, my favorite hip hop artist is Young Dolphins was one of my artists. He passed away. Rest in peace, Young Dolph. But, like, I listened to a whole. I love Noah Kahan. I love, like, indie folk. I love hip hop. I like trap hip hop. So, yeah, I kind of span a wide range. Right.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Same topic, but not in, you know, hip hop. What are your thoughts on why Taylor Swift has become the biggest pop star, country star? I don't know what she's considered now, but the fact that she did so well on the Heiress tour, like, did that stand out to you? As though, oh, she's doing something different than everybody else.

[Charlie Rocket]

I mean, it's a culmination one. She made better music. So, like, we can't ignore that. Like, I think most all people want to credit her as a marketing genius. I mean, you can do all the marketing all you want. Like, if music's not good, you can market all you want. So I don't. I don't even emphasize the marketing side of Taylor Swift. They have made every move correctly. Up until I didn't like this last album, I didn't like the last two albums. I think it's. I think thoughts about, like, how some artists lose touch. We signed up for something, but a lot of artists do feel like it's their life. You're gonna have to do what I like. But I believe artists need to provide a good service. Right. So it's not what you want, it's what we want. I'm kind of the opposite of how artists think. I believe that you need to understand that if we want fairy tale from you, you gotta give us fairy tale.

[Narrator/Producer]

Right.

[Charlie Rocket]

Like, that's what we want. Yeah. Serve it. Obviously, her fans love her, but I.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Think why she's giving the real life fairy tale now that she's with Travis.

[Charlie Rocket]

The album didn't sound like it.

[Rachel Yucatel]

No, I get it. I get it.

[Charlie Rocket]

The photo shoot looked like it. We want the song to sound like that photo.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Right, Right.

[Charlie Rocket]

We want the whole album to sound like that photo. But that's how she built her whole career was off of that photo. But in Music. But the album to me is like, I don't like it fell short.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Okay, let's go back to you. So you lose £150.

[Charlie Rocket]

120.

[Rachel Yucatel]

120. Okay. You get yourself healthier. They tell you your brain tumor is shrinking. What are they shrunk? Shrunk completely at this point. Okay. And then all of a sudden you're like, I can be an athlete.

[Charlie Rocket]

Yeah.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Okay, tell us that story. Tell us what happened there.

[Charlie Rocket]

Well, I wanted to be a Nike athlete specifically. And I was training for an Ironman in New Zealand. I had already ran three marathons. I'm losing weight and now I have this like vision. I want to bike across America. And in order to be a Nike athlete, it's probably the most unrealistic thing ever for like a 30 year old white male that's not playing for the Lakers. How am I going to do it? So I did something crazy. I kind of manifested it. It was all insane how it came together. But I would write down in my notebook every day I'm gonna be in a commercial with LeBron James and Serena Williams. And so I'm seeing this dream, like delusionally. And I actually believe it's gonna happen. I'll tell my friends, I'll tell my mom, I'll tell everybody. Like, I'm gonna be a Nike athlete. And I needed a way to get their attention and emailing them that's not big enough. Like anytime I want something in life, I believe in my cannonball theory. I believe bigger is easier. And I believe cannonballing is how you make a wave where most times you do something big and scary. You put your like pinky toe in the pool and it might send a little tiny ripple. But if I cannonball, it sends a wave. And then if I send a wave out, I need it to come back where the pinky toe. That wave's not coming back. Cannonball goes out. And I need Nike to come back.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Is there a fear of rejection anytime you do something like that?

[Charlie Rocket]

No.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Why?

[Charlie Rocket]

Because I know it's gonna work. I brainwashed myself. Like, that's the thing. Like, it's like, drink your Kool Aid. Like, seriously, like, Nike's going to see my fan made Nike commercial. Nike's gonna like it. Nike's gonna sign me and I'm gonna be in a commercial with LeBron James and Serena Williams. It's gonna be easy. This is how I talk to myself. This is how I write in my notebook.

[Rachel Yucatel]

So you made a video?

[Charlie Rocket]

Yep.

[Rachel Yucatel]

And you like produced a Short film, short ad. What was it?

[Charlie Rocket]

Well, this is the thing. So I started calling my friends in Hollywood and they all told me the same thing and it really pissed me off. They kept telling me, you need to be realistic. Cause I'm like, I don't feel like spending $200,000 on this. I'm not that rich to spend $200,000 on an Instagram video. Like a clip that's going on my Instagram. But they're like, charlie, what do you want? I was like, I want a Nike commercial. Like, I need Nike to see it and be like, we could just take this right now and put it on TV. They're like, Charlie, that's $200,000. I was like, I need to find somebody who can do that for like a few grand. They're like, charlie, be realistic. I'm like, don't tell me to be realistic. I know somebody can do it. They're like, charlie, you need like Hans Zimmer strings. If you want it to be like emotional, like, that's expensive. You're not gonna find that on Epidemic Sounds. You need the equipment. You need a 10 person team. You need an editor. You need a score. You need somebody to mix and master the audio. We're not talking about an Instagram clip here. We're talking about a Nike commercial. You need to be realistic. I said, don't tell me to be realistic. I'm going to find somebody. And so I'm in my living room writing in my Quantum Possibilities manifestation notebook. Like I told you, I'm delusional. There's a reason why all my dreams come true. If anybody's listening to this and be like, this guy's crazy. I'm like, if what you're doing is not working, just try this. Try the crazy way, because it works for me. I'm writing in my notebook. Today is the day I search and found my videographer editor. It's done. It's easy. And on that same page, I'm like, I'm going to be the face of Nike. I'm going to be in a commercial with LeBron James and Serena Williams. I'm writing my dreams down. My roommate walks in the front door. Mind you, I have a roommate. I left the music industry. I don't know if I'm ever going to make money again. I'm living in a house with three other people. Like, I've never done that in my life. I've been technically very successful since I was 18. I'm living in a house with three other people and My roommate walks in, and behind him is this guy with this huge Steadicam rig. Now, you might be thinking, my roommate's in the entertainment industry. He's not. He is a business development department for a Goji Berry company. And he's like, does office work. And he has this, like, movie director guy behind him with all this stuff on the Steadicam rig that takes both of his hands. I'm looking at him, I'm looking at my notebook, and I'm like, is this my fairytale magical moment? I just wrote it down. And then this guy walks in. I asked him, I said, do you do videos? And the first thing out of his mouth, my heart sunk. He's like, yeah, I do videos, but nobody ever pays me. I'm like, oh, God, this was not my dream come true moment. I was like, what do you mean nobody ever pays you? He's like, well, I'm only doing this one because it was a Lamborghini at the other set. And I'm like, morgan, what's going on here? He's like, my friend Manny called, wants to shoot something for his Airbnb business. So he sent this guy over. He just met him like, three minutes earlier. And I'm like, can I see some of your work? I'm like, not that hopeful at this point. And he looks like a dark cloud. He looks like he's in Fall Out Boy. He has, like, the hair, the black everything. And I was like, can I see your website? He's like, I haven't updated in, like, seven years. I'm like, oh, great. I opened his website and there was, like, a short film on there. I was like, holy shit, this is good. Like, did you shoot this? He said, yeah, I shot it. I said, who owned all the equipment? Because the person who shoots probably doesn't own all the equipment. They rent it or have to get it from a supply house. He said, well, I'm kind of like a hoarder. Like, I own all my own lighting cameras, dolly tracks, Steadicam, anamorphic lenses, cinematic lenses, this lens that. I'm like, hold on, you have all of that? He said, yeah. I said, who edited it? Because in film, the person who shoots never edits. He said, well, edited. I said, who made the music? Because the person who shoots never makes music. I'm not talking about one person in history. He said, well, I used to be in a rock band, and we were on The Warped Tour 15 years ago, and we had a record deal, but the record label dropped us. I was like, hold on, you Made the music. I said, who color graded it? I color graded it. I said, who mixed and mastered the audio? I have a studio in my bedroom. I do all the mix. I'm like, you did everything. I said, listen, look at my notebook. I said, you and I are going to make a fan made Nike commercial. Nike's going to see it and Nike's going to want to sign me. He said, dude, you're crazy. I said, I know. I sat down with him, I said, this is my vision. He started storyboarding it and he draw all these pictures.

[Rachel Yucatel]

So he was good. He understood your vision. Yeah.

[Charlie Rocket]

And I asked him, how much is it going to cost? He said, $660. I said, excuse me, $660? Why? He said, I need a 10 foot PVC pipe with two belts because I need your feet to be the exact same distance from my camera at all times. And I'm going to have you run all throughout LA and the background is going to change and I'm going to have you. We're going to make this song out of your footsteps and your breath and then I'm going to do the strings and it's going to be like Hans Zimmerman. And I'm like, oh my God. Like I manifested this. I literally 24 hours after sitting down with a Hollywood producer who pissed me off and he me to be realistic. And I told him, don't ever tell me to be realistic. I am going to find this guy and I'm writing in my notebook, today is the day I found him. And then he walks in my front door. Anybody who says these words, nobody's coming to save you. Very popular online thing, right? It's a goddamn lie. I expect people to come save me. That's why they do. I would never in a million years speak the words, nobody's coming to save me. I actually expect it. I'm writing it. I'm going, this is going to happen. And we made a fan made Nike commercial. And everything I said was going to happen happened. We uploaded it three days later, Nike calls me, they fly me to campus, they walk me into a conference room. They said, charlie, we are going to change the direction of our company because of this film. And what they showed me. They showed me what's going to become the biggest Nike commercial in Nike history. The Colin Kaepernick commercial. And it had myself, LeBron James, Serena Williams, and it was a Super bowl commercial. I got to be on the COVID of Runner's World magazine. I got to be a Nike athlete and all my dreams Came true. And everybody who thought I was crazy or delusional, they don't think I'm crazy or delusional anymore.

[Rachel Yucatel]

And what happened to this guy that helped you?

[Charlie Rocket]

Oh, he's gone on to be so successful. He's making so much money. He's such a talent.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Amazing.

[Charlie Rocket]

Yeah. So.

[Rachel Yucatel]

So isn't that amazing, though, that you are able to also. While these people are saving you, you're also saving them. I mean, they. You brought out this creativity in this guy. It sounded like when he walked through the door, he was low on energy, low on confidence, and you gave it to him, and here he is, successful, which is kind of what you do now in a bigger way, which is fantastic. All right, so that happened. That must have felt like you were on the top of the world.

[Charlie Rocket]

Yes.

[Rachel Yucatel]

So how do you find your next dream after that?

[Charlie Rocket]

Well, I kind of listen to my heart, so I've been very fortunate to allow my heart to. How do I say this? I've been very fortunate to keep my heart off of. Do not disturb. What do I mean by that? Most all of us, we get scarred and we silence our hearts because life is hard, and it gets scarred and scarred and scarred. We hope for things, but life is hard. And I'll give you an example of how we get scarred. When you first got a cell phone, did you have a ringtone?

[Rachel Yucatel]

Oh, God, I don't remember. I mean, yeah, it must have come with a ringtone.

[Charlie Rocket]

Right. But was it a song? Did you ever have a song?

[Rachel Yucatel]

I did.

[Charlie Rocket]

You had a song one time. Yeah. And then you probably just had a standard ringtone, and then you probably put it on vibrate at some point in your life, and it never came off of vibrate. Right. And now how much time do you actually spend on do not disturb?

[Rachel Yucatel]

Oh, gosh. It's on a lot.

[Charlie Rocket]

Right? We got scarred by the notifications. So we shut down our phones from making notifications. Our hearts, when we were young, we wanted it was open, it was on. And then it gets scarred and it shuts down. So when we get a calling we can't answer, my heart is open. So when my eyes light up at something, I'm able to actually answer the calling because I heard it. I didn't shut my heart down. So if anybody's watching this, like, we gotta get back here and out of here. Our hearts have dreams. And so in this time, when all my dreams came true, my heart said, go help kids with cancer. I sold three of my four houses and started giving all my money away. I Moved into my bus and started going across the country. And we're making dreams come true.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Wait, so did this bus start as the dream machine? Okay, so you bought it with that intention?

[Charlie Rocket]

Yeah.

[Rachel Yucatel]

So you got rid of all your materialistic things and you decided to drive across the country?

[Charlie Rocket]

Absolutely.

[Rachel Yucatel]

And how did you pick the kids that you were helping?

[Charlie Rocket]

The ones that needed a miracle, they.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Eventually write into you when they started.

[Charlie Rocket]

They don't know we're coming.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Oh, wow.

[Charlie Rocket]

They don't ever know we're coming. We find them, and when we show up, they have no idea who we are.

[Rachel Yucatel]

And you were finding them from social media? Were you calling hospitals? Like, how did that work?

[Charlie Rocket]

Hospitals, churches, boys and girls clubs. We searched the Internet.

[Rachel Yucatel]

A team of people that it was their job.

[Charlie Rocket]

It started off with me and a small team, and then the team grew and we got really good at what we did, and we grew to 9 million followers on social media. The Internet started falling in love with what we do. And now we help seven kids a month. And we keep our foundation very boutique because when we adopt a kid into our family, like, like we're there for their birthdays, we're there for the families because a lot of times these kids, like, they might have cancer, but, like, the mom is being abused and like, she needs to get out of the house and needs a place to live. So we fundraise and we get her house. Like, we never leave the family. Like, if they need us, we're always going to be there for them. So we keep our nonprofit very small. Like, if one of our kids passes away, like we're at the funeral. Like, we keep it a small family. So we help seven kids a month. And it's something I love and I'll do for the rest of my life.

[Rachel Yucatel]

And so has there ever. Well, I'm sure there's one that stands out to you. Was there the best time you've ever had doing it?

[Narrator/Producer]

Tell me.

[Charlie Rocket]

Okay, there was this little girl named Lila. She loved pigs and she made little pig cookies. She was a little baker and she had a very rare disease called crps. And CRPS is called like the. They call it the suicide's disease because it's so much pain. So you ever had like pins and needles in your leg, but it never goes away. And so you can just imagine what it's like living with that. So we go to meet her.

[Rachel Yucatel]

How old?

[Charlie Rocket]

She's 8 at the time. We go to meet her and we asked her her dream and she was selling cookies to try to save up for this treatment that insurance doesn't cover, which is crazy. A little girl having to, like, save up for a treatment. Mom got a second job selling hot dogs at the stadium, like family's doing. Father is a veteran and a school teacher. Like, family's trying to do everything they can to get this treatment that will maybe reduce the pain, but it cost a lot. It's like a $90,000 treatment. And so I'm like, okay, I believe somebody's dream is the answer. And I think that somebody's problem can be a gift for them. I don't look at problems as problems. I look at problems as opportunities. So it's like, okay, she sells cookies. What if we built her a cookie business? So we have her design her flying pig cookies. We built her a website, a logo, and we threw her a pop up. And 10,000 people showed up for a pop up. The community. No, this isn't. This isn't. We've known her for six days and we put all this together. Six days later, 10,000 people showed up at her pop up bakery. And then two days after that, we're launching the website. We sold 200,000 cookies in 48 hours. She made $500,000, was able to afford her treatment, and that was one of the most fun experiences. And we did everything in 10 days.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Wow. And how is she now?

[Charlie Rocket]

She's doing better. She's still in pain. She is in high school. She just went to the prom. She had a little date. It was adorable. Her name is Lila, if you want to look her up on Instagram. It's Lila's dream bakery.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Amazing. And she still has the bakery.

[Charlie Rocket]

She still does the cookies, she still bakes. She doesn't run the business. It's a lot. But she does do her baking every day.

[Rachel Yucatel]

I love that.

[Charlie Rocket]

Yeah.

[Rachel Yucatel]

All right, I want to go back to a couple things you were talking about. You talked about how you had a quantum notebook.

[Charlie Rocket]

Yeah.

[Rachel Yucatel]

I want people to hear some. Like, I know people listening are stuck in something.

[Charlie Rocket]

Yeah.

[Rachel Yucatel]

You know, everyone gets stuck, which is fine. But there are a lot of things that are really good, like tips from you, tangible things that people can do.

[Charlie Rocket]

Yes.

[Rachel Yucatel]

And I want to talk about that. And then I want to talk about the winning streak.

[Charlie Rocket]

Yeah.

[Rachel Yucatel]

So both of those things, let's get into.

[Charlie Rocket]

Okay. So I kind of have my own proprietary method, let's say, or framework on how I approach a day to one. Just be happy. Because the reality is most of us are going through a lot of shit. The number one thing I have to do Before I even dream, before I even manifest is I have to feel like a winner. And I'll give you an example. Have you ever been to Las Vegas?

[Rachel Yucatel]

Yeah, I used to live there.

[Charlie Rocket]

Have you ever been to a casino with a couple girlfriends?

[Rachel Yucatel]

Of course.

[Charlie Rocket]

Okay, let's say you and two girlfriends. One of the girlfriends is winning back to back, and, like, there's this, like, energy that's surrounding her, and, like, people are like. And she just keeps winning. Then another one of your friends is losing, like, every time, and people are, like, allergic to that person. Be like, I almost don't even want to be near you. Okay. What a difference that is. So winning is, like, attractive, but, like, attractive, not just visual attractive. People are attracted to a winner. And then losing is, like, bad things just keep happening. Nobody wants to be around you. Okay? So that's how I look at a day when I wake up, am I going to win today or am I going to lose today? Well, I don't want to rely on some outside force for me to win. That's like, I don't need a good email to feel like a winner, right? I go to Starbucks, and I buy my double shot of espresso on ice with a splash of almond milk and two raw Sugars, and it's $3, right? Which is less than a latte. Winning streak. I'm going to lose a little bit of weight because it's way less almond milk, okay? Because I just did a splash. So I'm going to lose weight. Winning streak. And then that's a lot of happiness for three bucks. Some people need, like, Louis Vuitton or, like, a Lamborghini for happiness. This cup, honestly, my swing from how I feel now to after I take my first sip, I'm going to be happy. This is a winning streak. This is my first winning streak of the day. And then when you start a winning streak, you just got to find some more. Okay, I got the green light. Winning streak. I got the red light. I got to spend more time with my girlfriend. Winning streak, I go to the grocery store. Good parking spot. Winning streak, bad parking spot. I get more steps in winning streak. So now I'm practicing finding wins in any situation. And when you get to, like, 10 or 15 or 20 wins in a short period of time, my mom called me. She's alive. Like, thank God. Like, that's a win. My mom being alive is a win. Me waking up this morning is a win. Okay? Like, I really like my car. That's a win. And now I start looking for these Wins. So my energy is different. I'm becoming more attractive. When I'm talking to people, they're like, I love your energy becoming attractive. Like the friend in Vegas who's winning. You become attractive, things start attracting. So now that I've got my energy like that, I'm on a winning streak. And, like, if you like sports and your team has won 22 games in a row, your only thing you could think about is 23. So now I'm just looking for wins. I'm just trying to rack them up. So now I'm going to start manifesting because I have confidence, I have proof I'm a winner. Now there's an opposite way of this. Oh, it's going to be one of those days. Oh, God, bad email. Like, I just can't take this stress anymore. Like, ugh, fucking red light. You know, like the parking spot. Like, it's like paranoia and pronoia. Paranoia is universe is conspiring against me. You stump your toe, you're like, oh, it's going to be one of those days. You are literally saying what the day is going to be. It's going to be one of those days. Pronoia. The universe is conspiring for me. Stump my toe. You know what? Maybe this is good. Maybe I need to slow down. You know what? Maybe I need to do some yoga. Maybe this is a sign from the universe. I'm moving too fast. You see what I'm saying? You start brainwashing yourself. Pronoi is the universe is conspiring for me. So now I'm ready to go manifest and I'm ready to dream. First thing I do is I wonder what's lighting my heart up. Not my brain. Not my brain, my heart. What's lighting my heart up? My heart lit up a few times in my life. I want to be a Nike athlete. I closed my eyes and I saw something. I saw a commercial. But people always say, like, if I see it, I'll believe it. But they mean that in a way, with their eyes open. I say, if I see it, I'll believe it. But my eyes don't need to be open to see. I can see something. Like, I have a dream. Like, I didn't choose that. I really didn't. It was in me. People will say the craziest thing, and it doesn't need to make sense. It doesn't need to be logical. If it was for you, I was always meant to be an athlete. Does that mean play for the Lakers or the Olympics for me? No, it just Meant I needed to go be £300, have a brain tumor. And now those things were gifts because that's why Nike liked me. Nike liked me. So now I can disarm anything bad in my life if I give gratitude to the things that are going bad. Right? Thank you, Brian Toomer. You made my dream come true. So I don't believe anything bad happens. I believe we label it as bad. Now, you might be listening to this and be like, oh, this guy is only rainbows and butterflies. No, I have extreme downs. I just want to get out of it. So I throw my temper tantrum. I punch the steering wheel. I'll punch the pillow. I'll be mad. But my goal in life is to have fun. And staying there is not fun. So I quickly get out of it. I look at it.

[Rachel Yucatel]

You let yourself have that moment and then say, okay, shake it off.

[Charlie Rocket]

Abso fucking lutely. Because it's not fun. I've seen people replay bad in their mind for years, and they don't get out of it.

[Rachel Yucatel]

And is that what this quantum notebook is about? You're just writing the positive or things you see or things you hope for?

[Charlie Rocket]

No, there's a step before that. That's a winning streak. I have to find a way for this loss. And this loss equals a W. It's a lesson learned. But this is a W. So if I can find, like, okay, I got fired from Soulja Boy, Ma. This is the best thing that happened to me. This is a winning streak. Once I label it as a win and I start finding reasons why I'm able to move, move on instantly. That's the step before you manifest. Once you feel confident and you close your eyes and you're feeling like things are possible because you have proof you're a winner, now you can start seeing positive things because that record isn't replaying over and over about that person who giving you a hard time. That boss or the ex or this or that. So I do the winning streak first. Then I close my eyes to see what's lighting my heart up. And then I start writing delusionally, as if everything is easy. Delusional and believe it's easy. And then once you write it down, start speaking it to everybody. But be careful how you speak it. Like how we said at the beginning. I speak it in such a confident way, I'm gonna say exactly what's gonna happen. Nike's gonna see it. Nike's gonna sign me, and I'm gonna be in a commercial with LeBron James and Serena Williams to where people can't even have an opinion.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Do you think that part of that, though, is, like, it's holding you accountable because you would be failing if you didn't make that happen?

[Charlie Rocket]

Absolutely.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Yeah. All right. Where are you on your health journey now?

[Charlie Rocket]

I am stuck at the same weight for three years, and every day I wake up as a delusional optimist, and I'm like, I'm going to figure out why my body is not losing weight, because I'm definitely in a calorie deficit. I definitely exercise, but I have just, I guess, a lot of underlying issues. But I'm down here working with, like, a sports scientist, and we're doing extensive testing because I literally have a dream, and I don't give up until it happens. And when I did my ironman, I lost 120 pounds. When I started my nonprofit, all the weight came back, but I never went back to eating bad. The stress, the hormones, the cortisol, the extra 400 calories I needed to deal with the stress, even though it's healthy. 400 calories in a salad, but that extra food. I gained 60 pounds. I've lost 40 of it, but I'm still trying every day. So I'm on a health journey.

[Rachel Yucatel]

What are your thoughts on what everyone uses right now, like the GLP1s and Ozempic? Is that not something for you?

[Charlie Rocket]

You know, I tried it. I didn't lose any weight.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Really?

[Charlie Rocket]

Yeah, I didn't enjoy it either. It didn't feel right.

[Rachel Yucatel]

So you felt sick?

[Charlie Rocket]

Well, it's just. I was just. Well, one. When you spend that much money and don't lose weight, it's like. And then you don't feel good. At the same time, I'm like, all.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Right, not for you.

[Charlie Rocket]

I tried, right?

[Rachel Yucatel]

What's your dream now? What's your next big dream?

[Charlie Rocket]

I'm dreaming up something really big. I'm writing a book. And for me, it's so exciting because it reminds me of, like, putting out an album. So it's like I get to apply everything I've done my whole life. And, like, I'm dreaming big with it. So, like, my delusional, like, dreams with this is like, I see a classic, right? And it's not gonna have, like, a traditional cover. Like, with the paper thing, it's gonna be like a linen cover. It's gone. You'll buy it at Target just as a coffee table book. It's gonna look like a classic, right? And I know what the COVID looks like, and I'm Actually gonna sell like 30 million copies. I've sold about 30 million records in my life, so I know it's possible to sell 30 million. So we'll sell 30 million copies. And that's up there with like the classics.

[Rachel Yucatel]

And is it a memoir? Is it a self help book?

[Charlie Rocket]

It's a combo. So I'm a storyteller. So it's going to be story based with lessons. I love it. So self development, but very story driven. The words that never come out of my mouth are, you should. Yeah, like, I never. I'm not that type of person. I'm never going to tell somebody what they should do, but I have stories of what I've done and just what I would recommend.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Amazing. Do you have a name for it?

[Charlie Rocket]

It's called Winning Streak. Mastering the Art of Delusional Optimism.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Oh, I love that.

[Charlie Rocket]

Thank you.

[Rachel Yucatel]

That is gonna do good. My last two questions for you have to do with what our show is, right? Misunderstood. And some people go through life feeling like they are reduced to a headline and they spend the whole rest of their life being on a mission to change their narrative in some way, shape or form. For you, have you ever felt misunderstood in different parts of your life and what, you know, how. What got you through that and what do you feel about being misunderstood?

[Charlie Rocket]

Misunderstood to me is kind of means you're on the right path. In my eyes. If I look at just stats of people who are like in a box, like the safe route, those aren't the people we read books about or listen to podcasts about. Like, so it's like if you are misunderstood, you're probably, probably on the right path because I'm not even attempting to be understood. Like, I'm sitting here saying I'm delusional. Like, nobody does that. Like, I'm sitting here saying, I think it's gonna be easy where most everybody's like, you gotta grind. It's gonna be hard. I'm like, I would never say that. I don't want it to be hard. Right. Like, I am misunderstood. But, like, maybe because I've accomplished things, people would be like, oh, I trust him. But I've always been like this, even before the bank account or the success or a follower on Instagram. And so that's easy to misunderstood that person. But if I find somebody like me that's different, I'm like, you're going somewhere.

[Rachel Yucatel]

I love that. And for anyone that's listening, that might be doubting themselves, can't find their purpose, can't figure it out, feels stuck Feels like a loser. What would you say to them?

[Charlie Rocket]

Well, the whole purpose thing, I think, is dangerous.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Why?

[Charlie Rocket]

Because it's like.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Like, do you think purpose is different than a dream?

[Charlie Rocket]

So, like, for me, for example, like, I was the manager for the basketball team in high school. Was that my, like, purpose? No, my purpose was to be an athlete. I just need to be close to it. But I wanted to do it excellent. So that means I have to sweep the floor at halftime in front of the whole school. But I'm gonna do it with excellence. And then is my purpose to be a cameraman for Soulja Boy? No, but I'm do it with excellence because it's gonna lead me to something. Was my purpose to be a manager for rappers, maybe? No, no, that's not my purpose. But I'm gonna do it with excellence because it's gonna lead to something else. And I'm gonna keep collecting all these skill sets and all these tools. So I think people eliminate themselves from doing so much because they're like, it's not my purpose. I mean, I passed out CDs. I was the manager. Right, Manager. You think of, like, an agent. Ari Gold in the office with the suit. No, I'm passing out CDs, like a street team. Is that my purpose? No, but I'm going to do it with excellence. And I just keep stacking all these skill sets because I wasn't worried about my purpose. I said, this is what I'm going to do. My heart wanted to try something. I'm going to be great at whatever I try. And then when I'm tired, I'm going to go do something else and think about, like, Forrest Gump. He was a fictional character, but, like everything he did, he was excellent at ping pong. He was in the army. He was special. He was, like, special needs. But like, everything he did. He had a shrimp company. He couldn't catch any shrimp. And then he figured out how to catch shrimp. And then it became Billion dollar company. And then, like, ping pong run across America. Like, everybody wanted him to have a purpose for it. He's like, I just enjoy running. Like, if you want to do something, believe that it's your purpose right now. But it's okay to change, and it's okay. But I just see so many people eliminate themselves from action because they're waiting for this, like, purpose thing that perfect. I was a cameraman. I was the lowest paid person on the team. But that led me to the next thing. To the next thing, to the next thing. And I'M still on my journey, about to write a book. What am I gonna do after that? Am I gonna be an author the rest of my life? Hell, no. I'm gonna have another dream after that, and I'm gonna do that.

[Rachel Yucatel]

And just quickly, I want your thoughts on the importance of failing and figuring out what you're not good at or seeing the bottom of the barrel. Cause in. In my experience, I feel like I don't take advice from anyone who hasn't had a rock bottom. It's important for someone to know how to get out of those times. You don't want to hear just about the good times. Do you think it's important?

[Charlie Rocket]

Yeah. I love failing. I mean, it's not fun in the moment, but I kind of enjoy the video game of it all. So, like, if people like video games, I don't play video games, but people like video games because it has a challenge aspect to it.

[Narrator/Producer]

Yeah.

[Charlie Rocket]

So I just look at it as a video game. If you sat there and played a video game long enough, you will get to the next level. But how many times are you going to die? That's just part of the game. So me as a businessman, I failed more businesses than have succeeded. I've been fired many, many times. I've had bad business situations. And I just. It's a video game. You just die.

[Narrator/Producer]

But I love to say that, because.

[Rachel Yucatel]

That analogy, it reminds me of Donkey Kong or something. And when you get to that point where you always die, the more you do it, you keep realizing, oh, wait, I know how to get around this now. I know how to do that. Jump higher, whatever it is. And so the failing is what teaches you how to have the guts to keep that, make that jump, do it differently, change some things. And so I think people forget that. That's the lesson and the failing.

[Charlie Rocket]

People get to the point where they die in Donkey Kong and they become paranoid. Universe is conspiring against me. I get to the Donkey Kong. Oh, what a gift. Now I know not to do that. I just look at it as a win instead of a loss. You change that. One little hack in your life, everything becomes an opportunity. Watch how far you'll go.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Yeah. That winning streak is such a powerful line sentence. I know people have had it tattooed on them. This is going to be your book. I love it. Tell our listeners where they can learn more about you. Find out more about your companies. Rattle them off really quick so they can find you.

[Charlie Rocket]

You can find me on the Internet. I have. If you want to support our mission, Please go buy Once Upon a Coconut. It's our coconut water company. It's how we fund so many of the dreams that we do. It's in Sprouts, it's in Whole Foods, it's in a lot of stores, and we're growing every day.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Amazing. And your Instagram, tell them what it is.

[Charlie Rocket]

Arli.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Arlie.

[Charlie Rocket]

Wow.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Of all the names, amazing, you're the best. It's been such an honor. I wish you the best of luck and I can't wait to see what lies ahead for you.

[Charlie Rocket]

Thank you so much. How far did we go?

[Rachel Yucatel]

Over good, I'm sure.

[Narrator/Producer]

Oh, really?

[Charlie Rocket]

Foreign.

[Rachel Yucatel]

Thank you so much for listening to Misunderstood. I'm your host, Rachel Yukatel. Please be sure to subscribe to the.

[Narrator/Producer]

Show and give us a five star rating and review.

[Rachel Yucatel]

You can support the show by joining.

[Narrator/Producer]

Our [e-mail] misunderstood with Rachel Ukitel. Do you have ideas for the show or want to reach out? Email us@info misunderstood gmail.com that's spelled M I S S. Understood. Thank you so much and I'll see you next time.

[Ali Jackson]

If you're a podcast host, listen up. This one's for you. My name is Alli Jackson. I'm the host of Finding Mr. Height, a dating and relationship podcast that I've been doing for four years now, sharing my positive and practical approach to dating that's built on my own life experience. And I wanted to share another experience that I've had my secret behind monetizing my show. It's called Red Circle and I was just tell telling my colleague about how much I love their platform. With Red Circle, not only am I getting a seamless hosting experience, but I also love the support I receive in ad sales. It's not just typical ad sales either. It's targeted opportunities based on my show and my life. And the platform is super simple. You just set your preferences and Red Circle matches you with sponsors that align with your show. You can vet every opportunity and their platform gives you great analytics. More recently too, my Red Circle team has brought me opportunities outside of my podcast on social media to really augment the podcast partnerships. Bring them full circle. I just can't recommend them enough. If you want to give it a try, go to redcircle.com to get your free trial. That's redcircle.com for a free trial.