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Scott Clary
Who is Charlie?
Charlie Rocket
There's a fictional character out there that lived the most interesting life ever lived on a movie screen. When I saw that movie, I said, I want that life. I'm 37 years old. I've almost lived the same exact life.
Scott Clary
Some people chase comfort, others chase truth. Charlie Rocket doesn't just chase truth, he runs toward it. From once being homeless on the streets of Los Angeles to becoming one of the most inspiring voices in personal transformation.
Charlie Rocket
If we just made a list of every bad thing that happened, we would have proof that bad things aren't really that bad. Label them as bad. A situation is a situation. How quickly we label it as good determines our happiness. I'm expecting blessings. I'm a delusional optimist because it's a fun way of living.
Scott Clary
Charlie's journey is a testament to resilience, courage, and radical reinvention. Teaching millions around the world that healing isn't about fixing yourself. It's about unlocking who you were always meant to be.
Charlie Rocket
Everything is good when you're counting the wins. Everything is possible when you feel like you're winning. Brain is an amazing tool, but only if it's working for the heart. The brain going rogue and trying to think of everything that can go wrong. Trying to be smart. Start your winner streak today. Stop looking at the losses. The losses are there. The wins are there. Also,
Scott Clary
You have one of the most interesting stories because there's so many different seasons to your life. So the hook will be, who is Charlie?
Charlie Rocket
There's a fictional character out there that lived the most interesting life ever lived on a movie screen. And everything he did, whether it was like, be a football player or a ping pong player or run across America or a businessman, he was the best in the world at it. And everybody always, like, overlooked him. But. But he lived the most interesting life ever lived. And when I saw that movie, I said, I want that life, but I want to be the non fictional version of it. And so I'm 37 years old, and in my 37 years, I've almost lived the same exact life as Forrest Gump. And I take a lot of pride in if I want to do something else, I'm just going to leave what I'm doing. Like, remember when Forrest Gump was running across America and he just stopped and they even asked him, like, why he was running. They wanted, like, some, like, amazing reason. He was just like, I like running. And then he wanted to have a shrimp company. It was like a billion dollar company. He wanted to play ping pong. He just fell in love with each thing he did. He became the best in the world at it. And I wanted to live a life like that. So instead of having, like, one chapter of my book be, you know, a thousand pages long, my chapters are about 20 pages long. And then there's another chapter that's going to start, and I'm going to start another chapter after that. And I just try to be the best in the world at each thing I do, whether it's, you know, being a music manager or an iron man or a keynote speaker or a philanthropist, or owning a coconut water company or biking across America and becoming a Nike athlete. It doesn't matter. Like, I just want to live the most interesting life ever lived.
Scott Clary
Okay, so you've been fired more times than most people have jobs. You've been ghosted at airports. You've had food spit on when you were hungry and starving. You went from managing two chains, you lost over £130, you became a Nike athlete. But everything that's happened, because when people look at you, if I just read them, all the good things and all the things you've been successful at, they'd be like, oh, that's a highlight reel. But I think now, even knowing you for a few minutes, I actually think you place more value in the times in your life when things didn't go so well. I think that those things are probably the. And it's always how you look at the negative that eventually leads to the positive. And something that you do exceptionally well is you just default to glass half full all the time. And I guess the question is, where does that mindset, personality delusion, where does it come from?
Charlie Rocket
My mindset does not go automatically to glass half full. When something bad happens. I'm very emotional. I go pretty dark. I get frustrated. Punch a pillow, I punch a steering wheel. I get mad. I think of the worst. And then something happens where I say, this is not fun. And this. And I have one actual goal in life. I want to have fun. And negative, bad, frustrated, angry, that's not fun. And so I'm able to get out of that quickly. And so my, My. My advice would be to anybody, it's all right to be human. Like, throw the temper tantrum, get frustrated. I do it. But then I want to have fun. So I find a gift in it. I'll go to the darkest moment. I'll just like, brain tumor. Okay, get diagnosed with brain tumor.
Scott Clary
Like, that's as dark as it.
Charlie Rocket
I get scared. I get everything you can imagine. Cry, fearful, call My mom tell her, come out to California, because I don't even know if I'm gonna live. I'm not even telling her. I'm just like, I just need to spend time with my mom. I'm scared. But then something happens. Close my eyes, and I saw this, like, movie screen of my life. And I saw my life as a movie. And I was trying to determine if it's a good movie or a bad movie, and I was like, here's a kid. He buries a dream. He does something realistic, like start a business. Instead of chasing his dream, he goes to make a ton of money, and then he dies. Good movie, bad movie, bad movie. Most.
Scott Clary
Most people's lives, though.
Charlie Rocket
Yeah. No, yeah, absolutely. That's, like, to me, rotten tomato score. 18, like, bad, like. And so I said, what would be a good movie? Good movie would be. Okay, let's. Let's walk through this. This is, like, framework for anybody watching little life hack. Write a script of the good movie, and then let's go try to live that. All right? I close my eyes, I see a movie screen, and I'm playing out my life. It was a kid, good kid, had a dream. Wasn't realistic to be an athlete. He was short, fat. He buried the dream. He goes on to do something realistic like, okay, you could be a good businessman. So he starts a business, becomes very successful, and at the height of his career, he gets diagnosed with a brain tumor. Okay, what would make this a good story? What if he did, like, a big, like, reversal and he went back to his childhood dream, and then he, like, chased his dream of being an athlete? Okay, that would be a good story. Okay, let's. Let's add to that. Okay, he's an athlete. Okay. He does an iron man. Okay. He reverses his brain tumor. Okay, Story's getting better. Oh, he becomes a Nike athlete, like, his favorite company. He's in a commercial with LeBron James and Serena Williams. Yeah. Okay, now this movie is getting freaking good. Okay, he's in a commercial with LeBron James and Serena Williams, and he's on TV as an athlete, and he's on the COVID of, like, fitness magazines. Like, yeah, he left his business. He gave it all away, and he went to chase his dream. Okay, this is a good movie. And then all his dreams come true. And then he dedicates his life to making kids with cancer's dreams come true. And he sells all of his houses. He moves into a. And he helps kids with cancer. Okay, the movie is freaking good. That's the movie thank you for the brain tumor, for making the movie. Good. Because the movie would suck if he didn't have the brain tumor. So now I'm grateful for it because it gave me a path to have the most interesting, best inspirational life. If I'm gonna live a life, might as well live the most interesting life. This isn't my practice life. This is my only one. So thank you to the brain tumor. I get to have a good movie the second I get there. That's a lot different place than being scared, frustrated. That's not fun. What I just did was fun, and that's my goal. Let's have fun.
Scott Clary
What made you able to think like that? Because I don't think I'm going to make a gross generalization. I hope it's not unfair. I don't think that most people think that way. God forbid somebody has an event like this happen in their life. Maybe then that's what gives them the. The courage. But the majority of people hopefully will never have to think or have to deal with that. But how do you think like that? How do you think like that without this rock bottom moment? I love getting into people's minds because, like, you put two people in the exact same situation and like, one depressed, fearful, scared life is over. The other person, you're the other person.
Charlie Rocket
And I don't want to come off as like a unicorn of any sorts. I think I have had practice of a lot of bad things happening. And if all of us were to write down a list of each and every bad thing that's happened to you, and you can see proof, and you probably got proof that it was good, that girlfriend that might have cheated on you or that boyfriend that might have cheated on you, you know, thank God, because we needed to get away from them. Imagine being married to that person. Like, no, like, my life is better without you. You know what I'm saying? And it's like, oh, the job that fired me, like, I started making more money afterwards, like, thank you for the firing. Or, man, what's other bad things that happen? Like, I mean, if we just made a list of every bad thing that happened, we would have proof that bad things aren't really that bad. We just label them as bad. A situation is a situation. How quickly we label it as good determines our happiness. You will see some person take a bad situation and it will replay in their mind for life. Is that fun or not fun? Not fun. So you're making a choice to not have fun. I'm making a choice to have fun. The second I find the good is the second I start having fun. And the second I start having fun is the second I smile. And then the second I smile is the second people want to be around me and I attract blessings. I want to detract people from blessing me. I will be sad and angry. I want to attract so fun. I want to have fun. Let me find the good and a bad because I have proof that every bad thing that's happened in my life has turned into a blessing. And then more blessings just follow after that. And that's a really fun Play Is
Scott Clary
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Charlie Rocket
Terms and conditions apply and way of living life.
Scott Clary
You speak a lot about being realistic and maybe not being realistic. Yeah, but I'll tell you something. So when you said what you just said about like keeping track of all the things happening in your life, so I've actually said something similar but different. And I'll explain why I think this idea is so important. But I love the way that you look at tracking stuff and realizing that the bad isn't always as bad as you think it is. In hindsight, I've always said that people play it too safe and are too realistic because they can only remember the bad. And if they keep track of all the shit that happens in their life, they'll actually realize that a lot more good happens than bad. Like when they take more risk, it works out more often than not and they win every single day. And I think that if more people, I think that we are biologically wired to remember the bad. That's why news companies work the way they do. That's what they're human or human. But like, if we. Like I've told people before, like, look at if you want to take a career move, if you want to date somebody and you think that person's out of your league, or you're scared to make a, you know, you're scared to send a DM or like say hi if you want to, if you want to lose weight, but you're like, oh my God, I'm, I'm so, so, so far gone. And all these people at the gym are so good looking and so in shape. And you're like, I can't do that. I can't build a business. I can't be an entrepreneur. That's not for me, that's for someone else. I want to be realistic. Look at all the times you've won in your life. Why would this, why would this not work out? Statistically? Why would this not work out every single day? I mean, this is very much your thing too, where every single thing that happens is a win. But look at how many times you've been successful at risks in your life. It's almost guaranteed and it's almost guaranteed it's going to work out. This is why I'm a big fan of like setting long term objectives. Because if you want to have a happy marriage, you want to build a successful business, if you want to lose weight and achieve whatever, you know, look, or if you just want to be healthier, if you just do it for an unreasonable amount of time, you'll find a way to be successful at it. That's really it. It's almost impossible to not be anyway. So this is why I love the way you talk about realistic. Because realistic, I think is fake. Yeah, Realistic is a perception of what our limitations are. Yeah, but it's actually wrong. It's completely incorrect.
Charlie Rocket
Correct.
Scott Clary
What made you hate being realistic so much? What was the thing in your life that made like, okay, so you have this brain tumor and this list of shit that you want to accomplish at this point, you are, I think, over 300 pounds. Yes. Correct. And you're telling people you're going to be working with Nike. You're going to be in a commercial with LeBron James and Serena Williams and like, is this the same? This is the thing that made you not realistic. This is the thing that made you realize that realistic is just a scam. I don't know else to say it.
Charlie Rocket
Is this water bottle real?
Scott Clary
I'd say yeah.
Charlie Rocket
Okay. Why is it real?
Scott Clary
Because I can, I can touch it. No, I can't touch it. I can see it.
Charlie Rocket
You can see it?
Scott Clary
I can see it.
Charlie Rocket
So once you see it, you.
Scott Clary
I believe it's real.
Charlie Rocket
Close your eyes. If you wanted to imagine something, can you See it?
Scott Clary
Mm. You can see it 100%.
Charlie Rocket
You don't need your eyes open to see. The second I close my eyes, whether I'm Charlie Rocket or I'm Walt Disney or I'm Elon Musk or I'm Thomas Edison, once I can see it, I believe it's real. And that's not unique to me. That's unique to the greatest people in history. So this isn't rare because there's somebody who saw a business idea that's. Once they see it, it's already done. Time hasn't caught up yet. I saw a commercial with LeBron James and Serena Williams in my mind with me in it. And if I speak it out loud to my friends, they think it's a little crazy. That's okay. I saw it. And there's a reason why, when I jumped into this, I would say, like, I took, I took a leap of faith. That's really crazy. Leaving a $15 million a year business to chase a dream that nobody else could see. And I always, like, live in this mentality of just like, thank me later. Like, like, it's, it's all, it's all good. And being a delusional optimist, I believe everything's actually going to be easy versus hard. I, I. There's a few things I disagree with with, like, popular culture, especially, like, in the motivation space. I really dislike when an educator or motivator tells people is going to be hard. You're going to have to grind. You're going to have to. I don't like that. I don't want anything in my life to be hard. I don't want to go to Calculus three class. That's hard. When I go into a dream, I actually do the opposite. I don't say it's going to be hard. I say it's going to be easy. What? What do you mean it's going to be easy? Nobody says anything. It's going to be easy. This life, this universe, is like a restaurant. If I order something off the menu, I'm going to get it. If I order hard, my. What do they call the smart people? They say confirmation bias. That's what a smart person would say, confirmation bias. You are going to spend your life confirming what you believe. I believe this thing I'm going to do is hard. I'm the opposite. I'm writing a book. We just had a conversation. You said every person you've talked to says a book is hard. The hardest thing they've ever done, running a 900 million dollar business might be easier than writing a book. And I'll sit here thinking, like, I think it's going to be easy. Why? Well, I'm gonna go on a bunch of podcasts, and I'm gonna practice telling my stories, and I'm gonna see which ones resonate the most with people. And when I edit all the little clips, I'll see the ones that have the most amount of views so I know which stories people really like. And then I'll build it out. And then when I go and do my research, I'm like, wow, like, the guy who wrote the Alchemist wrote it in six days. Like, it might not be that hard. Oh, the guy who wrote Forrest Gump wrote the book in six weeks. What if it's not hard?
Scott Clary
Is that true?
Charlie Rocket
Swear to God. Swear to God. What if it's not hard? What if it is easy? What if I'm in a flow state? What if this is meant for me? What if I'm going to sit down, tell the best stories in the fricking world, and let it just flow? And then I find an editor. Because I was talking on a podcast, and then editor reaches out to me is like, charlie, I'm so inspired from you. I want to edit your book. And I'm like, holy shit. You believe in my vision. Wow. I just went on a podcast, and the editor reached out. Now I got an editor. And then it's like, oh, but I can go down a path of thinking. It's hard. Oh, I don't know how to write a book. I've never written a book. Maybe I need a publisher. Oh, like some publishers have turned me down before. Like, if my brain goes into this is hard, I'm going to actually start looking for ways. It's hard, but I'm looking for ways. It's easy. So I found two authors who wrote two of the greatest books of all time that wrote one in six days and one in six weeks. Okay, maybe this is easy. But guess what? Me thinking it's going to be easy is actually going to do. Now, this is the secret on how I've achieved every dream in my life. If I say this big, bold, scary dream of mine is going to be easy, I'm actually going to show up.
Scott Clary
That's the hack. That's the secret. That's the.
Charlie Rocket
And I am delusional enough to believe each and every day. You know what another thing is? I got another thing I have a problem with. It's very popular culture, especially on the Internet, for somebody to say, this Quote, that I highly disagree with. Nobody's coming to save you. Why would you say that? What I think every day somebody's coming to save me, But I'm smart enough to know why they're going to come and save me. Let's say your car broke down on the side of the road. You're just waving, trying to get people to pull. Pull over, and they're just driving right past you because you're just waving. You're asking for a handout. Please help me, help me, help me, help me. You know what would happen if you just got out of your car and started pushing that bad boy? Do you know how many people would be inspired and they would pull over and then two people are pushing the car with you, and then more people are inspired and they're like, I want to be a part of this movement. Like, these guys are pushing a car down the side of the highway. I want to be like that. I want to be like those guys. I'm. I'm joining the movement. And now you got five people pushing the car and then more pulling over, and you got more people than you need. I expect in my life somebody's coming to save me. But I'm not waving my hand saying, come and save me. I'm pushing the car. And I know people are coming to save me. So the words will never come out of my mouth. Nobody's coming to save me. No. I'm expecting blessings. I'm a delusional optimist. I am expecting a blessing to fall out of the freaking sky every day I wake up. But why? Because it's a fun way of living. It's just more fun. This is everything. I don't know how to articulate it in a. In a. In a sophisticated way. It is just fun to wake up and dream delusionally. Like, there is magic and fairy dust in the freaking air today. It's just more fun than being negative and realistic. And I just want to have fun.
Scott Clary
I think that when people default to the negative, all these opportunities still come their way, but they just don't see them.
Charlie Rocket
There's two things that are very addictive. One is like a. Let's call it like, okay, you're driving down the street. Okay, you're on a PC8. It's beautiful, right? And on the right side of the street is a. Is a house that's on fire. And on the left side of the street is a beautiful sunset. Which one are you looking at?
Scott Clary
The house on fire. It's going to be like, you Want to look at the sunset, but you're like, oh, my God, this. This is a mess. What's going on?
Charlie Rocket
You know, human nature. We are designed. It is. It takes the most insane willpower ever not to look at the house on fire and wonder, like, what's going on over there? There's ambulances and firemen, and you're wondering
Scott Clary
if everybody's wondering how real this is. Even when there's an accident on the highway and the cars aren't blocking traffic, there will still be traffic because people are slowing down to look.
Charlie Rocket
That's human nature. So that is the same exact thing that goes on in our lives. There is something so beautiful. And we can all agree, hands down, sitting there watching a sunset is one of the most therapeutic, most enjoyable things in life. But one of the most addicting things is looking at the bad. And if there was somebody who was strong enough to actually look at the sunset, that person is transcended. And I actually have a hack life on how I look at the sunset and withstand the willpower to get addicted to the negative. Because there's always good happening, guaranteed, and there's always bad. What are we looking at? My brain can only think about one thing at a time. Right now, if I were to tell you, beige hat. Boom. Your brain's thinking about beige hat. Like, I just controlled your mind. You did not think about a pink elephant. Oh, oh. Now you're thinking about a pink elephant. You can only think about one thing at a time. So if there is a lot of bad going on in my life and there's a lot of good going on in my life, I have a hack. It's called I'm on a winning streak. It's a game I play, and I start it every morning. I get my cup of coffee, and I start my winning streak. And I'm trying to see how far I can go, but I start adding up the wins now. Here we go. Cup of coffee. This is about to make me feel good, you know, like, okay, my day started. I'm on a winning streak, right? That was a lot of happiness for three bucks. That's a win. Some people need to, like, spend, like, $10,000 on a vacation to be happy. Like this cup of happiness. Winning streak. Then I caught the green light. Winning streak. But I'm right in there with my girlfriend, and we caught the red light. It's also a winning streak because I tell my girlfriend, I just got more time with you. Winning streak. And then go to the grocery store. There's a good parking Spot, winning streak. There's not a good parking spot. Get more steps in. Winning streak. Now I'm at like seven wins, okay? Now I'm addicted to counting more wins. So now my reticular activating system is trained to find good things even in bad situations. If I got in a car wreck, well, there was a person who got in a car wreck before September 11th. They were headed into the World Trade Center. Okay, this is a good thing. Maybe it's protecting me from something else. There's two frequencies. There's paranoia and there's pronoia. The universe is conspiring against me is paranoia, but prono is the universe is conspiring for me. Everything is happening for me. When you're on a winning streak, I didn't get the good parking spot. I'm on a winning streak. I'm getting more steps in. Like everything is good when you're counting the wins. And then you get so addicted to being on a winning streak. Then all the blessings start flowing your way. You become magnetic. Now all these opportunities are flowing your way. You talk different, you feel different, you feel like a winner. Now you've got all this momentum in life now. Your decision making is different. Now your wife loves you differently. Everybody is just loving a winner. People don't like a loser. We don't even like ourselves as losers. And yet looking at that house as burning is so addictive. And if we look at all the things that are burning in our lives, we are going to have proof that we are losing. But if we just look at all the winds, we will have proof that we are winners. And everything is possible when you feel like you're winning Toronto. Let's say y' all are on a 22 game winning streak.
Scott Clary
Blue Jays are doing good now.
Charlie Rocket
You see what I'm saying? Let's say Y' all won 22 games in a row. What are you thinking about the next
Scott Clary
game we're going to win?
Charlie Rocket
You have to.
Scott Clary
Yeah, why not?
Charlie Rocket
You have proof y' all can keep winning. You're at 22 now you can only think about 23. 23 when you're at 23. Now you're thinking about 24. We gotta find 24. So when you're at your 23rd win for the day, you're like, okay, I'm looking for the next one. The wins were always there. We just have to look at them to feel like a winner. So it's very simple. But once again, sounds so unsophisticated. It's just fun.
Scott Clary
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Charlie Rocket
Yes, sir.
Scott Clary
What is the craziest thing that has ever happened? I know a couple of your stories, I guess. Pick one.
Charlie Rocket
I walk away from a 15 million dollar a year business and I told everybody in my life, my mom, my business partners, my artists. I managed at the time, I managed two chains. Travis Porter, Young, Dolph. And I told him, I'm gonna leave everything. And they said, what are you gonna do? I'm going to be a Nike athlete. And at the time I'm £300. So everybody respected my decision. I don't know if they understood my vision, but they respected it that I was sick with a brain tumor and I wanted to accomplish a dream. And so I wanted to make a fan made Nike commercial. Because I want, when I close my eyes, I see that I'm going to be a Nike athlete. I know it's done, but I have to find a way to get Nike's attention. Because if I emailed them, like, that's not going to do anything that's too realistic. I need to do something unrealistic because I actually believed it was going to be easy. I told everybody what was going to happen. I told people, I said, look, I'm gonna make a fan made Nike commercial. Nike's gonna see it. Nike's gonna sign me and I'm gonna be in a commercial with LeBron James and Serena Williams. You can imagine people's opinions internally, but I would actually write it in my notebook every day as well. So I needed to find a videographer that I could afford that can make a Nike commercial.
Scott Clary
This is not a cheap videographer.
Charlie Rocket
No, like I'm actually trying to make an actual Nike commercial, which on the low end would be like a couple hundred grand to make what I'm trying to make because I need to have like the Hans Zimmer type Strings. I need it to look a certain way, I need it produced a certain way. I need it to be absolutely genius filmmaking in order to get Nike's attention. So I'm telling filmmakers what I'm looking for and they say, Charlie, like what's your budget? And I'm like a few grand, like, you know, like it's. I'm posting on Instagram to my like 10,000 followers, like I'm not spending $200,000. Like I'm not that rich. And they're like, Charlie, you need to be realistic. You say you want this, but you're only willing to pay this. I said don't tell me to be realistic. I know there's somebody out here that can do this. They're like, Charlie, people who make film don't make Hans Zimmer type music. There's two different people and the person who shoots doesn't edit. The person who does the lighting doesn't do the scoring and the person who color grades doesn't shoot. And the person who owns the equipment doesn't do any of that stuff. You need like a 15 person team to pull this off and it's going to be a multi day shoot and it's going to take weeks and weeks and weeks. Post edit. I got told to be realistic about four times by four different people. And I got pissed off because I'm at Gracias Madres restaurant on Melrose. It's a nice vegan restaurant. And I took this TV producer out to dinner and into my face he said, charlie, you need to be realistic. I pulled my friend out of the restaurant and I talked to him outside. I said nothing I've done my entire life has ever been realistic. Why do people keep telling me to be realistic? I know that this is going to happen. I'm going to find my videographer who's going to do this and I'm gonna find him tomorrow. To where I'm like using my frustration and I'm actually pretty toxic, but in the most non toxic way because I'm actually speaking something that's going to happen.
Scott Clary
It's actually like funneling anger.
Charlie Rocket
Funneling anger in a way that I'm speaking exactly what's going. It's almost motivating me to say this is what's going to happen. So I'm almost becoming more confident through my anger. So I'm actually grateful for each person who's like telling me be realistic. Next morning I wake up, I'm in Santa Monica, California. I'm on my couch and I'm writing in my Quantum possibilities notebook, delusionally. Today is the day I found my videographer slash editor. It's done. Exclamation mark. It's easy. Exclamation mark. My roommate walks in the front door, and behind him is a. Is a videographer with this huge, like, movie setup, camera rig with all this stuff hanging off of it. And I asked my roommate, why do you have a cameraman behind you? He's not in the entertainment industry. He's a business development for, like, a Goji Berry company. Why is there a videographer behind you? He said, my friend Manny called me and wanted to shoot something for his Airbnb business. So he sent this guy over, and I'm thinking to myself, this is my magical moment. This is it. I just wrote in my notebook. I knew it was going to happen. And here's this guy who walks in the front door. So I look at him and then, like, he was kind of gothic looking. So, like, my. Like. Like, my excitement dropped a little bit. He was wearing, like, all black. Had, like. He looked like he was in Fallout Boy or something. And I said, do you do videos? So, yeah, I do videos, but nobody ever pays me. He was like a dark cloud. I was like, oh, there goes my magical moment. I was like, what do you mean nobody ever pays you? He's like, I'm only doing this shoot because, like, there was a Lamborghini at the other one, and I wanted to just have that a part of my portfolio. I'm like, this guy sounds like a dark cloud. Okay. I was like, can I see some of your work? I've lost hope at this point. He said, yeah, I haven't updated my website in, like, seven years. I'm like, oh, God. I was like, all right, what's your website? I opened up the little thing, and I'm just like, da, da, da. And there was a little short film on there, and I clicked on it and I'm looking at it. You shot this? Yeah, I shot it. I said, who owned all the equipment? Well, like, I'm kind of like a hoarder. So anytime I make money, like, I just, like, you know, buy stuff. I have lighting, I have dolly cams. I have Steadicam rigs. I have sound equipment. I have this. I have anamorphic lenses. I have that. I'm like, hold on. All this equipment you owned? Yeah. I said, who did the scoring? Because a film is only about the music. There's a reason why films pay Hans Zimmer $10 million to play the music. Like Interstellar. It's all about the music. That's what makes a film a film. I said, who did the music on this? Well, I used to be in a rock band, and we were on the Warped Tour and we had a record deal, but the record label dropped us. I said, hold on, hold on, hold on. You made all the music? Yeah. You made all the music? Yeah. I said, who did the. Who did the scoring? He said, I did everything. I said, who mixed and mastered the audio? I have a studio in my bedroom. I said, who did the color grading? Well, I taught myself da Vinci. I said, you did everything. I'm thinking back to my conversation the night before. He told me to be realistic. And the guy, he walked in my front door. I told him, I said, look at my notebook. I said I was going to find you today. He said, what do you mean, find me today? I said, listen, you and I, we're going to make a fan made Nike commercial. Nike's going to see it, and Nike's going to want to sign me. And I'm being a commercial with LeBron James and Serena Williams. He said, dude, you're crazy. I said, I know, but it's my dream. I said, how much would it cost to make a commercial? We sat down, we started storyboarding, and he said, $660. We made a fan made Nike commercial. I uploaded it to my Instagram. Three days later, my phone rings. Caller ID says Beaverton, Oregon. Nike flies me to campus. Everybody who thought I was crazy is starting to believe a little bit. They walked me into a conference room with 30 of the biggest executives, and the executive sat me down and they said, we're changing the direction of our company because of this film you made. What happened after that was pure magic. Nike created what became the biggest Nike commercial of all time. The commercial was the Colin Kaepernick commercial is named after me. It's called Dream Crazy. I made a second fan makeup Nike commercial called Dream Crazy. And they named that commercial after my commercial. And I was in a commercial with LeBron James, Serena Williams. It was a Super bowl commercial. Stock price went up $8 billion. I was on the COVID of Runner's World magazine, and I got To Live the 3D version of what I saw when I closed my eyes. And if that's not magic, I don't know what is. But you know how that Internet motivator said, nobody's coming to save you. They're goddamn wrong. There was a lot of people that came to save me. I had a dream. I was just crazy enough to chase it and the universe conspired to make my dream come true. Because I woke up every day and I actually was crazy enough believe that my dream was real. Dreams are real. It's not our imagination. We see it for a reason. We didn't choose our dreams. Our dreams were already in us. I did not choose this. I closed my eyes and I saw something. It was already done. Time wasn't caught up yet. I just had to be crazy enough to go do it. No matter what anybody said, no matter if anybody told me I need to be realistic. I did not ever know if it would ever work. But I was just crazy enough. I was delusional enough Framer is a
Scott Clary
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Charlie Rocket
Well, I actually have a life hack on how to close the gap.
Scott Clary
Am I too pessimistic when I say you just gotta stick in the game for like, that's my Thought. I've always said that you just gotta stay in the game long enough for it to come true.
Charlie Rocket
Well, that's true. One plus one equals two is math. One plus one equals a thousand is math, too. Both are right. There are people who receive miracles, and there are people who receive math. One plus one equals two. I do both. Remember? I'm going to push the car and everybody's going to come help. Both are necessary. I don't sit on a couch and manifest and think, like, something's going to fall out of the sky without me doing some work too. But I do have a life hack on how to speed up blessings, and this isn't some, like, manifestation. I believe bigger is easier. I believe bigger is easier. I believe doing a cannonball will bring back the wave of energy that I need. For example, there's a pool. I need blessings to come to me, right? I need blessings to come to me. That is the goal. Like, if you run a business, you need blessings to come to you, right? That's the goal. Blessings come to me. I need to do something to send something out, and then I need blessings to come back to me, right? It might be an ad on Facebook. I'm gonna send it out. And what do I want to come back? A customer. Money. It's the same thing with energy. A Facebook ad, a business, a marketing plan, or a dream. It's all the same thing. If there's a pool and I dipped my pinky toe in, it'll send the smallest little ripple out. Will it hit the other side of the pool and bounce back? Probably not. But if I were to cannonball, it'll send out a wave. And what comes back?
Scott Clary
Ripples, Waves, Everything.
Charlie Rocket
Yeah, it's coming back. Bigger is easier. It took the same amount of time to put my pinky toe in as it did to cannonball. I learned this in the music industry. I'm broke. I'm living in my mom's basement, and it is my job to make my artist dreams come true. I don't have any money, and it takes a lot of money to take a record to radio. Usually you want to. You need a marketing budget of about $70,000 to get, like, a top 20 record in the country. I don't have that. So I need to make a cannonball. So I need to get to the radio stations, Okay? I need them. I need to send something out and I need to receive the blessings. Okay. How do I get my song on radio? Maybe I'll email the radio DJs. Okay, so I email that's pinky toe. No, no, no, no, no, no. We don't need to email. I'm getting in my car, I'm going to a radio station. Actually, no, I need a bigger cannonball. I'm going to every radio station from Jackson, Mississippi to Washington dc. Okay, that's big. I get in my car, I'm driving. My business partners call me. They said, charlie, where are you? I said, I'm going to the radio stations, all of them. They said, do you know the radio stations? No, I'm going to go meet them. They're like, like, this isn't how it works. You don't just pull up to a radio station. They play. But it's like my only option. I'm cannonballing. Emailing to me is too small. So I go to a radio station on the side of a highway in Macon, Georgia, and there's a program director in his office. So I'm knocking on the door. You could see in the window, his office, knocking on the door. And then I look over into the window and then I like knock on the window. And I'm like waving at him. I'm a 20 year old kid, talk to him. And I was like, I got this group. He said, kid, that's not how it works. He said, y' all have a record deal. No. I was like, I know that. Y' all make money from advertisement and y' all need the best songs. I show them a video of like my group performing at a skating rink. This is what the kids like. All the kids going crazy. Like thousands of kids screaming the songs. I said, this is the future. This is the new hottest group in the world. He said, charlie, it's just not how it works. He said, you gotta, you gotta get on the mix show first. Like, you don't just go into rotation. Like it has to start with the mix show DJs. I said, mix show DJs? What do you mean? He said, well, we got like six mix show DJs. They like, can play newer music. So I'm like, okay. I reach out to every mix show DJ and invite them out to Hooters for a lunch. And this is in Macon, Georgia, just one radio station. And I got all these hoodies printed up with their names on the back and it says Salute the DJ on the front. And I show up and I give them a hoodie. I take them out to lunch, I show them our video, and they loved it. They started playing the song. So then I drove to the next radio station in Columbus, did the Same thing. Then I drove to the next radio station in Montgomery. Same thing. Then I went to Jackson, Mississippi. Then I cut all the way across, went to South Carolina, North Carolina. I hit every radio station from Jackson, Mississippi, to Washington, D.C. as a cannonball. And guess what? I took three records, top 10 in the nation without spending any marketing budget. I just spent my time cannonballing. I did not email. I did not try to go small. I said, what's the biggest thing I can physically do? And it sped up the blessings. And we can speed things up by cannonballing. I truly believe bigger is easier. It takes the same amount of time to be mediocre as it does to be great.
Scott Clary
My life, this podcast, has been built by cannonballs.
Charlie Rocket
Really?
Scott Clary
Yeah. By just taking audacious risks and just taking shots and just DMing people that were way out of. I say that in air quotes. Way out of my league. I had. I had Guy Kawasaki.
Charlie Rocket
Yeah.
Scott Clary
In like, the first 10 episodes or something like that, bro. I was myself, how'd you do it? I just DM'd him. I said, hey, you wanna big? Yeah, but I've gone big. For the past six years, I've gone big.
Charlie Rocket
It's easier.
Scott Clary
It's easier.
Charlie Rocket
You got more results.
Scott Clary
Yeah.
Charlie Rocket
There was a wave that bounced back 100.
Scott Clary
So guy cow. And you never know what's going on inside. You can be strategic about cannonballs, too, but when I reached out to him and I reached out to a whole bunch of other, like, big, big names, and some of them said yes, and it creates the flywheel. It gets things going. And it just so happened when Guy's been on my show twice now, and he came on the first time just because he was starting a podcast around the same time that I was starting a podcast, he's like, well, it makes sense. I just got to go on podcast. This kid just reached out to me. Why not? HubSpot has been a sponsor of this show almost since the beginning. Almost since the beginning. Because when I started the show, they had just started a podcast network, and they were sponsoring a whole bunch of podcasts. And I was like, well, you know, show's doing well, but it's still early days. Let me fill out this Google type form on their website. It wasn't even, like an official HubSpot form. It was a Google type form. And somebody got back to me, like, we watch your show. We like it. We'll sponsor you. And I've spoken at Inbound, their biggest conference for now, four years in a row, I think last, like, it's like tens of thousands of people go to this thing. So it's just the whole. My whole life has changed by taking these audacious shots, these cannonballs. And I've never heard somebody describe it that way, but I just wish more people would take those shots because they're like. People play small all the time.
Charlie Rocket
What's more fun? Cannonballing or like, dipping your toe in cannonballing? Let's have fun.
Scott Clary
Let's have fun.
Charlie Rocket
You see how I keep going back to that? Yeah. I think all my little life hacks are these, like, epiphany moments that just come from. Fun is better.
Scott Clary
It just sucks playing small.
Charlie Rocket
It really does.
Scott Clary
It just. It's so hard. It's so hard because it is the same energy for less output.
Charlie Rocket
Absolutely. Because it doesn't bounce back.
Scott Clary
Because if even like a very, like, real example, just from my world is I could have emailed a hundred people that great people, but they don't have the audience or the notoriety like, of Guy Kawasaki of one of Apple's first employees that speaks on stage like, 360 days a year and has a great, great following. So it would have taken the same energy to reach out to them or taken the same energy to record. And even if their stories were great, they wouldn't have brought the same amount of attention to my show. And that compounds over the past, you know, six years and tons and tons and tons of interviews.
Charlie Rocket
How would you have articulated the realistic way of me becoming a Nike athlete in a commercial with LeBron James and Serena Williams in the biggest Nike commercial of all time, if I did not
Scott Clary
cannonball 300 pounds and never playing a professional sport, I would have said it's impossible. It's not even like there's a pathway to it in my mind for you from a realistic perspective, because you just name people who were also in that commercial who got there by not just being professional athletes their entire life, by being the 0.01% of their peers.
Charlie Rocket
Being delusional might be the secret to success.
Scott Clary
You have a lot of different frameworks that I love. And I love the way you think, and I wish more people would think the way that you think, but you do have a framework for architecting a dream, for being delusionally optimistic and for actually not just thinking that, but executing against it. And we've, like, touched on it and danced around it, but, like, if we were actually going to lay it out. Yes, the. The framework for building a dream, for living beyond what you ever thought possible, for being delusionally optimistic and then achieving success from that. What is the framework? If we had to lay it out for someone?
Charlie Rocket
If I. If I were to say a sentence. I want you to complete the sentence. Follow your dreams. Follow your passion. Follow your ambition. Follow your heart. Follow your brain. It feels weird, right? How weird was that? Follow your heart and follow your dreams. Of most people's first two answers. Follow your heart. It's an organ. Follow your dreams. We don't say, follow your ideas. We don't say, follow your knowledge. We don't say, follow your brain. We don't say, follow your kidney. We just named an organization in our body. And that organ is so closely tied to our dreams. Now we have two employees here. Both are trying to be the boss. That can be a problem. Your heart, it sees something. It knows something. It wants something. Your brain. I'll break it down like this. Somebody thinks of a dream, something they want. They get really excited. Their heart starts exploding. They feel it. They're like, man, like, let's do that. I want to be rich. I want to be financially secure. There's all this magic, and they're like, I'm going to follow my dreams. And their brain really likes that. And for a short period of time, there's this, like, massive dopamine rush where your heart and your brain are coherent. And then the brain kicks in and it's just trying to do its job. Brain's like, okay, it's time to chase our dream. This is where I come in. Let's think of everything that can go wrong, okay? We have to be smart about this, Scott. Okay? What if this doesn't work? Or what if this goes wrong? What if. What if this fails, okay? What if it's going to be hard and we need to solve for this and this and this and this. And the more your brain starts thinking, the less your heart has a voice and your heart shuts down. Your heart went from this glowing, vibrating excitement to now it doesn't even have a light. Because the brain is thinking about everything that it's going to take to achieve this dream. All the things that can go wrong, all the reality. And there's this place we go. It's called the Valley of reality. And that's where most all dreams die so quickly. Because we think this big, bold, scary thing that was once magical 10 minutes ago is now scary. And what if it doesn't work? So we went from this high to high to this valley of reality low. Our heart shuts down and loses its voice because the brain is driving the ship. The brain is very intelligent, but there's a reason why we don't say follow your brain. There's only one organ we follow is follow your heart. And you trust your guts, your gut, you don't trust your brain, who trusts their brain? Not one person is ever going to be like, trust your brain. You trust your gut, you follow your heart. The brain is special. But if the brain is driving, it's going to drive you straight into the valley of reality until you get so tired of not having your dream, your brain will crash and burn in that valley of reality so many times that eventually your brain is going to say that's going to look down at his heart. It's going to say, maybe we'll try it your way this time. Maybe I'm not the smart one here. Maybe I need to work for you. And when your brain gets in coherence with your heart and it starts working for your heart, maybe it's going to be easy. Maybe somebody is going to come bless us. Maybe everything's going to go right and maybe if something goes wrong, it's for a good reason. You know what, we can do this, heart. Brain, we can do this. Actually, heart, I'm going to help you make this happen. Everything is happening for us. Oh, look at this win. You were right, heart. This is going to be easy. Oh, let's make this happen. Oh, I have an idea. Let's do do this. Let's do this. This is good. Oh. Boom. Next thing you know, your dreams are coming true because your brain turned off the reality. And after a while it said, you know what, it's just time to work for the heart. The heart knows brain is an amazing tool, but only if it's working for the heart. The brain going rogue and trying to think of everything that can go wrong, trying to be smart, trying to protect us from, from all the things. It will paralyze you and it will make you not ever even show up to the dream. The reason why I have been able to accomplish every dream I've ever thought of is because quickly I can get my brain to shut the up and just be like, you know what, I'm not going to use the mechanism that I was designed to have of what's everything that can go wrong. Listen, our brains are dirty, okay? Our brains enjoy reality tv, enjoys drama, enjoys the car wreck on the side of the road more than the sunset. Our brain is freaking dirty. If your hands are dirty, what do you do? So guess what I do. I wash my brain. What's that called brainwashing. I brainwash myself in a delusional way to make sure that my brain is thinking about all the good things that can happen instead of all the bad, dirty things that can happen. My brain is clean. It is thinking positively. It is thinking delusionally. And it is a gift for us to learn how to brainwash ourselves for our dreams.
Scott Clary
Indeed is a Success Story Partner now if you're hiring Indeed is all you need. Let me give you an example. If I needed to hire a new editor for this show, I'd go to Indeed and be super specific. Not just can you edit audio. I'd say I need someone who's edited a conversational podcast for at least three years, gets our style and knows our software. Someone who's done this before. And here's the thing with Indeed Sponsored Jobs, I'd get people who fit that description. I'm not digging through resumes from people who've edited one YouTube video. I'm getting actual podcast editors who know what they're doing. People who've worked on shows like ours and can prove it. That's what makes a difference. You get people, people who actually are what you're looking for. According to Indeed data, Sponsored jobs posted directly on indeed are 90% more likely to report a higher than non sponsored jobs and people are finding quality hires right now. In the minute that I've been speaking to you, companies like yours have made 27 hires on Indeed. According to Indeed Data Worldwide. Spend more time interviewing candidates who check all the boxes. Less stress, less time and more results. Now with Indeed Sponsored Jobs and listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help you get your job. The premium status it deserv@indoubtedly.com Clary just go to indeed.com Clary right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed. On this podcast, Indeed.com Clary terms and conditions apply. Hiring do it the Right way with Indeed. HubSpot is a success Story Partner. Now if you're looking for a new podcast, one of my favorite shows right now is Demand Decoded. If you're in the B2B marketing space, you need to be listening to this. It's hosted by the team at Blend. They are a demand gen agency. They know what they're doing. They're also part of the HubSpot Podcast Network. What I love about it is they skip all the theory and they just tell you what's actually working today. So demand gen marketing, content, LinkedIn ads, attribution. They talk about real strategies that they are Using that you can use today that are working. So if you're an entrepreneur, if you're building a business, if you're really selling anything to anyone, go search demand decoded wherever you get your podcast. When you have your subconscious that has been trained from childhood to believe one thing or another, when you have all these people that are very close to you, not just peers and co workers like mother, father, sister, brother, and they're all saying one thing, where do you start to reprogram?
Charlie Rocket
You gotta brainwash. That's where you start. You start by content. If you go listen to your podcast or Oprah's Super Soul Sunday and you hear like a story of like Steve Harvey sleeping in his car for three years and then the Apollo calls, but he doesn't have enough money, and then magically, his phone rang with some gig to have him tell jokes for $150. It just came in out of the blue. The universe conspired for him in the darkest time. Universe conspired. He was able to take that 150, able to go to the Apollo, and now we got Steve Harvey. If you listen to enough stories like that, you will have proof that a blessing is coming. I always believe in dark times. Santa Claus delivers presence in the dark, not when it's bright out. So when something bad happens to me, I start looking around for Santa Claus. I know there's a present here and it's going to be a blessing. So if my brain has been wired to think so negatively, I'm just going to go listen to enough success stories and I'll notice they all have the same thing in common. And I will start seeing myself and that, no, I'm not where I need to be. You know what? I'm just like these people. Actually, every successful person deals with actually maybe even more than me. Maybe I need more because they all have the same thing in common.
Scott Clary
They dealt with so much, a lot of.
Charlie Rocket
So it's like I'm just like them. And now they have billions. I'm just like them. It's happened over and over. It's not rare. I drive down the street. I live in Malibu, California. I feel so lucky. I used to live in my mom's basement. I could drive down the street in Malibu, and I see every house from Malibu all the way to West Hollywood. And pretty much every house is worth over $2 million. And this is a lot of houses. I'm talking about Beverly Hills. Like, every house. I'm like, like, it can't be that hard to get rich. Look at all these people. This is just one city. If we go to Vancouver, then we go to Chicago, then we go to New York. You're telling me every apartment here is like a million dollars, two million dollars every. The small ones. It must be easy. It has to be. It's not some rare occurrence for somebody to become a millionaire. I'm driving down the street and I'm looking at just in my vision, 5,000 people that are millionaires. It must be easy. They did it. Okay. It's going to be easy for me too. So when you start training your brain like this, you start listening to content, you start brainwashing yourself to get out of the hard into the easy. You start believing that everything you see in your eyes are actually yours. Your actions are going to be a little bit different. And when you start feeling like a winner, when you practice winning streak and you feel like a winner, how you show up to chase something, you show up with confidence. Remember when you were a single man? Let's go back to when you were a single man. It's scary going up and talking to a course. It's scary rejection. We know we've all been there a million times, but if you got a phone number, you feel like a winner. How easy is it to talk to the next girl?
Scott Clary
Very.
Charlie Rocket
You're just. It's a thousand, thousand times easier.
Scott Clary
And if you do it more than once, you realize that most single, beautiful girls, if you're a decent looking, successful, like fun, charismatic, good guy, they would love if you walked up to them and said hi.
Charlie Rocket
Absolutely. So once you feel like a winner, your actions completely change from there on out. So the question is, how do you feel like a winner every day starts with the cup of coffee, then the red light. Because once you feel like a winner, everything after that moment changes.
Scott Clary
It's so interesting. I posted something the other day that got a lot of hate. I got a lot of hate. And I was. It was so interesting how this one idea, I posted a little, little quote on Facebook and the quote, I'm not going to remember it verbatim, but it was along the lines of if you're frustrated with where you're at in life, the answer is to seek out more, more difficult problems to solve along the lines of that and like people were upset that they were. That they had to be responsible for their own happiness basically, that if, if they weren't where they are or where they wanted to be in life, that they should seek even more difficult situations to put themselves into. And that a happy, successful Fulfilling life would be on the other side of those difficult situations because they felt like, well, why is it my responsibility? Do you ever have people that just don't believe in agency, in accountability for their own life? Then you have to shift that perspective completely, because everything that you're talking about stems from the idea of, I can impact my own life. I can affect my own outcome. But I think that before people even start thinking like that, there's enough people that live in this victim mode that everything that happens to me is bad, and I have no impact over my happiness, my success, my health, my relationship. It's just the world just keeps throwing me curve balls, and there's nothing I can do about it. How do you. How do you talk to that person?
Charlie Rocket
If that person was sitting beside me on a bench and we were talking and they were telling me all the bad stuff, I would probably, like, not coach them. I don't think they. They would need any coaching. I would. I would listen to them. I would probably agree with them that their life is in a pretty bad spot. And then I would gently steer because they don't need. They don't need a voice that's different. They need a voice that's familiar. And I would steer to maybe something that was bad that happened in the past and how did that work out? And I would give them a little bit of confidence, sense that they're still here. And, damn, you're really strong for making it through all this. Like, you're going through so much and, like, you're still here. It's like, okay. Then I would ask him, like, what do you feel like you deserve? Like, then I get them dreaming a little bit and go into the future because the present sucks. And once we go to the future a little bit and they start dreaming, their tone is going to change a little bit, and they're going to start thinking about hope because it's fun talking about the future and what they deserve. It's like, no, I deserve, like, money, and I deserve, like, these people to, like, stop giving me a hard time. I deserve actually not to have that boss. And then I'm like, like, like, what's the business? Or what are you going to do? And then I'm gonna be like, what if that's easy? And then I tell them a story about how, like, my artist, like, we had to put out 62 songs for our first top 10 record, and then my second artist, we put out about 62 songs, and every time we got to about 62 songs, like, we had a top 10 record in the country. I'm like, 62. That's pretty easy. Like, let's get to 62.
Scott Clary
Or the number.
Charlie Rocket
That's a number. It's like, once I put out 62, it's like, I can get to 62. I can count that. Thousands sound difficult, but 62 sounds easy. I'm like, what if you started this thing? What if it was easy? Like I said, I drove to every radio station and I passed out CDs every night. Like, that's not hard. Like, I just had to, like, do it. But it was, like, easy for me to get my dream. And once I get them into that dreaming mode, and then once I get them, like, feeling like it might be easy, and then once we kind of quantify, like, the path for that thing that they want, like, I want to open up a coffee shop. I was like, okay, I have an idea for you. Instead of you sitting in your coffee shop every day begging for a customer to come in, what if you, like, search the most viral videos of the most creative drinks on TikTok and you just remade those and, like, you didn't have them on the menu all the time, but, like, you just made them and, like, they might be on the menu for a day. So it's like, not all the time, but, like, you just have this, like, videos going viral and everybody's, like, knows your coffee shop is this, like, trendy coffee shop. And then you make, like, 30 of these drinks and you take it to the, you know, 20 businesses to the right, 10 businesses to the left, and you're just like, working this, like, three mile radius. Okay? There's a three mile radius of every business or every apartment complex here. Three mile radius. You spend the first hour of your day just making sure these people know you exist. Three miles. That's it. Everybody just needs to know you exist. That's not that hard. We can do three miles. We're gonna make a list of every business, every apartment, and we're gonna go have somebody pass out a flyer or hand out little samples, things like that. And it's like, next thing you know, your coffee shop is packed. All because you didn't sit in the coffee shop begging for a customer to come in. You made some viral drinks, you're showing up on everybody's algorithm, and then you went and passed out flyers or samples. It's not hard. What if it's that easy? Was that hard?
Scott Clary
Now, by the way, I was going to say, I love how we believe in the same outcome, but you're so much more positive about the way to get there. See, like when I say like everything you want is on the other other side of hard things, that pisses people off, that turns people off.
Charlie Rocket
But it's true though. It is hard. It's just. Am I going to tell myself it's hard?
Scott Clary
I understand it because the reality is
Charlie Rocket
like I wanted to do an Ironman, right? Is an Ironman hard? 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, then a full marathon. Is that hard?
Scott Clary
I'd say so, yeah. I say it's very hard.
Charlie Rocket
I got a coach. Coach gave me a training manual and a schedule type thing and it was so freaking complicated. And I looked at it and it was like, swim this many laps at this heart rate and then bike at this. At this heart rate and then do this at this heart rate and then do this at this heart rate. And I'm like, what the. This looks insanely hard. And I said, I need to simplify this. I zoomed all the way out and I looked at the bottom of the page and I said, how many hours a week is this training? And it came out to about 14 hours a week of Ironman training to do an Ironman. This for the whole thing. I was like 14 hours a week? Well, when I was eight, riding my bike for two hours a day on the weekend. We'd ride our bike all afternoon. Okay, so as an 8 year old, I was Ironman training and then running for two hours in a day. Well, like running around playing football, basketball with my friends, we would do that for like, like five hours. Like okay, so eight year old could train for an iron man because running for a couple hours is not that hard. And then swimming, going to the pool for a couple hours. Okay, so we're talking about When I was 8, I used to Iron man train. Two hours a day is not hard. That's 14 hours a week. So when I did my Ironman, I trained like an 8 year old. I'm like, I'm gonna go like run around the park for two hours. I did it when I was eight. Why can't I do it now? When we were kids, we played. Then we got older and we started working and then we worked out. Would you say work is easy or hard work? Work.
Scott Clary
It's hard.
Charlie Rocket
Hard working out even sounds hard.
Scott Clary
Sounds not fun.
Charlie Rocket
Play it sounds easy, right? So it's like as we get older, like we started working and then working out. But as a kid we played, we had imagination. We were not, we did not have a Measuring stick of reality. So we just wanted to seek happiness. We wanted to have fun.
Scott Clary
And that's, that's the way, just have fun. But that's the perspective shift.
Charlie Rocket
The reality is we lost all that though. We did, but it's still in us because we are kids still. We just, you know, we grew up, but we can still be kids. The reality is doing an Iron man is hard. I just told myself it was going to be easy and that's what made me actually show up.
Scott Clary
I want to ask you one last question that I ask everybody, but before I ask that, just tell people like where can they connect with you? I know you will eventually have a book out, but I think that's like a TBD or a TBA. What's the social website? YouTube, everything.
Charlie Rocket
My Instagram, that's my favorite place to hang out is at Charlie on Instagram.
Scott Clary
What are you excited about, dude? What are you excited about in the future? I mean, like, you know, you mentioned at the beginning you want to live like Forrest Gump, where when you're tired of one thing you just go on to the next thing.
Charlie Rocket
Absolutely.
Scott Clary
So what's the next thing for you?
Charlie Rocket
The next thing for me is I really want to experience true financial freedom. I haven't built a business in eight years since I left the music industry. I started a non profit. Technically it's a business, but I don't make money from it. I've helped a lot of kids with cancer. But now that the nonprofit is going, I'm like, I'm going to start some businesses. I'm excited. And the first business is actually going to be my book. And to me that's a business. It's going to be a three year at least three year business and I'm super excited about that. But when I was in the music industry, my best selling album was 1.1 million and we had probably sold over, I don't know, maybe like 30 million albums in total. And I want to beat that. I want to beat that with my book. I want to beat my high score. Business to me is like a sport. So I want to sell like over the next like 10 years. I would love to sell like 30 million books. I want to write a classic, I'm even designing my book to be a classic.
Scott Clary
If you could only pass on one lesson, like the most important lesson that's changed your life and you have to give that lesson over to the 20 year old Charlie Rocket. What is that lesson and why?
Charlie Rocket
Start your winner streak today right fucking now. Try to get to 20. Watch what happens. Watch how you change in just a day. And then see if you can get to a hundred in a day. And then get so addicted to looking at the winds. And notice how your shoulders go back. And notice how magnetic you get. And notice how the text messages that come in are blessings and the emails are blessings. And everything in your life starts. Everything changes. Get on a winning streak. You want to be a winner? Absolutely. Do you want to be a loser? No. Start. Stop looking at the losses. The losses are there, the wins are there. Also, count the wins. Watch what fucking happens. And then you'll be on this podcast in a year or so telling a crazy story.
Host: Scott D. Clary
Guest: Charlie Rocket
Date: February 19, 2026
This lively episode spotlights the remarkable journey and mindset of Charlie Rocket—a former Grammy-winning music manager, successful entrepreneur, philanthropist, and Nike athlete. Charlie shares his philosophy of "delusional optimism," recounts how he transformed setbacks into fuel for audacious dreams, and lays out practical frameworks for personal reinvention, fun-driven resilience, and winning in life and business. His infectious energy and unconventional wisdom inspire listeners to reprogram their thinking, embrace risks, and live their “good movie.”
[01:31]
[04:14], [05:29], [09:51]
[09:51]
[17:27]
[23:19]
[24:00], [26:55], [29:10], [83:51]
[48:49], [51:08]
[59:48]
[70:29], [74:37]
[81:01], [81:50]
On Writing Your Life’s Movie:
"Write a script of the good movie, and then let's go try to live that." – Charlie [06:25]
On Delusional Optimism: “I’m a delusional optimist. I am expecting a blessing to fall out of the freaking sky every day I wake up. But why? Because it’s a fun way of living.” – Charlie [24:00]
On the Brain/Heart Dynamic: “The brain is special. But if the brain is driving, it’s going to drive you straight into the valley of reality until you get so tired... eventually your brain is gonna look down at his heart and say, maybe we’ll try it your way this time.” – Charlie [60:10]
On Taking Big Shots:
“It takes the same amount of time to be mediocre as it does to be great.” – Charlie [55:17]
“Being delusional might be the secret to success.” – Charlie [59:03]
On Brainwashing for Good:
“If your hands are dirty, what do you do? So guess what I do—I wash my brain. What’s that called? Brainwashing. I brainwash myself in a delusional way to make sure my brain is thinking about all the good things that can happen.” – Charlie [63:50]
Charlie’s Core Message:
Start your “winning streak” immediately—count every win, however small, and let momentum, fun, and delusional belief recalibrate your life. Take bold, cannonball-sized action, let your heart lead, and refuse to let the brain’s fear dictate your dreams.
“Start your winner streak today right fucking now. Try to get to 20. Watch what happens. Watch how you change in just a day. And then see if you can get to a hundred in a day—and then get so addicted to looking at the wins... everything in your life starts. Everything changes.”
— Charlie Rocket [83:51]
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