Building Mindset Muscle with Elan Gelfand

0:00Mick:There's nothing like my American Express Platinum card. I love that I can earn hotel credits when I travel. I can also earn resi credits. So you know I'm hitting the restaurants everyone's talking about. Plus, with the digital entertainment credit, I'm even more excited to catch my favorite shows. All in all, I can access over$3 ,500 in annual value with benefits and eligible purchases across travel, entertainment, and more. Learn more at AmericanExpress.com slash explore dash platinum. Enrollment requirements, monthly, and other limits in terms apply. What were you doing with your life at 20 years old?

0:33Mick:What promises were you making? What decisions were you living out? I promise you were doing nothing like my guy, Elon G. If you're an employer, what is the modern employee you really want out of your company? I promise. It's not the traditional things that you're thinking, which is probably why you're struggling to recruit young talent. Ladies and gentlemen, this has been an amazing conversation and I can't wait for you to listen to it. So here we go. My guy, Elon G. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another exciting episode of Mick Unplugged. And today I've got a gem. We're talking about the host who has taken over 100 episodes and counting to turn ordinary mindsets into breakthroughs.

1:18Mick:He builds environments, breaks judgment, and ignites passion in all who listen. He is the voice behind abundant thinking. he is the thriving the inspiring the relentless my guy mr elon g elon how you doing today brother i'm doing good thank you for asking and thank you for the amazing intro i really appreciate it no always man always so we were literally just chatting and you were talking about how wild crazy cool and insane it is to like to meet someone with a similar passion a similar story a similar purpose. So, you know, I kind of want to open that floor and open that door. Let's talk about Elon G, man.

2:02Mick:Like for those that don't know, like what's your because, what's your purpose, what's your drive, what's your mission? I would say my because is my mom. So when I was about, I say eight years old, my parents got divorced and, you know, my dad, he had a good job. He was working very hard working person and he always, he went after what he wanted, right? Well, my parents got divorced. My mom was kind of left on her own. Obviously, she was never really the one with the job. So she took care of my brother and I. She worked minimum wage. And I have memories of waking up for middle school and she would have to wake up my brother.

2:38She'd feed him. She'd get him to school. Then she would come back just to let me sleep for like 20 extra minutes. She would take care of us, get us to school. Then she'd have to work her job or she was earning minimum wage, pay for all the stuff, pay for food. I have no clue, Mick. I have no clue how she did it. But But that is 100 % because I think a lot of my life revolves around the idea that I want to make sure that my mom, A, never has to go through that again, but also in the future with my kids, my wife, my family, that I can be the person there for them to be able to get them out of financial burden.

3:11I saw I was very hard on my mom and I had to make a hard choice, especially the last couple of years with the idea that, you know, I have the power, in my opinion, to help her, you know, have the conversations on the podcast, learn new things. You know, I'm young. I think it's it puts me in a good spot for people to want to teach me things, right, to mentor me. So just being able to learn from people, get as much as I can, you know, squeeze the sponge of information out of people. Yeah, I think that I am able to dictate the results of my life. And although I have zero proof, Mick, it's funny because I was thinking about this.

3:44I got some coffee today and I was thinking about it. You know, you and I are very similar in our upbringings and our background of wanting to help our mom. Right. But unlike you, you know, you've done the thing. But right now I'm in the progress. I'm trying to do it. The process. My apologies. I'm trying to do the thing. And although I have no evidence that this thing will work out, I think it's my obligation to help my mom. Wow, brother.

4:07Mick:One that's touching. Two, you say I've done the thing. But for those that don't know, Elon, tell everybody how old you are first, bro. I'm 20. I'm 20 years old. Yeah. So at 20, dude, I hadn't done the thing either. At 20, I was in college at the University of North Carolina and I was trying to do everything in my power to to make sure that I was the blueprint for my mom, my sister and my brother. My brother was two years old at the time. My sister was 16, so a junior in high school. And so I was working jobs to make sure that they had. I was making sure that I was creating a standard that everyone could be proud of.

4:57Mick:But I hadn't done the thing or figured the thing out. I mean, I'm 47 now and I probably still haven't figured the thing out. It's just working towards fulfilling that promise that I made to everyone. And so now that promise has evolved to my wife, kids and my tight circle. So I don't want you to feel like you have to have the thing figured out because you are doing much more at 20 than I was. You've got a hard reaching, far reaching podcast. You've created a mindset framework. Dude, I was I was just trying to make sure I was surviving at 20. So kudos to you for for continuing to do that. And I think folks that are listening to this that are my age will tell you, dang, Elon, you're doing it, brother.

5:45Mick:So so pat yourself on the back, accept these small victories because you are doing it. So kudos to you, man. Oh, dude, I appreciate the words. Thank you so much. And I know, I think you can attest to the idea that, you know, sometimes it's very tough and it feels lonely because you don't see the results right away. Right. They're not, I've been doing this thing for a couple of years. I think even when I was like junior in high school, same sophomore, like I always knew that this is going to be the thing, but it was a little bit hard for me to accept because I knew how hard the road would be. If that makes sense.

6:15Like I wanted to do it the ethical way and I wanted to make sure that I learned from the right people as well. So it was like, I had to make a choice and it sounds kind of like cliche and dramatic, but I really had to make a choice between me just, you know, I'm in college right now. I can just go get a normal job, get my degree, whatever. And it's good. And you know, my mom, like she's got her thing and she's going to be fine. Or I just dig my heels in and literally every single day work towards something every single day, just work as hard as I can. So the decision, you know, I made it, I'm going forward and one step at a time.

6:48And I think over the long term, I can do it. I really do, Mick.

6:51Mick:No, not can. You're going to do it. It's all about one foot in front of the other, one day at a time, focused on the right thing. Not the most popular thing, right? Not the low-hanging fruit thing. 100%. Oh, yeah. But the right thing. Life is never going to be easy. You know, I tell folks all the time, as business leaders, we create, you know, these business plans and these business strategies. And if they were all perfect, everybody in the world would be billionaire. Right. But life happens. And it's all about how do you adjust? Right. How do you fight through? How do you reorganize? How do you create new momentum?

7:35Mick:And that's what life is all about. So keep doing that because You're doing amazing. So, Elon, I want to go to abundant thinking. And when you decided that this was the message that you wanted to send out and share with the world because you felt like you had something to offer. Dude, one, I'm proud of you for doing that. Two, when did you know that that's what you were called? Yeah, great question. I would say kind of like I mentioned earlier, you know, in middle high school years, I kind of made a decision that I wanted to do more. And I tried out a lot of different things. There are a lot of like small little side hustles I was doing.

8:15And I was like, you know, maybe this is going to work. Maybe this is going to be the thing. But I had a realization that a lot of times people pitch an idea that's not true. You know, a lot of times you see people like get rich quick schemes, all these things. And like you might be able to make some money in the short term. That's not my goal at all. So after trying, and I wouldn't say failing, but just trying a bunch of different things out, I was like, okay, what is something that I can do that will be very worthwhile in the long term? Maybe even I've had a deep-rooted belief in my life that no matter the people that get the good results in life do it for a reason.

8:52I used to look at Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos. I'm like, okay, there's no way they just got lucky. Maybe some people, they were born to a good family, but there's just no way that every single person who's ever done something amazing just got a good hand dealt. So I started looking into it and I really established the belief that, you know what, there has to be some good insights out there on how I can be the person to achieve these high level things. And that's what I set out to do. And I thought about it. I had some different ideas, but I was okay. One, I like talking as you can tell. Two, I always value wisdom from people.

9:24I mean, every single time my grandpa would sit me down, he'd tell me something. My dad, I always keep it in the back of my head. Like a lot of people, they'll hear something and it's like, oh yeah, I mean, that's a cool insight. They don't really take it to heart. For me, I was always listening to people, always trying because listen, especially like I started when I was a freshman in college, what do I know? I don't know anything. And there's people who've had careers that are like four times longer than my entire life at that time. You know what I mean? So I wanted some really good wisdom from people.

9:48And it gave me a good excuse to reach out to people. I think that I was thinking what I would want it to be. If I had a podcast, what would I talk about? And the idea of a podcast that is kind of more like Joe Rogan style, where you kind of just talk about your life, you make some different touch points, never really appealed to me too much because I wanted to know very certain things. It's like, okay, listen, you train, you're a UFC fighter. How did you get there? What's your mindset? How do you do that? That's insane. You're a top level coach? What does it take to do this? I wanted those very specific questions because I think those are the silver nuggets that process more in my brain and make me think, oh, wait a second.

10:25I had this one UFC fighter on my podcast who said that you should always bet on yourself. And then I actually had a coach who said that she finds out that you should bet on yourself. So I'm like, wait a minute, there's some overlap there. And once that started happening, I was like, you know what? I think mindset would be a really good idea because I believe mindset is where everything starts. I can have the most skills. And actually, I will say I did. So I played soccer for 13 years. I mean, that's a long time, right? But I didn't have a good mindset. And I did not perform to the best of my abilities because there were so many things hindering my performance.

10:59So I thought about it and I'm like, listen, you can have so much experience in a field, but if your mindset isn't good enough, it's going to be hard for you to thrive, in my personal opinion. However, on the contrary, if you have a really good mindset, you're just doing amazing things, but your skill level is low, I believe that mindset can allow you to increase your skill level and open up new opportunities for yourself. And also, just different, I guess, small, because mindset's a big word, right? But different small increments of mindset is so important. Like, for example, self-doubt. It's like, listen, I played soccer for 13 years, but I always doubted my abilities.

11:30Whenever I'd see all the opponents in front of me, I'd be like, oh my God, this guy's faster than me. And even my teammates, I remember every single game, I know the captains, like the teammates would be like, oh dude, like that guy, number 41, One, he's really quick. Watch out for him. And that would automatically make me feel like, okay, I'm not quick enough. You know, he's quicker than me. So all of these different things. But now that I'm doing this podcast, I started it with a high mindset, kind of like we're talking about, but low skill. And I feel like over time, it's gotten better. And, you know, I feel like I have such a ruthless mindset towards the things that I do that it's allowed me to create opportunities that myself five years ago would never believe.

12:03I mean, even doing this, Mick, like this is such an honor to be on your show. And I never would have imagined that I can do this.

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12:48Mick:Chime is not just smarter banking. It is the most rewarding way to bank. Join the millions already banking fee-free. Head to chime.com slash mick. That is chime.com slash m-i-c-k. It only takes a few minutes to sign up. Chime is a fintech, not a bank. Banking services for MyPay and Chime card provided by Chime's bank partners. Optional products and services may have fees or charges. Stated annual percentage yield and cashback for Chime Prime only. No minimum balance required. For more information on APY rates, MyPay, SpotMe, and Travel Perks, go to chime.com slash disclosures. I like it. You know, Elon, one of the things that I admire about you just, you know, being a follower of you and seeing you on social and YouTube is your consistency.

13:25Mick:And I always tell people consistency breeds discipline. So talk about the consistency that's needed, not even for content creation, but just in life. Talk to people about that a little. Yeah. Oh, man, I think consistency is everything. And I've had a mentor of mine. He tells me I might butcher this a little bit, but he tells me that consistency creates discipline and discipline is like what makes you successful. Right. Especially over the long term. I think for me, this is also another good thing I forgot to mention. But when I first started my podcast, I set a contract with myself. I said, OK, I'm going to do this thing for two years.

13:59It was December 2023 at the time. So I got a couple of months off of my contract. But I said, OK, listen. And if whatever I do, because I was thinking, you know, I did all those side hustles, I did those things and I wanted to do something that was going to be years and take me a while and it was hard work. So I said, okay, I want to do something that I'm going to do every single week for two years, non-negotiable. And then only after two years can I decide if it's for me or not. You know, obviously there's a lot of push and pull with that because at any time, like it is me, I could just be like, yeah, whatever, I'm done.

14:27But I don't do that to myself, right? doing it every single week. I mean, it's one of the hardest things that I found, but the most worthwhile successes. When you can be consistent in your craft, it doesn't seem like much at the time, right? It's like, okay, this week I'll upload. And the next week comes around and you're like, oh man, got to knock out this episode. So you get the other episode done. And then you look back after a year and you're like, wow, I've got a lot of episodes. And even right now I'm at like 111 episodes and it's like it's crazy you know you start at zero you build this thing over time and time and it gets bigger and bigger and i think one of my biggest inspirations for staying consistent is how many of my guests tell me it's like hey if you want to be good at this thing the world's best they do it consistently they do it every week they do it every day etc elon brother

15:10Mick:you know you don't have you don't have the vocabulary you don't have the mindset you don't have the complacency of a lot of people you're in. And so I want to talk to our listeners and viewers personally right now. You're 20 years old, right? For the parents that are listening or watching this episode, what are some things that they can be doing with their children that are in that, I'm going to call it 13 to 20, 21 year old stage? What are the conversations that they should be having? What does it look like? What can they be doing? That's a great question, Mick. I would say, and I read a really good book about this.

16:00It wasn't about this, but it was included. It was just this idea that I think a lot of times, especially people my age, you know, they're going into like corporate jobs and they're doing all these things and they're just dragging. And actually this episode is really good timing because yesterday I, I'll say surveyed for those of you guys not watching the video, I'm kind of like putting my hands up, like I surveyed 40 of my friends and I asked them like, what's their biggest mindset struggle? And a lot of them said that they just feel misaligned that, you know, they don't know their why they don't know why they're here.

16:30They don't know like what their purpose is on this earth. And you know, it hurts a lot to hear that because it's people you care about. Right. And it's especially from someone like me, I feel like I did find my purpose. I love talking about mindset. I totally think I can teach this, right? It's tough to see it. I would say the thing that's allowed me to find the passion is having the opportunity to explore. I asked my friends that said, hey, I never found my passion. I don't know what I'm here for. I said, do you try new things or do you kind of just like, you know, stay stuck? Not like in a accusatory manner, but I'm like, hey, like out of all the things you do, like how many things are you trying?

17:03Are you ever like talking to people, et cetera? And they're like, no, not really. And I think for the parents that have kids, you said 13 to 20 years old, I think it's A, allowing them freedom to discover themselves. And this is very like, I'm 20 years old. I have a lot of wisdom and a lot of time to come in the next years. So it's hard for me to say an exact answer, but I would say the thing that's worked for me, so I'll just attest to myself, is just having the freedom to find the thing that I liked. And also I will say in a way, the situation that I was put in with my mom has allowed me to excel.

17:42And I understand that not everybody has the pressure behind them. And our mutual friend, Dr. Haley Perla, she says, pressure is a privilege, which is just, oh my God. I mean, I tell all my friends about it and I totally agree, but it's kind of thinking about, honestly, the worst case scenario helps me. It's like when I'm not feeling like I can do the thing. It's like, okay, well, if I'm not going to do the thing, that means I'm not going to get my end goal. And then my mom's going to remain in the same situation. Then same thing with my kids, right? It's like extrapolating it. That's the thing that works for me.

18:08So I would say maybe even creating a situation in where you feel a little bit pressured to do the thing, because a lot of people nowadays, I don't want to use the word robot, but a lot of them are just going through the motions and it's hard to see because it's hard to get to a certain point in your life if you never really dig your heels in and work as hard as you can. But I think people don't understand it. But the TLDR, I would say, sorry for talking so much, Mike, is just allow them to find their passion. I mean, that's huge. And also, maybe even understanding how their passion can lead to bigger things.

18:43Like one of my friends, I'm an overly optimistic guy, I'll admit, right? One of my friends, he's like, you know, I'm doing finance as a major. But if he asked me the question, he's like, what would you do if money didn't matter? And I asked the question and then he said, he's like, yeah, you know, honestly, I'd be like an artist or a writer and I'm overly optimistic. So in my brain, I think to myself, I'm like, well, why can't you do that? Right. And boom, you can list a thousand reasons why you can't, but I totally, I totally believe that it is possible no matter the person you are. So, you know, going after your dreams.

19:09And the thing is you don't have to go all in, you don't have to drop out of school and become an artist, but you can do both the same time. You know, I'm a student, but I also run the podcast and I have my community. So it's like, you know a lot of the people that I spoke to my podcast they mentioned that you know I was doing the thing for a while and then once it caught up to how much I was making for my job or when I thought it was the right time to like leave the other place that's what I did and then it kind of went up I dig that man are there any what's like one or two questions that can spark a conversation

19:39Mick:between parent and child what are a couple of questions that you know Elon wishes his mom would have asked or you know you've had friends and they've said you know if we could just have a conversation about x like what would that look i think it's harder the younger you are it's harder but especially people around my age i'd be like what's the thing that kind of makes you excited to get up which sounds very cliche you know no i did it though yeah that's what i'm saying you know a lot of the things that are cliche people will say it's cliche i just said it's cliche but it's cliche because it applies like a lot of people they find out they have the same insights on things right and for me it's like you know a asking what's the thing that makes them tick and then b is how can you get that how can you do the thing you know like a lot of people can be like oh yeah i like my friend he said i want to be an artist i want to be a writer then my second question would be like okay well how can you do it in a manner that can make you semi-successful to where i understand like he's not he might not be a vincent van gogh he's not gonna you know have all these amazing art pieces but like how how can you know that you know you can't it's tough because I think people give up on themselves faster than I give up on them.

20:44Right. Like they're like, no, like I don't want to be an artist. And I'm like, yeah, but why? And they're like, because it's not worth it at the time. And I'm like, I understand, but what if you do this? Like I'm always trying to find solutions for people. Right. And you know, for better or for worse, but I really believe that people can chase and go after the things they really want. And it's going to take a lot and a lot of work and it's going to be super hard. But I mean, there have been people in worse situations than you who've done better for themselves. So why can't you be that person? I love that, man.

21:11Mick:I love that so much, Elon. So now I want to go next level. So we just talked to the parent. But at some point, Elon, maybe not you because you're an entrepreneur at heart. But for most 20 to 25 to 27-year-olds, you're going to go work for someone else. Sure. And the modern employee is much different than when I was coming into the work. And I don't necessarily mean younger. I just mean modern. We have much more information at our hands. We have different visions because society is different. You know, when I was coming up, Elon, and I was getting ready to apply for jobs, one of the first three questions when it was my turn to ask questions was always going to be about the benefits package in retirement.

22:02Mick:What does that look like? I'm going to gander, Elon, and you can tell me if I'm wrong. But I don't think a 401k or a pension is in your top three questions when you're looking at employment. Right. Am I wrong or am I right? When you ask, are you saying for me or for people my age? For people your age. Like, I don't think because my kids are in your age. They don't think about 401k. Right. Like it might be something they care about, but it's not top three. Right. Like my kids care more about. Talk to me about the culture. Talk to me about, you know, how do you promote? Talk to me about what my goals are.

22:46Mick:Like, be very clear about what you want me to do and how I succeed. I think as modern employees, those become the things that are more important because at the end of the day, benefits packages are going to be roughly the same. Right. At most places, I know that there are people listening and watching. And yes, I know that there are different tiers of benefits. That's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying to the modern employee, that's not as important as we think. So, Elon, I'd love for you to elaborate. Yeah, I would agree with you. I'd say a lot of people my age definitely don't think about retirement packages and 401ks, especially once they graduate college, because it seems like it's so far in the future.