Mario Armstrong: Why You Can't Stand Out by Standing Still

0:00You can't stand out and stand still at the same time. You cannot stand out and stand still at the same time. So what does that require? It requires motion. We need the motion.

0:14Mick:Welcome to Mick Unplugged, the number one podcast for self-improvement, leadership, and relentless growth. No fluff, no filters, just hard-hitting truths, unstoppable strategies, and the mindset shifts that separate the best from the rest. Ready to break limits? Let's go.

0:38Mick:Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Mick Unplugged. And today we have someone who I call my blueprint. He likes to say he was the spark, but we'll debate that live in person. But he is an Emmy Award winning disruptor who turned motivation into movement, blending tech, media, and mindset into a formula of unstoppable success. We're talking about going from NBC to Never Settle. He's living proof that your dreams don't have deadlines. He's magnetic. He's relentless. He's game-changing. He is the blueprint of Mick Unplugged. We're talking to none other than Mr. Mario Armstrong. Mario, how you doing today?

1:18Let's go. Let's go. Oh, the intro alone sets the tone. You do this so well on your podcast for all your guests, obviously. And your team is really well researched. I can tell like you put in the production and the investment into not just the quality of it, but the technical quality of it, but the conversational quality of it. And that requires research and energy and time. So thank you for that. And thank you for having me here.

1:46Mick:So you're saying thank you, but I'm holding up a mirror. Right. Because you should be thanking you. You know, when I told you that you were the blueprint, man, like, yeah, having conversations, I naturally do that. I'm a business owner. I own three businesses. So networking, having conversations is all that. But there's a blueprint to this success in media, man. And so when I said I researched Mario, I studied Mario. It's because the things that people don't see on camera that make you dynamic. Yes, you're brilliant on camera. I totally know that. Right. But authentically, you were you and you care.

2:24Mick:You didn't know that you were my blueprint, but you give enough information for free. You give enough from your heart that people that just spend a moment with you grasp so much. And I just wanted to publicly thank you for that. I appreciate that because I feel like it's just been kind of me. But what's also happened is I've recognized that vulnerability is currency. And it's hard for people to get to certain levels of vulnerability because then you have to deal with yourself. And the more willingness that you are to go into that zone of uncomfort or that zone of potential embarrassment, because that's really what it is.

3:03You're afraid of failing in front of people or you're afraid of being embarrassed. The more you start to find that you will gravitate and the people that are looking for you will find you. because if that vulnerability is sincere, if it's real, if it's not a marketing tactic, if that vulnerability is sincere, like, Hey, y 'all like case in point, I'm writing a book right now, my first book. And I'm writing this book and I've been wanting to write a book for 10 years and start, stop, start, stop, start, stop. This one just flowing out of me. I almost had to reschedule this podcast. Cause it's, it's, it's, I'm like, I'm like moving meetings because it is, I don't want to stop it.

3:42I am on chapter 10 already. It is flowing out of me like crazy. And the reason why I'm bringing this up is because I'm even telling people, even in my most recent post on my Instagram, I'm like, I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know how this is going to work. This is completely unknown. I'd much rather prefer to be on a stage. I know many of you may be scared of that. I'd much rather be on a stage. I am a verbal communicator, not a writer communicator. And so this is a weakness of mine, but you know what? It's uncomfortable. I might get embarrassed, but I got to do it. So that vulnerability, that truth that I'm willing to share publicly is also helping people that want to find this type of motivation or this type of energy to come to it because it's real.

4:28So whatever that is for some of your listeners and some of your viewers, whatever that vulnerability is, start touching that line. Whatever feels uncomfortable whatever you've been hiding whatever you were teased at as a kid i was in detention for talking not mario tension for talking didn't know how good talking would take care of me later but detention for talking didn't understand the power of it as an oral communicator at that time so the vulnerability will help you with the transparency and that transparency to me is the new currency.

5:04Mick:I wholeheartedly agree. You know, I also am writing a new book. And one of the things that in my book is about modern leadership. And I, in this book, I talked to leaders about how for the modern employee, transparency is the new currency. Transparency is the new 401k. Wait, hold on. How do you, how do you, this is genius of you. How do you get an employee inside of a system that is known for not rewarding transparency to be transparent? Or I guess the better question is, you're probably not trying to convince the employee, you're probably trying to convince the leader. So what's like a tip or a strategy?

5:42How does that work?

5:44Mick:One, you've got to change those mission and vision statements that your employees don't even know what they are anymore. They don't believe in a shared vision. You've got to start with telling your team what your core values as a leader are, right? Forget what the company is. I might work for IBM. That might be who's signing the check, but I work for Mario. I need to know what Mario believes in. I need to know what Mario stands for. And as a leader, if I can be transparent about my core values, now I've got an employee, someone that I lead, who, by the way, is also a leader, right? They're also a leader in their home and their community.

6:22Mick:If I can be transparent about what I stand for, I'm building that currency with them. That's you're talking about a leader's personal mission statement. That's crazy good. Right. Right. Because again, I might work for IBM, but I work with Mario. Right. And if I'm going to follow Mario's vision, I need to know why that's his vision. I need to know what he stands for. And the only way to do that is to start. That's the first part of transparency, right? The second part is I've got to listen to you and what's important to you, right? If Mario's my leader, he needs to listen to me. And this episode is about Mario.

7:04Mick:I don't know why Mario's being Mario inserted on me. I love it, by the way. But that's the key. Transparency is the new currency. Transparency is what this modern employee wants. I can trust you. The modern employee doesn't care about a pension or a 401k because in their mind now they're trying to be an entrepreneur a leader too and they're probably not going to be with mario long term if mario if mario is a great leader he's building another leader correct right and so correct my kids don't care about 401ks brother i can promise you my kids that that's great but i need i need to know what mario stands for because if i'm working with mario i need to know mario is going to stand with me Mick, this is good, man.

7:45This is really, wow. Yeah. And that's why I turned the tables because here I am, I'm talking about it from a personal development, from a personal branding perspective, like the individual media company owner, that's also the brand and, and how, how I've been leaning into that layer of uncomfort. Like, you know, when it's uncomfort, when your father calls you and she's like, you sure you wanted to post something like that? Why would you tell people you're broke? Like why people think you're doing very well for yourself. Why would you tell people you're broke? And I'm like, dad, because it's the story.

8:23You were once broke too. You just, you didn't have the tools at the time. Maybe you would have communicated it, but maybe in your generation, it was better to keep that stuff hidden in mine. I'm more willing to talk about it because I feel like it will empower other people. And I want people to see that it was documented. Like I show my bank account when I was broke. It's in the book.

8:41Mick:Negative$77, right? You know it very well. Yes, sir. Oh man. Yeah. And that's why I love and respect you like I do, man, because you are transparent and you give people actionable insights, right? Like I'm a believer in, I can't do more than three things, right? Like if there's a process that's like 10 steps, I'm not going to do it because I can only focus on three at a time. But Mario, that's how you break things down, man. So I would love, let's talk to the viewer, to the listener that they know that they need to get uncomfortable, but they like the comfort. They like those benefits, right? Like they like that corporate ladder, but that uncomfort is eating at them and they know that they're ready to make that step.

9:29Mick:I love to talk about your journey and then give people advice through your journey of how you decided to take action and do it. Yeah. And I think one of the worst things that a human being can go through is knowing what they're actually gifted at, but not pursuing it. And, and that's either because they're choosing or they haven't been exposed to it yet, or they're refusing to answer the call that's being placed to them. And so when I decided to pick up the phone that was calling for me and, and it's an uncomfortable phone call and you're like, okay, should I actually do this? Should I leave this job?

10:00Should I make this decision? I got a child. I got a wife. I got a house. We got things. So you're clearly thinking about the responsibilities of what you're about to do. So what I decided to tell people and what I think works well for people I've coached is I look at it at 11 minutes at a time. I look at 11 minutes at a time. I don't look at what's the overall vision. Sure, I need to know where I'm going. What's my GPS? What's my destination? But what happens when people put the GPS out or the vision out, it is so daunting. If you're ambitious, it's big. And if you know what it truthfully is, it's scary.

10:40Even if it's not huge, it's still scary because you're in that comfort like you put. So when you hit that vision, it can feel like, ah, it's a big mountain. I don't know how I'm going to climb it. So what I say is, okay, know what the big mountain is, but tell me what are you going to do in the next 11 minutes? What can you do in 11 minutes? Can you read an article? Can you write up an email? Can you come up with a prospect list? Like, what can you do in 11 minutes? That's all. I'm not saying leave the job right now and jump off and grow the wings on the way down. I'm saying, what can you do in 11 minutes?

11:17And if you were to do that repeatedly in the aggregate, you will start to see your plan, your strategy. And what happens is, as you know, the universal law of motion kicks in. And when you start moving in a certain direction and you're committed to it, even in small doses that are consistent, the universe will start to bring you things that you think are now just happening out of circumstance or just luck. And so I, I believe that every 11 minutes informs the next 11 minutes. So I feel like that's what I did. I started looking at how do I keep my day job and start the side hustle and how do I do it?

11:57At that time, I wasn't calling it the 11 minute framework. At that time it was just small bits of momentum. How can I get them? I used to call them green lights. Like I just want to get a green light. How do I just get another green light? If I get a red or yellow, how do I shift and see if I can turn the corner and get another green light? But then after years of looking at this, I'm like, it's been these micro moments of strategic focus that has actually gotten you to this mindset that no matter which vision or thing or idea or project you want to go after, you know that if you give it 11-minute consistency, it will happen.

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14:30Mick:Go to butcherbox.com slash mick to get$20 off your first box, plus your choice of free ribeye, New York strip, or filet mignon in every box for a year with free shipping always. That's butcherbox.com slash mick. Again, that's butcherbox.com slash mick. Be sure to use our link so they know we sent you. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So I just wrote this down. I'm going to have a team meeting with one of my companies, and we're totally doing a shift to talk about the 11-minute framework and the 11-minute track. I love that so much. I'm going to borrow that. You're welcome to it, man. And when the book's ready, you can get the whole framework in the book.

15:09Mick:Oh, well, absolutely. We're going to definitely buy the book and distribute the book for you, too. So that's a no-brainer. So Mario, man, I've always wanted to ask you this. When did this start? When did you know that this was you? You talked about detention for talking, right? Like, when did you know that this was going to be you, Mr. Baltimore's finest himself? When I showed up at my little brother's Little League game with a handheld mic and this camcorder-like thing. No, no. I didn't even have a camcorder-like thing. I just had the handheld mic and told my mom to take a picture. We didn't have a video camera.

15:52I just told her. And I have this picture. Oh, you know what? I got to include that picture in the book. But he's in his full Little League gear, everything, hat, tights, everything. And I'm sitting there with a microphone in this, I think I had on jam shorts and a red shirt. And I think at that moment, I realized I like to talk about what people are pursuing. I like to, I'm curious. That's really, it wasn't that I like to talk. It was that I like to ask questions. and that curiosity led me to more questions which made it seem like I like to talk and so I think at that age my mom will also say that I like to figure out how things worked she's got this story where she spent all her teacher's salary working hard for Christmas one year and got me this remote control car and apparently I love this car and I remember it so vividly, the firefox.

16:48I remember it. And apparently, I do not remember this. Apparently, at some point, I decided to take the damn thing apart. And I said, Mom, something was wrong with it then, right? And she said, No, it was perfectly fine. You were just so damn curious. It took everything for me to not lose it. So I said, Oh, so this was the engineer in me wanting to know what's working, but I wasn't really wanting to be the engineer. I wanted to communicate what the engineers were doing or what they were seeing. And then it was, oh, the engineer of everyone's life, of everyone's dream, of everyone's passion. If I saw someone doing something that I was admired or inspired by, I'm now in engineer mode.

17:32How did you do it? What were your thoughts? How did you get over the objection? What about when your friends told you that ain't cool? Like I wanted to know. So I didn't know that years of this was being embedded in me of this level of curiosity and having all of this data from individuals that I have been interviewing, meeting, hanging with all this time. And then recognizing that I belong on the radio. I think I belong interviewing people. I belong on TV, having conversations. How do I do that with no degree? I was pursuing communications as my degree, but then a local gangster in West Virginia decided to target the skinny, curly-headed freshman from Baltimore at an off-campus party and then brought everything, including guns, to campus, shootouts.

18:22It's drama at the highest level, really could have died, and left in my second semester and then tried to reenter into college. You ever been thrown off your track and you never get back on the same track again?

18:37Mick:Yeah. So that was the story of my life. And I was trying to figure out, okay, how am I going to do this without a college degree? And so that's where this idea of, one, do you believe in it? Two, how are you going to get small moments of experience? and so then that that turned into let me see if i can i saw i saw uh a possibility to host my own show and i was like let me let me let me call this station to see what's up with this and i called the station and they were like yeah it's going to cost you 800 for a half hour and i was like okay if i find a sponsor to sponsor that we can do this right they're like yeah i'm like all right what are the times available they're like thursday at noon 12 to 12 30 i was like, put me down.

19:22Give me a couple of months. I'll be back. It took me like three weeks. I called up some tech companies in the local area in Baltimore, had one within like three calls that was like, sure. They were spending a lot of money on training and certifications. And so they had a reason to really put some money out there for a show around tech, which was my show. And I basically used that 30 minute show that was in Annapolis, Maryland, that was about 20 minutes from my day job near BWI airport. And I would fly from, from my, uh, office from the, from the day job, go down, do host this half hour show and come back and always be late from lunch.

19:58And so that was my training. So that, then what happens is once you start doing something that you are actually gifted at and you start working on it, then you want to take it bigger. So I'm like, I got to go from AM to FM. And then I'll go, how do I go from FM to NPR? And then I'm like, How do I go from NPR to TV? And so it started like that. And that's when I realized like, oh, this is a real thing. I just need to build up my own experience and credibility so that people can see the potential.

20:26Mick:Man, I love that. And I want to unpack a couple of things because what I know about Mario Armstrong is this. You freaking dominated Baltimore, right? You can't go into the city of Be More and people not know who Mario Armstrong is. And so I always tell entrepreneurs and people that think they're influencers this. If you can't dominate your hometown or where you live, you are never going to make it on a national level because people are going to fact check you. And they're not fact checking you to find something wrong. But like, hey, if I have friends, if I have business partners in Baltimore, hey, do you know Mario Armstrong?

21:10Mick:What can you tell me about him? Is that somebody I want to do business with? Right. Like if your hometown doesn't love you or the city that you live in, wherever you live now, if they don't love you, and I'm talking about from city councilman to the school systems to the true local community, if they don't know who you are, you're never going to grow as big as you think you can. And I tell people it's easy because most people aren't active in their community. People aren't trying to be the voice and they're not consistent. Yep. Right. You did that. So for the viewers and listeners, talk about that strategy.

21:46Mick:And more importantly, why is it important to dominate where you live? You are unlocking some stuff right here because this is golden. What you're talking about is because our thinking today is that we should instantly try to go national. We should use our social media. We should use the internet. We should try to go national because we've seen other people go national. So we assume, but have you done research on them? Are they known locally? Are they known regionally? Now, every once in a blue moon, you're going to have somebody that popped. Absolutely. And they didn't have time. Their destiny was already set up.

22:27They didn't have to do that. But most of us, we have to do that. And so here's a quick strategy. I want all your experts, every last listener that you have is an expert, whether that's in money, in finance, personal development, public speaking, running a company, entrepreneurship, leadership. you all have expertise. You're underestimating the power of local television by going on local TV as a local expert for topics that would be relevant to that audience. Completely underestimating. And what's great about that is it's wide open for you. Yes. Because nobody else is thinking about it. They think it's beneath them or they think it's like not going to help them.

23:10That was the stepping coming stone to national national doesn't happen unless I actually go to WMAR TV, ABC two in the local market. And I went to the station and I said, my name's Mario Armstrong. I have a podcast on technology. I would like to talk about tech on the morning news for free. I don't want any money. Your viewers need to be educated on this. And here's why. And the reception is like, I can't make that decision for you. And I'm like, who can? So she's like, hold tight. I'll get the producer and I'll get the director. And next thing you know, I'm having a meeting with the local GM because they're accessible.

23:52Mick:Correct. And if your expertise is really good, or if you really want to do this and really increase your odds, bring a corporate sponsor with you. for the station to have 70 % of the revenue. Right. You keep 30. I mean, if you need to make money doing this, then don't take that piece of advice. But if you're already making money and you're looking for more influence, more authority, more credibility in the marketplace, then you want to remove every obstacle possible to get in. And I'm telling you, if you email these people or better yet, go to the station, tell them who you are, that you're willing to do, that you would like to do a segment for free.