Episode 92: How Mario Armstrong learned to Never Settle

The full episode transcript is below.

Today on Beyond 6 Seconds.

So for me it was always: How do I get to something bigger, not how do I reach a destination? There is no destination. If you’re ambitious, and you really have a purpose and a drive, there are just constant milestones to achieve.

Welcome to Beyond 6 Seconds, the podcast that goes beyond the six seconds first impression to share the extraordinary stories and achievements of everyday people. I’m your host, Carolyn Kiel.

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On today’s episode, I’m speaking with Mario Armstrong. Mario is a two-time Emmy Award winner, digital lifestyle expert, entrepreneur, TV host, public speaker, and motivator for the modern world. He delivers tactical advice to inspire people to take action towards pursuing their goals, dreams and passions. He’s the host of the Never Settle Show and NBC Today Show contributor, appears on Dr. Oz, Steve Harvey, NPR, Inside Edition, and more, and is a public speaker with Daymond John’s Shark Group’s Speaking Division. Mario’s new daily podcast entitled, “Wake Up And Level Up,” kick starts your day and under five minutes with a jolt of inspiration, advice and personal growth formulas. It recently became a top 200 podcast on the iTunes self help charts, and it’s in the top 10% of all podcasts around the country. Mario, Welcome to the podcast.

Carolyn I am super excited to be here right now. I’ve been waiting to be on Beyond 6 Seconds. I want to go beyond my six seconds. I’m excited.

Wonderful. Yes, I am so excited to go beyond 6 seconds with you as well. So you’re frequently introduced as a digital lifestyle expert. Tell me a little bit about what does that mean? And how did you become interested in digital technology?

Becoming interested in digital technology really started as a child. So as a kid growing up, I really wanted to understand television and how it worked. I liked seeing people on camera, I thought what they did was just fascinating to me. And then I didn’t understand like, how all this was like work and like I knew there were cameras, and I knew there was production, and I knew there were people. But I was just like, how do you break into it? What do you got to do to get there? And how do you become that person? And so gadgets and devices kind of caught my attention early on, and I was always that kid, trying to take things apart and then put it back together. Not always with the best success rate my parents would say, but nonetheless, they supported me to my curiosity, even though I think that got cut off when I really destroyed the stereo. That was a big one for them. Okay, you got to learn more, you got to get educated before you start messing with the big stuff. But yeah, so I think, you know, I became interested in things that lit up, or buzz or things that were involved in communication, and allowed people to connect with a mass of people. And I thought that was really appealing. So that’s kind of, I think, when I first discovered what industry I would want to be in, I think, as an early on, kid, I love talking to people. I love socializing with people. I love connecting with others. And I loved whenever I could, to try to be a light bulb for someone else, and educate people. So I think, you know, the combination of the technology, interest and curiosity mixed with the outgoing kind of personality and expressive kind of self, and just wanting to be a people person. I kind of found later in life that people were really getting confused on what technology means, where it’s going, how they can use it, and this is going back, like 10 plus years or at least 10 years. And that’s where I was like, oh, peanut butter and jelly. Like, I came up with this formula back then and didn’t even know what it was called, I just caught it. I was like, Oh, I’m gonna mix two things that don’t normally go together and try to make something out of it. So I was like, I’m gonna figure out how to go on radio and TV and talk about technology to help educate the masses, on how they can use it to pursue their goals, achieve their passions, or just make the right decision and not waste money.

That’s so cool. Yeah, sometimes that’s the best way to find your place in the world is combine two or three interests or skills or passions in ways that really haven’t been done commonly. So it sounds like you really did that. That is awesome!

Yeah, it really is a thing that I really have adopted, and actually have now incorporated into a lot of the practices, the virtual mentorship, and the TV shows, and the web series, and the YouTube show that’s launching in January. Like we’ve now, a lot of these things that I was doing early on in my career, and has helped get us to certain places, we’ve looked back at some of those. And we were like, “Oh, what’s that three ask formula you were doing back then?” Oh, right. I take it for granted that I created this thing where like, don’t ask a person one question, ask them three. And make sure you have like a easy no brainer thing for them to say yes to; a middle of the road, one that may be a little bit more work; and then your dream ask, because the goal is to try to get one yes out of three questions, as opposed to getting maybe one no because you gave one question. So it’s like little things like that, that I think kind of helped me along my way that I totally didn’t pay a lot of attention to that. I realized now looking back, were really instrumental in carving out the path.

That’s really interesting. Yeah, because I think a lot of times finding opportunities, it’s a numbers game, so you do have to ask quite a lot and you will get a lot of nos and a lot of rejections, but you really only need a couple of those yeses to move forward and really build out your path.

And for the most part, people ask one question, when they do that. That’s why I also think that it takes longer. If you were to ask the person, you know, maybe you need funding, and that’s your ultimate goal, but maybe you just need them to sit down with you for 10 minutes to go over your plan, and get some advice. Or maybe the middle of the ask is, can we have dinner and you bring this particular person to that dinner? Or like, maybe it’s, Can you make this introduction? Not just, Hey, I’m looking to present this thing. Can we set a time on your calendar to get this done? Like that? It’s, if they say No, you’re dead, right? Don’t just ask for one, ask for three. Be very specific in your asks, and make sure that one is very easy for them to say yes to and then the other two can be higher levels of difficulty with the third one being your ultimate dream ask.

I just did this same thing and I told my son, I was like, he’s an aspiring film composer and we had a chance to meet an alumni from his school that he’s going to now which happens to be an actor, and his name is Lance Reddick. Now, Lance Reddick is an actor from “The Wire” and a bunch of other movies, most notably, I would say, probably the John Wick series movies, where he’s like the hotel concierge. And I said, do research on this guy. He does research, finds out he had a film, not only a film acting background, but like music background as well, and that they shared a love for jazz and some other things. So I said, Dude, you know what you have to do now? Put together your three ask letter. Like you’re not gonna walk up on him and say, Hey, I’m Christopher Armstrong. I really am aspiring film composer. I want to break into the industry, what advice you have for me? No. Huh? I don’t really know how to help you kid, I want to help you. So he put together his three ask, along with a paragraph about who he is, and what his accomplishments to date have been. And it took the guy a week, but a week later, this guy actually did a ton of work. Within that week, he’s like, I can connect you with this person. You should research them. This one, I’m not too sure. But we’re going to try in terms of getting you a day to shadow someone on set. I don’t know, but I’m going to work on it. Like he put in these very specific asks. And not everybody responds the same way. But this guy did respond to all three asks.

Wow, that’s really powerful. Yeah, the three ask system. Yeah, I think a lot of people struggle to even put together one ask. So it’s great advice to really think through and be specific about…

That’s why it helps, because we are so putting so much pressure, like what’s the one thing to ask? No, just ask them three and it relieves the pressure. If they say yes to any of them, you’re blessed. You’re good.

Oh, yeah. Oh, that’s great advice. As you were building your career, you talked about, you know, having this interest in the digital world and gadgets and figuring out how things work. And then you decided to parlay that into this idea of going on the radio, and going in the media, and being an on air talent who talks about the digital world and gadgets and and all those types of trends. Did you always kind of have a dream of being an on air personality? And how did you discover that was a talent of yours?

Oh, that’s a great question. Love this interview.

So yeah, I would say the first thing is, yes, I thought that I had enough interest, enough passion, and that I was willing to really learn, as much as possible, about trying to be someone that would either be on the microphone, or in front of the camera. I knew right away, I didn’t want to write episodes, or I didn’t want to write shows or I didn’t want to produce them. I knew I wanted to be the person that like brought it to you, or the person that was like connecting with you to bring you to an experience or teach you something new or to expose you to something. So I knew that I wanted to use the platform in that way.

I was working in a tech job, doing tech things like Help Desk support and tech stuff. And I had an opportunity, I saw an ad that was like, host your own radio show. I was like, what is this? Let me call and see. So I call the radio station. And they’re like, Oh, we’ve never had anybody pitch us like an idea for a tech show. This sounds great, I’d be a live half hour, once a week show, people could call in. You could talk about whatever topics you want to talk about. I was like, this sounds great. I go down, meet them in like Annapolis, Maryland, this little mom and pop radio station, it’s maybe 15,000 watts. If you don’t know most mega stations are like 100, 150,000 watts. So they didn’t have a lot of reach. AM 1190 was the call number. And they were like, yeah, it’s gonna cost you 1100 bucks for your half hour once a week. Whoa, like, wait, whoa, hold on. I didn’t know I didn’t know I had to pay for the air time. Like, wait, how about if I can guarantee you like three months? At $800 a week? Would you take that? And they were like, okay, I was like, All right, let me see. I said I don’t have the money. So I have to go out and try to find a sponsor.

And that’s where the beginning of sales, and the understanding of sales really helped me, because I had been doing some sales things before, but not to this degree. And so that’s when I started learning like, put together your brochure, put together your kit, put together your pitch. And fortunately, I found a couple of companies that wanted to sponsor this idea. And they did that.

Here’s the kicker, though. I was still working a full time job. The only time that they had available was 12 to 12:30 on Thursdays, lunchtime, perfect time for me to escape out of the office. But I would never make it back on time because it’s a half hour show. I can’t leave the show and I can’t be late for the show. Right. I was always dodging out early trying not to be seen. Eat my lunch in the car on the way down the road. Get there with like, maybe four minutes to spare. Go on the air, do my thing. hop back in the car. And get back to the office. And most times, I was always like seen.

It never dawned on me by the way that they would have ever heard me on the radio and be like, “Oh, that’s why he’s late, he’s actually on the radio.”

Sometimes when you’re following your dreams, and you got the side hustle, it’s like this double life you’re leading. It’s like, well, this is my full time thing. And then but in secret on nights and weekends, I do this cool stuff!

Like, you’re like, cloaked out. It’s like it’s a real clandestine operation. Yeah. True.

Oh, wow. That’s awesome. So was that your first on air gig was that radio show?

Well, before that, I was doing technology. And I was doing it for a company where I was training people on everything from Microsoft Office to like network computing. And there was this moment where someone from the TV station came in, and they were like, put Mario in front of the camera. Somehow I just got thrown in, and that so that was like, actually, like, first introduction, but like, real consistent, I’m doing this, this is something I’m going after, yeah, the radio thing really did it.

You always have to start somewhere. And it sounds like that really got you into the mold of how to think about how to, you know, you were committed at that point. So you took the job, it’s like, oh, now I have to figure out how to pay for this, better go out there and start selling and get some sponsors. And that kind of brought everything together for that.

And that’s where you end up saying yes to things that you have no idea how you’re going to pull it off. You’re not lying. But you say yes, like, Yes, I will try to get you $800 a week to like, make this thing work. And you go out and do it. If you allow the what ifs to enter in, which they do. It’s natural. It’s going to happen. Our brain is neurologically wired to protect us from ourselves. And it says, Oh, that sounds scary. Oh, fear is that Oh, my parasympathetic nervous system is kicking in. I’m deep breathing. I’m feeling sweaty palms and my mouth is getting dry. Because I’m getting nervous, because you’re thinking about the outcome in the wrong way. You’re thinking about everything that’s like don’t do it, because you don’t know what’s gonna happen. But what we need to be thinking is, but what if it does? Oh my gosh, what if it works? What if that interview goes well? What if this podcast does phenomenal? What if I do find a sponsor? Oh, that means I actually end up getting to educate people about technology to help them make better decisions, get back to what is important to you, and allow that to drive you through your fear. And the fear will start to dissipate, you will start to understand that, oh, fear is just automatically going to be there. It’s a common state. Oh, so now that I know that that’s automatically going to happen, the Jedi mind trick is that it’s going to come up and try to talk me out of it. Yeah. Let me interrupt that. Different people have different ways to interrupt. Mel Robbins uses the five second rule, I use the 347 breathing technique, it doesn’t matter. Sometimes I use the touch your forehead, which is all a whole thing that I explained on on the web series on YouTube, like how to just move the thoughts from the back of your brain, which is your emotional part of your brain, to the front part, which is your logical part of your brain, so that you can actually look at things that you’re afraid about without that emotion to see if you’re really going to get eaten by a dinosaur if you try it.

Right. Oh, that’s interesting. But it sounds like really just being conscious of the fact just, first of all, being aware that you’re becoming afraid at a certain situation and having that awareness to pause and be like, all right, think about it. What am I really experiencing? Is it as bad as I think, what’s the worst thing that could happen if I do it, etc.

And that does not say, that does not dismiss how real that feeling is to you. That’s very important. For me to get up on a stage is someone’s worst nightmare. And I get that. For me to get on the stage, yeah, I get nervous every time I do it, but I love getting up on a stage.

Yep.

There are other things. I’m nervous as hell. I have to use it and I have to use that same technique for, so it’s not to say that your fear isn’t valid. It’s just, it’s a valid emotion. The issue is, is it irrational, what you’re thinking is going to happen to you? Because we were designed and we evolved with fear to protect us from things that could actually give us physical harm, right. And so we’re wired to look out for that. But we will treat going on stage as if we’re about to get eaten by the dinosaur if we stick our head out of the cave. That’s the challenge.

Exactly. I guess our reptile brains haven’t caught up with modern times just yet.

Neuroscience is helping us understand us better. We talk a lot about that in our show. And it’s also why, you know, there’s a lot around affirmations and the reticular activating system, and all these different things that we do have going on in our bodies that we actually can use to our ability, have just really started to come out and recent research over the past decade. So I think we’re getting there. We’re becoming smarter, and we’re becoming more mindful, and I think more aware hopefully, for the most part, that’s what we want people to become more aware of themselves, so they can be their best self.

Yeah, absolutely. Wow. So then your first radio gig that comes out where you’re raising sponsorships and paying the $800 a week, what year was this about? The reason I asked is because I want to understand how you got from your first radio gig at this small time radio station, to being a correspondent on the Today Show and all of these other great network programs, and understand how long it took and how that worked.

Yeah, I appreciate that. Because it’s the process, not the prize, right? And you know, I’m sitting here in this room, and I’m looking at two Emmys across from me, which is great. Like, are you kidding me? I’m very blessed, humble, in humility of that achievement, but it’s the process. We’re talking 12 years at this point. Like that was 12 years ago, like being able to do that was like, maybe 14. If I’m really thinking it’s probably like 14 years ago, like that first radio gig thing.

Yeah, it defnitely It takes a while, especially in any kind of creative process. I mean, you know what, occasionally you’ll get someone who hits really early. But I think, for most artists and most performers, it’s a lot of, you know, as you said, honing your craft and just building your skills and facing that fear and going out and finding opportunities.

It’s so true. And the thing that I will add on to that, yes. And I would add on to that by saying like, your yardstick changes, your goals and milestones change. It wasn’t like 14 years ago, I said to myself, I’m gonna win an Emmy one day, would be a different vision. And you’d be like, Wow, you really earned that Emmy, it took you 14 years and you got there. It was always like a year or two for me, my planning was never five or 10. It was always like maybe 24 most maybe 36 months. And that was like, more tangible to me. It was very difficult for me at that time. I can do it now. But it was difficult for me then, to really see that far out. I mean, it’s difficult for anybody that’s like young to see past next week. Like, they want to know what they’re doing this weekend. Like, that’s their life. Exactly. What’s going down tomorrow is so important right now, like, forget five years from now. So for me, I was so actionable, that I wasn’t worried about time. And I say that to say like, I wasn’t just hustling mindlessly. I was hustling. I was moving. I was researching. I was learning I was asking, I was trying, and I expected failure in order to learn. So because I expected the failure, I didn’t have any worry about trying something. And so those were like these kind of mini milestones that would give me momentum, you know, so like, if I’m doing the radio show, and I’m at 10,000 watts, and I’m on an AM station. What’s my next goal? Well, my next goal is like how do I get to FM radio, not how do I become Howard Stern, like, other people may have thought about that, I didn’t, I thought, How do I get to FM with the same message? I want to be me. And I want to do this. I want to do it bigger. So then I get to FM in Maryland. I’m like, Okay, how do I get to FM outside of Maryland? And then I get to NPR. And then I’m doing segments on like, Morning Edition. And then it’s like, oh, crap. Like, you’re on NPR. Like, you’re on National Public Radio doing a thing now. You’re reaching a lot of people. And so it’s okay, I want to go into TV. How do I convince the local General Manager inside of the Baltimore Maryland TV station, that I have enough chops on this tech stuff to come on air and deliver a segment once a week? Oh, and by the way, for free? I’ll just come in every Thursday morning and do it for free for you for your viewers. It took him no time to say, I didn’t know how valuable that was at the time. I knew what I needed. I needed TV experience in a big newsroom in live television, because I did say, Oh, I want to do something big. And maybe that time, maybe there was like this hint of Oprah, like as a kind of beacon. But I was never like, I want to be exactly her, I just wanted to have that reach. So for me, it was always, How do I get to something bigger, not how do I reach a destination? And that’s what I think I’ve really learned is like, Oh, I got two Emmys. I’m on the Today Show. I’m doing this and people think I’m done. It’s a stepping stone. And I don’t want that to sound like not appreciative because it’s with huge appreciation. But everybody’s goal for themselves is relevant to what they think they can accomplish or what they would like to do. And I really realized that there is no destination if you’re ambitious, and you really have a purpose and a drive. There are just constant milestones to achieve.

Yeah, well, that makes a lot of sense. And I think, you know, it’s good to have an overall vision or a mission or something generally that drives you. But you know, you can’t always see the end goal. I mean, it might even be greater than your wildest dreams, or it’s something that doesn’t exist today that will exist in 10 years, and you’ll be in the thick of it. So yeah, don’t limit yourself, in your own mind, in your own circumstances.

Yeah, that’s really a great point. Because, you know, this gets to this whole thing. And this is why I tell people to hustle mindfully because this gets to this whole thing of being attached. Like we tell each other, we tell ourselves, especially in this hustle economy, it’s like, get fixated on the thing you want to do, obsess about that thing you want to be or become, and don’t waver one bit from it. And that’s fine if you’re like a very self aware being, but if you’re not a very self aware being, you end up stepping on people’s necks, you dismiss other people’s opinions and their feedback as you’re not open. You could end up being not an empathetic individual because you’re so on a path that you see no other way. And that’s not to say that you shouldn’t go down the path you see for yourself, it’s just to say, that if you’re a little bit open, you can allow the path to kind of show you as opposed to dictating it.

And so I think when we get to this level of attachment, for me as it relates to pursuing our passions, our dreams or leveling up our lives, that is, you are specifically have some kind of very specific vision, or an outcome that you want to achieve. And if that doesn’t manifest in the way that you want or expect, then it’s failure. That’s a very scary level of obsession and attachment. The good level of obsession is broader. Okay, what do you really want to do. Do you need to become Oprah, or is your desire to impact as many people as you possibly can? Oh, okay, so then that means there are a zillion ways I could achieve that. Maybe it’s through this podcast, maybe it’s not network TV, maybe it’s through some poetry. Maybe I try something with my son’s music composing and we go on tour. And we try to like, you open up the possibilities, because now you have a less attached way of getting to what you desire, or what you’re looking to achieve.

And that’s not saying I’m not focused. I’m very focused. I know exactly what our vision is. I know we want to inspire people around the world to never settle. I know we want to uncover new perspectives to help people learn about things in new ways to help them level up their lives. And I know that we want to inspire the human spirit. And then the last thing in our mission statement is that we want to create takeaways that are actionable. So not just talk about it, but actually give you things like the three wins or the three asks or all the other little things. I was like kind of talking about very tangible things that you could actually go and do right now. And so that’s our vision. But that vision also maps out to us saying, we want to be global. We want to have an academy, I want to do the Never Settle Awards Show, and just award people that have never settled, I want to do a tour, I want to launch a book. Like we’re very specific on all the things we know we want to do. And we reverse engineer the goal setting to try to get there. But guess what? I’m not just attached to the book. And the book doesn’t have to just come out this one way, right? Maybe the book starts off with audio podcasts that then end up being turned into the book, I have no idea. All I know is what impact I want to leave on people, and what presence I want to bring, and then try to understand how to monetize that, and then try to figure out how to do it in a mindful way.

Excellent. Yeah. And you know, the Never Settle Show in itself is very innovative and something that wouldn’t have been possible with technology being what it is even a couple years ago, as far as a digital live streaming show is just so different and innovative. So like, what gave you the inspiration to start the Never Settle Show?

Honestly, this is a really great question because it gets to how people can align, sometimes even discover, and sometimes maybe tweak their passion or their process to their passion. So for me, I was pitching programs to networks that were not the Never Settle Show, I was pitching something, horrible name, it was called a Digital Difference. I get it, horrible name. But the idea was, I was going into homes across the country, and I was showing them how technology could impact their life in a positive way. It’s something that you could have seen on Discovery, or maybe even HGTV or something like that, where I would go into a home and I’d be like, Oh, you guys aren’t spending time at the dinner table and you have the little one and you feel like your life’s upside down because you’re pursuing your degree or you’re trying to finish law school, and you’re trying to hold it all together and oh, all of you are on your phones at the dinner table, and like, so it was this kind of like analyzing culture, analyzing life, figuring out what the problems were, exposing those problems, but then delivering solutions. Some of those solutions would be very tech driven, like a brand new TV for family that never had one, and then have some kind of purposeful reason for that. Or it was like changing kids lives where I was dealing with children that were on the spectrum, and couldn’t really communicate that well, and finding devices that were more user friendly, and seeing the mom like pour in tears, because her son was actually communicating in the most clearest way, the clearest way she’s ever experienced. And it didn’t get picked up. Unbelievable. Like we thought it was the best thing in the world. Of course, every project you create, you always think is the best, but we really literally thought we were doing something impactful.

And I think what happened is, we hit the makeover kind of moment where home makeovers and all that stuff was happening and life makeovers, we hit it too late. You know, had we been maybe a year before that. Yeah, because it just it never took off. So I had pitches like that, that were going out, and we’re getting rejected and getting turned down. And so I started actually getting upset. And I was like, Whoa, this anger is not good. That’s not a good emotion. How can I use this positively, what is channeling you? And we got away from TV productions for a second. And I ended up doing some tweet. And I was like, at the end of the tweet, it was some inspirational thing, and then I hashtag it never settle. And then instantly I was getting like all these replies: Yeah, never settle! That’s right. I’m never going to settle! And I was like, Oh, crap, Nicole. I was like, come on, you got to see this. I think I tapped into something. I don’t know what this means. And next thing, you know, we were like, oh, people need a blueprint. People want more than just a 30,000 foot speech on how you can live to your potential. We’re actually going through the pain of trying to get something out there. And we’re experiencing it in real time. And we have lessons that we can give people. And then once we started actually going through that process, and then coming up with yet another pilot, for the then Never Settle Show, which by the way we tested as a Facebook club first. Oh, that’d be like, let’s see if Mario’s content actually resonates as a Facebook group. And can we actually build a club? And that thing started to really bubble up. We’re like, okay, we think this is a show. And how do we turn this thing into a show? So we do that, we come up with a little pilot, we didn’t have the money for a pilot. It cost us $20,000. To put this thing together four or five years ago, we ended up booking Rachael Ray’s studio in New York, but we couldn’t use any of Rachael Ray’s stuff on her set. So they had to like drape the studio with ugly blue tarp draped stuff, not even black. It was blue. I never knew why, I never even asked him. Why did you guys choose blue? But we had people in seats. And I couldn’t use her kitchen. But I could stand there, we had one camera and we mimicked me being a talk show host, like I was already a talk show host through TV and through radio, but like we had to capture the essence of what we felt this show could deliver. And that was our pilot, 20 grand later.

We go then pitch this, by the way, I’m on the Today Show at this time. So we may have skipped that part. We need to go back but, I’m on the Today Show at this time. So I have NBC connects. So I’m now like parading my pilot to these NBC connects. I’m like, look at this. We’re trying to do our own show. Can you help us out? And they’re like, Oh, my God, you know, we love you because you’re so talented. And you’re great on camera, but no one really wants to do positive programming right now. No one really wants to write notes. Like, literally I was told the Oprah days are over. And I was like, No, you people don’t know anything about this app called social cam. You don’t know what’s happening on Meerkat. You don’t know nothing about Periscope. People are dying for this information. There are people that are blowing up with thousands upon thousands of followers to get this type of information. But you’re up in the 40th floor, you can’t possibly notice.

So when you get that far along, and you really think you got something, and you know that there’s a community that appreciates what you’ve been doing, because you’ve been piloting this thing, and you’ve been testing it, and then to get to the point where you think, you know, you’re one decision away from a big life change. And to get the no on that. That was a really big moment. I remember crying, like literally crying on Periscope, because I wanted people to see the pain that I was going through and be completely transparent because people value the prize over the process too much. And I needed people to see what can happen, what you can go through. And so to kind of come out of that on the other side here again, sounds kind of similar situation. We end up trying to figure out how to do it ourselves, the same way I did the radio show. All right. If they say no, does that stop the idea? Why did they get to stop our destiny? Why did they get to dictate that? That’s not fair. If we think we have something, if you think you have something that’s special, if you think you have something that’s unique, is that fair for someone else to dream kill on your vision? So then you got to get creative.

So there’s other ways to get this done. So we figured out like, oh, when you get sponsorship, we’ll find some sponsors. And then time happens. Al Roker is launching some stuff with live streaming. Al Roker’s on NBC. Hey Al, I got this show! Oh, yeah, I heard about that thing that got turned down. Yeah, yeah. But we’ve switched it so that we can actually do things live for live streaming! Oh, well, you know, I’m launching… yeah, I do, that’s why I’m presenting. Well, come to the office, make your pitch. And then it was relevant to someone else who also needed that. But it was also great for us, because it gave us our start.

So many great points as you were telling that story. One is that first I’m glad you mentioned that you were on NBC at this time because I think a lot of people would just assume like oh Mario he’s already on NBC. He’s on all these shows, of course, they’re going to take whatever you know, cuz he’s on the up and up and, and anything that he comes up with, it’s gonna be golden. And of course, they’re gonna run with it because he’s all set. And it’s important for people to know that, you know, no, really that’s not necessarily how it works, like it’s still hard.

I’m there, I’m good! I’m actually paid as a contributor. Most contributors aren’t paid. Yeah, I was on contract. They were paying me to show up and talk about tech to the audience, because they saw that much value in it. Yeah, I was good. I was on all the shows. Dr. Oz, Steve Harvey, you name it. Rachael Ray, you name it. I was on it with the exception of Ellen. I was like on it.

And you know everybody, and they know you!

And then I got to see how the operations worked and how shows worked. And I got to see some things that I really didn’t like about how certain things were happening. Not necessarily at NBC but at other networks. And just other shows as I’m traveling to go to other people’s shows. I could really get to see how they’re treating the janitor up to the supervising or executive producer, and got to really see like, Oh, I never want to treat people like that, or I never want to have my audience wait outside in the rain, just because you just think that they should, because they’ll just wait, because you’re you, right? Like it showed me a lot of things to stay very humble about, to not lose who I am, to be grounded. And I think that’s why it’s taken me longer. But I also think that for the 35 people that work on the show, when we do our production, this isn’t like a $10,000 or even $2000, we’re talking like $40,000 an episode. So to do eight of these things, we’re talking $320,000 that’s just to do them. So you know, it’s multi cameras. We’re shooting it in Times Square, we are in NASDAQ, on the stock exchange, in their building on the ground floor with glass windows where people from Times Square can look in and see what’s going on.

And I was just this little guy from Baltimore with a vision and a dream. And so it happens, but it takes time. It takes persistence, it takes resiliency. And it really takes being a good person the entire way. Because you never know who you’re going to bump back into. And it’s not because that’s why you should do it, do it because that’s what we supposed to be doing. Yeah, apathetic human beings. But I’m just saying this for those of you that seem to struggle with being empathetic, it really does pay off for you to be more empathetic and to be a better and a good human along the way. Even if you feel like you’re getting a bad deal. Even if you feel like you’re getting treated, not to your ability. Your bank account does not reflect what you know your value is. Even when you know you have something to offer and people are refusing or just can’t see it yet. That’s when you’re test of being a good person really kicks in.

Definitely. And I think part of your challenges that you were facing is that you really were ahead of the curve. Being the digital lifestyle expert, you saw what was coming, a lot of times well before other people did, well before other people understood it. So you had to have your whole pitch and your ideas together. And then also keep your eyes out and your ears open for like Al Roker to get into live streaming. It’s like, Oh, I can make that connection, because I’ve already done the work around the whole concept of live streaming the show, and then I can pitch it to Al, but you have to be ready with that. And you can’t necessarily expect that people are going to welcome your innovative ideas with open arms. A lot of times it’s not fun to be the first one to want to do things.

And on that point, let’s really put it all out there. Al said yes to helping, but let’s be very specific, there was no money involved. It was his team, which at the time consisted of a couple of management people that were like, We can help you get the staff at a good rate, which was better than what I could get. We can help you get the staff at a good rate. And since we have interns already working for us, we can also give you these five interns to put on your show to help you. So it was a human resource thing, but we still have to pay. We still had to find the money, and then get this: I couldn’t get a studio. We could not afford what studios wanted. One, it literally, I got a proposal for $320,000 for a week. Wow, this type of production that we were trying to do, talk show stuff. It’s expensive. And I often wonder, is this the wrong dream? The wrong.. should I just sit my little butt, a little room with a green screen and do a YouTube thing and just see if that can take off. But I was really not stuck because that would be like attached to only one way. But I was really like, no, I like the energy of people. That’s important to me. I really think we have something, we should really just still give it a shot.

So what did I do? I ended up calling a tech company and said, can we use your lobby as our studio? And we will give you a quick ad in the show. And I’ll do some supportive statements letting people know about your product but that you’re also enabling us to do this show. We ended up using a broom closet as the control room. And we were literally in a tech company’s lobby, which had wood floors, it was gorgeous. But we had to bring in the equipment and then hide it, and then set it up and then break it down. I’m the host! I’m supposed to just come in, go to my green room, grab my attire, whatever I’m wearing, put on my fresh kicks. Come on out, do my thing. No, we’re in there unfolding chairs, laying down carpet, covering up wires for the cables. Like it was an all-on mission. And it doesn’t surprise me when you have so many people with that kind of energy working for a common goal, that we ended up winning an Emmy for a show that technically should have never gotten a chance to get produced.

Wow. Yeah, that’s just incredible. You know, it’s really a testament to having that overall vision but being at least somewhat flexible and open as to how it gets executed. Oh, fantastic. So what does the Never Settle Show look like now?

Oh, the Never Settle Show, you know, it’s great question, because even though we won an Emmy based off the original season, and then we had another subsequent season, we thought, All right, here’s another great tip for people. Listen to your audiences. Listen to your customers, listen to people that are supporting you in any way, get their feedback. We don’t opinion poll. We don’t poll our audiences. Our advocates are loyalists enough. And we do it constantly with the show. So we were doing it and we realized they loved the live format, but they thought the show was too long. So we went from an hour to a half hour. The live interactivity was great back then. But now they see it as something that gets into way of a great conversation. How can you do it? A little bit less? Yeah.

So we’re getting all these insights. And we’re like, holy crap, the thing that was our unique differentiator at that moment, got us propelled, but is no longer the unique differentiator. Hmm. And so to be aware of that market shift, and to be open to polling your audiences or your customers to understand the shifts that they’re going through, and I’m talking in less than two years, that this shift took place. So it doesn’t mean live streaming was dead. It just meant that for our content, the way we were packaging it, the thing that got us in the door and made us unique, was no longer the thing that was making us unique.

You get into fear. You’re like, Oh, my God, what do we do? So fortunately, we said, You know what, let’s change everything up. Let’s get a new supervising producer that can kind of come in with some fresh ideas, whatever, whatever. Back of our mind, I’m doing this podcast, five minutes a day to help you jump start your day, Wake Up and Level Up. She hears a podcast and she’s like, you know what? That’s your show. You know, you should be doing that as your show. I’m like, What? The podcast is just me, no lady, I do interviews. I love interviewing people. I want to bring out their stories. I’m a storyteller, but I want them to, and she’s like, no, I’m telling you. 25 minutes, just you on stage delivering one thing. And I was like, Yeah, I keynote I speak on stages. I get it. I understand what you’re saying. But no, that’s not. That’s not what we’re doing. Like, no, I couldn’t see it. I wasn’t attached to the only way of seeing it. I was open to what she was suggesting. But I just couldn’t see it. And it was making me nervous, which was letting me know I’m about to hit some growth. So we embraced it. And I became a writer. I’ve never written really like scripts and we got a head writer for the show. But, in when you take action for something you really believe in and you refuse to allow other people to tell you where to go. In other words, you’re open to flexibility, but you still have your gut instinct about your you’re not just waving in the wind, you still know that, no, we need to push East through this part. But maybe when we get to that next part, I need to be open again and see what we’re supposed to do. Like when you operate like that, the energy that starts to kick around to the whole staff and the team and everybody that’s involved. We started getting people that were coming on board with the show that were like unbelievable people that we could never have dreamed of getting, like our SP Mary ended up working on the Talking Dead and then the Walking Dead. And we’re like, wait, we have her directing where we’re going with this vision. And so where we are today that long story to let you know like even though we got those Emmys, even though that success recipe worked then, we listened, stayed open, flexible, changed our direction. And now our show is like 22 to 25 minutes. It is one theme per episode, we have like 10 to 15 clips that we can pull out of each episode as smaller clips to use for promo and teasers and trailers and other information that we can share. And it’s a whole new look and feel, we have an illustrator on on our show now that illustrates graphics that help cement or support the concepts that I’m sharing and the things that we’re doing. So it’s really just this beautiful thing that’s kind of come together in a really crazy way.

But embracing that fear, and then really being open to what you believe you can deliver was really the game changer for everything. And so I’m excited. I mean, we’re editing the episodes right now. And going through the edit has been fun, but they get released in January and specifically our release date is January 20 2020. So that’s a very big day for us but on the January 1, we will be releasing short clips of the show that will help people with their new year resolutions and setting goals properly, and helping them not fail or leave those goals like most people do by mid-February.

That’s incredible. Yeah, how wonderful that you also were able to really tap into the trends and how they were changing and what people were saying that they were interested in and evolve your show. And it really is a continuing journey. And it sounds like it will continue to evolve and become greater and change and even more influential in the future, too.

Yeah. And it’s that consistent milestone of not one destination is the destination, right? And so at the end of the day, there’s like really two people that live out on this planet as human,s and one is the person that’s like, will say, I wish and the other person will say I did. And the thing that really separates those two are a bunch of small variables. But mostly fear, could be fear of embarrassment could be fear of lack of approval. Could be not understanding or having a roadmap or not having the resources. But the fear holds you back from researching or investigating or trying because you don’t want to fail. So I think that’s the thing that is the most significant for us. But I think there’s two people, the ones that will say I did and the ones they’ll say, I wish and my hope is to get more people to see in themselves that they can try and learn from those trying things as opposed to wishing.

Yeah, and we all have that fear. Almost all of us have that fear. And it’s just a matter of how do we act in spite of the fear definitely.

it’s a constant state. Yeah, that’s what I was saying earlier. Like it’s there regardless. So we know that just play to it. Like fear should lead you to focus. Fear shouldn’t make you run away, right. That’s what it should be doing. So, you know, it’s a really awesome time right now for people to really hone in and focus on what they would like their life to look like or their business to look like or their career to look like. Because we have more control. Again, we can’t control the outcomes, but we can control our process. And we have more control over how we want to research, how we want to network, how we want to make decisions, when we wake up every day, about our life and what we want to do with it. And I just think that having actionable takeaways, having systems in place, having triggers that help you do certain things like when I wake up every morning, I’ve had to create triggers to make sure that I do my gratitude prayers to make sure that I go through a ritual or to make sure that I take five minutes just to mindfully think what to meditate on like, what’s the energy I want to bring today? How do I want to show up to the world and how can I be the best me possible, today? So you know getting out of bed is one thing brushing my teeth. I do another thing before I put the key in the car, I may do another thing like setting up all these little triggers to help you better yourself. We requires commitment, discipline. And we’re all you know, I don’t do it at 100% all the time. But the fact that I do it often, has really shown me significant steps that we’ve been able to make as an individual, but also as a family and as a team. I mean, I work with my wife,like my wife runs this company. So it’s a very different operation. We’ve had to learn how to separate the business from personal so that we don’t lose the marriage along the pursuit of the dream, but that we also still be parents to Christopher, and that we still show support and emphasis and love and drive for his dream, that mommy and daddy’s dream don’t overshadow his. So there’s a lot of systems and like mindfulness and awareness that had to be created in order for the harmony to actually exist.

Yeah, so powerful. A lot of important things to keep in mind. Mario, thank you so much for being on the show. How do people Learn more about all of the great work that you’re doing. Where can they find your podcast, The Never Settle Show and see your other appearances? Where can they find you?

Yeah, because you know, we’re constantly shooting stuff. And I would love for people like, I don’t know if you’re in or get to the New York area, but any of your listeners that get to the New York area, that want to make us a tour stop, we would love to have you in the audience and be a part of the show live, which would be great, a great experience will have a lot of fun and we treat our guests like the VIP that you are. So I would say a couple of places number one, NeverSettle.tv that’s our website, where everything that is really being communicated about what we’re up to. If you know how to go straight to YouTube and can subscribe to our channel. We would love for you to go to YouTube and type in Never Settle Network and subscribe and then hit the little bell, for the notifications. Instagram I do a lot of free virtual mentoring on direct message and Instagram. So if you follow me on Instagram, that’s Mario Armstrong, follow me there and then reach out to me on DM with any questions that you have or advice you may need, and if you heard me on Carolyn’s podcast, I would love to know if you’re a listener of beyond six seconds, I’ll definitely follow you back. But I would say those three things are probably the best, and then Never Settle Show has an Instagram account as well. But I would say NeverSettle.TV, YouTube, and Mario Armstrong on Instagram.

Perfect. And I’ll put links to those in the show notes so that people have easy access to the links there.

That would be great. And our podcast too! Wake Up and Level Up is a five minute or less daily inspirational podcast to jumpstart your day. So hopefully, it’s not interrupting your day too much, but can give you just enough to get you go.

Awesome. And yeah, as we close out, is there anything else that you want our listeners to know or anything else that they can help or support you with?

You know, if they’re really into what they see on YouTube, when it launches in January, commenting, I will be very active in the comments and building a community. We’re looking at doing a tour in 2020 of coming to different cities. So let me know maybe on Instagram or Twitter or however you want to communicate to me like what city you’re in, if you would like us to come by your city, we’re going to be doing premieres across the country, but also bringing programming through Capital One’s partnership to other cities. So that’s going to be fun. And then I would say, really, it’s not really what you can do for me, it’s more about what I hope we’ve been able to do for you. I really appreciate every moment to get on anyone’s airwaves and respect their listeners, their time and their podcast and, and their community. And I’m just honored to be on here with you for Beyond Six Seconds. And I feel like you shared some incredible gems. Hopefully, I shared some incredible gems, and that people really walk away with some tangible things to think about, but also to act upon. And I would just say in closing, try to make it bigger than you. Everything that I’ve seen to be lucky with is because it wasn’t just me. And I started realizing that early on and I think that’s really really helped me out. So there’s an old African proverb, and I’ll end on this and it reads, “You can go fast alone, or you can go farther together.” So I would say make it bigger than you. And the vision that you have for yourself, probably can’t even touch what you’re about to achieve.

Absolutely.

And I would say, for all your listeners, and that are out there, continue to support Carolyn, like, do the hard work, do the comments, share it to a friend send them a text with the link to an episode that really empowers you. Make sure that you’re writing reviews, if you’re on iTunes, like do the stuff that really keeps this going? Because making content is not easy. So I applaud Carolyn, and trust me, I know. So, do what you all can to continue to support her and her podcast.

Thank you, I appreciate that. It was such a pleasure to have you on the show, I really enjoyed talking with you. And thank you for sharing all this wonderful wisdom and advice with my audience.

Thanks for listening to Beyond 6 Seconds. Please help us spread the word about this podcast: share it with a friend, give us a shout out on your social media or write a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast player. You can find all of our episodes on our website and sign up for our free newsletter at www.Beyond6Seconds.com. Until next time!