Welcome to the Books, Brands, and Business podcast with your host, Chris O’Byrne, from JETLAUNCH.net.
My guest today is Steve Mazzurco. Steve is a former college and pro athlete and is now an entrepreneur, mentor, speaker, and author. His latest book is The 7 Rocks of Life: The Key to Filling Up Your Life Cup.
Steve has a successful business, formed his own charity, and has his own podcast called The Seven Rock Life Podcast that I highly encourage you to subscribe to.
Chris: Hey, Steve. Welcome to the podcast. Let’s go ahead and jump right in. What is your latest published book?
Steve: It’s great to be on, Chris. Thank you so much for having me, your blessing, and being able to have you being able to create The 7 Rocks Of Life book for me and edit it. You did an amazing job. It’s been around the world now, which is so awesome, in Target, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and in different bookstores around the country. But The 7 Rocks Of Life is the book that is out, and it’s been impactful and inspiring for so many and just inspiring in giving back, which is what we’re all about.
Chris: Oh, that is awesome. I’ll make sure that everybody has a link to that book at the end, so that they can go buy that themselves and benefit from that. Well, the first thing I’d like to ask you is how did you go about writing it? What was the writing process like for you?
Steve: Yes, so it was actually last November, a little bit less than a year ago. I just hit a funk in my life, hit rock bottom, and I get a book from a friend called Never Give Up. In page 28… I’ll never forget the page. It said, “If your goal is to fill up a cup, and you have rocks, pebbles, sand, and water, which one goes in first?” The answer to that is the rocks. So, I drop the book, and I said, “I’ve been filling up my life cup wrong. I’ve been putting in things that are pebbles and sand in first and not my rocks of life,” so I started going through them.
Steve: I was like, “My spiritual, my relationships, my finances, my health, my income streams, my organization, and my personal growth.” I said, “Wow, there’s seven rocks of life.” At that time, it wasn’t a book. It wasn’t a clothing brand. It wasn’t a podcast. It was nothing. It was really just a mentality that to this day I still focus on is hitting my seven rocks of life every day. It was like a balance system for me.
Steve: I started doing it for me, using it, sharing it, teaching it to people that I was coaching and mentoring. It changed so many lives in just a local area and local community, and then they were like, “Dude, you got to write a book about this,” because I started teaching it. Then, January 20th, got off social media. Just got a download from God and universe to start writing and putting this into paper and this story. Through that journey, wrote it in 59 days, and then came to you through a good friend of ours and then started editing it. So, from January 20, I started writing it on my phone. Then March 21st is when you got the first edit.
Chris: So, you just sat down, started writing, and ground it out?
Steve: Every day, just would write another chapter, things I was learning because I was learning so much through that time, through reading other books, through self-discovery, through quietness and podcast, and then I just took all that and had all this mentality that’s stuck in my head. I was like, “How do I put this into paper?” Now, originally, it was going to be just a little journal for me to look back years later, but then I was like, “No. I can’t just make this a journal for me. I got to make this a journal for the world.”
Steve: So, if nobody ever got the book, I said, “Well, at least I wrote something that I can remember what got me out of my funk.” Then that’s how The 7 Rocks Of Life came to birth and The Key To Filling Up Your Life Cup.
Chris: That’s amazing. Did you do much organizing and outlining and prepping or did you just have the thought and the ideas in your head and just start writing?
Steve: That’s a good question. The first thing was I knew that there’ll be seven chapters because there were seven rocks. There’ll be an intro and a conclusion and seven main chapters. So, that made it organized, and that’s one thing with one of the rocks of life is organization, because you can get anxiety writing a book, cleaning your house, packing if you don’t have things organized. So, having those seven chapters organized and then going through the beginning of each chapter and breaking down the different chapters and going through what each chapter was and what I was learning through the relationship rock, through the health rock. So, that’s what I would look at and then organize it, and then it’s like when you make dinner, it’s a little messy in the kitchen. But then you organize it, and then you put it on the plate. That’s what I had to do with the book.
Chris: Got you. That makes a lot of sense. Now, do you track those seven rocks every day in your life, personally?
Steve: 100%. I think that’s why I believe in it so much, and I share with people. Somebody said to me a few weeks ago, they said, “The 7 Rocks Of Life mentality is like the Amazon of personal growth,” because we have so much content in today’s world. We have so much download information, but we don’t want content. We want truth, and we want to organize, and that’s how it works. Actually, this morning, I was reading. I was at the gym just before this. I had business to do, built new relationships, so I work on hitting every rock every day, and I analyze it.
Steve: So, okay, what rock did I not hit and then what one do I have to hit? Is it my business rock? Is it my relationships? Is it my organization? It literally just I’ve never had so much peace and happiness in my life by doing that.
Chris: Do you have something written that you use? Do you have some sort of checklist? How do you go about tracking those or is it more of a mental tracking process?
Steve: Yeah, that’s a great question. In my book, in the organization chapter, what I like to do and I tell people… I have a to-do list on my phone, but I put it on a piece of paper of what things I need to do in my business and then in my life. I think in the beginning, you may have to schedule your spiritual rock, schedule your health rock and make it there. But once you start doing it for a month, two months, three months and beyond, it just becomes who you are. Automatically, it’s like brushing your teeth.
Steve: But I think in the beginning, you have to schedule. “I’m going to the gym. I’m hitting this rock.” Even if you don’t, and you’ll see in 7 days, 14 days, 21 days, your life cup will be so full, but what happens is people will start missing rocks and then they wonder why they’re all over the place. It’s because something’s off. But what I like to do is I make a to-do list on one piece of paper, two max, and then I start checking that to-do list and organize that in priorities of things I need to do.
Steve: But if I know that I have a lot of business stuff to do, and I didn’t go to the gym or work on that rock, I will leave those things because my health is more important than just that to-do list.
Steve: Even tonight, I had some time. Here’s a great example. I scheduled in my calendar two, three hours to hang out with my mom and dad and get dinner. I haven’t seen them in a week or two, so I’m like, “Let me schedule that. I don’t care anything else that’s going on. That is my time with my family and with my mom and dad,” because I don’t believe… I think when I look at life, it’s not the length of life. It’s the depth of life that matters. When you have the deep rooted relationships, because you can be with somebody for three hours and be with somebody for 10 hours, and the three hours is more in depth because you’re there in a moment.
Steve: But the 10 hours to see people on social media are people texting, but they’re not in the moment. So, I believe in the depth of the relationship, not just the length of the relationship.
Chris: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. It sounds like we need to work on a physical seven rocks planner for people, so that they can track those daily.
Steve: It’s actually coming out.
Chris: I love to hear that. Now, when you were preparing to lit your book out into the world, it was done, designed, published, ready to go. Did you plan a launch around that or was it more of a quiet release?
Steve: It was more of an organic release. I think we’re always releasing what we’re doing constantly every day to the universe, right?
Steve: But really it was posted on social media probably about a month before and then started… June 1st was when it came out.
Chris: Some people do these very intensive book launches, have a big buildup, follow the product launch formula. Was there a reason you choose to do it more organically versus the big launch process?
Steve: Yeah, because I really don’t want this to be about just, like it’s not about me. It’s not about the author. Yeah, it’s a story of what I shared through it, but I want it to be about those out there that are just broken, hurting or just need some help, a little push. I think there’s some launches happening over the next few months with what we’re doing, like we have, I think I told you, the livingtoinspire.com. That’s our inspirational music festival. It’s education, entertainment, inspiration, and networking, two days, and we created that because we said, “There’s a gap in the world where we have a great online world, but our offline world stinks.”
Steve: So, I wanted to be able to create something where people can just have a great time, listen to music, get great information, meet great people, have great food, and it’s also at really unique locations. So, our first one in New York is in the Knockdown Center, which is a historic warehouse, and it’s so cool. The vibe’s amazing there, so it’s not boring, and that is how the launch is happening. The Seven Rock Life mentality is actually taught there, so all the speakers that are on there, stage, are people that represent that Seven Rock Life.
Chris: That’s really inspiring. Can you talk more about that living to inspire? I don’t want to save talking about that till later. Let’s go into that right now. What is it like? Where can people find that? How can they get involved? What was the process of doing that event and did the book play any role in that?
Steve: Yeah, what’s interesting is… I write this in the book. I had a coach at the time that just helping me through this time, and she literally saw me from being rock bottom to creating a book. So, every time we talked, she’s like, “What project are you working on now? What are you building now?” It’s really humbling, but she did something to me that changed my life, and I’ll never forget this. Her name was Coach Patty, an awesome, awesome person, and she said, “I want you to create an identity document and a statement.”
Steve: I recommend you doing this, anybody that’s listening to this. It’s awesome, and I write about this in my book. It changed my life. It said, because your name, whatever your name is, is a combination of letters and words that somebody else gave you. That’s not who you are. Who you are is that your core beliefs are just you as a person. So, create an identity statement, a paragraph, two paragraphs long, one page on Word document and just what are you all about. What is your DNA? Why are you here in this world? What are you good at?
Steve: So it allows you to discover yourself. It took me about a month, two months to figure this out, and then after that, I had to extract what was my identity statement, nothing too long, nothing too short. So, eventually, we finally determined it together that I’m Steven Mazzurco, and I’m unleashed to inspire. That’s who I am, and that’s what I’m about. So, everything I do is, “Am I unleashing to inspire? Every business I do, every interaction, am I inspiring that person or taken away?”
Steve: So, with that, I would have to say 10 times a day, “I’m Steven Mazzurco, and I’m unleashed to inspire. I’m living to inspire.” So, that term, living to inspire just came about. I went online, and I bought livingtospire.com, the URL. I said, “I don’t know what I’m going to do with this.” This was in, I think, April, May. I was like, “I don’t know what I’m going to do with this.” Then a couple months later, now, it’s an inspiring music festival company that is literally TEDx speakers, pro athletes, music artist, and we’re doing seven around the country, and then eventually we’re going to tour around the world.
Chris: That is an amazing story considering you only bought the domain in April, and then you didn’t even know what you were going to do with it. I love to hear that.
Steve: Yeah, it’s been humbling.
Chris: You mentioned earlier that you’ve got your book into places like Barnes & Noble and Target and some of these other stores. Now, are you talking physically, your book is in there physically, stores or on their shelves?
Steve: Yes, so some of the stores, with Barnes & Noble, they’re in the process of getting onto shelves over the next month or two, and they’re online. Then there is some stores in the area that are getting the book as well there too and already have the book there.
Chris: So how did you go about doing that, making that happen?
Steve: Yeah, I think the biggest thing is making sure that your online presence is good and getting connecting with the right distributors that can put you into those places. So, that’s my best advice. Amazon’s a great platform. There’s different companies out there that allow you to get access into different places and stores because some stories, they need to know that you’re part of a certain network or a certain marketing platform that allows you to be in Barnes & Noble, and that’s how that all happened. Then everything else is just word of mouth and people wanting your book.
Chris: Awesome. Now, your book, I would say, is pretty much for anybody out there, but who do you think would benefit the most from it?
Steve: So, yeah, good question. My brother said to me a while ago. He said, “Your book is like water. Everybody needs it.” Yeah, that was funny. I think it’s… because honestly, I hate to say it. it’s for everybody because I think everybody has gaps. Everybody has these areas. We may be smiling in front of camera, but behind scenes, we’re broken in some type of way, and because every chapter is so different, it hits home to everybody. It could be for the person that’s rock in their bed and just wondering like, “Why am I here on this earth?” Then it could be the person that’s doing really well, but there’s an area of life that’s off, and then you have to figure that out.
Steve: Then it could be somebody that maybe is doing great. Life’s awesome, but they need to be able to share with other people that they’re helping or coaching like a platform, like something organized, and that’s what the Seven Rock Life mentorship, mindset, mastermind program is; it’s just teaching them this kind of system to organize everything.
Steve: Now, you look at Amazon. Amazon didn’t really recreate anything. They just made things simpler. They made things more organized. Same thing with Facebook. They didn’t reinvent social media. They just made it better.
Chris: Exactly. Yeah, just a better platform. Now, I mean, I know you put your book on Amazon. You’ve gotten into some bookstores. You’ve promoted on social media. Was there anything else that you did to promote your book?
Steve: I think the things that I’ve done and you can do is being able to utilize, obviously, social media platforms and ads, giving away books, shipping and handling, people pay for and just giving away, and people organically hearing about it, and doing events and being able to have it on your website. I think having a personal website… When people give me a business card in today’s world, I look at it. I’m like, “What do I do with this?” Because your business card is your website. It’s your social media. When you give me a business card, I don’t know nothing about you.
Steve: I just see a nice business card or a crappy one, right? But if you give me a website, you give me your social media. I see a little bit, and I dive into who you are as a person. Then on that, you can have your book on there. So, the people that you meet and talk about, they say, “Oh, what do you do?” I’m like, “Well, I’m a worker,” or, “I work here. I’m an entrepreneur, but I wrote a book recently,” and then you go from there.
Steve: So, your everyday interactions, and then you having a correct platform that’s crisp and clear. That’s what I teach with my mastermind and different programs that I’ve developed is teaching people how to create a brand, because your brand is anything that you do. I think when you understand what your brand is and what your message is and that’s clear, people buy into it and then buy your book.
Chris: That’s a great segue for talking about personal brand. Would you say that personal brand is mostly about reputation then?
Steve: I think your personal brand is… Here’s the thing. It’s making sure that your online image is just as good as their offline image. I meet people that have a great online image, but their offline image is not good, and you have to have a combination of both. I’ve been there, too, in my life where you work so hard on that, but then you forget to work on the other aspects. So, I think, yeah, your brand is just your business card. It’s you as a person.
Steve: When people meet you, do they feel good about you? Do they walk away saying, “Man, Chris, he really inspired me. He made me feel good”? Yeah, you could hear stuff about you, but you also want to find out more about that person, right? I think that’s why with our podcast, everyone’s like, “Podcasts. It’s stories that inspire with people that you admire.” Everybody that we picked for the Living to Inspire Festival that’s coming up in November, there were people that I personally connected with and that they inspired me.
Steve: What’s really crazy, one of the guys, his name is CEO Charlie. I wrote about him in the book. I don’t know if you remember reading that part. I didn’t read a lot of books, but there was a part about CEO Charlie how he was a Grammy producer, won an award, became a Nike athlete, overcame a brain tumor, biked across America. I wrote about him. Fast forward months later, I get on the phone with him, and now he’s speaking at our festival.
Chris: Oh, that’s incredible.
Steve: Yeah, so it’s like when I introduce him, I’m like, “Yeah, I wrote about him. He knew nothing about me. I heard about him on a podcast.” Now, he’s at the festival, and I have literally so many of those like that. It’s just we can be connected so easily. When people connect with you, do they like your brand? Do they like your story and what you’re all about?
Chris: Have you done anything specific with the book to build your personal brand or has it just been part of your overall mission?
Steve: I think because the book was a mentality for me at first, it’s who I am. It’s like I live that Seven Rock Life, and then sevenrocklife.com became a clothing website, which is awesome, and really one of my main things was I wanted to create value for the world, but I also wanted to raise money. So, everything that we do with all of our companies, we’re giving back brand. We’re inspiring and giving back. We actually just came back from Africa just a month ago, and we built a youth center out there with one my church and some of the missionaries out there.
Steve: So, we donated money and funds and also clothes, and that’s originally why we started Seven Rock Life to be able to give clothes around the world where you’re donating, but you’re donating indirectly by buying great clothes, quality stuff that in return gives back to people around the country and around the world, and that’s how the clothing started with all that. So, I think answering your question because I just live that Seven Rock Life mentality, it’s who I am, and then the book is the name of the book, but it’s really a mentality at first before anything else.
Chris: Right, and then probably the act of writing that book also put you through this growth phase where you were pulling some things out of yourself that you didn’t realize were necessarily there, finding some areas where you clearly needed to improve upon because they were noticeable until you started working on something new. I can see where the entire process, where everything just works together for you.
Steve: Totally. Your body’s amazing, like I did something crazy two weeks ago. I did a 155-mile bike ride from New York City Penn Station to Montauk, and I came back from Africa, and I said to my brother, I was like, “Bro, I want another challenge, man. I want something to inspire me.” He’s like, “All right. I don’t know. Find something.” An hour later, he’s like, “Dude, there’s a ride to Montauk.” I’m like, “When is it? Like in a month or two?” He’s like, “No, like in 18 days.” I’m like, “What?”
Steve: Now, I’ve never biked more than 15 miles in my life, and I haven’t biked in like months. So, I’m like, “I’m going to do it.” I literally signed up in front of him, and he’s like, “Did you just sign up?” I’m like, “Yeah.” He’s like, “It’s in 18 days, bro.” I said, “Great. I’ll start training tomorrow.” So I literally went on a 30-mile bike ride with my mountain bike. I didn’t even have a bike that I’ve ever had like a road bike. I’ve seen people cycle. I’m like, “Oh, look at the tight stuff that they wear.”
Steve: Fast forward to four days later, I ordered a bike, and I got that bike 14 days before the 155 miles, and I ended up getting all that stuff, all that gear. Then 18 days later, I completed 155 miles, and nobody wanted to do it with me. They said, “You’re crazy. Why are you doing that?” Literally, at 11 hours of biking, and it went from New York City to the end of Montauk, but it was so… You learn so much about your body in life, and that’s why I believe in Seven Rocks of Life because you fill up your life cup.
Steve: I think if I wasn’t good in every rock, and now I keep growing in every area of life to this day. It never stops. I don’t think I would have been able to do that in 18 days’ prepping.
Chris: I’m just curious. How did you feel the next day?
Steve: I couldn’t walk around for a day.
Chris: You probably felt like a cowboy.
Steve: Oh my God. I was walking like a duck. The funny thing’s my parents were at the end of line. They looked at me, and they gave me a hug. I’m like, “Don’t touch me. I’m hurting bad.” But the best part was having a nice beer after I was done because it felt good to get those carbs in.
Chris: I can’t even imagine.
Steve: Yeah, but if you have a hot tub and cold water, literally, in two, three days later, my body recovered so quick. I was back to normal in two, three days from cold water and the hot water, shocking of your body, and I’ve been working out, but yeah, your body’s amazing what you can do. It’s funny. I had so many people say, “Don’t do it.” When people say, “Don’t do it,” I’m like, “I’m going to go do it.” I think that’s what Seven Rock Life’s about. It’s stop looking for approval from everything and everyone, and start seeking approval from you and your source of life, whatever that be, the universe, God, somebody.
Steve: We look approval from left to right. It’s like the four-minute mile. Oh, it can’t be done. Then it got broken and then everybody could do it. So, learn how to just break these patterns or these limitations that people put upon you, and because when you seek approval from everything and everyone, it’s tiring, and you never accomplish your dreams.
Chris: Wow, this really reminds me of David Goggins and his book, Can’t Hurt Me. I’m assuming you’ve read that.
Steve: Oh, yeah. It’s him and Jesse Itzler, amazing.
Chris: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You’re on a very similar trajectory. Definitely, I can’t even imagine 100, but I can imagine telling somebody not to do something, to not even try, especially something like that. I could say, “Sure, I would recommend not driving out that cliff,” but to not attempt something that’s going to be a stretch for them? I can’t imagine the mentality.
Steve: Sometimes, it’s the doubt that they put in. They may not verbally say exactly, but it’s the doubt like, “Wow. Are you sure? You’ll be okay doing that?” or, “Man, that’s crazy,” and that doubt creeps in and becomes like a weed. But it’s interesting. I was sharing this with one of my mastermind groups the other night, and I said, “Do you realize that not executing and not doing things is actually failure? Going to do something is actually not failure.” So, when somebody sees you execute and say, “You, quote-unquote, ‘fail,'” you actually didn’t. You succeeded because you went to go do it.
Steve: Now, realize that failure is successfully discovering what didn’t work. When you look at that way, you actually cute ridiculously in the world, and those that don’t is because they’re afraid of that, quote-unquote, “failure,” but not doing is actually not failing. So, it’s a perspective.
Chris: Yeah, it really is all in the mind, isn’t it? It’s a total mindset, mind game. Our entire lives really are driven by what we decide we can or can’t do in our own brain.
Steve: Yep, 100%.
Chris: Now, a lot of people that listen to me and follow me in Facebook and stuff, they’re very interested in using their book to build their business. Was there anything that you did with your book to generate leads for any part of your business life?
Steve: Yeah, I think you look at your book or your brand, and you say, “Okay, after they read this, what do they get out of it? What’s the next thing? What else can they shop?” You look at Amazon. It’s like Amazon started with books, right? That was the main thing, and then it’s like items, then groceries, then cars, like literally everything. So, the question though is if you’re going to give everything to the world with whatever you have from your book and beyond, what value are you giving to people? How’s the quality whatever you’re building?
Steve: But look at your book as a way to give free value, as a way to maybe share your story, as a way to inspire somebody, as a way for you to connect with the client or with the person that’s reading it and to allow them to open up your mailbox, like that’s what I said in the beginning in the book. I’m like, “I’m opening up my mailbox, and I’m going to be really real about my flaws and things that I learned that I had to get.”
Steve: This is not about me. I’m just opening up, so I hope this relates to you as the reader. I think that transparency is what people enjoy because I’ve had multiple people say, “I’ve never finished a book, but we finished your book in 7 days, 10 days, 5 days because every chapter was just, like you were real, and that’s what I wanted to be, and that’s what I prayed to be every day.”
Chris: So, really, and the heart of generating leads are, to me, what I call real business. The heart of it is the relationships that you’re building with each and every person. So, it sounds like that was a lot of how you use that book was to open yourself up, be vulnerable, help people as they read it to feel like they are connecting with you, and then they’re much more open to, if it makes sense, if it’s the right thing for them, to doing business with you at some level. Is that pretty much it?
Steve: Yep, yeah, and it’s whether we do business or not, I just want their life to be better. If they never buy clothing, if they never go to a festival, if they never listen to a podcast, if they read that, and it changed their life to go do something else, awesome. That was my gift to them, and that’s what our brand’s about. When I think before I got the book done, and I never changed it on stevenmazzurco.com, and I noticed this the other week. When you scroll down, it says, “Seven Rock Life brand is about inspiring others, sharing ideas, and giving resources to help you become the best version you were destined to be,” and that was written in March, I think, March or April before the book really was all done.
Steve: So, we just stick to that mission statement. Are we inspiring you? Are we sharing ideas and giving resources to become the best version you were destined to be? If we are doing that, we’ve won as a brand, as a company, and for the world.
Chris: I love that. Did you end up creating any partnerships or joining ventures as a result of your book?
Steve: Yeah, I would say definitely the credibility, the connections, the people. A book that’s put together right and has good content is like another business card in a way, but you can’t write it like whatever sees in your life… Somebody asked me a while ago. I was in Trinidad. They said, “What’s your favorite book?” I said, “It depends on the season of life I’m in.” Now, for me, and this is just me. I learned a lot of my wisdom from the Bible. That’s where I’ve learned a lot of my things in life, and there’s so many stories in it, and it’s not just about the stories that you learn from, right? It’s the trials and tribulations when it’s expressed properly.
Steve: But then whatever season of life you’re in… This is my third time trying to write a book. My other two times, I just couldn’t finish it. You know when you’re ready to go, and then when you’re ready to go, it just flows out, and that’s why it was in 59 days. But yeah, the connections, the credibility because it takes thousands of hours, hundreds of hours to create depending on what you do. I mean, I spent 1, 000-plus, 2, 000 on writing that, designing it.
Steve: The first cover, my brother said the other day, he’s like, “When you go on travel and tours and talk shows, you got to show the first cover because you would laugh.” Actually, I don’t know if I ever showed you this cover, Chris. Did I?
Chris: I don’t think so. You’re going to have to send it to me.
Steve: I’ll send it to you. You’d be like, “It looks like a science project. It’s terrible.”
Chris: Awesome. Well, when I put up the show notes, and I have a link to your book, we’ll include that one as well so people could see it.
Steve: But here’s the point of that is the execution is the most important part. Your first cover, your first thing that you do may not be perfect, but keep on refining it. It’s like your life. Keep refining your life every day. You made mistakes. It’s okay. Maybe people won’t forgive you, but the universe and God will forgive you, and you keep on just perfecting your craft or whatever you’re doing. But yeah, there’s been so many great partnerships and so many doors opening with writing it, but you got to write it when you feel it’s the right time and you have substance to give.
Chris: Yeah, the book has to have meaning. It has to make a difference. I definitely agree with you on that. Speaking of writing, do you have plans to write another book, like let’s say more specific plans other than definitely someday?
Steve: Yeah, I definitely will. I believe this book right now has so much content, and we want to we want to sell millions of copies, and we know we will because we know what it’s done for so many already. I was just actually talked to somebody at the gym. They’re like, “Your book changed my life.” I’m like, “Man, that’s humbling, and thank you,” and that was the goal. So, that motivates me to just keep going out there and sharing it, but I do have a couple projects in the works.
Steve: Yeah, probably in the next, I would say, two years, a year, two years, there’ll be another one that comes out with something else that I can’t get into right now, but something else I’m discovering, and it came from going to Africa. So, going there really gave me some major downloads, and that’s another project that I’m working on.
Chris: Nice. It’s pretty crazy to think about where you’re at right now, how much you’ve accomplished. You have the book. You got all these other things, and yet you’re really just at the very beginning of your life’s work. You don’t even know all the lessons and all the paths that you’re going to be put on, what is going to come along to stretch you even more to make this look like nothing, and yet it felt like there was a lot of work to get to this point.
Chris: Well, to use your term earlier, it’s humbling. It’s humbling to think how you’re changing other lives, but it’s also humbling to think how you’re changing your own life just by not failing, meaning you keep trying, you keep pushing forward, and you keep stretching who you are as a person.
Steve: 100%, and it’s interesting. I’m doing this accountability program with a friend of mine where every day, we write what we learned and what we’re discovering whether it’s in reading or the Bible or something, and something that really hit home to me, which I’ll share with everybody listening to this is if life has no meaning, leadership has no mission. I thought that was so powerful that statement, “If life has no meaning, leadership has no mission.” I think we’re all searching for that meaning of why we’re here whether it’s being a mom or dad or just a good person for society, and we operate as tribes.
Steve: So, when I was in Africa, what I noticed is that the best communities and countries work together. They don’t compete. They complete, and that’s called tribe living, and that’s actually on some of our clothing as Tribe Living, and it’s being able to operate together. I think about writing this book. I needed you to help me out to design this, and Dana connected me with you. That’s tribe, right? I’m very grateful for that. Actually, Dana’s speaking at our Living to Inspire Festival, so I’m forever grateful for those connections.
Steve: But as a tribe member, you want your other tribe members to grow and excel, and nobody says, “Well, I’m better at this and that.” No, we work together to create a better future, and I think that’s important for organizations and communities, and that’s what I teach. I’ve been getting asked to speak for organizations and different businesses and learning how to create that culture.
Chris: That’s so true. The more you help other people grow and become better, the more the tribe, the whole becomes better, which lifts you up as well. It’s such a powerful effect.
Steve: Exactly.
Chris: Now, this is a fun question for me. If you could co-author a book with anyone dead or alive, who would it be and why?
Steve: That’s a great question. Well, they’re both on earth. For me, I probably wouldn’t write anything, but I would like… This is for my faith and spirit. I would love to co-author with Jesus. His leadership and just what he did in the world is unbelievable. When you really study the story, he was the biggest influencer, and whether you believe he’s the Son of God or not, this is not a spiritual religion thing, but he spread love, forgiveness, and servanthood, right?
Steve: So, when you look at any great leader in the world, the loving, the servanthood, and the forgiveness, that is such important qualities to living a fulfilled life, right? So, I probably wouldn’t even write anything. I’d just let him write, and I would just watch. But if somebody here that I would like to do is probably, I would say, The Rock. I really respect The Rock, and he said something that was really cool. He said, “It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice.”
Steve: What’s interesting is he created a company called Seven Bucks Production, and I know one day I’ll get a chance to meet him. And seven is his number because he had $7 in his pocket, and that’s how broke he was. Then he literally took that $7, and look what he created in today’s world, and he’s tremendous. He’s a great example of the Seven Rock Life Living to Inspire, and he’s jacked, so I would love to co-author with him and get a workout in as well.
Chris: Absolutely, yeah. There are a lot of superstars, and he is one of them that has always impressed me by his… His humility and authenticity comes through. Well, for me, especially, as I get older, and I get to know people better, you get to just tell almost immediately from interacting or seeing somebody what kind of person they are, what depth of character they have, and he’s one of those people, and you’re one of those people.
Chris: As soon as we started talking, I’m like, “This is going to be an exciting project to work on because it’s more than just a book.” So, I was very grateful for that opportunity.
Steve: I appreciate that. Well, let me ask you the question. Who inspires you and who would you co-author with somebody?
Chris: Oh, you can’t throw that at me. I have no time to prep. Let me think. Who inspires me? Well, like you, I’m a believer, and the words of Jesus especially and the words of Paul in the New Testament is especially inspiring to me, plenty of the Old Testament as well, but other people… Man, there’s a breadth of people. There are a lot. I’m not sure I can even pick anybody in particular right now because there’s so many.
Steve: So many, yeah. Words of people that have inspired you though, I’m just curious.
Chris: Well, and again, it depends on what area of my life because I have seven different areas of my life.
Steve: Let’s say your career and maybe… I don’t know. Yeah, your career. Sorry.
Chris: Yeah, so, business-wise, I’d say a lot of my inspiration came from people that taught me how to become better business, because I started this whole business as a freelancer. But it was when I got excited on building a business that things began to actually grow, and I began to grow in self-development. So, I’d say some of the big self-development people have been an influence, people like Jim Rohn and Tony Robbins, people along those lines, and then people that are more specifically business. The E-Myth Revisited, Michael Gerber. That was one of the books that really inspired me and got me moving on the path that I’m in now and then along the way, more and more people that I picked up and mentors I had to call them along the way.
Steve: That’s awesome.
Chris: Then it’s writing a book with someone. I don’t have anybody picked out, but it would be somebody very inspiring, not necessarily somebody well-known and famous, but somebody who has… Here’s who I would love to co-author with, somebody who would normally not write a book or know how to go about it or even have the wherewithal to do it, but has lived an inspiring life and has something amazing to share with people that is going to help change their lives. That’s the person I would love to co-author with.
Steve: That’s great. You know what’s great about you? When I first met you, and I found out that you loved personal growth, I was like, “Alright,” like I’m… I don’t know if people can relate to this, or you can relate to it, but I felt like I was like letting you into my home because I was like, “Alright, I’m giving my home,” like you were the third person… second person, I think. Actually, third person to read a book and edited and all that. So, I’m allowing you into my life, right?
Steve: But knowing just your heart and your spirit and who you are as a person and just a little bit of your story, I felt comfortable with you. So, that was just a little accolade for you, so I appreciate you, and you did such an amazing job designing and doing what… your whole team. So, I’m thankful for you and those doors opening, and you have that great vibe about you.
Chris: Wow, thank you. That is humbling. That’s definitely humbling to me. What do you want to be remembered for in life?
Steve: That’s a good question. That’s a great question. I don’t want to be remembered. I want the mentality in what we created to be remembered, because I think sometimes we live in a very narcissistic world where like, “I want to be remembered.” No, I want how I live to be remembered, and that’s why it’s not… How can I explain this? One of the guys that’s speaking, Tank Sinatra. He said something on the videos that we were creating for the advertising and the brand and the promo videos, and he said, “I’m not being inspiring. I’m living to inspire. You live to inspire.”
Steve: So, I don’t want to be remembered. I want the Seven Rock Life brand. I want the mentality. I want the love. I want the way I live to be remembered, not just me as a person. Does that make sense?
Chris: Yes.
Steve: I think that is how we have to live our life because we’re sometimes… I mean, like you look at Steve Jobs. We still talk about him. We don’t remember Steve Jobs. We remember what he created for the world, and I’m going to get a little into this. I think when we discover a medicine to the world, we all have different medicines, right? Jeff Bezos created Amazon. Now, when you think about Amazon, Amazon’s amazing. It was a time saver, connect people, give people businesses. Yeah, granted it may take away businesses, but it also adds businesses.
Steve: So, it’s a catch-22, but I look at Amazon as a time saver where you can really buy something or a book, and maybe you’re depressed. You’re like, “I need a book,” and you get it tomorrow. That could save a life, but nobody ever thinks deeper than that. It’s like, “Wow, that efficiency or that thing that it can do.” So, answering your question, I think you don’t want to be remembered. You want to be the way you lived to be remembered, and I think that’s more powerful, and that’ll carry on for legacy and generations to come.
Chris: That, my brother, is exactly why you have the character that you have. I love that answer. Thank you.
Steve: I appreciate it.
Chris: This last question where we’re wrapping things up and talking about what you do and where people can find you. This might take a little bit. You’ve got a lot of things going on, but I would still love to hear more, like everything that you want to share, that you’re involved in, what are you working on, where can people find you, anything along those lines.
Steve: Yeah, that’s great. The first thing is I’m on social media. Steven Mazzurco is my Instagram, so Steven_Mazzurco. I guess you’ll attach that with everything. Then also if you just google “Seven Rock Life” on Google, you’ll see everything come up. You’ll see the clothing brand. You’ll see the podcast. You’ll see the mentorship and mastermind program that we have. You’ll see we also do our charity, our giving back, so we’re going to be going on a few more trips just these next six months, 12 months.
Steve: It’s starting to come up on Seven Rock Life, but if you type in “livingtoinspire.com,” that’s our inspirational music festival companies, which are so cool. It’s any type of event or conference that you’ve ever been to you or concert all in two days, and the people we pick are strategically picked for a reason, and literally, you will learn, have fun, network, meet your next wife or husband there or whatever, right? You’ll have a great time, but that is something I’m really… because that connects all the dots where we have this book community, podcast community, clothing community, but then this connects where we want to be in-person community.
Steve: We’ll be touring around the country. So, if you’re listening to this, we’ll be coming to your city over the next 12 months, New York being the first one in November 8th and 9th. So, yeah, google “Seven Rock Life.” Go to stevenmazzurco.com. Go to Instagram. You can follow me there. I’m very active there, and I hope to get a chance to meet you and just help you discover your medicine to the world and live that Seven Rock Life of giving back and inspiring.
Chris: That’s excellent. Thank you so much, Steven. I really appreciate you being on the podcast.
Steve: No, thank you for asking, and I appreciate everything you do, and shoutout to Chris. He is so good at what he does and his team. So, we’re grateful for you and grateful for what you guys put together to give to the world and to help the world become a better place, because you don’t realize… I finished with this, actually. I was at a company that does programs around the world for mentorship, and I was in their office and some of their design team. They were designing, and they’re in the office, and this was in California.
Steve: I think this is a great story to share, and I said, “I just want to thank you guys because you don’t realize that the design that you guys make for this website, the way you set up the website, the way people can watch videos is the way that people are learning information that could save their life, help them make more money, help them inspire more. So, you don’t realize that the tech that you do in this office goes out into the world and allows people to have a platform that we can share and use to become better people for the world.” So, everybody in this tribe of the world has its role, so never think that you’re not important because you are.
Chris: That’s awesome. That, folks, wraps up this episode.
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More about Steve Mazzurco
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