Bonus Episode 5 | George B. Thomas: Digital Marketing Mastery and Life Lessons - Mick Unplugged
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Are you ready to change your habits, sculpt your destiny, and light up your path to greatness? Welcome to the epicenter of transformation. This is Mic Unplugged. We'll help you identify your because, so you can create a routine that's not just productive, but powerful.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another highly attractive episode of Mick Unplugged. And today we're not just hosting a guest, we're sharing a journey with a visionary who's not only carved out paths for themselves, but also personally inspired me in my digital journey as well.

His story is one that spans the trials and triumphs of life, and it's propelled him into the spotlight as a beacon of innovation, resilience, and profound insight within the digital marketing world. Celebrated across the globe as a speaker, trainer, and consultant, his unyielding dedication to empowering others speaks volumes of his character. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my distinct honor and pleasure

to introduce my friend, Mr. George B. Thomas. George, welcome to the show, my man. Wow, Mick, thanks. Shoot, I might get emotional just off the intro, brother. Holy mackerel. But you definitely are the attractive part of this podcast episode, so we'll give you that. I definitely have a face for radio, old school radio. I accept that, embrace that, and I'm okay with it. All good.

So this one is going to be uniquely fun, interesting and inspiring today because I mean, I've told you this a little bit, but you know how we introduce ourselves to each other, right? So George has a very popular YouTube channel. I was following him for years just on his insights of HubSpot alone. So when I started with HubSpot, George was the video that I watched every day.

of how to improve and how to get better. And then one day the opportunity came across itself for me. And as you all know me, right? Like, I guess the kids call it shooting your shot. Yeah. I'm not afraid to introduce myself to people. And so I introduced myself to George and George said, Hey, here's my personal email. Reach out to me anytime. And

When he said anytime, I took that very literal. Reached out to George. Next thing you know, he's inspiring me aside from HubSpot, but just the human that he is, is what got me. And George, I want to let you know, I thank you for all the talks.

Thank you for all the conversations because there were times that I kind of needed you and you didn't know. And I needed that. I'm not going to say support, but I needed that kick in the rear that could show me things were possible. And that led George into literally becoming my coach, one of my personal coaches on video. And he yells at me to this day. Oh,

on lighting and Mick, you're not standing in the center. And why'd you wear that shirt? And, you know, I appreciate all of that today. I hated you for a while, but I appreciate it today, sir. Yeah, it all adds up and it becomes good things. You know, Mick, it's interesting to hear you say that because I think a couple of things for me, it does always come down to the human. I am all about giving my personal email address, my personal phone number. I

I really do want to make true connections with people. And I think it all leans into this thing. As you were talking, I thought about like, yeah, I'm just trying to be that catalyst. I'm trying to be that hand up that somebody might need. And it comes from so many years of just being in a place where I wish I could get a hand up. I didn't want to hand out. I wanted a hand up. I wanted to be able to

make something of myself, become my own man, as they say. And I had some people along the way do that for me. And as soon as I saw what that looked like and what it felt like, I knew for the rest of my life, this is what I'm going to do. This is who I'm going to be. This is how I'm going to show up.

That's freaking awesome. And again, I appreciate that every day because it is that human interaction. It's that personal interaction. George made me feel special. And you have that unique quality of making people feel very special. Like, what is that in you? Or what is it that you see in people where it's like, you know what, I'm going to actually take the time and show that I appreciate them because you're

you know, millions of followers, millions of comments, millions of, I mean, you are the consultant of consultants and coaches of coaches. I mean, how do you take that time to make everything personal? Yeah, I think it comes down to simple mathematics and it's all about the one.

And what I mean by that is it's the one that I am in front of or spending time with at that moment. It also comes down to the mathematics of one, meaning when I'm creating a tutorial or I'm doing a training, I'm not doing it for the mass numbers of becoming viral. I'm doing it for the sheer number of being valuable.

And again, that mathematics of one where you actually take time to listen, you take time to think, and then you take time to respond, customized to the needs that you see them having that even sometimes they can't see they have in that moment. And so I do think that it comes down to, you know, really fundamental

basic principles of being a good human. And that is you're leading with love, you're leading with empathy, and you're always trying to just be your authentic self in those moments. But, Mick, I do something that some people call strange. Like, I'll be sitting in an airport talking to somebody, and as soon as the conversation starts, I'll flip my phone over so I can't see the screen because it's the mathematics of one.

if we're in a big group of folks and all of a sudden the conversation turns to where it needs to be a little bit more in the weeds, motivational, inspirational, I'll find a place for us to go off and just be together to have that conversation. Cause again, it's,

mathematics of one. It's about that one person, that one moment, that one impact that will lead them to who they can become. Because to kind of spoil the end or crescendo of what this podcast might get to is for me, I'm living a life where I have decided to quit focusing on success and focus on significance because I want to get to the end of my life. And the only question I want to ask is please,

please just show me the ripples. I want to see the ripples that I created while I was here. I love it. So let's get into it, man. Like, you know, the podcast is all about being fueled by your because and you were literally the second person that I called when I said, Hey, I'm going to start this podcast. And you were like, well, what is it about? And I told you a little bit of my story on because and you were like, wow.

Mike, that's deep. We have so much in common. So let's talk about the because for George Thomas. Like, what was that one thing and what is your actual because that gets you to that point where now you care about the ripples versus the success? It's funny because I come from a world where I'm pre-internet.

When I was three years old, we lived in a one-room log cabin and no running water. We would bathe in the stream next to it. So small beginnings, right? And when you have small beginnings, you think maybe life is going to be small for you. But you have to go through some battles to get past that. But really the precipice of all of this is when I was 17, Mick,

I had a math teacher tell me that I would never amount to anything. And it was in front of the entire classroom. You know, at that point in time, I believed this math teacher. And within six months, I was a high school dropout, had moved out of my parents' home and had been signed into the military and was in what I thought would be a 20-year career in the Navy.

But I realized that for much of my life, I was focused on what that math teacher said, that you'll never amount to anything in a level of belief. And that was limiting, right? And it created limiting beliefs for me.

And so finally, at one point in my life, I got to the area where I started to get these hand ups that I alluded to and people started to bring me out of those limiting beliefs that I had. And I started to believe that I could do could be anything that I wanted to be, that there was much more in me than I actually had believed in. And so for me, it's not really that funny.

That when people talk to me or they approach me and they're like, dude, you're a world-class educator. You're a world-class communicator. Like you're getting on stage and you're speaking and you're, you're meeting on zoom meetings. Like why, why, why are you focused on being a great educator and communicator? And it's because my, because it's because it shouldn't be a crappy process.

I shouldn't have had to go through at 17 and a half being told I would never amount to anything. And so I've turned myself into the polar opposite of what that was. I want to be the educator and communicator that is the catalyst for humans to have the utmost belief in themselves, the understanding that they have no...

idea of who they can become in the next week, the next month, the next year. And I get super excited just thinking about being able to be that little flick in their life that like

expedites them into their destiny. And honestly, it gets me to think about like the legacy that I'll leave for myself and for my children. And again, just going back to those ripples that will have have been impacted the pond of life, if you will. Yeah. So again, we work together, I'm going to say offline, right? So you understand and you know,

when Les Brown coined the mick factor and what that meant. And a lot of that I definitely know were principles that you and I both share, right? So when we talk about mastery and mindset, you know, I have this saying of you can't completely change your mindset unless you're willing to literally destroy the current mindset, right? Like you don't just change and look away and say, okay, now I'm going to do this. Like you have to literally destroy your current mindset

in order for a new one to propel and to grow. Talk about that with George, because I can look back and say, I'm proud of you for doing, but just knowing your story, like that's where it had to start, right? Like you can't, again, you can't just say, all right, I'm changing my mindset. I'm going to do this. I'm going to be this person. Now you have to literally destroy the previous mindset that you have. It's interesting because one of the handups was from HubSpot Academy.

They had this thing that you could do where you could get certifications and these certifications were free. And Mick, I started by getting one certification, one became three, three became six, became 12.

And it was funny because I did this mentality of I'm going to catch them all. And for the longest time, it was just like cert after cert after cert. And people, you know, I would share on the Internet, on LinkedIn of like, hey, I got this other certification. And it's funny because I think people from the outside might look at that and say, wow, he's proving to the world all that he knows.

And to be honest, if people actually knew the back end story of it, I was proving to myself that I could learn. I was proving to myself that I could become a master. I was proving to myself that I knew each and every day, even though I was becoming a master, I had to wake up as a student.

And I had to learn it again and repeat and rinse and repeat. And there started to become this thing in my life where education trumped entertainment. I was more worried about the LinkedIn learning and HubSpot Academy and podcasts and Audible than I was my Netflix and my Hulu and my... And so like...

It just got to this point where I knew that I had to transform myself into a master of something. And for me, that was the master of HubSpot and marketing and sales and service and business along the way. It's many times I joke because I'm like, yeah, I'm a business coach wrapped up in a HubSpot coach. Like you might approach me via HubSpot. We're going to talk about video.

We're gonna talk about podcasting. We're gonna talk about building community, which has nothing to do with HubSpot, but HubSpot can be the foundation for that. And so I kind of come incognito, if you will, on some of these other conversations, but I had to become the master of that. I had to break the mindset of lack

and have a mindset of abundance and that I could build myself into somebody that could bring value to the world one human at a time, one team at a time, one business at a time. And finally, I just,

I did it so much and so many times, so many, 42 certifications, HubSpot accredited trainer, been in a HubSpot certification, training people how to be an actual HubSpot certified trainer where I started to believe it myself. And it's that belief that attracted me to you. You can see belief. You can see confidence. You can see courage when it's in front of you. And that's what I saw. So I want to take this a different direction now.

You're a huge influencer. I have this thing where influencers sometimes don't really tell you the truth of how they got there. It's real easy when you're on top of the mountain to surmise stories of, oh, you can do it and all you have to do is this and that. But the reality is for that 21 year old, that 25 year old, that 17 year old, all the resources just aren't there. And so one of the things that I know about you on a personal level is that life does give you challenges.

Right. Even when you've changed your mindset and you've taken the steps forward to do those things, the journey doesn't stop there. What's been one of the biggest challenges, obstacles, hurdles that George B. Thomas had to overcome? How did you do it and what did it teach you about yourself? Because life always gives you lessons.

I think the biggest challenge I had to overcome was myself. And here's the thing. Once you start to see movement, once you've gotten that hand up, once you're focused on the journey ahead of you, there becomes this thing where you're trying to expedite it as fast as humanly possible.

And in this world we live in where it's a culture of hustle and work your face off and, you know, sleep four hours a day and work the rest. And, you know, like there's just there was this time where I was like on the grind wasn't even enough.

That's not even giving it what I was doing on the grind. And I'll tell you, I ended up one morning waking up and I went to let my dog out and there was a ring in my ears, Mick. And I was like, that's odd. But I made the normal pot of coffee that I would make and I went upstairs to take a shower and

Make a long story short, I end up in my closet on my knees, sweating profusely through my shirt and my shorts. And my wife was like, should I call 911? I said, no, I don't call 911. And she's on the phone with one of our friends. And she says, where's your phone at? And I say, my number's over there.

And I realized I answered the question wrong. And then I heard my youngest daughter say, Daddy, I don't want you to die. And I said, Baby, I'm not going nowhere.

And I crawl across my bedroom. I start to slide down the steps to my front porch. And my wife is like, what are you doing? And I'm like, I am not expecting anybody to carry my big butt down these steps. I will meet them at the door. And EMS comes in the door and they're taking my blood pressure. And they're like, did he have a stroke? Did he have a heart attack?

"Mr. Thomas, did you have a heart attack?" And I said, "I don't think so." And Mick, as they're wheeling me out of my house, I look back at my wife and I say, "I don't have time for this. I have a meeting in 10 minutes." My wife let me sit in the hospital for three and a half days with no phone, no computer, no way to do any work.

And let me think about how dumb I don't have time for this. I have a meeting in ten minutes. How dumb that was. And so the thing that I had to learn was this idea of a healthy hustle, an idea of if you're going to take care of others, if you're going to add value to the world, then you might want to take care of yourself.

You might want to make sure that you maybe do some meditation. Maybe you take a nap every now and then. Maybe you have certain hours that you work and certain hours that you don't. But I really had to put a method to my madness

of, hey, we can either do this real quick and the journey can end, or we can do this in a way where the journey can be long lasting. And Mick, I'll tell you right now, life is getting so good. I want it to last for a long time, my man.

A long time. George is living his best life right now. And that's, it's totally inspiring. It's totally motivating. What are some things right now, George? So I know that there are people listening to this call that are like, how do I do what George has done? How do I do what Mick has done? How do I totally destroy this mindset? And it seems hard. Yeah.

And it is hard. And I don't want anyone listening to think or anyone watching to think that this mindset shift, this mindset destruction is easy. It's not. It's a commitment.

What do you think, George, are the first two to three things that people have to do to make that happen? First of all, the reason people think that it's so hard is because they're trying to eat the whole elephant and they're not compartmentalizing the things that they actually should be paying attention to. And they're not compressing the things down to how small they could be. What I mean by that is I have a principle that I've lived at least a good half of my life

by and that is 1% better each and every day. 1% better each and every day. I don't need to make these mammoth leaps. I just need to take one step. And when you start to focus on 1% better each and every day and you have certain compartments that you're actually for spiritually 1% better each and every day.

Physically, 1% better each and every day. Mentally, 1% better each and every day. Financially, 1% each and every day. And you start to understand, well, what is your 1% today? What's the little piece that you can move? What's the little puzzle that you got to put together? What's the little strategy that you can make sure you aren't letting go and forgetting to do? That's when you can start to make massive leaps, but it feels like tiny steps.

And here's the thing. We don't realize how far these 1% better each and every day steps will get us until we've gone 30 days, 60 days, 90 days. And we look back and go, holy crap. I literally have on the whiteboard written behind me, Mick, it says, and it's a constant reminder whenever I walk out of my office or walk into my office,

It says, I've come a long way since 2013. And it makes me reflect on the journey. So there's a couple of things that you can pull apart from what I just said. One, you need to compress it down to what are the daily tasks that

What's my 1% better each and every day? You need to compartmentalize it, meaning you need to strategize on the things that you actually want to grow, whether it's financial, spiritual, mental, physical. But what is your strategy for those daily actions? And then you need to reflect every so often how far you've actually come along the journey, because that's your fuel for the next couple mile markers ahead of you.

I like that. I'm going to add another thing for people to do for that mindset destruction. And I've said this in one of my solo podcasts. Look at your surroundings physically and the people that are in those surroundings.

One of the things that I had to do, and I do this exercise two times a year now because George said once isn't enough. I look at my circle and I look at my circle of people. And then I look at those that maybe they're not in the circle, but they're close to the circle. And I really say, who's fighting with me versus who's fighting against me?

In our society, we always root for the underdog. So right now you have people in your corner that are fighting for you because you're the underdog and they want you to stay that underdog. They want you to stay the person that's always grinding and always fighting and clawing to get to the top. And they're going to remind you of all the things you can't do, but keep fighting anyway. You can't do it, but keep fighting. Those are the people that you really need to look and see, do I need them in my life? And it hurts.

Trust me, it hurts me to go through that and see who's really in my corner, who's pushing me or who's showing me all the cards that are stacked against me. And I know that there are people that are listening right now that are saying, oh crap,

Because there are people that will show you every single card that stacked against you and remind you of that on a daily basis. I know George, you reminded me of that. And I thank you for that. And now I do that exercise twice a year. Now, it doesn't mean that people come out of the circle or come into the circle twice a year, but it truly makes me evaluate those that are pushing and inspiring.

versus those that are adding to that fraction. - And I love, Mick, how you talked about how it's difficult. It's a difficult choice that sometimes you have to take

And, you know, it's funny because we dedicated an entire episode on Beyond Your Default to the importance of relationships for your life journey through life. It's episode nine. And we dug deep into like sometimes you get to make really fun decisions like, oh, I want to bring this mentor into my life and it'll be free or it only cost me X.

XYZ because I can become part of a mastermind. And then you have these other parts of like making the decision where you're like, my brother is no longer a good value to have in my circle because he's making me focus on these things.

And that's just an example. My brothers are pretty awesome, by the way. But my point is like they're they're easy choices and hard choices. But you do have to really focus on that circle because where they're headed and who they are is going to be a large factor of who you become and where you go. Amen. And we both have kids. Yes. Right.

We both have, I'm using air quotes, adult kids, because I don't know if you really can become an adult till you've conquered something. Till you've gone through something and conquered it, right? - Right. - I'm gonna give a message to George's kids. George, I want you to give a message to my kids. And for those that are listening, like do this daily, weekly, because your kids need you. Your kids actually look up to you. And my mentor, Les Brown says, "You should raise your kids, not the internets, not the social medias." I'm putting S's on everything. But not all those outside influences.

So to George's kids, I'm going to say this. Continue to aspire to be great. There's greatness within you. That uncomfortable feeling that you get sometimes, it's your greatness that's shaking up. Don't hold that greatness in. It's okay to take risk. It's okay to surprise. It's okay to want to be great. And here's what I'm going to tell you. Your dad loves you.

No matter what, your dad loves you. There's not a mistake that you're going to make that your dad's not going to be proud of. It's okay. Best to the Thomas boys. Woo!

Thomas boys and girls, my goodness. My goodness. It's okay to be great. It's okay to be great. So Mick, for your kids, and this is largely because I know who you are and what you're trying to be and who you're becoming. I would say to Mick's children, hustle for your last name, not for your first.

It's okay to leave a legacy. It's okay to build for the future. It's okay to set people that haven't even arrived on this planet up for success. So many of us are living lives that we've had to try to build something out of nothing. Because of who your father is, you can build something into more.

But only if you hustle for your last name, not for your first. It's not about us. It's about the impact. It's about the influence. It's about the other humans that we can help.

help along the way. The thing that I think comes out of legacy and that hustling for your last name is this idea that we don't really understand how much we're actually doing for ourselves by doing for others. And so as you hustle for your last name along this journey of life, make sure you're being a blessing bond.

Because now that you're turning something into more, now you have these time bombs, these money bombs, these whatever you want it to be bombs that you can leave along in all sorts of good ways during your journey.

That's what I would say to your kids. And Kyla J. Kamen, Uncle George just gave you all the wisdom in the world. Dude, you know, I love you. I appreciate you more than you know. Where can people follow all the things that George B. Thomas has going on? Where do we start? Where do we follow you?

Yeah, we kind of talk two different directions, right? So if you're looking for like business marketing sales, you know, agency help, definitely head over to Sidekick Strategies dot com. If you're looking for more of the hey, this guy knows a little bit about life, has lived a couple of things, almost died a couple of times. Definitely head over to Beyond Your Default dot com or check out the Beyond Your Default podcast.

But again, like I said at the beginning of this, you can go over to my LinkedIn. It's George B. Thomas on LinkedIn. Or heck, just email me if you have questions or thoughts about something that was sparked in this conversation that I've had with Mick. And it's George at GeorgeBThomas.com. That email is always open. My door is always open. My mind is always open. And I always love having conversations with humans who are trying to grow themselves into something special.

Georgie, I love you, brother. I appreciate you. And for the folks listening, remember, your because is your superpower. Go unleash it. Thanks for listening to Mick Unplugged. We hope this episode helps you take the next step toward the extraordinary and launches a revolution in your life. Don't forget to rate and review the podcast and be sure to check us out on YouTube at Mick Unplugged. Remember, stay empowered, stay inspired, and stay unplugged.