249. The Networking Advantage: How Moe Rock's Insight Can Elevate Your Career

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This is happiness solved with America's happiness. Coach Sandee Sgarlata.

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Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining me today. I'm so happy you're here. I'm Sandee Sgarlata. I was born in Virginia Beach and raised in the Baltimore Annapolis area and had very humble and tragic beginnings. And as a result, my life was a hot mess.

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Thankfully, 33 years ago, I got my act together and since that time I have dedicated my life to serving others and raising awareness that no matter what you've been through, you can choose happiness and live the life of your dreams. Happiness Solved is dedicated to giving you content that is empowering, motivational, inspirational, and of course, a dose of happiness. It's my way to give back to the world and share other people's stories. This thing called life can be challenging and my guests share their amazing stories, wisdom and life lessons that demonstrate anyone can choose happiness. You see, happiness is a choice and the choice is yours.

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Today's episode is amazing and I am so grateful for you. Thank you for listening and don't forget to leave a review and follow me on social media at coach. Sandee Sgarlata. Enjoy the show.

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Mo Rock I couldn't wait to meet you on this trip just because I was able to be honored to be speaking at your event, the virtual event that you just had. And I also have an article coming out in the La. Tribune special edition right. That's coming out in July or the end of this month, I'm not even sure. Yeah.

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Well, first of all, hello and thank you for the opportunity to spend some time with you and be on your awesome show and congratulations on all the recent success. Thank you. I heard recently from a lot of sources and friends and acquaintances that your podcast has really just been exploding on the charts. It has been. And so congratulations on that and I'm excited to spend some time with you today.

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And, yeah, you did a fantastic job when we met recently when you were on stage at an event alongside Mark Victor Hansen and Sharon Lecter, co author of Rich Dad, Poor dad and so many other great speakers. And we've had some very big names on our platform, whether it's Brian Tracy, Bob Proctor, Michael Beckwith, and you did a great job, just among the best of the best that we've had. So thank you for that. And as far as the newspaper article, we have a special edition that highlights female leadership and women in business and women in leadership and social change. And so I'm excited to have you a part of that.

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And you're also co author of a book with co author of a book with Dr. Moe Vitali. And so Dr. Moe vitali is also one of the co authors from the Secret. He's writing the forward for that I'm.

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And what's the name of that book? It's called the moral compass. It was actually also recently featured on the front page of Entrepreneur.com. Wow. And so you're also part of that project.

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And so when Michael Silvers big shout out to Michael Silvers and Mentor studio recommended you for all of said, you know, I'll take your word for, you know, this business is all about relationships, for sure, and people that you know and trusting people that you know. So, so far, he's been absolutely right about you, and I'm humbled to be able to be on your podcast. Thank you. I appreciate that. So for those of you who are actually watching this on YouTube or wherever, we're actually recording this live from the Marriott Northwest, Chicago.

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Chicago. I keep forgetting to order that. It's the Chicago Marriott Northwest. And we are at Bill Walsh's Power Team international ultimate wealth camp. And it's just been amazing.

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And it's been amazing, and I've had such a fantastic job, and Bill is somebody that I'm very honored to call, not just a colleague, but a friend. And so it's been a fantastic few days here, really. I think Bill Walsh is one of the great leaders in the world of business coaching. And what I love about Bill specifically is he's not going to tell you what you want to hear. He's going to tell you what you need to hear.

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Yes, he does. And in this business, if you want to be really popular, tell people what they want to hear. If you want to be really effective, tell people what they need to hear. Now, Bill is both bill's one of the few that managed to be both popular and effective. But that's what I appreciate.

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Personally, I don't need someone, Sandee, to tell me what I want to hear or what they think I want to hear. That has never benefited me, really. If you want emotional support in life, have a good friend. Yes. Have a good therapist, have a good dog, but don't bring that into business.

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I think a lot of times, people's emotional blockage and their emotional needs interfere with their business success, especially as entrepreneurs. I see a lot of entrepreneurs that use their business for an emotional bank. A business is not there for your emotional needs, but I see a lot of entrepreneurs use it as such. They either use their business to say, I'm worthy. Look at me.

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Or they use their business to say, I have value. Look at me. They're either trying to convince themselves or subconsciously convince their parents or convince their old classmates or whatever. And so there's a distinction between what you do in business, what you do in your personal life, and one thing in communities like this, where entrepreneurs are the face of the company and coaches are the face of the company that gets really blended and intermingled too much, it's like people's identity become this. They create this persona to be a coach and a leader and a speaker, and they forget that that's a persona that's like a logo.

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So you got to stay emotionally detached from that because there's going to be highs and lows, and when there are highs, that it's great. And when there are lows, that's great, too. And you can't be emotionally involved in it, emotionally attached in it. So I think it's just apropos to go there a little bit because I've been around so many speakers the last few days and so many coaches, and it's a reminder of that. I've had so many conversations, and I know your audience consists of a lot of coaches, speakers, entrepreneurs, and so my message to them is to just remember your business is not there for your personal emotional needs.

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Your business is there to serve the planet, serve other people, your mission, your higher purpose, but don't use it as an emotional piggy bank. You'll be a lot more successful. I love that. That is absolutely some of the best advice I've heard, because I know it's really hard because they always say work life balance or whatnot. And then some people, oh, there's no such thing.

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But I think you have to kind of have a little bit of everything in there, right? Yeah. Well, as far as work life balance goes, I'm not the right guy to ask that question for me. I have a personal approach, and it works for me. And you got to figure out what works for you.

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Right. Same thing, I think about a diet. Some people will rant and rave about how amazing a keto diet is, and you'll talk to them for five minutes and they'll convince you you'll believe it. Some people will rant and rave about how amazing a vegan diet is, and if you listen to how enthusiastic they are for five or ten minutes, you'll believe them. Yeah, they're both right.

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It's right for yourself. Right. And so the same thing with this work life balance. What works for you? See, I figured out a way to live my life, and everything works out the way that I want it to work out, for the most part.

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What I mean by that from the standpoint of the work life balance, to me, when I'm here right now and I'm working, I'm living my life, I'm having a good time. I'm around fantastic people. I don't know if you've noticed. I've been laughing a lot with some great people that are here, whether it's Michael Silvers or Larry Steinhouse or Bill Walsh. Last night we went to a wonderful steakhouse here and had a fantastic time.

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I'm having fun. This isn't work for me. We're very lucky if this is work. That's right. And so to me, work life balance is for people that hate their freaking jobs.

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Love that, right. Love it. If you're sitting here thinking about work life balance is because your job sucks and you need to figure out a way to do something that you enjoy doing. Tell it like it is Moe yeah. And you have to make money in life, but at some point, you got to just be content with what you have.

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You always got to keep going and going and going. But you don't want to feel less than because you're not a billionaire, but you're a millionaire. I mean, there's a study done about ten years ago that proved that if a person makes about $75,000 a year, that the money factor in how happy they are significantly drops after about 75, 80,000. What that means is money is a factor in your happiness, in your joy, in your peace of mind, which I think is the most important thing in life. Yes, but once a person goes outside of survival mode, it no longer becomes that much of a factor.

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Right. A person making $100,000 a year versus a person making $500,000 a year, the happiness and the peace of mind is not all that different now, obviously, depending upon where you live. Right. But the point is, once you're no longer struggling to pay your bills every single month, at that point, it no longer is a factor. And so whether you have $100 million or $1 million, the factor is not there anymore for joy, peace, and happiness.

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So peace of mind is the most important thing. You want to be successful, but you don't want to feel inadequate because you don't own a private jet yet, or whatever the case may be, which is amazing. And I love those things. And whenever I have a chance to go on one of Bill's jets, I'm very excited. But the point is, peace of mind is the number one currency in life, not dollar signs.

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Your peace of mind is the most valuable thing in life. And so whether it's mentally, relationally, physically, financially, spiritually, ask yourself, does this satisfy my peace of mind? If the answer is yes, move forward. If it's not giving you peace of mind to stop, do not collect $200. Do not go.

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Right. Right. And so peace of mind is the most important thing. Oh, my gosh, I love it. You are just dropping so many golden nuggets here for the audience, and I really appreciate that.

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And I want to know more about you and how you got to this, because you're the CEO of the La Tribune. Los Angeles Tribune. I just know somebody said they searched for La tribune, and it was actually like a different country. That's Latribune. La Tribune.

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That's a company. Right, right. Shout out to La Tribune. That's right. But this is the Los Angeles Tribune.

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Yes. So how did you get been did you want to be into journalism or where did this all come from? Because that's a pretty big role. Yeah, well, from outside looking in, it seems like, well, how did you get there? For me, from my perspective, it's just a natural progression.

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I think a lot of times in life, that's how it is I've been an entrepreneur for about 1314 years. Originally started actually in the music and entertainment industry as a producer, produced music that I have a gold record with. Some of my music, some of my work, achieved a lot of success early on as a teenager. So at a very young age, I was on television networks around the world. At a very young age, about 18 years old, you could see me on international television stations with 20, 30 million people watching.

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Wow. And so I achieved a lot of notoriety very young, and I learned a lot of lessons when I achieved that notoriety very young. First of all, I achieved you can accomplish things that seem impossible. Second, I also learned a lot about the media business because while my contemporaries were busy partying and enjoying their fame, I was in the green room. I was talking to the producers.

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I was networking and making connections with people that I would be invited to. If I was invited to a radio station to be interviewed, I would talk to them. I would say, how do you use this microphone? I had a curious mind. And so I think the lesson is always have a curious mind.

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With every room that you're in, there's no shame in asking questions. There's shame in not asking questions. Right. I sometimes ask the stupidest, dumbest questions you can possibly imagine. In fact, I've asked a lot of dumb questions in my life, but I'm grateful for every single time that I did, because even though I might have been ridiculed for asking a stupid question, I got a piece of wisdom that the person that ridiculed me didn't.

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And so ask dumb questions. Ask stupid questions. Don't be afraid. Have a curious mind. Enter a room like a toddler, like a sponge, and just absorb as much information as you can, because you never know how many years down the line that information, that knowledge will benefit you.

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Yeah. Oh, my gosh, I love that. So how did the opportunity with the Los Angeles Tribune come to be in your career trajectory? Yeah. Well, like any business acquisition, you have opportunities to purchase businesses.

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And so that opportunity came. We put together a group, and we made it happen. And so I wish it was more sexy and exciting than that, but it's a very simple process. Now, the lesson there is to put yourself in the room with people that have the opportunities. Yes.

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And so I got involved with angel investment groups. I served for two years as the Community Outreach chair for an organization called Thai SoCal that's Tie. They're a group of angel investors. They manage billions of dollars in their portfolio internationally. And they've existed since 1996, I believe, 1992 or 96.

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So for two years, I served on that board, and it afforded me an opportunity to network with incredible people and be around, movers and shakers. Right. I mean, this person was the co founder of that multibillion dollar app. This person was the co founder of that super famous website. Whatever.

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And so be in the room with the game changers. If I was watching Netflix and I wasn't out hustling and trying to get myself out there and shaking hands, it wouldn't have never happened. I would not have never learned of the different opportunities and of the different ways that you can acquire IP, ways that you can acquire trademarks, ways that you can acquire the rights to certain names. Right. For instance, in the last few years, there's been a huge market for acquiring IP, right?

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Yes. The name of a company is the most valuable asset for many companies. And so it's not always about the infrastructure. Once upon a time, infrastructure equated equity. These days, it's name value.

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And so especially with AI and the rises of artificial intelligence and all of the tools that we have, we're only a few years away from having the first three person billion dollar company. It's going to happen. Wow. And so the days of needing 300, 400 people to get to that level are done. You can scale, you can do incredible things with technology and you can use these tools so long as you understand them.

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Now, if you're not educating yourself, if you're not staying up to date, if you're not making sure that you're ahead of the curve with all of the updates and all the news, that's your own fault. And if you're not utilizing all of the free resources out there, that's also your soul. There's someone right there in the room next to us teaching about chat GPT. Listen, you don't need anyone to teach you chat GPT. Go to YouTube and subscribe to all the YouTube channels.

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I'm so glad I'm here with you instead of in there wasting my time. With all due respect, I'm sure he's a lovely gentleman, but I'm not wasting my time because first of all, what you're teaching me about chat GPT is going to change in a week. Secondly, subscribe to a bunch of YouTube channels. That's right. There are so many YouTube channels you can subscribe to, and every day they'll pop up with the latest information on chat GPT.

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You do not need to sit and listen to someone teaching you mean, it's incredible how some people overcomplicate the most simple things in life. Chad GPT is idiot proof and it's going to get even more and more idiot proof. I misspell half of the things I write in and it still understands what I'm saying. So I'm so glad that I'm here with you instead. Oh, thank you.

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Well, it's been an absolute pleasure. And we're almost out of time here. Is there anything else that you'd like to share with the audience that we haven't talked about because you've got so much wisdom? I was not expecting this today. Just know we don't know what we don't know and how can people learn more about some of the things you have going on with the Los Angeles Tribune?

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Yeah, just follow me on my Instagram page. Mo Rock Loves You is my Instagram page. Love it. So M-O-E-R-O-C-K-I post a lot of stuff on there, on my stories and whatever about stuff we do as a you know, just stay in touch with Sandee because Sandee's going to help us promote a lot of our projects. She's going to be involved in a lot of our stuff.

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She's involved in our big upcoming major book that was just featured on the front page of Entrepreneur.com. I don't even know if you knew. That I didn't know, and to know that Dr. Moe Vitali is involved just warms my heart because I got to interview him the end of December last year. Yeah, he's just been somebody that I have followed.

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He's one of my best friends in this business. I love him and he's incredible. One of the most supportive people to me in this business. And I love Dr. Moe Vitali.

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And he wrote the foreword for The Incredible. You know, I have a section in the end that includes bonus chapters on integrity. And I reached out to a couple of my friends. I said, do you know different people from different walks of life that could contribute to this book? And Michael Silvers and Donna Campbell were amongst them, and they recommended you.

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So I'm excited to have you part of yeah, I mean, what we do with the La. Tribune and with the newspaper is really redefine the way the news companies are seen in people's lives. For years, news companies have had a reputation for disempowering people. People come to me all the time and say, mo, when I read XYZ newspaper, I feel disempowered. When I read your newspaper, I feel empowered.

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And that's what we want and that's what we want. And so we're independently owned, so we don't need to deal with so much corporate know. We don't have leashes on our backs. We can say what we want to say. We embrace freedom of speech.

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We're free speech platform. And I'm very excited about the future. So thank you for the time. Thank you, Moe. It's been such a pleasure.

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Thank you so much. And thank you, everyone for listening today.

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I certainly hope that you enjoyed today's interview. Thank you so much for joining me. And as always, I hope that you and your family are healthy and safe and that your lives are filled with. Peace, joy, and happiness. Take care, everyone.