How to Create Success from Scratch: Dr. Michelle Rozen’s 3-Step Formula

You know , people want things and it's not working out for them , and my concern about that is that pretty soon , somebody starts saying to themselves maybe I'm just not , I'm not good enough because I want those things and they're not happening . And so the goal is , I mean , this is 2025 . We gotta make it a good year . We have to .

What are we doing differently this year compared to the years before ? That's the million dollar question , and I think the main goal is to generate success . This is why I love the name of your podcast so much and thank you for having me a second time the great success . So how do we generate that ? How do we generate success ?

And the problem that most people have is that they haven't experienced success . They know failure zone , like they've tried , they dropped things , they wanted things that didn't work out for them . That's the comfort zone . That's familiar territory . Success , you know that sounds , you know , very vague . Let me give you an example .

I was talking to my niece and she's a singer , she's a very talented singer and she talked to me about how she's afraid of success . And I said listen , success is such a big word . Tell me what success means to you . And it was hard for her to define .

Ultimately , we came to the conclusion that success to her means having 60 people in a room in her show that are not friends and family . I said fine , now that you define that after much thinking , let's see how we get there . See the problem when you talk about success as an obscure thing , oh , it becomes very scary . We have to make it 2025 .

We're making it familiar , we're making it concrete , we're making it happen .

Now I need to make it happen . I can have the same type of discussion about you know , big goals , small goals . I need to work out more , I need to save more money . It can be a lot of things . Success to me is I said X and X happened . And when I say generate success , I mean at any scale . That means that it can be super small .

I just want to get that dopamine rush . I want to get that sensation , that experience of I said that something will happen and it happened . And so my recommendation is always come on , start small , Don't overwhelm yourself .

Say that you will do X and be consistent , make it happen , Because what happens is when you generate that success and you actually follow through , even if it's super small . This is when you tell yourself I am so cool , Would you look at me ? You know , I said that I'm going to drink two gallons of water a day . Guess what I did ?

For the past month , I've been drinking two gallons of water a day . I am cool . Now let's talk about my business . Now let's talk about my relationship . And so it becomes familiar territory , it becomes an identity . This is why you know the whole 6% club and the 6%ers .

I am the kind of person that if I said that I will do this , I made it happen , and so no judgment . You know , it can be something related to your kids , something related to your health , something related something super dumb and stupid . Fine , Generate it , Make it happen .

I'm going to say , hey , I'm doing this , I'm doing this , I'm doing . How about I pick a bigger goal ? You know , and so I already know how to do this . I'm on this , I'm doing this , I'm doing . How about I pick a bigger goal ? You know , and so I already know how to do this . I'm on familiar territory .

I'm much more likely to follow through , and that becomes part of my identity . And you know what , brad , even if I fail and I struggle and I have a hard time , I have that identity . I have that experience of . I'm the type of person who says that they will do something and actually follows through . So I'm much more likely now to be more resilient .

I'm going to figure it out , because this is who I am and this is my experience . Now compare that to someone who talks about success in vague terms , always drops the ball , and that's their familiar territory . That's what they know . You know , big difference .

Maybe you want to go back to school , maybe you want to open a business , maybe you want to have a new podcast , maybe you want to grow your social media following . It's a series of choices that you're making and how you're allocating your time that takes you there . So we're still down to . You got up in the morning ?

Did you make the calls that you had to make ? Did you , you know , fill up the business paperwork ? Did you take the actions the business , the marketing actions that you needed to take ? If you're driving a beat up car and your dream is to drive a Lamborghini , by all means make it happen .

Make it happen the same way that you can drink more water , get healthier , put more steps into your day . You know . Be more active . You can get there . It takes time . I changed my life . Other people can change their lives too .

How do we get people to make sure they are using the micro goals ?

And so that gives me the mental clarity on three actions that are going to happen that will move me forward . Now , sometimes , when you're moving forward , brad and I'm sure you experienced that too you're not seeing it . So you're not seeing your own progress . But actually you're making big leaps .

But on a day-to-day , make sure no day goes by where you didn't at least do three things that push you closer where you want to go .

I probably think it'd be a better way to help us understand that .

And so if I'm going to say for the next 30 , because after that you get , you get the neural pathway in your brain . It's automated . You do it without thinking , but it takes 30 days to get there . And so if I said to myself you know , I'm going to take an hour walk every day and I just , you know , I do it , I do it .

I did it for two weeks and after two weeks I was getting kind of lazy about it and I was like I don't know , it's too hot , it's too cold , it's too this , it's too that . Stop doing it . You can always go back to the beginning line and say , well , I got to automate this thing .

This is very important , it's important for my health , so I got to generate that success

. It's back to generating that success . No problem , I go back to the beginning line . All I need to do is do the same thing for 30 days , until it's automated in your brain . So we are the total of the habits that we have , and people that are able to generate success develop habits over time that are good for them .

You know it's about how they manage their morning , what is their morning routine , what is their evening routine , how they make decisions . And so pick , you know , one thing to focus on for 30 days and every day , pick three actions on a sticky note that you're going to do , no matter what .

It's that mental clarity that gets you out of big concept oh , success . Oh , other people , oh , everybody's doing better than me . Confused , no , no , get the mental clarity . What do you want to automate in your brain for 30 days ? What are three actions you're taking today to make sure to push through and push through ?

Same route , pretty much at the same time . If it rains . I'm very confused . I'm very confused . I mean , I look at the clock and I'm like what am I supposed to do ? What do people do ? I walk at this time of the day . So it's that level of because I did it so many times . I'm way past the 30 days . It's like I'm conditioned to do it .

You've got to condition yourself to develop healthy habits that carry you through , and so it's that generating of success . It's a process of becoming . You become the type of person who sets goals , says that they would not let's not even call it goals says that they will do something and actually follows through . It's as simple as that .

But it's the type of people that develop the mindset that if they said something they are going to follow through , up , the mindset that if they said something they are going to follow through . And there's a little bit of a problem I agree with you , brad , with the word goals , because people feel if they said the word goal , it has to be something impressive .

And I say don't even think about that . Think about something that you want to see happening . How are you going to get there ? What do you need to do today , tomorrow , the day after to make sure you get there ?

And if that's , you know the ball doesn't roll if you don't start on that one . So I want to ask then I hit day 17 . How do I stay firm with myself ? How do I get myself into that ? Or , you know , keep going , I guess , is the question .

But if you set a reminder and you stay with the same time , and let's say you said you're going to work out at seven and at five minutes to seven , 15 minutes to seven , every single device you have says do the thing , do the thing , do the thing . You know , after 30 days you're not going to need reminders anymore .

You can , that's what you're doing at that time of the day . But notes on the fridge , reminders on your phone , reminders on your laptop , reminders on your watch You've got to condition it's . You know what it is , brad , it's . You manipulate the environment through those devices rather than fighting with your willpower . Because willpower , who trusts it ?

You know I have willpower now . I'm not going to have it in the evening , I'll be too tired . So why would I trust my willpower and build my whole life around ? Sometimes I have it , sometimes I don't . Instead of that , when you manipulate the environment , set reminders on your devices now , okay , okay . So now we're doing the thing .

Oh , my God , he's here . Is he really here ? No , he's not . Yeah , he's here . Oh , I got to get up and go do this . You know what I mean ? It was like I knew I wouldn't have that willpower . So , yeah , manipulate the environment . I love that that way of looking at it .

So let's talk about restarting , then let's , because whether it is restarting from missing a day or restarting from , you know , I'm 50 and I've never got there or you know how do we restart , how do we ignite ourselves to get back on the , on the horse , or even get on the horse for the first time to get back on the horse , or even get on the horse for

the first time .

I went back to school for my master's and my PhD when I was a full-time working mom of three very young kids . I used to set up alarms for 3 am , wake up at 3 , study from 3 to 6 . The economy collapsed . It was 2008 . Everything worked against me .

I could have been one of those people that say I'll take a break , I'll come back when the time is right , and never come back . But I didn't . It wasn't the right time . I did it anyway . When I wrote the 6% Club , the publisher told me oh , Michelle , nobody publishes books in the summer .

If you get it to us by this deadline , we can publish it in the spring . So you know it's a process of becoming . Now you tell someone like me there's a deadline . I'm like , okay , I'm making it to the deadline . Was it the right time for me ? Absolutely not . I was too busy , I didn't have time . I was in flights all the time . I did it anyway .

So my conclusion , after you know my own path and everything that I know and experienced myself at this point , is if you're waiting for the right time to take that step , you're waiting for something that is never , ever going to happen . So you might as well do that now , and there's never a right time .

So if you're 50 and you want to go back to school , do it . If you're 60 or 70 and you want to go back to school , do it . Anything you want to do , it's never the right time . It's always too early , too late , You're too busy , Do it anyway leveling up , then you know we talk .

How do you get I don't know if it's the courage or the brain power , what's the steps to , when you know you're going down the wrong path , to just say it's time to stop , it's time to change ? How would you recommend people can do that , because maybe I need that advice right now , michelle , on a couple of things I don't know .

And I find that a lot of times people have that mindset of no , no , you know , to be successful , you have to never quit . No , no , Sometimes you have to quit the things that are not right for you , and I , I mean to me . I use the zero to 10 rule for that , which is , you know , a tool that I have for measuring how right is something for you .

And so , if you say zero to 10 , how right is this relationship for me , how right is this business for me , this job for me , those people for me ? And your answer to yourself is well , I don't know , maybe it's like a three . Oh , you're wasting your time on the wrong time , wrong people , wrong things .

If your answer to yourself is 10 , you're in the right place , with the right people , with the right , you know doing the right things . You're in the right place with the right people , with the right , you know doing the right things . And so don't quit on your tens , Absolutely quit on your threes and twos and ones and zero . It's a total waste of time .

And I've done that . I gave up . Same like you , Brad , I gave up on first semester in college when I

was very young . I was at a college that I didn't like . I left the college before the final exams of the first semester and everybody said , well , you know , at least stay for the exams . And I said I don't like this place . This is the wrong place for me . I'm out . And you know what ? It was the right decision .

Don't stay just because you are afraid to make that decision of this is a three . I got to put my life is short . I got to put my time where it's a 10 for me , because my time is limited .

Let's let's break it down . Being nice means in that sense of not saying no , that you're going to take your daily amount of time and energy and you're just going to give it out to people because you can't say no . You can . I mean , would you ever ?

Would you ever go into your checking account and just give out , just give out cash to people just because they're asking ? Right , you wouldn't . It's a resource . You don't do that . You decide how to spend your money . So the same thing with your time and energy .

If you can't say no to people , then you have less time , less energy to focus on your tens , the things that matter the most to you , and you're just giving it out free just because you don't want to get that stomach ache . And to me , you know , I was kind of that person until the pandemic , and in the pandemic .

My time was so limited and my energy was so scarce and I had big goals and things that I wanted to do that I just started saying no . And what I found out , brad and it's really amazing is that I found out that what happened as a result is nothing Nobody , I mean .

If anything , I got more respect from the people around me and I had more time , so the benefits to me were so great and nothing happened . No one had a problem with it . I just needed to get clear with saying this is a no , not now , not this , not at this moment , and my life improved drastically .

If you support us , we're going to support your success and help you achieve big success together .

I would do this between these hours , this , this , this . These are the things I'm doing . These are the things I'm doing , and what I've found is by defining that , it's easier to say no , be like no , no , uh sorry , I've got to be doing the . I've got a marketing meeting . Then now , who's the marketing meeting with ? With me ?

I'm in the marketing meeting with myself and , and it's like , even my assistant knows , whenever I'm doing something , it's like and someone calls for me , it's like , no , no , brad's in a meeting , brad's with someone right now , you know . And it's like I'm doing something , it's like , and someone calls for me , it's like , no , no , brad's in a meeting .

Brad's with someone right now , you know . And it's like , oh , he's with someone . Oh , okay , I'll call back later , you know . And it's like , yeah , I'm with me .

You know , where someone is asking for your time or energy , or you know , and we all know , the energy vampires out there that would suck out every single piece of you know of energy that you have in you .

And sometimes it's in your face and you have to get really good at saying I'm really , really sorry , I can't do that right now , and then , in the nicest way , just set a very firm boundary .

But even you know , one of my buddies recently invited me on a trip and he goes , hey , we're going to do this trip and we're going to all go , and we're going to do this trip and we're going to all go and we're going to do this and this and this . I said , yeah , I'm busy that weekend . He said I didn't even told you .

When I said I know I'm still busy that weekend , but , um , my , my mom was the best for me when I was young and really working hard and there was family events and she would always , anytime there was a big family thing like the extended family said , oh , brad's , now Brad's's traveling that weekend , he'll be , he's busy .

So my mom would protect me , my assistant protects my time . But when we look at leveling up , stopping is sort of phase one of leveling up stopping doing something that is taking you away from your ideal self , your ideal world . Um , the six percent version of you . How , how does someone actually go ? You know what ?

I haven't had that level of success in the past , or I haven't been successful in that area in the past . How do they switch ? How do we get them thinking in that way ? Is it just as simple as starting , or is there more to it than that ?

I mean , you're guarding it so much , which is so important . That was the perfect example . Whoever's listening ? That was a perfect example . Whoever's listening ? That was a perfect example of how you do it , to the point that even your mom knows to protect .

Let's all help Brad guard his time and energy , because he needs it , because you have five kids and you have , you know , business , business , things you need to do and you need your time and energy . Imagine you didn't have that . Most people don't have that fence that you've built . That is so important for success .

So I would actually go to what you just described right now and I would say , guys , this is the first step . This is the first thing that you do . You start guarding your time and energy by saying no to people and things that don't matter .

Schedule or your systems that , yeah , you've just reminded me right there . If I don't schedule , allocate time towards my new goal allocate , I put it in the dang calendar . Every one of us has a machine these days that tells us what we're doing . When this has been like a Michelle coaching Brad session . This is great .

Now you can go straight , you can go right , you can go left , god forbid . My 17-year-old just took her car today to school for the second time in her life . I'm like you know , please drive carefully . So you know , hopefully when she's coming to an intersection she's going to stop , pause , then take the turn . If she doesn't , that's a very dangerous turn .

Most of the people take turns in their lives without pausing before and I encourage everyone to build a pause into every day where you get to think . When I say , take out a sticky note and write your three most important things to happen that day , that's a pause . That day , that's a pause . My walks that I do every day that I don't travel , that's a pause .

That's a time with myself . Like you said , a meeting with you're , having a meeting with Brad , I'm having a meeting with Michelle . That's a meeting with myself to think and plan and get mental clarity . I meet so many people top executives , leaders , you know people in important positions that don't pause .

You know they just live reactively from day to day to day . So I think whoever's listening to us two things Number one start guarding your time and energy . Don't give them away to people , even if your stomach hurts at the beginning when you're doing it .

And step number two is you've got to build a pause into your day where you think and get mental clarity in terms of what matters to you the most right now and how can you do better ?

You can just sit back in your chair for 15 minutes , 30 minutes , you can sit back for five minutes , you can take a walk , you can pray , you can meditate , you do , you can swim , you know . But you've got to build a pause into your day because otherwise you're going to come to an intersection and take a wild turn and that's dangerous .

can take a break . I personally have one week a month now where I don't work , so that that week a month I can just think of new ideas , that sort of thing . I think that's a really important aspect as well .

But I love the idea of the pause and I would add to that that if you're going to change tacts , one of my guests one time , professor alan p's on the podcast . He said how is the enemy of your goals and dreams ? He said because the moment you decide I want to do something new , your stupid brain goes into how am I going to do that ?

And the problem is your stupid brain doesn't know how to do it . That's why you set it as a goal . So , dear stupid brain , I'm taking a pause so I can read 10 books , listen to 20 podcasts . Do you know what I mean ? Like you've got to do the learning .

And that's where I don't think people give themselves the , the , the cushioning , or the time or the grace to learn the new thing If I'm changing from there to there , like if it was running a marathon . You know you got to practice . You know you got to do those things . You don't set the goal and run it tomorrow .

You set the goal and you know you got to take six months , 12 months , two years to work up to it , sort of thing . And I think , michelle , you've reminded me a lot of that fact that I've got to make sure I pause , study , learn , plan , then get to it , sort of thing . I love that idea .

You were frazzled , you were all over the place . You don't want to have a day like that again . Okay , how are we going to run tomorrow differently ? You know I get up , brad , 30 minutes before the time I'm supposed to wake up . I love my morning coffee , I sit there with my coffee and my dogs and I plan my day .

So when you think about it , you take a week off to think and strategize . I build . When I don't travel again , the travel throws me off , but I build two pauses into my day . I get up 30 minutes earlier .

I call that 30 minutes of magic because that's how I don't start the day reactively , I start it proactively and I have my walks , which is another opportunity to think and strategize .

I always end this thing with a thought of what's the best advice or the best quote you ever got on the subject of success . So , seeing as I've invited you back , this is going to have to be your second best one ever . I guess you gave me the best one on the last podcast .

And so life goes by , can be something super stupid maybe for other people , but for you it matters . You're not too old , you're not too young , you're not too rich , you're not too poor , you're not too anything . Just do it , because the right time is not coming . And I can tell you that from my own experience .

I look back into my life and I'm like thank you , universe , for me not waiting for the right time . I would miss out on so much . And so that's my favorite quote and my message to everyone .