Ross Mandell
Appearances
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
How you feel really doesn't really matter when you have purpose. What's your because, man? What's that purpose for you today? You know what? It's something that's natural for me. I love to teach, to educate, to help.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
They suffered greatly, okay? And then, you know, I was on American Greed. I'm the finale of season nine called The Sky's the Limit. You know, the show, I get a letter while I'm in prison that my case was deemed the most colorful case in the United States in 2011, 2012 after I was sentenced. And they did an hour show, they called The Sky's the Limit, American Greed.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
And you know, people are very, a lot of the haters come out on social media because they're cowards. It's like Hamas, they wear masks. You know, if you really feel something, say it, show your face. Okay, take a position. I'm like, that's the kind of guy I am. You know what I mean? But there's a lot of people that suffer from cowardice and from hate. And so my family really had a rough time.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
And this morning I got a call that my daughter got into law school, her first choice. And so I feel like I got into law school. My whole family feels like we all got into law school. What school did she get into, by the way? She's going to Nova in Miami.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
And she lives in Fort Lauderdale and it's just such a big event for us having been through what we've been through. She had no intention of being an attorney. She went to University of Florida, great school, finished in three years with a four-year degree, a degree in psychology.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
And then we had a lot of fatherly talks and I like to say that I said, look, I don't care if you lawyer for one day, lawyering is maybe not for you. But whatever business you want to go into, I promise you when you walk in as an attorney into that office, people will look at you very differently than if you just walk in as a college graduate.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
You understand it gives you access to any business that you decide, entertainment, securities, intellectual property, whatever enterprise you're interested in making, what industry, you know, podcasting, whatever industry you're interested in being a part of, you can walk in as an attorney and you're valued. You're six figure automatically off the rip and people look at you differently.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
So that message resonated with her. I will tell you, I did everything I could to, you know, if I ever made a good sale, it was this. And I'm so proud as a dad. And my other daughter is killing it. She's a technology recruiter. And, you know, one of the things, Mick, that I know, I just know intuitively having followed you now and watched some of your stuff, you're a good guy.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
And we want to positively influence people. That's the reason we do this. to bring a positive message, to be of service, to help, to influence positively. There's so much, you know, when I got sober, I stood up in a room. I was in Manhattan, 32 years, 33 years old, 1990. And they said, my name is Ross. I'm an alcoholic and a drug addict. I don't know any sober people in New York City.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
If I could get some numbers from some of you, So if I have a rough spot, I can give you a call and maybe you could help me with advice. I'd be grateful. 15 people ran over to me. And it's funny because I had no idea there were so many good people in this world. And what I've learned is if you're looking for bad, you're going to find bad. If you're looking for trouble, you're going to find trouble.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
Easy. It's easy. I used to go into cities all around this country. And within an hour of being in the city, I knew where to get drugs. I knew where the best bars were. You know what I'm saying? I knew where the action was, that sort of that underground action. But then you know what? As a grownup, as a newly sober guy, I learned where all the good AA meetings are in Easttown.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
I learned where the good people were, where they went, where the people that I was interested, the helpful people, people that were interested in being a part of a movement. that helps in a positive way. So, you know, I learned God is funny and the world is funny. You will, you know, seek and you shall find. They say that in the New Testament, right? Right. And the doors will be open to you.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
So you have to decide who you want to be and what you want to be in this world. And then you just reverse engineer it and figure out the steps you have to go. I teach this. I teach young men and even young women now mentoring. And it's a wonderful thing. We have a course called The Wealth Formula. Go to my website or click on any of the training links in my bios and social media.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
It'll take you through a funnel to Lightspeed, Bradley, LEA, Lightspeed Virtual Training in Henderson, Nevada, right outside of Vegas. Brilliant, brilliant guy. That's one of my guys. Yeah, we have a course. My store is right next to Grant Cardone and Damon John and Robert Kiyosaki, the rich dad, poor dad guy. I'm very proud of all that.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
And we're doing a new course, a stock market course, just so you know. We're going to teach people what the stock market is and how to navigate the market, how to trade, how to build wealth, you know, one brick at a time. And there is no course out there that's legitimate teaching young men, middle-aged men, older men, housewives, young women that wanna learn about the stock market.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
It's a daunting thing. You have all these guys on Telegram and Discord with these scammy little groups that are trying to recommend options on futures of some sort of tertiary currency. I mean, it's a scam. It's the first big downturn that's all gonna be revealed. I want to be there to help everybody navigate the world of the stock markets because it affects pretty much everybody today.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
Everybody on the planet, really. And so everybody that's involved should have at least a legitimate understanding of what it is and how to play. We're going to show you the rules of the game.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
Now, one other thing I'm involved in, I really want to share this with you.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
You know, I did time with a guy named Lawrence Hartman. He was my cellie. And he has an incredible story. He's an attorney, Ivy League attorney. He became an international fugitive. He was on Interpol's most wanted list. There was a red notice issued for him. He eventually got arrested, sneaking into Nicaragua. With a fake identity. It's a crazy story. You know, online sports.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
He was a brilliant attorney, Ivy League Law School. And it's about his journey. And Raw Media has agreed to represent him. He has a book, a screenplay. And Michael Capone has just agreed to star in Raw. to produce and direct, C-O-P-O-N. He was one of the original Power Rangers. He's won an Emmy. He was in five films last year. He's been in the business for over 20 years. Check him out on IMDb.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
We're about to start announcing this on social media, and he's going to start doing interviews in the trades, like Variety, Hollywood Reporter, etc., But I wanted Mick Unplugged to get this first today because we just made the agreement in the last couple of days. It's being papered now. But I wanted to give you a little bit of something that nobody else has, Mick. I appreciate that, Ross.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
Anytime we can break news and have exclusives, I love it, brother. That's the first time it's been mentioned publicly. And you got it. So it's going to be a great clip and your people will get to see it. And it's called Blind Greed. Blind Green. From Ivy League to International Fugitive, starring the story of Lawrence Hartman, starring Michael Capon, C-O-P-O-N.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
And we're looking to, just so you know, produce it in the Philippines. Okay. And there's a whole variety of good reasons for that, which I don't want to take up the time, but it's a very exciting thing to be in this industry and this business. I'm very determined to build a media company, sort of like Mick Unplugged. Just killing it, bro, right?
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
We spoke about some good things prior to the broadcast. And I'm like so proud of you, man.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
I am, like you said, you asked me how I feel and I can't even answer you really because I haven't thought about it. I'm too busy doing. I'm not so busy feeling. You know, Andrew Tate talks about these things, and he's a very controversial character, but I dig him. I dig the Tate brothers. I want to say it publicly.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
You know, they're going through a lot of shit with the bullshit legal stuff that they're being brought into because they made a lot of money. He's very brash. He's very outspoken. But a lot of the things he says, I agree. Being a man means being accountable. It means being accountable. You want to be successful, you better take action. I can't stand negative people. I can't have it in my life.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
You know, they even tell you, you know, a younger man is going to a cancer journey and he's going to all these different doctors and he's getting all this advice. And I'm like, the number one thing is you can't be negative. The body is a self-healing mechanism. I believe God wants good for us, I believe that. And the thing is that we can't allow negativity or doubt to creep in.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
If I was feeling all so much, I might have doubt. I have made a decision, I've got some goals down, One is to build a successful media company, a successful podcast, to build an educational platform where I can truly help people get into business, build and create wealth, understand the stock market. There are specific things that I have, I'm uniquely knowledgeable about. I have literally 10%.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
Tens of years of grinding and making moves and success and accomplishment and failure. You know, Patrick Mahomes will learn more from what happened last Sunday in New Orleans, right? From failing than he ever will from all his victories. Trust me, the Kansas City Chiefs learned. They got beat down, okay? They're going to reorganize and reshuffle the deck because that's what winners do.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
It's not just about winning and accomplishing. It's about maintaining, okay? You know, it's a great thing. If you're not aggressive, you're never going to make money. But if you're not defensive, you're never going to keep money. These are really important nuggets of wisdom.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
And if not for mentorship, you know, when I was a young man on Wall Street, I would be in the, like, call it the bullpen, right, a boardroom. I'm making $40,000 a month. And I share a computer and a desk and a secretary. I'm making $40,000, $45,000 a month. The guys in the offices are making $100,000 a month. And I couldn't figure it out. I would knock on door.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
Bro, thank you so much. I'm a big fan of you, of your podcast and what you're doing. And when Stephanie told me that I was going to get to meet you today, I was really excited. And I'm on a journey now, much like you, in this new world of media that has exploded. And it shouldn't be lost on anybody that when President Trump was trying to get his final message out before the election,
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
Michael Cavanaugh, I want to give you a shout out. Oppenheimer & Company, 1970. 1985, I would knock on his door and say, Michael, would you mind if I come in and just sit in the corner and listen? I want to take some notes. I promise you I won't make a sound. And he says, sure, Ross. And I used to go in and he would like put on a show, you know, he's real. He's a real guy.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
And he could get on the phone and talk to a guy that he never met, maybe spoke to once before, twice, qualified him, got a lead, sent him, you know, an introductory package. And get him to commit to a $100,000 transaction. Called on the phone. There's a guy that earned $100,000 a month. He used to drive down to Wall Street from Midtown Manhattan in a convertible Rolls Royce in 1985.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
You know what I'm saying? We still admire him. Rolls Royce leaves no doubt. That's what my daughter says. You know, Mercedes, everybody's got a Mercedes today. Rolls Royce, you're making a statement now, right? It's no joke. And I would sit and take notes. But forgetting the notes, I watched. I'm a very big monkey see, monkey do guy. I see Joe Rogan. I see Joe Rogan. I see Patrick Bette David.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
is the word accountability. If I don't do a transaction that day, I don't make any money. The firm doesn't make any money.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
I see Brad Lee. I see Mick Hunt. I say, if you could do it, I could do it. Maybe not as well, maybe not the same, but if I understand the game, I can do it. But if I don't attempt to understand what it is you're doing, how you're doing it, then I'm in the blind. So I would knock on doors of guys that were better than me and more than me and say, would you mind if I ask you a question?
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
That's how I got in the stock market. You know, it was the disco days, New York City, Studio 54, 1979, 1980, right? Saturday Night Fever, John Travolta, right? And I used to go to these clubs, Studio 54, Xenon, Magic, you know, the underground, these famous, famous places in Manhattan. I'll be 68 in March.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
And we used to see guys pull up, literally at Studio 54 and West 54th Street, but it had to be 1,000 people on the street, 1,000. And there would be these velvet ropes, and everybody would be trying to get into this place. It was the most famous club in the world, hands down, right? They made movies about it and shows, you know, the Broadway show.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
And there would be guys that would pull up in expensive cars, Porsche, Lamborghini, Mercedes, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, And a guy would literally come out from nowhere and they'd give him the keys and out of the car would be this, you know, one of the hottest, the most beautiful women you could see. And they would walk through the ropes.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
Then when I eventually got into the place, I would see them sitting at like the best table with bottles of the best champagne. And I would go right up to them and I'd say, excuse me, who are you? I mean, how do you, why is this woman with you? I saw you pull up, you got in. I mean, what do you do?
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
I'm a stockbroker, I'm an investment banker, I'm a trader, I work at Goldman Sachs, I work at JP Morgan. It was all these financial guys. And so that's what led myself and my closest friends. We didn't know anything about the stock market, but we saw people that had what we wanted. So we emulated them. It's that simple. You know, I mean, it's nothing more than that.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
And we didn't have cell phones in those days, computers. We didn't have social media. We didn't have Google. Right. Guy says he's in the best mind. I said, what does that mean? He went, I'm staring at his girlfriend.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
I'm like, you know, if you don't mind me saying, you're not that great looking. She's stunning. How did you get this woman? You know, that's who I am. I talk, I'm very, but you know what? Most people appreciate me like that. They start laughing. And they love talking, people love talking about themselves. You know, guys used to come up to me and say, is that your wife or your nanny?
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
I would check into hotels. You know, one place, it was the Ritz Carlton in Puerto Rico. Jay-Z and Beyonce were checking in. This is back in like 2006 or so, 2005. And it was a holiday weekend. And I was at VIP because I gambled at big lines of credit, all these different things. And we check into VIP. And so Beyonce and Jay-Z, they put us ahead of them. I was very cool.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
I had my whole family there, my wife, my wife's sister, her kids. My wife's hanging around. So the host looks at me. He goes, is Mrs. Mandel going to be joining you? staring at my wife, thought she was my nanny. Right. Because she was much younger and super gorgeous, you know. And so the things that I wanted when I was a younger guy in my 20s, I willed it to happen by taking action.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
He didn't go to CBS or BBC or ABC. He went on Joe Rogan's podcast. No agendas, no corporate influence, no bullshit, no FCC regulation. You know, all this corruption we see in government and all their sort of the NGOs they call them, you know, non-governmental organizations. But these shadow people that, you know, are ruling our lives, which is so wrong.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
And, you know, one of the things about mentorship, my mastermind program, just so you know, you go to info at RossMandel.com if you're interested. I hold you accountable. So I have a new mentee. And 50 year old, he's in his 50s. He's very successful. I mean, he makes several hundred thousand a year. But he, you know, he wants more from life. And every Friday we meet online. It's taped.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
You know, Google meets. And I hold him accountable. But I also hold myself accountable. Right. With friends. It's not like it's just me advised. I learned from everybody. But I learned from you today. I learned from what a listener you are. Taking notes like that was amazing. I mean, that's why you're so successful right now. And that's why people are chasing you with seven-figure deals, bro.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
I mean, because you're worthy. Whatever you've done, whatever you've done to get to this point indicates to me that you're worthy. A lot of times we look at the financial reward being an indication of someone worthy or not. I believe that in the podcasting business now, that's a true indicator. Like, I tell you, on social media, I don't pay for anything. I refuse.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
A lot of guys, you know, you see these numbers, a million, 5 million, 3 million, 200 million. They buy these followers. And I was advised early on, if you do that, the algorithm knows. You're not fooling anybody. Maybe you're fooling some kids. Who cares? But the business of social media, the algorithm knows exactly how you got those followers, organically or artificially.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
I just broke 50,000 on Super Bowl Sunday of followers on Instagram. All organic. And now the algorithm is working for me. Now I get a thing from Instagram. We're promoting this reel because we believe you'll get more followers. Like the algorithm is telling me. So I just posted a story. It's about these fires in L.A. and how Gavin Newsom is just destroyed.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
The governor of this state of California is just destroying this state. You know, bad leadership, Mick, bad leadership. It's terrible. I mean, California, if it was a country, would be the sixth most prosperous country in the world. And they're broke and they're in debt. I mean, what is that? What is that? People are leaving bad leadership.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
So, you know, he's got to be fired and you got to move on. But accountability is really important and understanding the game that you're attempting to be in. I meet people all the time and they come to me and ask me, there's a lot of men and I see they're in a particular industry and they've never really evolved. They don't really understand the game of the industry.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
They're good workers and they put in their hours and they don't understand the big picture. And it's not that difficult, but you have to want to. You can't be afraid. Can't be afraid to ask questions. You can't be afraid to explore and understand. I mean, it's stunning to me that a guy could spend 20, 30 years in industry and not really understand the industry that he's in.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
That's something that Wall Street gifted me. We would, as young brokers, we would be told, here's the deal we're pitching. This is a conglomerate, Diageo, that represents all these brands of alcohol. So you become like an expert in alcohol and the business of alcohol and the business of Diageo and all that. Next thing you know, we're doing a banking deal with this company.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
You know, this company is involved in defense technology. You know, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, whatever. You become like an expert and you start to understand from the top down. And you understand how the industry, how the game is played within the industry. I always look to identify an industry leader, right? So in the podcast world, I say it's got to be Joe Rogan. Right? They paid him what?
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
Spotify paid him $250 million six years ago. Now for three years, $200 million. Now he's getting $250 million for three years. And Joe Rogan is great. I love him. I listen to him. I watch fight. He makes the UFC fights exciting. I used to watch him on Fear Factor, right? He himself was a little karate champion out of New Jersey.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
But I dig, I dig the, I understand, I look to understand the industry, how people monetize, what makes, you know, something interesting or not interesting, so forth and so on. I'm sure just like you do, you know, I'm sure this is what you've been doing, right? Yeah.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
And he got 30 million downloads in 12 hours. Never happened before like that. And so now we're in that race, we're in that game, you know, and I feel like we have a few years to go. The unregulated business, media, we're able to reach the masses with the truth. You know, I created a company called Raw Media because it's raw. I don't have an agenda. I'm going to be raw.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
A lot of people, they get the mindset, they're so worried about executing perfectly that they never get off first base. Right. Just jump in the fucking pool.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
splash around you'll figure it out it'll come to you but in the meantime don't miss a day you can't wait till you get something perfect you got to get in the game you'll take a few lumps you'll get hit you'll make a few mistakes guess what that's how you learn for real not by studying about yourself right right yeah right right i mean listen i'll never forget you know we were young boys in the neighborhood and somebody would get their hands on a playboy magazine
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
This is before the internet. This is before cell phones. And all the young boys in the neighborhood would go to this guy's house and he would look at Playboy. And it was so exciting. And we'd talk about kissing girls and touching girls. And every young boy is fascinated. It's fascinating. We see these young women in our lives who are so excited.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
One day we'd have girlfriends and we'd hold their hands and touch and feel. And you can study it all you want. You can watch pornography. You can read books and magazines and But until you're actually with a woman, you have no idea what it is. You have no idea. So get in there. Don't be afraid. Stop studying. I use that as an example for men because all men can understand that.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
Until you actually get your pants down, you don't know what the hell's going on. And it's a great experience, right? And you don't have to get it perfect and you don't have to get it right. Get in there. Practice. And, you know, I like to use real life examples that are relatable. You know what I'm saying?
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
Because sometimes you look in books and academia and they come up with this shit that, what the fuck are you talking about? I like to keep things simple, you know, because at the end of the day, people convolute things. People dress things up. And to go back for a second, anything worth doing, Mick, anything is worth doing for money. Yes, sir. That's something they teach you on Wall Street.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
It's an axiom. Anything worth doing is worth doing for money. And, you know, once money's involved, now you understand the difference between doing it wrong, doing it so-so, and doing it right. In podcasting, doing it right, you might get 250 million from Spotify. Do it right. You know, you don't know what the fuck you're doing. You're doing it for free. It's costing you money.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
So, you know, these are the two, the beginning road and the end road, you know, in theory, right? Now let's figure out how to get to that 250 million for three years.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
It's exactly what it is, bro. You don't make it, people make it so complicated. Turn the fucking camera on, give me the microphone and let's go.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
For you, anytime, Mick, anytime. And now I have your number, so I'm gonna bother you once in a while. Let's do it. Hit you up, bro. I'm going to hit you up. That's what I'm here for. I want you on my podcast soon. Done deal. We already talked to Steph. It's happening. I love it. Yeah, boy, she's on it, boy. She is. She's doing great. I love it. And thank you for having me today.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
I really appreciate it.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
I'm going to share with you what I really see, what I really feel, what my experiences are. No bullshit. No disguises, no secret messages. When my dad passed away, I was freaking angry. I was angry at God. God was dead to me. And I became, I just fueled, I couldn't handle what I was dealing with. I was taking pills. I was snorting drugs. I was eating drugs, drinking like an animal.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
And I thank you so much, Micah. You know, I'm humbled by you today.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
For 17 straight years, I was high. When I tell you high, every day, at one point I had viral pneumonia. with bronchial respiratory complications, and I'm in the hospital, and I got an oxygen mask on me, and double IVs, and my friend still smuggled me in weed, so I could smoke and put the oxygen mask on me.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
I mean, I look back at that particular incident, it's like, it was defining, like, what the fuck, man? And I went into therapy after I got sober, when I was clean a year. And Dr. Arthur Knaut, God bless him, he passed away of pancreatic cancer right before I got married. But he said, you have a river of rage running through you. a river of rage.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
It's like fire, you know, God created fire, gave man fire, nature, if you don't believe in God. Fire, the most destructive force in our universe. It can destroy a city, eat you alive. You see what's happening in LA with the fires? Lightning coming down, I mean, crazy. And then you have, but if you corral fire, if you manage it, It could light a village. It could heat a whole city.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
A lot of people, you know, they get the mindset, they're so worried about executing perfectly that they never get off first base. Just jump in the fucking pool. Splash around. You'll figure it out. It'll come to you. But in the meantime, don't miss a day. You can't wait till you get something perfect. You got to get in the game. You'll take a few lumps. You'll get hit. You'll make a few mistakes.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
It'd use it for cooking. So, you know, all this abundance of rage, which is akin to a fire, I learned how to sort of manage it and steer it. And it gives me almost like a superpower. Men like us that have suffered pain Great pain turns into rage. It's fuel. It allows people, it'll eat you alive and destroy you. Eat you alive and destroy.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
But if you understand it, if you can manage it to corral it, you can use it to fuel. So when I went into the stock market, you know, they said, you know, got to make 300 calls a day. And a lot of guys would make 100 and they get fed up, 150. They go out, take a walk. They call their girlfriends, act like they're on the phone. Me, smile and dial, smile and dial.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
300, okay, they told me 300 calls a day to be a millionaire. I made 400 just to be sure. You know what I'm saying? Because I didn't care. What am I gonna go home? I'm broke. Go home and smoke weed and play video games. I said, I might as well just work because I got nothing. I got no money to do anything. And some people said, so how much did you make? What was your salary?
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
I said, there's no salary. I'm a commission guy. I never took a salary in my life until I was building companies and we had $100 million in the bank. Then I put myself, my first salary was like $2.5 million a year. I never took money. It's eat what you kill. What does that mean? If I don't do business, I'm in a transaction business on Wall Street.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
If I don't do a transaction that day, I don't make any money. The firm doesn't make any money. Who's going to pay for your seat? Who's going to pay for your computers? Who's going to pay for your secretary? Who's going to pay for all the statements that they got issued? So I quickly learned that I better sit there and I better generate transactions. Buy, sell, opening new accounts, doesn't matter.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
It's got to be transactions. I learned essentially how to kill. You eat what you kill. I learned how to do business. I learned how to do deals. I learned how to make stuff happen. Now, I got to say, if you're getting a salary, you're not going to get to that point because it took me a minute. I used to wonder how the fuck I was going to eat. I'm not talking about pay rent. How am I going to eat?
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
I had no money. I mean, you know, you're working, you're working, you're working, you're grinding. And my work ethic today I see in this particular arena that we're in is very helpful to me. You know, one of the guys, in fact, you just spoke to him briefly, Johnny, said to me, you know, one thing about you, we know you're never going to quit. I just show up, man.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
That's what I'm doing since I'm a kid. Win, lose, or draw. Broke, or at my height, I had $150 million personally. I had a real net worth, real capital, liquid money. And my company had $200 million, my companies. So I was valued at about $450 million at my height. But you got to remember, that's 20 years ago. Today, that's like $4 billion.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
Guess what? That's how you learn for real.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
The world is very different today with all the things that have happened with the mismanagement of our economy by government and circumstances, et cetera, COVID, and a lot of different things that have happened and gone on. But, you know, the one thing is clear. I can add a lot of value to the youngsters and to the people. You know, funny thing is I have a mastermind program.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
People get me for 10 hours. Okay? Personally. And we record the sessions, they get the tapes, and they get other benefits as well by being sort of on the inside of Ross Mandel right now. And... It started out a bunch of young kids, like 31-year-old kids, 28-year-old kids, you know, young men. I shouldn't say kids. The young men, and every one of them has business.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
Every one of them makes some money, but they thought that they could maybe go to the next level. And I was able to do that with them. But now all of a sudden I'm getting men like 56, 58, 63 saying, listen, I got this, I got that, but can you help me? And I've been able to add value to every single one of their lives. Yeah. Mick, that's really what this is all about. Do you understand?
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
You know what? It's something that's natural for me. I love to teach, to educate, to help. I just, that's my personality. I don't know how to explain it. It's not like some great master plan or, you know, I'm a good person for that. I enjoy it. I mean, it's almost a selfish pleasure. When I was stock brokering, people were attracted to me because I have an energy, but I'm very comfortable sharing.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
And I think that as a man, you have to be very secure to share. I noticed a lot of men in life, business, relationships, they're not generous, right? If you were to ask me, like people have asked me, so who is Ross Mandel? So when I was a young guy, I said, well, I'm a stockbroker. You know, I wear a Rolex. I mean, you know, it's like I drive a Mercedes.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
And I was challenged by people in that sort of psychological arena. No, they said, no, no, that's what you do. That's what you own. Who are you? And I was like, man, that's like, these are tough questions for a, like you asked me earlier, how am I feeling? I don't even know how I'm feeling. My daughter got into law school today. We're looking to end my probation today.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
My website went down because of some stupid billing issue. Doing a podcast, we had issues with Riverside. It doesn't matter really how I feel. I happen to really feel particularly good today. I woke up feeling very good. It's because I'm dieting and I'm going to the gym and I'm taking care of myself. And when I do these things physically, I'm okay.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
I have some issues and some conditions, but everything's managed and good. But, you know, how you feel really doesn't really matter when you have purpose. I have great purpose today. Remember, I was in federal custody for 112 months. And before I went into custody, I was on this journey, podcasting, getting my truth out, sharing. It's amazing what happened in the world while I was away.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
Donald Trump 77, 78 years old, a billionaire, builder, ex-president, all of a sudden is indicted on 92 counts after never being arrested in his life in all these different jurisdictions. So the scam of the Department of Justice and various district attorneys, the scam of our criminal justice system was on display for the entire world. You understand how government, how people in business utilize
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
They use politicians, Department of Justice officials to further again an end. I didn't do anything wrong. They came into my place, 40 FBI agents in November of 06. They said, nobody's getting arrested. Nobody, we're just here to execute a search warrant. Meanwhile, there's 40 guys with guns with stock brokerage from an investment bank.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
I got a congressman in there, a senator, a member of parliament. They come with guns blazing, lockdown. But here's what they also did. They alerted every major news media organization was already in my lobby. In my lobby. So the phones are ringing. This is the New York Times. This is AP. This is UPI. I mean, the BBC.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
They're in the lobby while they're executing a search warrant, effectively saying, we're putting you out of business. Judge, jury, and executioner. Just serving. In the meanwhile, we're a highly regulated business. We have been sharing. They send us requests for documents. We give them everything. What are you kidding?
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
I mean, this is, I'm governed by the SEC, the NASD, FINRA, New York Stock Exchange, London Stock Exchange, FSA, eight different regulators. But they felt the need to come in, guns heavy. And, you know, I never really understood how unjust the criminal justice system was. But I'll say this to you.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
I've had a lot of friends, African-Americans, sort of, I want to get Hispanics, that have come to me over the years and told me just how freaking corrupt government is and how corrupt the system is.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
How, you know, if you're a young black man, they could just pull you over just because you're a young black man, not because you're doing anything wrong, not because you're suspicious, not because they just do it. And I never really, until it affects you, you don't really pay it its mind. Right. And, you know, I'm a voice of that now, the corruption and the unjust stuff.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
I didn't do anything wrong. I didn't break the law. It took them years, years to indict me, to find a crime, five-week trial, a complete scam, theater, a show. It's a scam, federal court, the whole system. Let cameras in, no. The judge would start to press the members of the media. I want to see, because the media was writing about what a scam the trial was. And the witnesses were all liars.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
The jury were laughing. But it's rigged. And the system is rigged. It has been. And not until this Donald Trump thing did everybody see how corrupt. So, you know, it's not a matter of me whining about this and that, Mick. My journey is to be of service today. That's what I want. I'm a father. I was taken away from my young family. Daughters were 14 and 11.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
My young wife, you know, God bless her, you know, she was barely 40 years old when I went in. and stuck with two kids, and like they say, if I had cancer or a stroke, something terrible, the whole community would rally, right? But when you're indicted by the criminal justice system, you're a villain. People would stay away.
Mick Unplugged
Reinventing Ross Mandell: Success, Second Chances, and Redemption
Now all of a sudden people are starting to realize there's a lot of bullshit going on. So in 2014, I go away, and I missed a lot of valuable time being a dad. You have kids, Mick? I have three. So you know what it is to be a parent, to love unconditionally a child. And I was forced away from them. I couldn't call them on the phone. They couldn't call me when they needed dad.