Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
It's not about how I led always. It's what did they learn from me? What were they inspired from and how I lived my life every single day? I think about it a lot with parents. And while I'm not one myself, one thing that has always been acutely aware to me is most of what a kid learns is through osmosis. It's by what they see every single day.
welcome to mick unplugged the number one podcast for self-improvement leadership and relentless growth no fluff no filters just hard-hitting truths unstoppable strategies and the mindset shifts that separate the best from the rest ready to break limits let's go Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of Mic Unplugged, and today we're talking to a personal friend of mine.
He's turned passion into purpose, silence into strategy, and mental health into a mission. From battling personal darkness to becoming a best-selling author, a viral speaker, and a corporate truth-teller, he's bold, he's transparent, and he's a good human. He is Mr. Will Craig. Will, how you doing today, brother?
I'm doing good, my friend. How about yourself?
I am doing amazing. Doing amazing, man. It's cool that we get to have this conversation, man. Like, you know, when Robert Irvine introduces me, like when we're out, he's always like the power of LinkedIn because that's kind of how our relationship started was LinkedIn. And now I get to do the same thing to my buddy Will, man. Like the power of Instagram, right?
It was like, it was an Instagram message.
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Chapter 2: What personal experiences shaped Will Craig's perspective on life?
And we chatted a lot on Instagram. You invited me onto your podcast. And now we're like boys, man. So like, I want people to understand the power of social media when done correctly can really introduce you to some amazing people because I got introduced to my good friend, Mr. Will Craig.
No, I completely agree. And it's, I think there's even like a, whether it's social media or even just in person, like, I think it's a skill that doesn't get talked about enough, like in school or anything else is just the ability to just walk up or reach out to somebody that you don't know and just like try to extend an olive branch. Right. That simple connection.
Cause like all that happened with us, for those who don't know the backstory here with Mick and I, He had engaged, he had liked a couple of my videos that I posted and then I just shot him a message. I didn't know if he was going to reply, but to me it was like, let's, why not? Why not reach out, say hi, I appreciate what you're doing in the space and let's go from there.
And so I think that's an untapped market for everybody is just shoot your shot, reach out.
Totally agree. Like shoot your shot and do it.
with purpose and with passion and with with really positive energy right like you know again my mentors i all met somewhere and one of the things that they will all tell you to look you in the eyes to your face and tell you is one of the reasons they respect me is because i'm not like oh let's take a picture let's do a selfie right i'd rather ask a question because those conversations go further and they'll remember a conversation more than they will remember
you know, who they did a selfie with. Damon John takes a million pictures a day, right? Les Brown takes a million pictures a day, Robert Irvine, a million pictures a day, but it's those conversations that actually move people. And so that's just one little tidbit of advice that I'll give out to folks as well, too, man, like shoot your shot, but make it meaningful.
couldn't agree more it's you know it's that if you think about it you only get so many chances with everybody you walk into life no matter where they're at in their stage either it's like that impression will last and so to your point like asking the right question or you know leaning in to what someone's background is doing just a little bit of background work ahead of time to know like
hey, this person cares about these things. I'm going to make the impression to say, I did my homework. I came prepared. And I want to have this conversation with you because I think you're a meaningful person to have that with.
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Chapter 3: How did Will Craig transform fear into a mission for mental health advocacy?
A, maybe it's an inspiration, but B, it's if nothing else, it's to let other people feel less alone. And as I've evolved, what I'm doing with the podcast is, It's getting other people to share those stories, too. And I only have so many experiences. How do I get other people to express theirs as well to make the rest of the world realize they're not alone in their struggle?
That is deep, man. And I want to unpack. No pun intended. Unplug a little bit of what you talked about there, man. I want to go into this segment that I want to say, who was Will Craig? Because who you were versus who you are today are different. So who was Will Craig, man? Like if we were to look back and say, you know, you talked about the brain surgeries, the loss of loved ones, right?
I know a little bit about the darkness that you lived in. Who was Will Craig?
he was a scared kid at his core. He was just so scared for a number of reasons. The core of which being because of a medical condition I have called hydrocephalus at the core of that, Like I said, I've had six brain surgeries. I'm going to have more. And I truly believed that my existence in other people's lives was a sunk cost to them.
So I had to be exceptional in order to be worth anyone's time. And that fueled arrogance. It fueled cockiness and all these things because I had to go the complete other extreme. And so, you know, if you talk to 22-year-old me, he's this arrogant...
want to be something guy who's got everything to prove, but nothing to actually show for it because I needed everyone in my life to see me as something more than I was, which at the end of the day, all anyone ever actually needed of me was to be a good guy.
Right. Right. That's so deep, man. And so six brain surgeries taught us about that. Like what's the story again, part of who was will like the, the brain surgeries were part of who will was right.
Yeah. Yeah, so as I mentioned before, it's a condition called hydrocephalus. So you've got your brain, you've got your skull, and in the middle you've got cerebral spinal fluid. Your body brings it up, drains it out naturally, absorbs it through the body. Mine brings it in, but none drains out naturally.
So I've got a mechanical device called a shunt that goes into my brain, drains out the cerebral spinal fluid, brings it down to my abdominal cavity. It's a man-made piece of plastic. it'll break and it's going to break and they can't make it out of metal. Cause that's not practical for a number of reasons. You also have to do cat scans. So it's got to make it out.
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Chapter 4: What practical tools does Will Craig suggest for managing mental health?
My dad and I thought I had the flu, but then took me to the hospital and because my temperature got down to like the high 80s and was headed to a coma. And then That's when it's like, okay, this is going to be a part of your life now forever. And I had two more when I was in high school. I had one more about eight years ago.
Wow, bro. So the pause is me just sitting there thinking about you saying you have eight hours.
Mm-hmm.
And then you also said, but you know, right? Like, you know when it happens, you know what it feels like. Like, I can't fathom that as I'm sitting here right now. That, okay, something happened. I've got eight hours. What if my doctor or surgeon is, you know, in Maui or is asleep or, you know, isn't picking up the phone? Like, what happens, brother?
Actually, not Maui specifically. He was on vacation, though. That actually happened to me when I was in high school. Sorry, the two that I had when I was 17. One of them was about a year after the last one, and then went in and either make sure like it didn't take or, you know, wasn't fitting in correctly, whatever the case may be. Two days later, like I was back in the hospital.
And so my doctor who had done the previous surgery had gone on vacation. And so somebody else in his medical group, but that's where like having a team, having a plan, having all these things are so important. So wherever I've moved, wherever I've lived, like I always make sure to have a team in place to know, hey, you're my team. You know me. You know my stuff. You have my records.
We know what hospital to go to. Even when I travel, having that in the back of my mind of knowing, hey, we're staying at this hotel. This is where I would go for this. This is how we do it. If we go out of the country, hey, this is how we have to handle medical insurance. Just having a little bit of a plan to know that we know the steps, we know where to go.
At the end of the day, I'm going to need brain surgery if it breaks. So that's, that's obvious. And most major hospitals can do that. So it's just about knowing the right place to go that has the best team in place. And, you know, Training the people around me as well, too. Training my wife, my good friends, making sure all of them know, like, hey, this happens. This is what you have to do.
This is what you have to say. Because I'll get to a point. In the beginning phases, I'll be able to communicate. By like hour four or five, there's a good chance I can't talk much. So I need the people around me to advocate on my behalf and, you know, growing up as my parents and, you know, God bless them. I can't imagine the amount of stress, anxiety, fear that they've had raising me.
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Chapter 5: How does Will Craig define his legacy and its importance?
Like, what are some signs that people can look for?
Well, first, I think it actually has to, you have to start with yourself and be honest with who you are as a person and how you best operate. Because I think so often we try to fit ourselves in the boxes that don't serve us well. And so we're trying, either we're a person that needs to focus on one thing at a time, but we're trying to do 27 things or vice versa.
Maybe you're best operating a little bit everywhere. That's me. I'm somebody who I want seven stovetops going at any given time.
Yeah.
Because focusing on one is the death of me, frankly. And so that's the first part is being very honest with yourself and knowing how you operate best and leaning into that. So that's before you get into the situation.
The pause to me comes into play after the fact, which is that like eventually the pot boils over using my stovetop analogy, or eventually you feel as though everything can be a bit overwhelming. or even potentially underwhelming. That's the, that's an alternative as well too, is maybe you thought this was going to be up here and it turns out it's way down here.
That's your expectations playing against you. But as you realize, I think we're all in tune with the shifts that are happening in our minds. We can feel our heart rate raise up. We can feel when our breath gets a little tighter, we're, we're acutely aware of it. We just don't know what it is. So I actually think so much of it draws from the physical and,
You know, if you realize like, hey, be in tune with your body to know my heart's beating a little bit faster than it normally is. My breath's a little more shallow than it normally is. My mind's racing in a way that I'm not used to seeing it. Be in tune with yourself.
And then the more you can understand those things, you'll start to recognize, okay, no, I'm in a place where I'm not operating the way I want to. And that's where it's worth. Just take a quick, I'm not asking for much. Take five seconds. Take a step back. breathe in, breathe out, allow everything to process.
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Chapter 6: What does Will Craig's journey reveal about the impact of social media?
I love that. And, you know, going further with your, um, your mindset toolbox, right? What are some of the daily habits or strategies that you use today for mental health awareness or mental health resiliency?
Yeah, that's a great question. The biggest one for me is writing. and taking the time to journal every day for a couple of reasons. One, I think when you get the chance to write it all out, it gives your brain a chance to really truly process and think about things more acutely. Secondly, you can start spotting trends, especially if you're using the same notebook.
You're like, hey, I noticed I wrote about a similar feeling a couple days ago, or I experienced heightened anxiety around these people a couple weeks ago. You start spotting those trends because you're taking note, you're taking a catalog of it, you're being mindful with that. So journaling, number one, has got to be my best and most useful thing. Second one being
I would actually breath work has become a really big part of how I operate in managing my anxiety, you know, taking the moments to pause and there's a few different strategies you can deploy.
So I think everyone should find the one that works best for them, but really dive into like breath work and the idea of understanding and getting your body better aligned from a breathing perspective, because especially if you're someone who deals with anxiety, that shallowness of breath can be debilitating and it makes all your decision making that much worse. So those are my two big ones.
I like that, man. So let's go to the journaling. So you have created a journal, right? I have. I'm getting a copy of this journal. So talk to us about the journal. What is it designed to help us do? Why does everyone need it? And then we'll talk about how we can get access to this thing.
Yeah, I love it. So the journal for me, so going back to what we talked about with the blogging, all of this has been, whether it's writing a blog, making videos, writing a book, writing a journal, all of it has just been starting a podcast. All of it has just been amalgamation of the same mission of making people feel less alone in that sense. So the latest edition of that is my journal.
And the journal came to me because when I was starting in therapy for the first time, I'll be honest, Clearly I have no problem talking, but when I sat down in the therapist's office, I had no idea what to say. I had just lost my, my girlfriend who died unexpectedly and I didn't know what the hell to say. And so I would sit there and I'm wondering how do I even begin to process this?
And it was my therapist who actually said, Hey, you love writing. How about in between sessions, you just write letters to her, write letters to, you know, Anything that can happen, write a letter to your future self, whatever the case may be, and gave me prompts. And then I started coming up with stuff on my own and then that's how I processed my thoughts.
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Chapter 7: How can we effectively pause and reset in moments of stress?
Because for me, I personally believe everything you do should be towards the legacy, right? So my thoughts, my decision-making is all geared to what I'm leaving behind, what my name, what my brand is going to represent when I can't speak for myself, right? So what's an action item you'd give to a viewer or listener today, Will?
I would say for me, it comes down to this idea is if someone were to follow my lead, what would I want them to have learned from me? So if I think about legacy and creating the future leaders of tomorrow and what they're going to become, it's not about how I led always. It's what did they learn from me? What were they inspired from and how I lived my life every single day?
I think about it a lot with parents. And while I'm not one myself, one thing that has always been acutely aware to me is most of what a kid learns is through osmosis. It's by what they see every single day. Yeah, you told them not to touch the hot stove, but how did you... viscerally make them feel when they made a mistake?
How did you, did you carry a lot of anxiety within you at all times and they could sense it and feel all the time, even if you didn't yell at them, even if you didn't lash out at them or anything else, could they feel it internally? Cause you didn't take the time to heal yourself and make yourself in the best place.
So I think about that all the time is what would I have wanted anyone that I've led to learn from me so that they can carry for themselves moving forward. That's my legacy.
I love it, man. I love it for sure. All right, Will, you ready for your hot five, your quick five?
Let's go. I'm ready.
All right. You were a baller back in the day, so your favorite college basketball program, and why is it the University of North Carolina? Go ahead.
You know, what's funny about that is you already know because when I was a kid, it was the University of North Carolina. My room was Carolina Blue, and I grew it up, but... Purdue Boilermakers are my team. It's where I went. It's where I love. And I love those guys and rooting for them every day. But yeah, North Carolina blue was my room color for sure.
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