It's not about how I let 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 a lot of parents, 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 about 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 Mick 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. Wilkrick. Well, how are you doing today, brother?
I'm doing good, my friend. I'm about yourself. I am doing amazing, doing amazing, man. It's cool that we get to have this conversation, man. When Robert Irvine introduces me when we're out, he's always like, the power of LinkedIn, because that's kind of how our relationship started with LinkedIn.
And now I get to do the same thing to my buddy Wilkman. The power of Instagram, right? It was an Instagram message. We chatted a lot on Instagram. You invited me onto your podcast, and now we're like boys, man.
So I want people to understand the power of social media window and correctly can really introduce you to some amazing people, because I got introduced to my good friend, Mr. Wilkrick. Now I completely agree. I think there's even a social media or even just in person. I think it's a skill that doesn't get talked about enough in school or anything else.
It's just the ability to just walk up or reach out to somebody that you don't know. Try to extend an olive branch. That simple connection. Because all that happened with us for those who don't know the backstory here, was Nick and I. He had liked a couple of my videos that I had 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, why not? Why not reach out, say hi. I appreciate what you're doing in the space, and let's go from there. I think that's an untapped market for everybody is just shoot your shot. Reach out.
No, totally agree. Shoot your shot and do it with purpose and with passion and with really positive energy. Again, my mentors, I all met somewhere. 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. I'd rather ask a question because those conversations go
further and they'll remember a conversation more than they will remember who they did a selfie with. Damon John takes a million pictures a day. Let's brown takes a million pictures a day. Robert Irvine, a million pictures a day. But it's those conversations that actually move people.
So that's just one little tidbit of advice that I'll give out the folks as well. Two men like shoot your shot, but make it meaningful. Couldn't agree more. It's that if you think about it, you only get so many chances with everybody walking to life no matter where they're at in their stage either. It's like bad impression will last. And so to your point, asking the right question or leaning in to what someone's background
is doing just a little bit of background work ahead of time to know, 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. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, man, so let's get into it for the audience. And I want the audience to know
a little bit about your because, right? Like, what's that thing? And like, I know, but I want the audience and I want the viewers and listeners to know because to me, it's really dynamic. Like, what's that thing that keeps you driving? What's that real reason behind your why?
That keeps you doing what you do every day, man? I love the way by the way that you frame it up as the because. Yeah, the why is great. Simon said it was right. Start with why, but that has to lead into the because. So I think that's what we've called out to folks. But for me, as you called
out the beginning of the show, I've had a battle with you different demons personally. I went through some dark arts of depression. I had a significant other die unexpectedly. I'm at six brain surgeries, and I'm going to have more. And all of those are just part of my story of who I am as a person.
And that's my why. That's what got me caring about mental health and caring about these things. But as I put myself out there in the space to write, to speak, to make videos, because it became more clear, which is that it's one simple mission. I want others to feel less alone and they're struggling. When you're in the darkest parts of your life, when you're in that place that it feels like nobody's going to understand, the reality is you're not alone. And there are other people who
have been in your shoes and there are people that are willing to hear what you have to say. But so often, whether it's depression, anxiety, you name it, those things feed off your ability to feel alone and that nobody else is going to care. So if you can understand, and if I can be the person to extend it out and say, I've gone through these things, I have struggled in these places, I have come out the other side from it. A, maybe it's an inspiration, but B, it's nothing else to let other people feel less alone. And as I evolved when I'm doing with the podcast, 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 and they're struggling? 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, right? Or 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? He was a scared kid. As core, he was just so scared for a number of reasons, the core of which being because of a medical condition I have called Hider Selfless at the core of that, I guess, that's experience, I'm gonna have more. And I truly believed that my existence of other people's lives was some 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, talk to us about that. Like,
what's the story? Again, part of who was will like the brain surgeries were part of who will was, right? Yeah, yeah. So as I mentioned before, it's a condition called Hider Selfless. So you've got your brain, you got your skull in the middle, you got cerebral spinal fluid, your body brings it up, drains it out naturally absorbs it through the body, mind brings it in, but none drains out naturally.
So I've got a mechanical device called a shut that goes into my brain drains out the sugar, my fluid breaks out of my stomach cavity. So maybe it's a plastic, it'll break and it's going to break and they can't make out of metal because that's not practical for a number of reasons. You also have to do CAT scans. So it's got to be done. It's a polymer plastic and that's not meant to last forever. So the doctors, my neurosurgeon neurosurgical team that I work with have said,
if it breaks, I've got roughly eight hours. That's kind of the estimate of what happens with that. And you would know it'd be very, very obvious. Wow. And so that, you're living with that kind of taking time. So I was diagnosed with two months old, I had my first break, and then I went from four months
until I was 16 without a problem. And then at 16, I collapsed in high school and went home. My dad, and I thought I had the flu, but then took me to the hospital and my temperature got down to the high 80s and I attended 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 two more when I was in high school, I had one more about eight years ago.
Wow, bro. So like the pause is me just seeing that you're thinking about you saying you have eight hours. And then you also said, but you know, right? You know what 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, like, what happens, brother? That actually not Maui specifically, he was a vacation though that actually happened to me when I was in high school. I had the two that I had when I was 17. One of them was it, you know, so about a year after the last one, and then went in and
either make sure like it didn't take or wasn't fitting incorrectly when it was 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, you know, 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 you go out of the country, hey, this is how we
have to handle medical insurance, like 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'll be on the brain surgery, if it breaks. So 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 place and, you know, training the people around me as well to 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 play 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 growing up as my parents and, you know, god bless me. I can't imagine the amount of stress anxiety fear that they've had raising me. I know they wouldn't change it for anything in the world, but at the same time, that had to be hard. So for everybody that's listening or watching right now, I want you to pause. I really want you to pause.
I want you to come in and I want you to think about you have eight hours, right? You know you have eight hours. What are you doing? What's important to you? Who are the people that are around you? Because
my buddy will lives with that, right? Like knowing that something happens. I literally have eight hours. So I want everyone to think I really want you to pause. I want you to dial this in.
Something happens to you and you know you have eight hours to fix it, to get right, like what's your mindset? What's your purpose? Who are the people that you're rallying with? How prepared are you for anything? And I also want you to think about the things that you're going through today, the things that you contemplate today, how important are they really? The decisions that
you're making, how important are they really? The things you put on your plate, how important are they really? Because my guy will, man, like, again, you know, we talk a lot offline. We you're really one of my good friends, man. Like I just when I want to apologize for the things that you do, but to looking back at who will was, right? That's pretty, pretty dynamic to know
who you are now, right? And now let's transition to that. Let's transition to who will is now. So, you know, I talked about that selling author, man, talk to us a little bit about the book. What made you write the book? And then like, one, I'm proud of it because I've actually read it
and it's a good book, but like what can viewers and listeners pick up from the book? So let's start with tell us a little bit about the book and why you wrote it. Thank you. So why I wrote it, funny enough was a challenge of a friend. So I had been blogging for years. And when I was
blogging, you would just be something that's been brewing in my mind, sit down one night, write it, we're good, post it the next day, maybe had a day real quick in the morning and call it a day. And I didn't think I had the discipline, frankly, to like sit down and write a full book. And then a friend of mine who happens to be a full-time author got challenged, was like, yes, you can. You just are viewing it the wrong way. You're seeing it as I can only write in these bursts. You have to look
at it from the full picture. If you just took a couple years of your blog, you could have a book. So that's where that sat as far as like where it came from. But it really to me was cathartic because it got to take the last four or five years of writing that I had done and really contemplating everything I am about as a person and putting it all into one cohesive story to really tell people where I've been, what I've learned and why this is so important. To care about your experiences. Like these things matter. I love it, brother. I love it. And going back to how you and I
kind of met, you know, I was a huge fan of you and what I was seeing on Instagram and your postman because it was about mental health and I'm a huge mental health advocate. I believe, especially as we talk to men or men listeners and viewers and ladies who have significant others, you know, guys, we don't always have to be tough, right? We don't always have to fight. You know, I know that that's how we feel a lot of times and we've got to be strong and we've got to do that. And yeah, we do, but not 24 seven, right? Like there are times that you need to take that
reset, right? Well, so that reset is always needed. So talk to us a little bit about the reset and then we'll transition to your podcast, the Sunday reset. Now, yeah, to me, it's taking that pause, as you said, for all of us, you know, in those heightened moments, in the moments of high stress, high anxiety, I work in the dark side, the depression side, whatever the case may be, it's taking that pause before you make any decisions, before you go down the rabbit hole, take any breath, take it all in, allow your brain to realize you've been here before, you can do it again. And even if you haven't been here before, you have a stack of evidence on everything else in your life that you've overcome to prove that you can and are capable of getting to the next phase. Yeah. That's lovely, man. Like so, again,
I want the viewers and listeners to understand this. So for those that are listening, will, that are watching, that are like, yeah, well, that sounds great. But sometimes I don't know how to pause, right? Or I don't even know when to pause. Like what are some tips that you can give people?
What are some signs people can look for when, hey, probably need to get ready to pause? Or this is too much take a break. Like what are some signs that people can look for? Well, first, I think it actually has 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 where a person that needs to focus on one thing at a time, but we're trying to do 20 something 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, 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 leading into that. So that's before you get into the situation. Pause to me comes into play after the fact, which is that like eventually the pop oil's over using my stove top analogy or eventually you feel as though everything can be a bit overwhelming. Or even potentially underwhelming. That's the alternative as well too. Maybe you thought this
was going to be up here and 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
acutely aware of it. We just don't know what it is. So I actually think so much of it draws from the physical. If you realize, okay, be in tune with your body to know my heart's been 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 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. The visual that I've used in speeches is we've all seen like on TV, things buffer and it gets to that like weird place where it's like it's too far ahead and it's like everything's not operating from a digital perspective the way it's supposed to and you can't make heads or tails with anything on the video. But if you pause,
if you pause, let it catch up, everything becomes clearer. And everything can acutely breathe because you gave it the space to do so all you needed was that little bit of buffer time. You and your body and your mind are the exact same way. I love that dude. I love that. And
you know, going further with 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. I 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 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 is got to be like my best and most useful thing. Second one being, I mean, actually, breath work has become a really big part of how I operate in managing my anxiety. Yeah, 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 breathing perspective, because especially for 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'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.
Yeah, I love it. So the journal for me, so to go back to what we're talking about with the blogging, you know, 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 about starting a podcast, all of it has just been a malcomation of the same edition of making people a less alone in that sense. So the latest edition of that is my journal. The journal came to me because when I was starting in therapy for the first time, I'll be honest. Clearly, I had no problem talking. But when I sat down in the therapist, I had no
idea what to say. I had just lost 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, it gave me prompts. And then I started coming up with stuff on my own, and then that's how I processed my thoughts. And then that way I could come to therapy more prepared to better tackle my demons. And so once I got the hang of it, then I was able to run on my own. But I realized that a lot of people do just need targeted prompts to do that. So the journal is broken into
four sections, there's grief, there's healing, there's self discovery, and there's hope. And each one has five to six prompts within it. There's room for writing, there's room for doodling or drawing sketching if that's more your style, and then there's room for reflection with each prompt. And so it's set up to go that way so that people can have a moment to kind of reflect so in like the hope section as an example, write a letter to yourself who has made it through this season. In the self discovery section, in the quiet moments when no one is watching who are you becoming? So those are some
of the examples of prompts that we're working with. I love it. So how can we get access to this journal? Where can we get it? Yeah, so it'll be available on Amazon, and it'll be available on July 1st. So
depending on what comes out, it might already be available where it's about to come out. So it'll be ready there. And it's called the Sunday Reset Journal, a guide to your inner healing and a writing prompt for your inner healing. And it's 1099 simple straightforward paperback, but it's very travel friendly as well too. I love that brother. I love that. So we talked about who will was, right? We
talked about what will is doing now. Let's transition to what's the legacy will wants to leave behind. I had to think a lot about that, because as you know, as my friend, my wife and I go into that season of, you know, talk about kids talking about those things. And so the idea of legacy has changed a lot for me. And what that means. And I would say the biggest one that I want to leave for
people, I've been very vocal on this, gonna talk about, you know, not making people feel less alone, but on an individual level, what my goal for everyone would be is live life with zero regrets. We live in an opportunity right now where very few things at the barrier entry is stopping you from doing anything. There was a time if you wanted to write a book, you would have had to get a publisher and get a letter of agent or be wealthy enough to print it yourself. Now anybody can make a book I'm posting on getting the direct publishing. Yeah, if you want to make music Spotify will stream your music, you can record an album with garage, you want to make movies, you can do that with an iPhone. There's nothing stopping you but you. But do you really want to look back on your life and
wonder what if I had gone for it, what if I made the moves anybody who sees me where I'm at today is like thinking to themselves like, oh, wait, what has he been doing? This has been seven years in the making and I'm just getting started as far as I'm concerned on trying to evolve my business, trying to draw evolve all of this together. So, but all of its fuel by the fact that I want to look by Kid in the Eye one day and say, I went for it, I gave it everything I had and I have no regrets. So amazing, though. That's amazing. So for the viewer or listener right now, what's one tip you'd give them
to to focus on their legacy, right? To put legacy in action because for me, I personally believe everything you do should be towards a 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 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? Right? 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 let 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 a lot with parents. While I'm not one of 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 fake them feel when they made a mistake? How did you, uh, do 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? Because 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 I wanted anyone that I've led to learn from me.
So 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 high five? Your quick five? Let's go. I'm ready. All right,
you were you were a baller back in the day. So your favorite college basketball program. And why is it in the University of North Carolina? You know, it's funny about that is you already know because when I was a kid, it was the University of North Carolina. I grew up and I grew it up, but pretty boy makers on my team. That's where I went. It says where I love and I love those guys and
rooting for them every day. But yeah, North Carolina blue was was my room color for sure. Well, you know, I said basketball. I don't know what you said for you. I said basketball. But I'll let this.
Oh, yeah. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Where was North Carolina last year in the tournament? Excuse me? Go look at the history. If we're going to go look at the past and we're going to talk
about the past. Let's talk about all the past. Fair enough. Fair enough. Fair enough. All right.
What's your favorite comfort food? Fried chicken with mashed potatoes, green beans. All right. I did it. I did it. That's what is what's your mood boosting song? Like when that song is like,
I got to fill it, right? You're ready for it. What's that mood boosting song? Oh, man. I got to think for me, it's from an empowerment standpoint. It's actually a song called
Inception by Logic of all things. And that's that I listened to it before every recording, before every interview, before anything like that, that song, if you've not listened to it, give it a listen, it is something for everybody that will just make you just want to run through a brick wall. All right. I'm gonna have to listen to it. All right. Number four, what's your favorite way to unplug on a weekend?
Favorite way to unplug is just getting lost in the moment with friends putting my phone down, putting it away, and just hanging out whether it's, you know, grabbing a drink, grabbing dinner, watching a movie, whatever the case may be with my wife, with my friends, with family, whoever, but it's truly just my phone is in another place. It's I am present with those people around me. I love it. Last one. What's the biggest lesson you've learned so far this year?
To forgive myself and actually mean it. We all need to do that now. I had an episode where I talked about that with the guest of I had to learn to forgive myself. It's tough. It's really tough, it's easier said than done. It's one of those things everyone can say it out loud. Oh, yeah,
forgive yourself. But do you actually mean it? That's the next evolution. I forgive myself a long time ago, but did I actually mean it? And I believe it? Yeah, good stuff. Well, Will, man,
I appreciate who you are as a human. I appreciate your friendship. I appreciate it. And ladies and gentlemen, I want everyone to understand this. And this is something as we leave, I want you to do, because Will does this all the time. Will checks in on me like every other day almost, right? Just
I was going what's new, what you're doing. And I know, Will, you know me enough to know how much I appreciate it. And I want people to understand, man, check in on your friends. Like, even when things are going well, check in on them, say all things are going because you never know what that means to people when they are going through something. And it's like, man, Will is so consistent. Good
days, he's there, the great days, he's there, but he's always, always there. So I want to appreciate you for that, Will. I appreciate that. And by the way, that doesn't mean you have to always ask the question, how are you doing? So I'm checking in, like my version of that with Mick's sometimes is just like, Hey, I saw this, I thought you'd like it, something like that. It's just so he knows I'm
there. He doesn't have to reply. He's busy. We all get that way. But when you reach out to people, just just that little bit of connection that you have with them to say, Hey, I saw this in thought of you, that's enough to make them realize that you're still there. Absolutely. Will, last
thing, where can people find a volume? So on social media across the board, it's Sunday, sorry, it's mental health will will across the board on that my podcast is Sunday reset with Will and friends available on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple podcasts. My blog is the battle you know not. And across the board, just reach out to me. I am someone who is DM friendly. I'm somebody who is
open to conversations, connections. And as Mick, can I talk to you on the beginning of this? like you never know, until you try so just start reaching out to people and you never know what doors can open. There you go. Appreciate that brother. And for all of you with the listeners, remember
you'll be caught. Here's your superpower. Go on, Misha. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Mick Unplugged. If today hits you hard, then imagine what's next. Be sure to subscribe, rate,
and share this with someone who needs it. And most of all, make a plan and take action. Because the next level is already waiting for you. Have a question or insight to share? Send us an email to hello at mickunplugged.com. Until next time, ask yourself how you can step up.