We had the good fortune of connecting with Patrick Cross and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Patrick, do you disagree with some advice that is more or less universally accepted?
“If you follow your passion and believe in yourself you will undoubtedly succeed.” This assertion (or some version of it) has become a hallmark of self-help books and inspirational youtube videos. While I agree that being passionate about what you do, and believing in yourself can be major assets, those traits (no matter how strong) will not automatically make anyone successful. Success requires hard, often repetitive and boring, work. It requires being willing to put the time and energy in even when you’re not feeling passionate about it (which will happen a lot). It requires understanding that many of the amazing ideas we have are actually not that amazing and will need to be re-worked or completely scrapped regardless of how much we believe in them. And it requires a fair amount of luck, which is not enhanced by our passion or self belief, but is enhanced by getting out into the world and meeting people and creating mutually beneficial connections. Even with all of that, most people will fail most of the time. The willingness to try again, consult with people who might have good advice for us, and then try again differently than before, is more often what defines those who eventually succeed.
Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
I started Unlock | Bodyworks for one reason primarily. I realized that I can positively impact many more lives if I’ve got a great team working together, than I ever could working by myself. In private practice I was able to directly impact people’s lives one-on-one, and in person. When I put the U|B team together, we were able to impact people’s lives that we will never even meet, in places most of us have never even been. Of course this complicated my life quite a bit. Private practice was comfortable and relatively simple. Founding and running the clinic along with coordinating the community (local and international) outreach projects, mentoring new therapists, continuing to treat clients and patients (along with continuing to teach classes at MTIC and travel with the Denver Broncos therapy team) was a huge leap for me. It made my life so much more complicated than they had ever been. When I started U|B I worked 180 days straight before taking one full day off. It was pretty intense, and I’d love to say I enjoyed every minute of it, but that’s just not the case. I lost sleep, I was stressed out, I was burning through my savings, and there was no guaranty any of it was going to work out. In fact I do not have any formal business training (I don’t even have a college degree) so it was more likely than not that it would fail. I had my mission though, and I put everything I had into it. I also consulted a lot of people before I started and along the way. That was so important to hear from other people what mistakes they had made, what good ideas they had that actually worked, and to get feedback on all of the great ideas I had that weren’t actually very good at all. In short it was a combination of my willingness to work my ass off every day for long stretches at a time, the amazing people I surrounded myself with, and a fair amount of lucky circumstances that made it all work (sometimes smoothly and sometimes not so smoothly).
Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Just as with picking the perfect gift for someone, creating the best trip itinerary should consider the things they like to do, and finding great places that offer those experiences. One of the fantastic things about Denver is that you can find any number of places to fit pretty much anyone’s ideal trip experiences. To answer more specifically I’ll just give you my ideal trip. Over the course of the week I would to the following: Activities: The Museum of Nature and Science & iMAX, Movement Climbing and Fitness for a some rock climbing, Bear Creek Lake for the outdoor archery range, finding some great trails in the mountains for some trail running, and a backyard movie night on the projector screen. Food and drinks: Dinner at Potager, a burger at 5280 or Tag, Pizza at Blue Pan, an artisanal sandwich at Fox Run, I’d find a few new recipes to cook, get some delicious beers at O’Dell brewery, and enjoy some delicious cocktails at The Block. And of course I’d start each day with coffee at Pablos, Novo, Improper City, or the Ramble Hotel.
Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
The Mentor and The Student. The benefits of finding good mentors is something that I believe cannot be overstated. A good mentor is someone who has achieved a high level of success in the specific field that we wish to achieve success in, and takes personal stock in our development both professionally and as a human being. When we then learn enough to achieve a higher level of competency and success, we should turn around and teach. Through teaching we foster a new generation of even better humans and practitioners than ourselves, and if we have good students who challenge us, we should also gain a deeper understanding of the gaps in our knowledge, further improving ourselves as well. So here’s a shoutout to some of my mentors, Peter Baker, Mark Manton, and Mark Rothman (among others). And another shoutout to my numerous students who have asked great questions and helped me understand the gaps in my knowledge so that I may improve myself.
Website: https://www.unlockbodyworks.com/
Instagram: @patrickcrossunlocked
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-cross-249b4530/
Facebook: Patrick Shannon Cross
Youtube: Patrick Cross