Unmasking, Shedding & Discovering with Rocky Garza - Speaker/Culture Consultant, Ep #134

Today’s guest on the show has a different kind of wisdom to share with us than most guests. He spent over a decade working in a church and now is a keynote speaker and consultant who specializes in helping people understand their own stories and what the truth about them really is.

Rocky Garza challenges the stories you tell yourself so that you can experience the freedom of living vulnerably. There are stories that you tell yourself, whether they were first told to you by someone else or it’s something you’ve created all on your own, that contribute to feeling unworthy, insignificant, and incapable. Through coaching sessions, team workshops, and keynote presentations Rocky wants to show how the truths we have been told have developed into lies we deeply believe. All of Rocky’s work and words can be boiled down to one truth, that who you are is good. In all that he does, Rocky want to challenge the stories we tell ourselves so that we can experience the freedom and confidence of living vulnerably.

And since 2015, he’s been doing just that. Clarity, transformation, freedom—that’s why Rocky does what he does. Many of us are, without realizing it, living a life fueled by doubt. It’s time to kill that doubt and build conviction so that your life is fueled by truth that you deeply believe in.

Rocky lives in Dallas with his wife and two kids. On the weekends you can catch Rocky outdoors with a cup filled with either coffee or tequila.

You will want to hear this episode if you are interested in...

  • How Rocky’s childhood impacted his life moving from place to place (3:20)

  • Why he was driven to work in the ministry (13:14)

  • The keys to facing arrogance through confronting your anger (19:52)

  • How Rocky was able to reconcile with his parents (25:38)

  • How perspective has helped him with marriage, parenting and all relationships (33:12)

  • The importance of authenticity every day (40:03)

Learning to acknowledge your deficiencies 

When Rocky got married, he realized he had some broken parts of himself. He had grown up with a history of abandonment in his family. He learned to leave before someone else left in order to avoid the pain of being left behind. But when he was about to get married to his wife, he found himself telling their marriage counselor that he was excited to get married to prove to his parents that he wasn’t them. That was the moment he realized he had a choice to use the pain he had felt for so long to protect himself or turn it into part of his purpose. Your personal transformation begins when you acknowledge that you are powerless over the things you can’t change and that you need help in order to grow.

Being called to work in ministry

Rocky was recruited to work in the ministry profession when he was in college. It was not his intention at all to work at a summer Christian camp, but when a recruiter approached him, he found himself saying yes. It was the first time in his life that he found people who loved him for who he was and not what he could do. Something clicked for him that allowed him to see a vision for his life where he offered the same gift for others. He wanted to show people the value of owning their worth, which would lead to incredible performance, not the other way around. Most people are not looking to be led by someone who has it all figured out because most of us are not on the path of arrival. Most of us are looking for someone who is just a couple of steps ahead on the same path as us.

The difference between shame and guilt

When I asked Rocky how his parents impacted his understanding of self-worth, he explained the difference between shame and guilt, which is so powerful. Shame makes us feel that we are bad, while guilt makes us feel that what we did is bad. One cuts away at our self-worth and the other can inspire us to do better. Rocky felt shame for much of his young life, which made his self-worth deteriorate. When he was able to reconcile with his parents as an adult, Rocky was able to accept that his parents loved him and gave him everything at their disposal to make his life good. This was his pathway to being a generational breaker, which gave him the freedom to be the person he was becoming, not the person he used to be.

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