mike & carla

Mike Gostola & Carla Shaw

Network Marketing Leader & TikTok Strategist

Living In

Canada

Former Career

Cabinet Manufacturing Business (Mike)
& Healthcare (Carla)

Special Achievement

Built Rock The Tok Social Media Course

Leadership Philosophy

"Don't come to me with a problem, come with three potential solutions"

Mike Gostola has been building businesses since the day he left high school.

Cabinets. Construction. Manufacturing.

At his peak he was running a 25,000 square foot facility with 30 employees and up to 15 subcontractors in the field —and $185,000 a month in overhead. He wore the grind like a badge.

He called it "suck it up, buttercup" culture.

He loved working with his hands and quietly hated that the business was consuming his life.

Carla Shaw comes from an entrepreneurial family, built a career in healthcare marketing, and watched Mike drag the family through more than one shiny object before she finally called it.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," she told him. "This feels douchey and lame."

When the upline flew in from out of town and the best business strategy he could offer was circles on a napkin — she was done.

That was the moment that almost ended it. Instead, it set everything up.

The Long Way to Vegas

Mike had stumbled into network marketing originally while looking for a way to lose weight —and accidentally started ranking up before he even knew what was happening.

Awards started showing up in the mail. Then he chased a shiny object into what turned out to be an outright scam. Friends and family lost money.

Carla checked out completely. Mike kept searching.

For four years they silently struggled —too embarrassed to admit the business they'd told everyone was going to set them free was actually draining them. Mike found AttractionMarketing.com and started consuming everything he could find —Ferny's voice playing from the car, from the breakfast table, everywhere.

Carla started hearing it in the background without knowing who it was.

Then Mike came home and announced they were going to Vegas. Carla, who'd sworn she was done, went anyway —because she'd never been to Vegas.

By Saturday night of No Excuses 8 in 2017, she was completely all in. "This is a strategy," she told Mike after the event. "This is something we can actually be proud of."

They went home, sat their kids down, explained the investment and the plan, and started building. It wasn't fast.

They were juggling Mike's construction business, Carla's career, two kids, and the AM training simultaneously. They compared themselves to everyone. They argued about who was doing enough.

They nearly burned out again.

Then they attended a Mountaintop Mastermind and had a quiet conversation in their hotel room afterward that changed everything. They were chasing too many things.

They stripped it back, got laser focused, and from that summer to the end of 2019 — 60x'd their income.

TikTok, Rock The Talk & What's Next

Mike retired from his brick and mortar construction business.

They built a TikTok-driven organic social retail funnel that generates sales and teammates while they sleep — earning Mike the nickname #TikTokMike.

They launched Rock The Talk, a coaching community that trained network marketing teams across the industry on how to build with social media in a way that actually duplicates.

Attract, Influence & Enroll Summit 2024 - Leader's Panel
Los Angeles, CA

They helped thousands of entrepreneurs build what they call their social retail empire.

Today Mike is all in on building his network marketing team from scratch —without bringing anyone over from his last company, without recycling an old success story. He made the shift in spring, and has already surpassed where he was before.

Carla has stepped back into her healthcare career, pursuing a national partnership program in Canada built around serving seniors — the career she originally went to school to pursue, and now her dream job.

She still operates as Mike's secret weapon behind the scenes: the tech, the writing, the strategy.

They have a son who just turned 20, a daughter turning 17, and two puppies — one of which Carla rescued and adopted while Mike wasn't home. Twice.

They call themselves late bloomers. They don't say it apologetically

related media

Attraction Marketing Show | Episode 16

They were handed a napkin, told to draw circles with names on it, and call that a business plan. Mike and Carla walked away —until they found a real strategy and 60X'd their income.