


TLDR
Summary
Adam Hudson, serial entrepreneur and host of The Unemployable Podcast, shares his candid perspective on business, success, and the power of mindset, emphasizing that he's experienced far more failure than success—but you only need to be right once. Driven by a childhood "chip on his shoulder" and a need to prove himself, he built his wealth by relentlessly plowing profits into real estate to achieve financial sovereignty. He defines true success not by material wealth (suggesting a target of $10-20 million in investable assets is enough in Australia for comfort), but by freedom and experience (e.g., traveling the world).
Hudson advocates for an immediate bias toward action over a "perfect plan," stressing that entrepreneurs must quickly test their ideas and get punched in the face (gain early, hard feedback). His podcast, initially launched without an obvious monetization strategy, has provided asymmetric returns, primarily through network expansion and being an engine for internal business strategy and new ventures. Ultimately, his philosophy centers on consistency, observation, and the transformative power of a positive mindset, all while remaining vigilant against the complacency that comes with success.
Highlights
- Failure as a Prerequisite: Hudson states he's had far more failure than success, but believes this learning is necessary; you only need to be right once to achieve massive success (the Mark Cuban principle).
 
- The $10 Million Threshold: He estimates that a minimum of $10 million in invested capital (outside of a primary residence) is needed in Australia to be financially comfortable, with $20 million providing a "very, very good life" and ultimate freedom.
 - The Drive for Freedom: His initial ambition came from a "chip on the shoulder" (trauma) and a desire to prove doubters wrong, but it shifted into a pursuit of freedom and experiences after he consciously plowed all business profits into real estate to secure financial independence.
 - Rock Bottom Turning Point: At age 37, after a small IPO went south in 2008, he lost an eight-figure net worth and was left with $3,000. This forced him to go door-to-door selling SMS marketing for $300 retainers. He credits this moment of total desperation with giving him the grit and focus to rebuild.
 - Bias for Action: He advises entrepreneurs to stop delaying and launch immediately. The goal is to find out fast if an idea will fly, even if the execution is scrappy. He compares this to learning boxing—you need to get punched in the face early to learn how to fight.
 - Podcast as Enterprise Engine: His podcast, The Unemployable, acts as a high-ROI network-building tool. It has directly led to:
- Asymmetric Network Expansion: Connecting him with influential, high-quality business leaders.
 - Strategic Insights: Allowing him to implement strategies learned from guests directly into his portfolio companies, resulting in significant sales increases.
 
 - The Power of Consistency: Success in content requires consistency, consistency, consistency (e.g., publishing at the same time every week) because it conditions the audience to schedule the content into their lives.
 - Mindset & Mantras:
- Be an Observer: Continuously observe the response you get from your ideas and adjust your communication, rather than blindly pushing your own narrative.
 - Protect Your Mindset: Be vigilant about who speaks into your life, as success attracts negativity. He suggests being the one who always offers positive encouragement to attract winners and repel negative people.
 - "Lucky We're Rich": He proactively reminds himself and his wife to be grateful for their wealth and to spend their money on experiences rather than hoarding it out of old scarcity mindsets.
 
 - Legacy: Hudson wants to be remembered as someone who encouraged others, believed in their potential, and helped them find the light to believe in themselves.
 
Transcript
00:00:00 - 00:00:58
the people who are in my mobile phone now compared to before we started the Pod it's quite different we also have built businesses off the back of the Pod where the only marketing has been the Pod when in 3 months hit six figures a month with no Google ads no Facebook ads nothing the only sponsorship they had was the pod people always say how much is enough well I've already got enough in Australia you don't need to be a billionaire to to have enough in this country people always get upset when I
00:00:29 - 00:01:13
say this you need a minimum of $10 million in my opinion in Australia you can live a good life but you're not going to be pimping on the Harbor in a 100 foot yacht at that point you're just going to be financially comfortable especially here in Sydney right it's funny because you said at the start you know you've had a lot of success in business but the truth is I've had a lot more failure in business than I've had success I've only had a few successes but you only need to have a few right
00:00:50 - 00:01:38
it's s saying you only need to be right once Adam welcome back to the Pod man we're excited have you wa what have you done with this place it's like a full upgrade it's it's so awesome good to be here yeah I think we we did a bit of a Rebrand it was called the tiger table and I I got some advice from different people around YouTube and we decided that we would redress it and build a new set and kind of take everything to another level cuz yeah sitting in the corner was a little cramped so we just
00:01:20 - 00:02:10
wanted to kind of open it up a little bit it feels really cool love it yeah and dude you've been busy man so bit a bit of a background story on how we met was I went to your event I think it was in 201 2018 2019 19 when you were speaking at success resources and you blew me away on stage I was like this guy's amazing like crushing it back then you had reliable education and you're doing a lot with Amazon and Drop Shipping and I remember I sent you a DM I was like yo like you blew my mind I'm
00:01:44 - 00:02:37
broke as [ __ ] like what do I do and you ghost to me bro man I know but the the the full circle of that was and I I think this is funny I'm not trying to bust your chops but I think you know you know I think it was a year and a half ago or two years ago um it was rolls reversal I was on stage and you like dude I need to build a personal brand like this guy's on it and then you sent me a DM and you're like oh [ __ ] I didn't respond to him and then it's cool cuz we caught off a coffee we chat shop and
00:02:11 - 00:03:04
since then you've been producing content in media nonstop man yeah yeah we have gone headlong into it that is a funny story though because I went to see you and you were speaking at one life club and I'd never heard of you yeah and I was you and Matt both were Matt pel and I was blown away by both of you guys and I was like this is so impressive and then I went to D you were there it was this message from three years ago I didn't respond to cuz I was getting so many damage I mean you know now dude I
00:02:38 - 00:03:28
get it like you get hundreds and and you don't get back to everyone and you feel bad no D you feel bad but I I it was funny because I did learn so much and thanks to you I got sort of my personal brand I'm still terrible a personal brand but I took it a lot more seriously and and I took your 90-day challenge before the book was out to Just Produce content and yeah it's been it's been really transformative and and fun so what was your journey cuz I think a lot of people look at social media and they
00:03:03 - 00:03:58
think oh I don't know social media I'm not good at it I didn't grow up with it so therefore I can't conquer it right and I think you know personal branding in its you know in its purest form is just you sharing and broadcasting either entertainment or education so how did you find it kind of diving in head first not really knowing what to expect and what would happen because of social media yeah look I think one of the reasons I've been successful in business is my willingness to dive into into
00:03:30 - 00:04:31
things and break things and fail and not be afraid of that so when I first I just did exactly what you said posted way more paid far more attention to it and it I started uring followers and I think I went from 20,000 to 40,000 or something organically in like 90 days yeah I was like whoa like that was and I I it took me five years before that because I didn't really take it seriously so just in the doing is where all the learning is right like you you start paying a lot more attention to it
00:04:01 - 00:04:55
when you start publishing and you start putting stuff out there and I sort of took Elon musk's guidance where he said if you're not embarrassed or making mistakes then looking backwards then you're moving too slow and so I looked back at that early stuff I didn't really know what I was doing but I was just putting out a quantity of [ __ ] to start with and then I worked on being less [ __ ] as time went by and by watching you and others and so my my journey with it it's still a sort of blob haate
00:04:28 - 00:05:14
relationship for me cuz I'm learning about the incentives of the algorithm and what it rewards and what it doesn't and I'm interested in so many things whereas I look at your personal brand and you're like Ultra focused on brand that's what you do you're the king of it Nobody Does it Better Than You and I think that's what you really need I don't know maybe you could tell me but I'm interested in so many things that people look at my Instagram go what the [ __ ] does this guy actually do he's got
00:04:51 - 00:05:43
so many interests you know yeah I think the interesting thing with personal branding is like you can be known for a thing or you can be known as a character yeah you know so like if you look at someone like Joe Rogan or even hosi like they do so much but it's like we fall in love with who they are how they speak how they carry themselves and it's kind of like you you know we have friends in real life that we don't really know what they do but we become friends with them so I think it's kind of the same thing man I
00:05:16 - 00:05:59
think I'm still finding my real focal point of what I want to tune whereas I look at someone like you or Matt or others that are sort of leaders in the space here and it's very crystal clear and that's where I lack so probably shouldn't follow me for the best advice on that I would disagree man I I think you know I've heard you say often times like I'm not I'm just a genuine guy I'm not super smart I disagree I think you're really smart but I would say you know with social media that's the
00:05:38 - 00:06:26
interesting thing about it because I think it's just consistency yeah and through producing media you start to figure out I like this I don't like this the algorithm loves this it doesn't like that you start it's like a it's a process of elimination just like anything in business I think and it's trying to make sure it serves you like I've put up some things lately just testing and like political stuff goes nuts from the like you get so many comments and that attracts a different
00:06:02 - 00:06:45
kind of vibe and I'm like oh I just don't know if I want to keep doing that anymore you know you got to be very careful because the algorithm rewards certain things that may or may not suit where you want to take your brand or where your customers are so I'm really finding that at the moment in testing because the kind of commentary and the people that you attract through political stuff versus business stuff is very different and so yeah I'm just learning a lot at the moment no it's
00:06:23 - 00:07:19
good to see and then I noticed you launched a podcast and you went Full Tilt yeah so you have a podcast called the unemployable and dude you are cracking some pretty serious numbers like I was looking at it this morning and you have episodes with 130 OD thousand views and I think for a podcast that's pretty early in its production that's that's pretty aggressive numbers yeah yeah look we honestly Dane we we looked at what really smart people were doing around the world and thought well
00:06:51 - 00:07:43
if they're doing it there's a reason and we didn't really know why to be honest with you like we we we couldn't we're like most people you look at a podcast you go how the hell do you make money from a podcast right like and I think it's fair to say that we underestimated how much it would take in terms of commitment Focus resources to actually produce consistently like when I met Steven Bartlett he did an Australian 2our a few months ago and I paid to see him backstage and all that stuff and I
00:07:17 - 00:08:10
said what's the the biggest thing and he said if you say you're going to publish at 8: a.m. on Tuesday Mornings publish every week at 8: a.m. on Tuesday Mornings don't miss like consistency consistency consistency because people start to then condition you or plan you into their week and stuff like that so for us we publish twice a week and we we spent a quarter of a million bucks just fitting out a studio you know we have staff we have full-time videographers and editors and all those things and at
00:07:44 - 00:08:46
first we're just like we don't know how we're going to make money out of this but really smart people are doing it so we'll figure it out as we go and so that's what we did and the the payoff from it has been really interesting and not obvious right like network has just gone crazy in nine months the people who are in my mobile phone now compared to before we started the Pod it's quite different and the one degree of separation from those are some serious players in in the world of business you
00:08:15 - 00:09:14
know so and some of them are directly in the phone so it's really interesting what happens on a network front but we also have built businesses off the back of the Pod where the only marketing has been the Pod really you know like we have early bird which is you know went in three months hit six figures a month with no Google ads no Facebook ads nothing the only sponsorship they had was the Pod and so you look at those numbers and the thing about doing a pod is you sit in the dark under the bright
00:08:44 - 00:09:38
lights and you don't see anybody it's not like a live event you just sort of put this digital file out into the ecosphere and then like this morning as I was waiting for the Uber that you guys kindly sent to pick me up at the hotel a guy comes bounding up oh Adam how are you I love the podcast you know and that happened happens more and more and you start to realize like those little numbers of 10,000 or 20,000 they're actually half a stadium of people watching or in that case 130,000 150,000
00:09:11 - 00:10:06
I think was their biggest one that's a lot of people if you actually see them in a room so yeah it's so we've built Enterprise Value into that startup that we funded that startup Eric and I my business partner we own a big stake of the company and we've been able to build an entire business just purely off the pot uh and it's going really well that's incredible and I think you know where else can you have the opportunity to sit with someone for an hour or two hours and really have a deep conversation
00:09:39 - 00:10:30
right not like a surface level like hey how you going how's the weather it's it's like you're diving into their life totally and then you can't help but feel after the Pod oh this this individual is now kind of a friend they're kind of an associate they start texting you they start dming you then you realize oh there's another guest we want to get this person knows them see if they can hook me up you know I think for me the the building the podcast has been shockingly great for generating leads
00:10:04 - 00:11:05
for the agency but as well as like like you said like building an audience and a different audience that social would build yeah to totally it it's really a hard thing to quantify because most most entrepreneurs are quite transactional we think about return on ads spend or return on spend what's the ROI immediately but um ours is very very diverse and it's it's yeah it's we've got people that have you know we're shocked by the quality of who's listening you know like we did a quick
00:10:34 - 00:11:32
audit of the people who have become clients of early bird for example and we thought you know might be mostly small businesses but we've we've got a publicly traded company we've got several nine figure companies a bunch of eight I think the average turnover of a client is five million a year average which that's in Australia that's quite amazing so yeah know it's been it's been really really good for that and just and and also we because we have businesses you know like Eric has MX store which is
00:11:04 - 00:12:08
a big Ecom company as you probably know and I have portfolio companies in our family office so we're actually able to learn from the guest and immediately Implement stuff you know like I I I just the Pod comes out on Friday that we recorded on Tuesday and I was saying that last week we implemented one strategy that we learned off a guest who's a a a sales professional and we put that strategy into play last week was the first week I was in play and we did 101,000 in sales that week from what
00:11:36 - 00:12:23
we learned from the podcast guest three months before it took us that amount of time just to get the people and the and put everything in place to make it happen but we we put it to Market was 101,000 in the first week so we didn't make money from the Pod but we made money from what we learned from the pod in our own business interesting and so yeah I mean we're we're drilling into the guest because we've got real businesses and we we're getting the detail because we want to implement this
00:12:00 - 00:12:58
stuff you know ourselves so with the podcast and your experience with it what were the first few roadblocks that you fac where you're like I didn't expect this to be so difficult yeah I mean look we from the start I wanted to do a multi- guest thing so sorry multihost because I I thought of it like a TV show right so most big TV shows if you look at sex in the city or you look at any of these big shows or friends or whatever they've got like four stars right and I think part of that is and the reason
00:12:29 - 00:13:19
they shows are quite often so successful is because you can relate to one of the four characters and your close friends of like some of the others you know so it's really relatable when you've got those multiple people so first of all it was choosing the talent making sure that you had good chemistry and I wanted real business owners like guys who actually owned businesses right now not past business owners so that we could have real conversations about business and I think the challenge initially was just
00:12:54 - 00:13:41
finding our groove cuz it's kind of like you know if you get a person most people when you give them a phone and you hit record and then you go speak they just freeze so when we started we were like modeling the pbd podcast and we were like going to talk about current affairs and politics and then we were just sort of struggling for the first episode or two but then we just went and we were doing all this research and putting things on the TV and then we just scrapped all that and then said let's
00:13:18 - 00:14:03
just talk about our week in business and then like that it was easy yeah so as soon as we talked about what we really knew about what we were really passionate about it was effortless and the audience loved it as well cuz we were just giving each other other [ __ ] and talking about our week in business and so it's just finding your voice but you really can only find the voice when the cameras are rolling and the lights are on and it's real it's it's totally different sitting around a boardroom
00:13:40 - 00:14:34
table trying to strategize this stuff you got to get that chemistry going and give yourself a little bit of time I think you're right and I think you seemingly look at business the podcast social media in a similar light where you say to yourself I don't have all the answers but let's dive in and let's figure it out I think a lot of Entre R preneurs have a tendency when they're starting a business for the first time or you know trying to become an entrepreneur they try to have the
00:14:07 - 00:15:08
perfect plan and I think that your mindset of just diving in and figuring out doesn't seem to be common do you think that's nature or nurture to develop that skill oh look I I don't know I think I think we do a bit of business coaching and which is sort of how we Finance the podcast because the podcast like we run is not free you know it's it costs money we got a full-time video and all those sorts of things so I think we spend 10 grand a week or something to run it in staff and
00:14:37 - 00:15:40
different bits and pieces um and so through the coaching we face this a lot where we see people who are starting businesses or planning to start a business and they we watch them do so much stuff prior to actually going to Market and testing their idea and a good example recently was we had a client who's developing an idea I can't say what his idea is but he's he's worked on this for like 18 months in the background and he's gone to the University of Queensland and conducted studies and and gotten some
00:15:09 - 00:16:03
trademarks and developing systems and I'm like dude like you've got a customer right you've got one customer and he goes yeah and I said all right so and that customer example that mvp you produced is like a really high quality MVP so how are you plan to grow the business he said well a big part of it is referrals it has to have referrals or it won't work at this price point I'm like all right so stop everything else you're doing all this University of Queensland just stop everything go to
00:15:36 - 00:16:25
that one customer drive this referral system that you think is going to work and let's find out in 30 days whether or not it actually works it doesn't have to be perfect it just has to see if it works and I said I don't think it will I think you're going to have to put your price up substantially and then get paid traffic and do a book to call and have a salesperson sell the thing but that's what I would do so but it's easy to find out I could be wrong you could be wrong
00:16:01 - 00:16:56
we both could be wrong right it but just might not fly but instead of because a lot of times people are delaying delaying delaying the inevitable of actually the moment where they you know flick the lights on hit record and start you know yeah and therefore they waste time they wa you know they need to find out early as possible whether this thing is going to fly or not and and know that most businesses don't most businesses fail and so it's better to find out fast better to get if you go do boxing
00:16:28 - 00:17:12
classes get get punched in the face in the first lesson and it's except that's what feels like and that's what's going to happen and then keep going yeah I liken it to like you know overdesigning a car per say like you could design the best frame the you know most beautiful interior with the nicest leather and work on the wheels and the rims and everything but like at some point you got to put fuel in the tank and turn the engine on and see if it works right and I think when you put a couple of laps in
00:16:50 - 00:17:40
you're like oh the aerodynamics aren't so great let me change it so I think you know you have to in business adapt through the process and for you I think you know you've had a lot of success you've been in business for I understand maybe two decades two and a half decades three decades now I don't want to disclose your age you look great fine I'm 50 so good you look healthy man you look probably you know better than than last time I spoke to you look like yeah you look very vibrant do you think like
00:17:14 - 00:18:13
success over the period of these decades has changed your appetite and your ambition or has it always kind of been there I definitely had I think my ambition is dropping from when I was younger so I think when you younger and you're broker and you're hungrier it's a good thing I listened to a great podcast this week with Andrew Wilkinson he was on Chris Williamson's podcast modern wisdom and Andrew is a billionaire now and he they were talking about where does this drive come from and he said it
00:17:44 - 00:18:40
comes from a chip on your shoulder he said chips on shoulders equals chips in pocket right right eventually and and I think for a lot of times people want to know that the answer to that question is where does Drive come from and and it comes from trauma and some people have a capital T trauma like Elon Musk and some people have minor trauma like me and I don't know your full story but I just wanted to prove my dad wrong because I was brought up in a household where money was really really tight and dad
00:18:12 - 00:19:00
was you know really tight with money and we I still remember the standup fight with my dad where he was giving me hard time about something and he said well if you don't like it you make your own money and I'm like well that's exactly what I'm going to do and I'm going to go ahead and try and make more money than my dad so that drive came from just having nothing coming from nothing and when I in my model of the world was money solved most of the problems I experienced in my childhood if we just
00:18:36 - 00:19:34
had more money and that's where I Associated you know having money to being a something I wanted in my life so yeah so that's where the drive comes from and I think yeah what was the question there I think like it's it you you raised an interesting point which is the trauma thing I think the question's more about like like where does your hunger and ambition come from and has success shifted that over the period of time like let's just say you started in business because of you wanted to prove
00:19:05 - 00:19:57
your dad wrong and and you wanted to prove yourself as a man as you growing up and and what have you and the chip on my shoulder was you know as I went to a lot of different schools and I grew up in and out of foster care I was like what's my place in the world so then I kind of felt like I needed to prove to myself that I was worthy of you know people's attention and love and respect and and I think you know that's changed over time for me as as you have have children and as you grow older and wiser
00:19:31 - 00:20:31
and you start different businesses you start to change where that energy comes from has that shifted for you over time it has yeah definitely yeah it changes as you sort of hit certain Milestones I think in in your life as an entrepreneur you know when you start out you got nothing you're just trying to pay your bills and make sure everything's paid and then as you as you become wealthy you you sort of move from that needing it needing the money to sort of like level of comfort in that respect and you start to be able
00:20:00 - 00:20:53
to at a certain point just go the why of what you're doing becomes far more important like you know and and the rules around what it's going to take from you TimeWise and energetically and all of those things sort of yeah you're sort of priority shift quite a bit I think but if I was honest when I was young I would try to do anything if it was profit in it I'd try to do it because I was hungry and I was trying to battle my way out of like living in Browns Plains Brisbane you know on 180
00:20:28 - 00:21:22
bucks a week as a picture from FR and I just said no options and no choices so it does it it changes as you change as an entrepreneur along the way you become wealthier you become wiser all all of those things and and something on that topic that I think I've taken with me for a long time was I heard Tony Robbins say that there's really only two reasons people do anything it's either to get out of pain or to move toward pleasure yeah and if either isn't magnetic enough nothing's going to happen and I think
00:20:55 - 00:21:54
you know a lot of people start businesses because they're in pain they hit a certain point let's just say a threshold and then they spin their wheels for a little bit and something that happened to me which was when my business got to a couple million I started to not lose motivation I started to kind of not be as ambitious or as driven and I went into Reser preservation mode versus growth mode and my mentor said to me he's like you're not in enough pain or you don't have enough that you're in pursuit of and
00:21:25 - 00:22:15
he's like you're just trying to protect what you have do you think this is something that impacts a lot of business own that they get to a certain point and they're like now what it's definitely impacted me you know at times we hit plateus and that's partly why I'm moving overseas next year or the plan is to move over in you moving in New York in New York yeah in um leaving in March next year because you sort of hit a plateau especially like I live in the Gold Coast and I love the Gold Coast and
00:21:50 - 00:22:37
but I've been there for a while now and it's been 10 years since I've been home from the US I lived in the US for 5 years in Los Angeles built a company sold it in the animation space in hollyood would and move back to Australia for 10 years but but I'm 50 and a lot of people in my age bracket now they sort of settle down on the Gold Coast their kids are sort of leaving home and they're just sort of like now they get into cycling in their Lyra on the weekend and getting their coffee
00:22:13 - 00:23:10
with their mates and you know and that's a culture right but it's not a culture I'm ready for yet and so like I see on the wall here you got Grant's book Grant Cardone yeah grants like the OG of just like consistently pushing and consistently like I've I've had the the privilege of getting to know Grant a bit um because we two of three cities together and I stay in touch now and I've been to his place over in Florida um spent time with him in Elena and he's just like a child he's consistently
00:22:42 - 00:23:40
interested and learning and surrounding himself with younger people and curious about so many things and I think it's so important in life to do that and when I started the pot I purposely picked guys to be on the panel with me that are mostly 10 years younger than me um because they're sort of at that stage that's just a little bit hungrier still and I like investing in entrepreneurs that are in their 30 plus you know where they're done with the 20s and all the partying and clowning around and they're
00:23:11 - 00:24:12
ready to go make their money so I like to invest in people in their early 30s mid-30s just where they start to go [ __ ] if I'm going to have a family I've got to get so they why is strong there really important to keep raising the bar and keeping very close eye on who you're spending your time with and where your brain is spending time and setting new goals and and new Ambitions and and that's why I'm going to to New York because I want to be around I want to be the dumbest guy in the room I want to be
00:23:41 - 00:24:35
the smallest thinker the smallest player again I'm actually quietly really excited about it you know it's a big move I think to move cities and to kind of reinvent your life per se and I think often times in life you know you were talking about gr codone and it quot comes to mind for him is you know if you have a rose with a full bloom on it would you stop watering it right and you know as someone myself I've listened to a lot of his material read his books haven't had the privilege of meeting him
00:24:08 - 00:24:56
I talked to him on a clubhouse one time but he he definitely seems to be the type of person who's like what's next what else can I conquer and yeah yeah yeah yeah totally I mean and that's what it's about I mean people always say how much is enough well I've already got enough right like in Australia you don't need that much you don't need to be at Grants level you know you don't need to be a billionaire to to have enough in this country you know people always get
00:24:32 - 00:25:23
upset when I say this but I say to people you need a minimum of $10 million in my opinion and not many people will put a number out there but I will because it's math right like you you look at $10 million and you invest it at six or 7% and then you pay tax it's 4% return you got 400 Grand on $10 million in Australia you can live a good life but you're not going to be pimping on the Harbor in a 100 foot yacht at that point you're just going to be financially comfortable especially here
00:24:58 - 00:25:55
in Sydney right so and that's only10 million that's $10 million which to most people sounds like a lot of money but you go to $20 million I think Simon beard said the same thing at $20 million you really can have a very very good life invested outside of your house I'm talking about like invested Capital so for if you're an entrepreneur listening to this and you live in this country and this day and age and this time getting to $20 million investable assets is not at all out of the question in my mind I mean I've had
00:25:26 - 00:26:19
young people a young lady here from Sydney at our podcast she she came in she owns a company called TBH skincare she went to 10 million in Revenue in three years and then merged with another company York Street Brands they called now they're doing 24 million or something a year and she's 27 years old yeah right like it's super doable so after once you hit those points I'm an old guy compared to you like like if you know if you've been working for 30 years in entrepreneurship and you haven't got
00:25:52 - 00:26:48
there by 50 you know I think you know you need to look at what you're doing you know you need to get around better mentors you know so so for you like back to the Tony Robbins thing do you think the move to New York is a pain thing or a pleasure thing like which one totally pleasure yeah yeah I've always wanted to live in the city but I'm I'm like I'm I've said to my wife and I like we've had all the big houses and you know fancy cars and all that stuff and I just turned to my wife six months ago and
00:26:21 - 00:27:09
said when are we happiest and she's like I'm happiest when I'm traveling with you and when I'm experiencing a new place and a new city and that's when we're most alive and we live in an apartment right now and we're considering living in a smaller one right like we've you know because we've got a big apartment like and we're just like not interested in big places and things we're interested in like rocking up in New York City and discovering that cafe
00:26:45 - 00:27:49
around the corner that makes this amazing you know pastry or whatever it is you know and being alive and meeting new people and I never felt more alive than when I packed my bags and moved to Los Angeles in 2011 to 2012 2011 we we rocked up I got off the plane we had four suitcases we bought a car the next day we stayed in an Airbnb for a week we had to go on open bank accounts and start a company and it's just like travel and those types of things brings you alive like you guys just got back
00:27:17 - 00:28:07
from an epic trip in Bolivia wasn't it yeah we went to ooni in Bolivia as well as Santa Cruz and laat yeah yeah so what I followed it on social looked amazing but when you travel everything's new so when you when you're living in Sydney or wherever you are you come to the G you go to the gym you go to the office you got the same and there's a big part of you that actually goes to sleep because you know the routine you know where you're going You're Just tuned out when you travel everything's on high alert
00:27:42 - 00:28:35
again you come alive literally because you don't know what's around that corner you know like you're experiencing life on a high I want to live in that place and so I'm trying to set my life up more and more now so that we might have a little bolt hole here in Australia but we'll probably only spend 3 months a year here and then may be 6 months in in the US and and maybe 6 months in the south of France or something three months in south of France or something but some where we're experiencing life
00:28:08 - 00:29:04
because it goes so quick so I just think you know that's that's one of the greatest things about entrepreneurship is setting your life up in a way that's serves you because after a certain point you're not doing it for the money you know like unless you've got a drug habit or a boat habit um or both yeah yeah or both for in Sydney I'm sure there's a few people with both of those habits here but if you're not in that category and you're fairly simple I'm fairly simple person I
00:28:36 - 00:29:27
like to wear comfortable clothes I wear the same things most days once you've got those big rocks sorted in your life it really becomes about freedom and experiences and it doesn't become about another Rolls-Royce or any of that stuff that you know so with your mindset that got you to this position cuz I think multiple people would be listening to this other people that are like yep I'm on my way the things are happening for me too this is exciting there might be other people that are like yo that
00:29:02 - 00:29:59
sounds like a dream having my own apartment and having security how how would you define success in your personal life and in business that has allowed you to do all of this how would I define success you know that's a that's a really good question I mean when you first say that I think many years ago I was in a Tony Robbins sire and he said success is being able to do what you want when you want with whom you want as much as you want you know along those lines and I think that's a pretty good definition for me when I was
00:29:30 - 00:30:24
really young when I'm talking young I'm talking like 19 18 I was living in Brisbane and I used to drive to the international airport I had no ticket and I wasn't going anywhere I used to drive there because it inspired me and I would sit there in front of the boards and have a coffee and I would just look up at the boards and see these these names like Dubai and Paris and Los Angeles and I used to sit there going one day I'm going to have my life in such a way that I can come down here I
00:29:58 - 00:30:56
can walk walk up to the information desk over there or the ticke in desk and buy myself a business class ticket to wherever I want to go that day and buy my clothes when I get there that to me was like the ultimate form of success you could yeah I wanted a Porsche and I wanted a few other things right but but really that was it and that's like your pleasure anchor right like what Tony was talking about yeah like we're dead in a minute right like there's nothing like that a couple of years ago I I took I I
00:30:27 - 00:31:25
got married a year and a half half ago and with that I I have a stepson Josh I call him my son but he's 25 and he hadn't traveled much at all and I was able to take him and and my wife his mom on a trip of a lifetime and we went to the Middle East and we went and we we went to Dubai but then we went out to the desert and Abu daby into the Anantara Resort which is like an hour and a half just straight into the desert and there's just nothing except fuel stations every 30 minutes and then this
00:30:55 - 00:31:38
Resort it's biblical it's remarkable Resort a very wealthy friend of mine said you got to go to this Resort you'll go by the swimming pool and they'll come over and ask if they can polish your sunglasses for you and I'm like no they won't and he's like yeah they were actually well they had this extraordinary experience in this incredible Resort that literally felt like if Jesus walked past you you wouldn't be surprised it just looked like that kind of joint six stars it was
00:31:17 - 00:32:05
amazing yeah and so I took him there and then we went to the rbw RAC trck and and you know smoked cigars by the F1 track and walked around all the super yachts and then we went to the prince's Palace and we did all this incredible stuff stuff then we went to London and and then Cass and I went to Lake and had these incredible experiences and I was just trying to think where I was leading with that you asked a question before so you're talking about being at the airport and seeing the numbers yeah yeah
00:31:41 - 00:32:34
and so that and that that to me is what it's really all about you know and those there's a great book by Bill Perkins I think it is it's called die with zero which is everybody entreprene is really great at accumulating money and compounding money right and and so I've been a student of that for a while and I've done fairly well with investing in real estate and now I'm moving some of my investments around and different things but he said what we haven't been great is studying how to use money when
00:32:07 - 00:33:08
we have it and the idea is to actually die with zero and there's a real payoff for starting creating and investing and in compounding experiences so if you wait till you're 70 before you start having these amazing trips at 71 you turn out how good was that trip last year and like oh it's really really good let's do another one and then 72 how good was the last two trips but if you start doing that when you're 50 by the time you get to 70 you've got 20 years of family memories and stories and
00:32:37 - 00:33:38
that's the richness and the tapestry that ultimately when you're dying and the movie flies past you the inside of your ID go man what a life that was MH so it's really giving some thought to that and now as a family we try to you know I always say to my wife you know she goes oh it's expensive to do this or that and I'm like well we're rich and at first she used to look at me and go oh my God that sounds so vulgar and disgusting and I'm like honey I grew up being told we don't have the money we
00:33:08 - 00:34:14
can't afford it so I I say that all the time now like lucky I'm rich instead of being pissed off that something costs money I'm like lucky I worked my nuts off for 30 years and invested my money and drove a like I drove a [ __ ] car when I was making the most money I'd ever made in my life um through that period and told millions of dollars year profit in my business I was driving a $155,000 6-year-old Holden Captiva because every single dollar I was plowing into real estate preco and then we had Co and all
00:33:41 - 00:34:35
that real estate doubled and all of a sudden you wake up on the other side of a you know having a decent Capital footprint and you have full property cycle with a little bit of uh leverage thrown in and you know that's how you get rich you know it's not that hard and so and now that's why I say to cast you know lucky lucky we're rich and it's not to be an [ __ ] but it's just to be reminded don't forget that you're rich because so often times wealthy people when they get there they still go to kls
00:34:08 - 00:34:57
and woolies and still look at the beans and go well that one's 86 cents and that one's $150 and you're like dude like don't live like that anymore enjoy your life like learn to live you know I would agree with that and I think you know something happened recently and you talk about the car thing and I was saying to my team you know because people ask me sometimes like oh what do you drive and they expect me to drive you know a Porsche or a BMW or something like that and you know every time I look at buying
00:34:32 - 00:35:21
a car cuz I have you know I was looking at a Supra cuz I love Japanese Imports and I want to mod something and you know I was like man I could get this car or I could hire someone you know what I mean so like for me it was just like one of those dilemmas where it's like as an entrepreneur like which one do I go with and I think you know from my experience one of the things that Grant C talks about because we're talking about him he's like you know your your goal in life should be to acquire [ __ ] you money
00:34:57 - 00:35:51
and then do what you want when you want which sounds like that's success to you is having ultimate freedom to just live how you want to live to get there though I think there's always you know there's it always seems like you're trying to cross this enormous Channel this enormous Chasm let's just say you're in a full-time job you're like man I want to be an entrepreneur I want to start the company but I got like a th000 bucks in the bank Crossing that Chasm sounds like first it starts off for you maybe
00:35:23 - 00:36:22
with mindset like yeah imagine or try to taste or feel the the pleasure that you want to have what what's then the first few steps from your advice that someone should start to take to go okay I'm going to start trying to cross the chasm I got the mindset now you know when when you like you said it's like lucky we're rich you're trying to change your perspective change your mindset yeah and you know that it's not always easy for people to do but how can they start to live that out and then build that
00:35:53 - 00:36:50
success that they want to have yeah a lot a lot of people have you know we we as a human beings tend to put everybody on a pedestal or in the pit Dr John D Martini does a lot around this stuff where we look at everybody else and think they're better than us and we put ourselves in the pit you know like it's it's kind of put everyone on a pedestal and ourselves down especially in Australia right the thing about business is it's not personal right the market rewards ideas yes you've got a if you
00:36:21 - 00:37:20
got a great idea you've got to execute and you got to have the mindset but when you make it all about you know people like who am I to be successful and there's a lot of morons out there with great ideas that are just crushing right like just absolutely crushing it so I I think first of all is get get reading uh if you know that your mindsets a little limited and all this people say I have imposter syndrome and like well like hosi put a video out this week said well you have imposter syndrome because you
00:36:51 - 00:37:58
are an imposter until you've done the work so don't everyone has imposter syndrome everybody is an imposter until they have the money just focus on the work but realize that it's idea and execution and that's it it's not there's no success vary that chooses one person over another person it's just people who have really sat down and solved the real problem and and if you can find a product or a service that you solve a real problem and then you start then you'll dial in after that what works but
00:37:24 - 00:38:28
the thing about business is that it's the only place where there are alpha returns like if you go and it's possible to hit a ball and do a th000 runs instead of just one you know like one that that's what's so amazing about business it's it's the it's the world of the infinite it's the world of possibility like I said on our podcast last week when I oh actually said it here about the $100,000 idea that we just put into play and made $100,000 in a week in one of our companies if you're
00:37:56 - 00:39:00
in a job you can't do that like like you'll make $100,000 maybe for the company but it's not going to come to you when you're in your own business one idea one thing that you learn one little unlock can massively increase your wealth you think about that $100,000 last week now think about that was one person that we put on that but we have capacity to put 10 people on that right that's potentially a million dollars a week so to speak you know so I think just get get out get you out of the way
00:38:26 - 00:39:29
of being the issue people sort of attach a business success to their own selfworth but it is possible for a business to be successful even if you yourself are a loser like because you've got some idea that's just so redh hot that people want that it's almost and that that's it there's so much of it is around the idea and then quickly you'll start to adapt into that so it's not it's not always just people with this supreme confidence become successful it's it's not so when like you were
00:38:59 - 00:40:06
talking just now about people attaching their identity to their Enterprise and you know I've had friends where they've sold an Enterprise and then all of a sudden they're like who am I now have you found a way to kind of keep yourself separated from the the businesses that you've created whether they've succeeded or failed how do you how do you kind of manage not being too attached identity wise that's a hard one it's actually become easier with age like as I get older I just give a [ __ ] about a lot
00:39:31 - 00:40:28
less um um when you're young you know it's like that book The subtle art of not giving a [ __ ] right where he says you're born into this world with only so many [ __ ] to give and the the trick is learning what and who to give a [ __ ] about and when you're young you're like give a [ __ ] about everything politic you all the rest of it and you've won the game if you get to the end and you still got enough [ __ ] to give about the few people around your deathbed right so I
00:40:01 - 00:41:04
think it comes a bit organically with age but part of it you do have to give a [ __ ] about your business and what people say about your business and you need that Competitive Edge in that that hard side of you when you're first coming up but it is tough you know especially like in this world where social media is a big thing if you're going to put your face out there at all like this face with these teeth I cop a lot of [ __ ] you know like you just got to learn to roll with that and and find a way to deal with with
00:40:32 - 00:41:23
that but uh yeah I I I don't know there's no easy people are always looking for is there an easy way to avoid pain there isn't there isn't there's plenty of pain in business yeah yeah yeah yeah there's no painless path to success you're going to have to overcome something your shyness you're going to have to overcome your impostor syndrome you're going to have to overcome your laziness but at some point you've got to get real about the you know where your
00:40:58 - 00:41:48
daily habits are actually leading as opposed to your goals list that you wrote down in a Tony Robin seminar and when those two things aligned and you're sort of in business and you've successfully scaled a lot of businesses and you've also had businesses that have flopped does it get to a certain point where you have a sense of fearlessness where you're like I've kind of seen it all like the worst that could happen is this doesn't work and I do the next thing yeah it's funny because you said
00:41:23 - 00:42:13
at the start you know you've had a lot of success in business but the truth is I've had a lot more failure in business than I've had success I've only had a few successes but you only need to have a few right you y saying you only need to be right once and it's very very true Mark Cuban says the same thing you know he had a shitload of failed businesses and then broadcast.com came along and made him a billionaire right so but you only get to the billion dollar idea by learning what a [ __ ] idea looks like and
00:41:48 - 00:42:51
feels like and so in the coaching I've got quite a bit of a reputation that I usually tell people it's a bad idea and uh and and it's only because I've and I'm really and I'm unafraid to do it because I know the pain of lost time lost money and lost reputation and um so I have lost in a lot of business I'm certainly not gifted in business at all there are some people who just have a really good mind for it and are young and I some of the kids that come in on our podcast I say
00:42:20 - 00:43:17
kids in their 20s they just know stuff that I didn't know like and they've just naturally started businesses that I now 30 years later go oh my God I wish I'd learn that then like you look at Kenny at light my bricks right like with Lego who would have thought you could sell a million dollar of Lego lights a month from Melbourne like pretty remarkable it's remarkable yeah and just to clarify so you know he sells like an attachment kit to Lego he just sells the lights just sells the lights so if you buy the
00:42:48 - 00:43:45
Eiffel Tower Lego kit he sells the lights and then their team do crazy stuff like they invest in like what does the real Eiffel Tower lights do and what's the flickering process and they just build a light system attach it's incredible Rachel wild from TBH you know 26 or 27 here in Sydney she solved acne you know like and so these people solve real problems whereas I think I was a bit slow on that one I was like I I try to imagine solutions to problems that don't really exist you know I was one of
00:43:17 - 00:44:14
those dummies that had to lose a lot of money before I go oh that's right that's what a real problem looks and feels like and so I you know these days the learning resources like Alex hosi is one of the greatest I think teachers of Our Generation because he doesn't use fancy words he's very clear and he taught one framework which is the four things that he looks for if he's going to invest in a company through acquisition. comom one is solve a real problem or feed of starving crowd like number one number
00:43:45 - 00:44:53
two at a price that they can afford number three you need to be able to reach them and number four in a growing market and that simple little framework can save you years if you're honest and lots of money and lots of mistakes and so you just look at these products that solve real problems simply and the rest is history like my old neighbor when I got back from America I moved into I bought an apartment on the beach front on the Gold Coast and the guy in the very next door to mine I said what do
00:44:19 - 00:45:17
you do he says I sell toothpaste I was like wow really toothpaste and he was like 25 23 or something like that turned out it was Alex is the owner of high smile wow which is now a billion dollars a year business they got some challenges in the US with the legal case and stuff at the moment but when you look at that it's a perfect case study of what it takes to be successful in business which is you see this ad on Facebook that shitty ad that has a closeup of somebody with their teeth back like this and says
00:44:47 - 00:45:49
that tooth is yellow this is b34 serum wipe it off now it's white right that's not complicated it wasn't a celebrity ad it was just literally a closeup of somebody's mouth but they're solving a real problem that is experienced by hundreds of millions of people at global scale and it's highly demonstrative you can show it so the world today for entrepreneurs listening to this people say why are you so excited for entrepreneurs now it's because 10 years ago online business was about buying ads
00:45:19 - 00:46:22
and traffic and different things and it was a different world but today you could live in Sydney you could live in Tasmania you could find one product like a v34 high smile type thing and you can if it's Visual and it's highly demonstrative there's really only four or five channels that you need to Market through to reach the entire world there's meta there's Tik Tok there's Google maybe LinkedIn maybe X there there's just like five channels that control your access to the planet and
00:45:50 - 00:46:54
you don't need to sell a thousand things or 10,000 things you can sell three things and and and hit that $20 million net worth goal I talked about and have the rest of your life like a rock star just by learning to solve a real problem on a simple product that you can sell to the world and I like how you articulated homo's four steps because I think you know often times we meet business owners and they think their idea is grandiose and I think we have to be honest with ourselves as entrepreneurs and be like
00:46:22 - 00:47:25
is this a good idea and going through those four steps and trying to rinse out what we're tring trying to do it might really being non-emotional like being really observant when I when I teach this I show that Scrub Daddy sponge that was on Shark Tank in the US and I was recently running a class and I put still clips of the faces of the judges at various points of the 90c demo if you haven't seen it go to YouTube put in Scrub Daddy shark tank pitch and the guy comes in and does the demo and you it
00:46:53 - 00:47:57
crosses back to the the Sharks and you can see on their face face this wonder and this joy and this leaning in there there's none of this body language it's all like you know those sorts of for people who are listening you're probably wondering what I'm doing but I'm making faces of shock and awe and engagement and so you've really but most people are so in love with their idea they're completely oblivious so a great book is called the mum test which is how to test ideas right properly and if you can just
00:47:25 - 00:48:20
find that product just be patient enough for the product or service where people are literally leaning over the desk saying look I don't care that it's not ready just give it to me so the product we're launching in the US next year it's exactly that every person we tell about it they're just like holy [ __ ] when is this stuff available like I need this now right and it's not inauthentic or trying to make me feel good it's like mate you're you got to get this to me as
00:47:53 - 00:48:46
soon as you that's what you need and and I'm not a genius I'm just smart enough to to wait and to observe and I didn't even invent the product it's just I found it through a poker game and just a long story I'll tell it later but it's it's not to do with poker but but you've just got to be patient enough and calm enough and observant enough to to just pay attention to what people are struggling with and then regarding you know the idea let's say we've got a
00:48:20 - 00:49:21
concept we're rolling it out it's doing well how do you sustain momentum and motivation throughout the journey cuz I imagine you know like myself motivation comes and goes MH there's days where you want to do it days where you don't want to do it do you have any methods or things that you reach into when you're in those moments of man I don't feel like doing this today your [ __ ] list is a really good one so Alex so a Patrick B David has a great book called choose your enemies wisely and so what that's
00:48:50 - 00:49:51
about is never let a good enemy go to the waste and so it's not about carrying anger but it's it's about making sure that you remember all those people who said Dane this isn't for you mate you're not going to make it you're not that talented who do you think you are so that that honestly it sounds negative but truthfully it has driven me like in my last big business in the bathrooms on the walls we actually had a mural artist come in and it wrote sometimes I feel like quitting but then I remember all
00:49:21 - 00:50:12
those [ __ ] that I want to that I'm going to prove wrong right and it was painted on the wall yeah and and people would come for a function and we'd have to put a warning up cuz they bring their kids and we're like but you know there is definitely a part of that that there's everybody has somebody who they are trying to prove wrong and there are days when it's [ __ ] so that's been really powerful for me if I'm honest there are people that are just definitely on my [ __ ] list and I'm like
00:49:46 - 00:50:47
watch this you know what I mean I'm going to do this and then there's also the positive sort of things like what you want to do for your family and and and stuff like that and and bringing like since I got married a couple of years ago and and having Josh in my life now he was when I met him in in a trade job that he hated you know and being able to show him a pathway out of that through entrepreneurship he now works in one of our portfolio companies he owns equity in it because he decided not to
00:50:16 - 00:51:27
take a salary to start with and so he got some points in the business and watching his mind and his brain just feeding on entrepreneurship for the first time it's hugely rewarding and I think kids can be a huge motivator for getting through those times and for me it only came very late in my life he was 18 when I met him and he's 25 now um that's been hugely rewarding and yeah just and I think those those two things are are really good so sort of for yourself and for others I think a good
00:50:52 - 00:52:04
motivations was there ever a moment for you in particular where you were like hellbent on the fact that you were like I'm going to succeed this is going to work and then it goes south and you fail completely oh not just once mate honestly and sometimes you know what was the most painful moment where that might have happened look I was broke at 37 I I don't know if I told the story last time I was on the Pod but I i' I'd had some wins in my 20s and then my 30s and just leading into 20 8 I lost
00:51:28 - 00:52:34
everything and so what happened was I had a company and I handed the range to a CEO fancy CEO with a you know resume and all that stuff she ran the company for a year leading into a small IPO that we did and I was in escrow when 2008 hit and escrow means that all the shares that I had in the company had eight figure stake in the company I couldn't sell them because we were in that early period of just having taken the shares to the public in 2008 hit and share price went to like zero and our business
00:52:01 - 00:53:03
went to almost zero as well because we were working in a space heavily affected by that our Revenue drop by 90% And so I lost I'd had like four or five investment properties I'd to fire sale them all I dumped all that Capital so I got way less than they worth because it's the absolute worst time I put it all into the company to save it and to pay out entitlements and to get rid of Staff because the company was run out of cash and and you know so basically I got this massive Readjustment 1 minute I'm walking around
00:52:32 - 00:53:33
with an 8 figure net worth and literally 6 months later I had $3,000 in the bank and was looking at having to ask my girlfriend's family for a loan at 37 and so that was humbling and I ended up having to go door too selling text message marketing Services trying to get $300 a month retainers from small businesses to plan their SMS marketing and so you can imagine what that was like working around the streets of Bly heads trying to go into a coffee shop and say have you got a minute to talk about your marketing you know mate [ __ ]
00:53:02 - 00:53:53
off I'm busy you know and and that was a whole journey that really tested me and I remember the very first day I'll tell this story really quickly I turned up I chewed myself up it's you know 8 o'clock in the morning I rock up to James Street I got my flip chart because I couldn't afford an iPad my flip chart that I printed off at office works and I literally I'm going to go and I'm going to sell you know of course everybody's busy at that time I didn't think it
00:53:29 - 00:54:22
threw too well okay what I'm going to do I'm gonna I went to the first one chickened out went to the second shop chickened out I thought what I'm going to do is I'm going to walk up and down all the streets just familiarized myself as if I didn't already know James Street like the back of my head got back to my car sat down hadn't called on a single business right just just looked at them all and you know made myself feel good about showing up and something came over me and I I'll never forget this and I
00:53:54 - 00:54:54
was sitting in my shitty little car and remember like six months before this I was worth eight figures right on paper and I had this business and everyone's like oh you're taking your company public and I was a rock star right here I am in Bly heads on a side straight off James Street with my shitty flip chart my little T-shirt with my company logo printed off at a shopping center you know embroidery business I look down at my deck and I just had this feeling that this was a very very very pivotal moment
00:54:24 - 00:55:24
in my life and it was almost like time fate and Circumstance were watching and I knew I had this voice almost that came to me and said Adam if you get out of this if you start this car and drive away you you're going to need to go and look for a job and I was 37 years old I hadn't had a job since I was 20 since I was working at turble shopping center as a picture framer I'd been self-employed for 17 years and I knew I would last a day in a job right so I was like you either get out of that car and do what
00:54:55 - 00:55:52
needs to be done as an entrepreneur or you start looking for a job when you get home it's one or the other what are you going to do and I was like holy [ __ ] like and that's when it really hit home and I got back out of the car and I went in to the first coffee shop Connor's coffee shop I still remember it I got sat down with a guy and he said yeah sure I'll try it out 300 bucks fine sign me up and then I went [ __ ] and then I just sold another two and by the end of the day I had $1,000 a month recurring
00:55:24 - 00:56:23
income from working for these three small businesses in one day and I was like holy [ __ ] and then I just kept going and then I could tell you other stories that came from that but one of the clients ended up being this Seafood guy and he was from Singapore and a long story and I met some incredible people through him and anyway that's where it all turned around from that moment so I know what it is to be flat broke and really looking down the barrel at 37 with nothing and that's why when I told
00:55:53 - 00:56:56
you the story about driving around in a Captiva you know making millions of dollars and people like dude like you're driving a Captiva I'm like yeah but I've got I'm never ever going back there and so I put every dollar into real estate because I said I want my money to get to a point where I can wake up in the morning and no matter what I'm good you know and and now I make seven figures just in interest and dividends off completely passive Investments like I don't need to go to work anymore um and
00:56:25 - 00:57:17
that feeling is the thing I never wanted lose you know um so that that's a really wonderful place to be but it came about as a result of if I didn't have that experience I don't think I would have had the discipline to just not give a [ __ ] what people think about me driving around a [ __ ] box while I accumulate millions of dollars worth of real estate it's remarkable and I think you know it's a humbling moment because you're one minute a rock star the next you're you know sitting in your car questioning
00:56:51 - 00:58:00
your whole future and you know it's gut-wrenching in those moments you know that voice you heard in your head whether it be a higher power or your subconscious whatever that is like for people in those moments where they are suffering right now and they're trying to bounce back like how do you g yourself up like how do you get those small wins and start stacking and compounding them well you start with a small win you know my small win was just getting one person to say yes to letting me come in
00:57:26 - 00:58:17
once a month and plan their SMS marketing messages for them for $300 I would come in I would I'd help them build a list so I'd say hey I'll give you these flyers to put on your counter hey put your name and number on there and we're going to draw out a free lunch once a month for our VIPs and then of course we'd send two text messages a month saying hey the coffee Shop's quiet if you come down now I'll give you 30% off whatever so this it was just starting with a small win because when
00:57:50 - 00:58:50
you're there in the cave and you know um you're looking out there's a tiny ray of light at the top it's too much in one Leap so you just look to your feet and say what's the next step up and the next step up and you've got to compound those winds and a lot of people a great place to start is what with what you can control and what you can control when it all goes to [ __ ] is what you put in your mouth and what you put in your head and so and what you do with your body so
00:58:21 - 00:59:25
look at your diet look at what if you're drinking stop drinking if you're doing drugs stop stop doing drugs if you're listening if you're watching the news stop that [ __ ] immediately start listening to podcast start compounding those winds because every positive thing that you do read a book called Atomic habits and put on your fridge the The Five Habits that you want to put in place that can turn so no sugar for example go to bed at 9:00 every night that's another little win so you write a
00:58:54 - 00:59:46
little chart you stick it on the fridge and you just tick at the end of the day that you did it cuz it's very important The Tick because that's the only reward that you're going to get when you've got nothing right so that little tick when they start to visually Stack Up on the fridge you don't want to break the run right or in your diary or somebody I like the fridge because you see it and it's public you know in the house right so start every one of those ticks is a vote for the
00:59:19 - 01:00:18
future self and if you don't have the motivation still just do the Tony Robbins exercise of casting forward what will happen if you do not change trajectory of your life and get yourself to fully engage with the pain for me it was like I was sitting in that car going you're going to be an employee I would rather shoot myself in the face than build somebody else's dreams like I just couldn't do it I'm an entrepreneur waking up it's the old saying if you don't build your own dreams somebody's
00:59:49 - 01:00:46
going to pay you to build theirs [ __ ] that I am not that so I'm going to get up every day and I want to I want to be able to go to the airport I want to one day have a a beautiful wife and say honey where do you want to go today and let's go to you know some of the experiences we've had i' had those in my head for years like going to Lake Como and sitting down at villae and having Larry David sit to my right and another movie star to my left that actually happened you know I'm sitting there just
01:00:17 - 01:01:12
going oh my God I'm a kid from Brown's Plains how did this happen but I was not going to live a life where I didn't at least give it a really dead set shake so start with that small those small things that you can control read Atomic habits and start stacking those small winds and then you'll start to feel confidence and the way it works is it's if you look at from a Biblical point of view it says you take a step towards God and God will take a step towards you but it's you
01:00:45 - 01:01:38
that takes the first step not God that's how it works so you take that first step of good action the universe will come back and say Dane that's it come and then you take another step go Dane here's some more energy take another step day here's another resource and eventually time fate and Circumstance will capitulate and go this [ __ ] is not going anywhere we're just got to give it to him but it's but it's going to take you to prove it through consistency and so but start small and
01:01:11 - 01:02:13
just keep going in in that moment where you know I'm not going to call it Rock Bottom because it's probably not but like you know where you had altitude and then you're R back at bedrock and what did you learn about yourself in those moments and there's a great quote I love from Jim ran and it's if your greatest failures held a seminar what would you learn about yourself yeah it was Rock bom I think that that that time for me I remember where I lived and all of that stuff but I but what I learned I think
01:01:43 - 01:02:46
first and foremost is that I am an entrepreneur died in the wall it's me it's it's it's just what I am you know I'm I'm so so that and I and I also resilient far more resilient than I thought and I think every person that I ever speak to if you talk to anybody and you unpack their story like this who's successful they've got similar pain somewhere I don't know where it is and most people don't probably don't know about it but they will tell you that the they
01:02:14 - 01:03:14
wouldn't change that because that those painful moments and the ability to just get back up and keep going that's what separates people because everybody every I don't care who you are at some level you're going to get a kick in the nuts really really hard at some point whether it's personally in your family life and your health in your business the ability to just get back up and my my one superpower is the ability to keep going and get back up through the hardest things and I know that about myself if I
01:02:44 - 01:03:44
lost it again now I'd be devastated but I would get it back you know I would just keep going you know Colonel Sanders style you know what he was he 68 when he started KFC yeah every yeah and that's a really good point say you know like there's a lot of listeners here who might be over 50 and still struggling but everyone's on their timeline you know like if you look at Obama he left office I think at 52 or something and Donald Trump didn't get in until 74 so everybody's on Obama's like saying to Donald Trump
01:03:14 - 01:04:03
you'll never be president right and then fast forward it's almost like Trump was like that was in his [ __ ] bag where he's like I'm going to I'm going to show you everybody's everybody's got their own timeline for their thing you know and some people don't make it to their see other people making their 20 you know it just doesn't matter one of your quotes is that people are completely screwed up by other people's fears projections and limiting beliefs they take them on as
01:03:38 - 01:04:38
their own and their lives turn to custard well I can't even remember when I might have said that but so so how do you feel people construct limiting beliefs over themselves and how do we start to identify them and bedos talked about this a little bit and it's something talk about as well which is you know we have these beliefs that we carry with us are they serving us or are they hurting us yeah we do and it's that's why Tony's work his earliest work unlimited power and awaken the giant
01:04:09 - 01:05:14
within those two first books he wrote was a lot about belief examination and reconstruction right it talks about them being like tables and they're held up by references that may or may not be true um hosi again says you know people want you to be successful until you start becoming successful and then they don't want to know you yeah right because people feel great when you're first starting out you want to be successful but you're not because it supports them but when you are successful then it doesn't support
01:04:42 - 01:05:27
them and it showns the spotline on the failure so a lot of times when you're starting out and you don't have like I look at my circle of influence now and they're mostly really they're what I would call winners in life they're posit they're people like you they're people that are positive they're building things they're creating things they've done the work they've read the books they've been to the seminars that's most of my friends I have poker KN nights
01:05:04 - 01:05:55
every month that I have three different Pok KN nights I run just so that guys you know between 35 and 55 have a place to go that's wholesome that's a positive networking environment we have a few laughs with the boys but nobody's going to get themselves into trouble there's no girls there's no drugs there's none of that it's all married guys that are in business but just need an outlet you know um but when you're starting out you don't have that you are mostly
01:05:29 - 01:06:15
surrounded if you're in a job listening to this right now I don't know there's probably people driving on a bus to the a job they hate most of the people there are programmed it's like putting your kids into a school where people go I put my kids into private school rather than public school because the perception is that you know the the people who can afford to pay for their kids have put a better programming into those kids and my kids are hanging out with them it's it's not so much the education it's who
01:05:52 - 01:06:44
you're going to be hanging out with and and the networks but it's the same as adult so when you're starting out you're probably surrounded by people that don't have an abundance mindset that don't they look at you weird if you're on a bus and you're listening to a podcast like this but as you sort of navigate your your way through life and you age and you start zoning the people out that aren't on your path and drawing in those that are it gets easier so you got to be
01:06:17 - 01:07:11
really really Vigilant when you're first starting out about protecting your mindset and protecting who's around you and speaking into your life because it's very rare to find people that will speak positively and say Dane you're too good for this Dan you can do better than this Dane I believe in you and I've the one of the hacks I've done along the way is I've tried to be the person when I had nothing that would always speak into other people's lives positively because
01:06:44 - 01:07:34
it was a filtering mechanism and it also sent the message don't give me your [ __ ] because I'm not open to hear it and as a result I elevated really quickly with who I attracted because I'd constantly say to some body I'd be that crazy guy that would say that looks really good on you or you're really good at this well done or you know whatever it's interesting you say that because I think what happens is you know negative people and positive people are like oil and water totally and if you
01:07:09 - 01:08:02
have negative people around you and you're having those negative conversations with them and you're entertaining their whatever they're talking about then it's it's essentially feeding their energy but if you're the type of person who's just constantly flipping it to a positive very quickly those people seem to be repelled from your life [Laughter] I love it I just love seeing it you know like it's fun yeah they just they disappear something I I I stole from TY Lopez many years ago to your point which
01:07:36 - 01:08:24
you were talking about which was okay you're surrounded by not many people that are thinking entrepreneurially I kind of joke it's like GTA you're surrounded by NPC saying the same thing um you know he has a theory called invis invisible mentors if you don't have a mentor or you can't afford one get invisible mentors and what I used to do was I would drive my car to work or whatever and I would listen to an audio tape of Grant Cardone or Tony Robbins and I would imagine that they were in
01:08:00 - 01:08:58
the passenger seat speaking directly to me versus listening to it like oh his atony Robin's audio tape he's talking to an audience I I really tried to take the advice on personally when it comes to limiting beliefs and how that impacts your success and life and when you're analyzing what these might be what are some things that you've carried with you that have been some of the best limiting beliefs that you've flipped that have served you yeah that's an interesting question
01:08:29 - 01:09:27
some of the best limiting beliefs that I've flipped I think one of the biggest ones for me was always that when I was younger I sort of always thought I had to be somewhere else or from a different background to what I was do you know I always sort of externalized like I'm not from Brown's plans I'm this other character yeah yeah well you know who's ever made it from Browns Plains when I pick up the brw rich list when I was young young that's how you sort of Saw rich people you
01:08:58 - 01:10:07
would pick up the brw rich list or the young rich list and you'd read about these guys in Sydney that have started hedge funds or somebody started a tech company and I'm like oh my God but I'm reading it in a [ __ ] mini in Brown's planes and so like yeah that's never going to happen for somebody from here until you see someone like Simon beard who's from Mount eer I believe you know like a country boy who's just from Australia built a business that he sold for $600 million so for me some of it was just
01:09:31 - 01:10:44
always where I was from um uh and the the background I was from instead of just sort of believing that there because it's hard to digest and it's hard to because behind that when I look at it I thought actually Adam you're just picking up a shield to protect you from the truth which is um it is possible for you you've just got to put the work in so sometimes these limiting beliefs are used to actually protect us from the truth which is if you put the work in for a lot of years you will
01:10:09 - 01:11:05
probably win you know unless you're a [ __ ] which most people are not morons they just got these beliefs that they hold to themselves and you know and we have them in different areas you know people some people have it in dating they just don't believe they're worthy of particular type of person and yeah the minute you put it down say what if I was just a lot better you know did the work and there's a quote that comes to mind which is I think Warren Buffett and he says that if you're born poor
01:10:38 - 01:11:36
it's not your fault but if you die poor it is and you if you live in the west yes I agree wholeheartedly I got to see it firsthand in Bolivia and it's it's it's it's no amount of Tony Robbins books is going to get you out of poverty in Indonesia for example no that's a good point because I think you you know if you are living in a western country and you are able to access the internet and you don't have a government that's corrupt and you can you know get away with a bit more freedom in life I think
01:11:06 - 01:12:31
you know it's it's being grateful for that and and leveraging that as much as we can um for you personally with everything that you're doing the personal brand the podcast you moving to New York and building this new business how do you want to be remembered oh wow um it's interesting because I I just turned 50 in March and my wife organized a book for me where she got 95 people to write a page or two of their sort of experience with me what you know what I meant to them it was humbling to say the least that first
01:11:49 - 01:13:01
95 people would take the time to actually write something thoughtful and meaningful but I think what became evident and when I read through I haven't read them all yet because it's I quite often find it difficult to read because it's pretty full on but is the one thing people always say is you don't realize how and I'm just trying to think maybe where I learned it but I've always tried to be that voice of encouragement and belief in somebody's life and sometimes it'll
01:12:24 - 01:13:22
be in the most in it seems inconsequential to me at the time but it wasn't just when I'm successful and somebody meets me and comes up to me in the street and says oh Adam I follow the Potter I've followed you for a while I saw you on stage with Tony Robbins or whatever it was I mean just when I was younger like one of the guys I just remember calling him one day and said hey mate I just saw you you failed in your business and and I said mate don't let it get to you you can do this and I my myself wasn't successful
01:12:56 - 01:14:11
at that time but but I was like dude like we all fail like it's okay you you know you can do great I think you should do this you know I think you've got a chance go there and he you get a note 20 years later going Adam like that changed my whole life you know so I've always tried to be that source of positivity encouragement belief I've sent my I've always invested in networks I've always believed that the never ever underestimate the impact of a Kind well-placed word of encouragement
01:13:34 - 01:14:49
into a fertile mind and minds are fertile when they're vulnerable so usually when somebody's in Peak pain or they're young and so if you can speak kindness or positivity into a young mind uh it can be really formative so to answer your question I would like to be remembered as somebody who encouraged others and believed in others and brought light you know and so yeah that's that's basically yeah I think there's enough negativity out there and just just helping people to sort of believe that
01:14:11 - 01:15:11
they can do something and what that that that they do matter and I try to see people because I think so many of us just don't get seen you know we're just invisible in the world and if you can make a habit of trying to see the UN seen people and just like connect with them in in life like whether they're carrying your bag or driving you in an Uber or it's amazing like people are like these drooped over sunflowers getting no love and then you just say hey mate you know that was amazing what
01:14:41 - 01:15:35
you just did or whatever and we we've seen it in our businesses when we put Awards programs or recognition in like people just don't get recognized anymore when you do recognize them they're just like it's like putting water on a drooped over ping shine in you know and i' love seeing that in people it's really important and I think you know it it's pretty rare like to get a genuine compliment we think Compliments are thrown around all all over the place and people are usually a bit like weird when
01:15:09 - 01:16:03
we give them one but you know even if they act awkward or weird when you give them a compliment like you said it might be planning seed in a fertile mind oh yeah I I saw a great re yesterday it was a guy walking around the street and like he's carrying the phone and he's going he sees this girl and and she's there and a girlfriend of her is taking photos of her for Instagram or something and he goes I should go over there and just tell her that she looks great and but no she's in a photo shoot
01:15:36 - 01:16:25
don't do it don't do it and she he was actually voicing what's going on his head he says no screw that and that he still say hey look I just want to say you look amazing the way your dress sets off with the plants I'm sure these photos are going to come out great good on you and the girl oh my God thank you so much it was totally non creepy but then he did it like over and over he did like five of these he and got a girl's phone number you know like but he was actually articulating the fears in his
01:16:00 - 01:16:55
head and it was everything from getting a girl's phone number to telling a girl that she looked great for the photo shoot to to an old lady who' obviously dressed up really beautifully and said you know what you just look really good but the self- thought was I'll come off as a creep if I talk to this old lady or it's weird or so anyway it's I just think it's so underrated you know out there and doing it with your staff and just taking that extra moment to to not use chat DPT to write the response
01:16:28 - 01:17:40
because pretty soon email is just going to be drafted by AI for everyone but to actually not do that and to really acknowledge somebody is I think the payoff is just like a asymmetric return in life and in business that's beautiful and I think that you know it's awesome and I like your approach to that what's a quote or a mantra that you've carried with you on your journey that you wish everyone listening to this would immediately implement oh wow a CO a quote or a mantra look there's so
01:17:03 - 01:18:11
many I really don't know one in particular you know I I think as you know at this point in my life I'm trying to be far more observant so sort of power versus Force kind of approach to life like just being observant about the way the the world is responding to your ideas and and someone adjusting based on what you're actually seeing as opposed to what you're trying to push onto the world and believe to be true again like Tony I've been studying Tony for years I don't really like Tony Robin's seminars
01:17:38 - 01:18:32
but I've liked his books and some of that early stuff is embedded and he always says the the meaning of your communication is the response you get and I remember that and I wrote it down 30 years ago and we think we're doing something out in the world and we think that we're doing this but in reality what what is the actual response you're getting to your ideas what is your actual response that you're getting to everything in your life like to to your body how does your body
01:18:05 - 01:19:05
respond to what you're doing how how does your partner respond to what you're doing and when you start to become observant of the response you get it really is the truth of what you are doing rather than the story that you live in of what you're doing Sound Advice it sounds like you know being present and being very conscious of what's Happening as well yeah yeah yeah as measured by feedback well Adam we always love having you on the Pod you're just a ray of sunshine as as we were just speaking about and it's
01:18:35 - 01:19:13
always good to see you and hang out and yeah we just appreciate you for being here thank you man it's I love being here it's you never know where it's going to go and that was a bit of fun I hope it adds value to your listeners I think you've concluded a lot of Great Sound Advice that people can run with immediately and yeah for me even personally there's a few things there I'm going to take with me yeah cool man thanks

Adam Hudson
Adam Hudson is an entrepreneur and the host of the Unemployable podcast. As an expert in business success, he talks about how he has failed way more than he has succeeded.
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