Welcome to the Adaptive Mindset. I'm Brett Gallant, cybersecurity thought leader and founder of Adaptive Office Solutions. Here, we don't just talk tech, we unlock the strategies, stories, and mindset shifts you need to stay secure, lead boldly, and thrive in a digital world. Let's get started. Welcome back to the adaptive mindset i'm brett galant founder of adaptive office solutions and someone who believes stories change people and people change the world today i'm sitting with someone who has built an empire around that exact idea. Adam Torres. Adam has conducted over 6,000 interviews, built a media platform with over 100,000 pieces of content, and he's co-founded Mission Matters, one of the top 2.5% podcasts in the world. But before all this, he spent more than a decade in financial services, managing relationships for over 400 high net worth families with a combined net worth of more than half a billion dollars. Adam is on a mission to amplify voices, entrepreneurs, entertainers, executives, and experts, and to help people tell stories that will inspire generations. Adam, I'm excited for this conversation. Welcome Hey, Brett, man, I'm so happy to be here today. And I got I got a big exciting thing to say that we went from 2.5%. We're now top 2%. I'll tell you once you start getting to a certain like little area. It's hard man. Next year, I'm hoping to get to point to top 1.5%. You know, if it's God's will, man, we're just working hard over here doing interviews and hopefully helping others tell their story and providing a platform for them to do it at. So Exciting. That's really interesting. You know your numbers and you know where you're going, which is, you know, you have that mindset I started in finance. I started in finance. I didn't like when I got into. in the media and when i got into this i didn't really i didn't take it as or understand it as a creative pursuit to be honest like and i like how most people when they get into this business they're thinking maybe really really heavily on the creative side i studied it just like i studied the market i went back and i studied the entire history of entertainment so just for example briefly um When I was a financial advisor, when I was in finance, I probably consumed, let's call it 10,000 pages of content in order to get my Series 7, 6, 63 insurance licenses, CFP, all the stuff I did way back when. So when I got into media, I was like, well, guess what? I need to do the same thing. I need to read all the biographies. I need to read all of them. I mean, I was reading about Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Jay Leno. I was reading about Larry King, Oprah, anybody that you could imagine. And then I went further back. I went all the way back to vaudeville and I was studying like the greats even back then and how this whole industry moved because I was like, if I'm going to be a part of this, For me, I had to understand the business of it, and that's where I feel like sometimes people, if they don't get the business of it, and they just, because it's easy, right? You just set up a podcast, you set up a microphone, it's easy, low barrier entry, but huge opportunity that many miss because they don't take it seriously and they don't understand the Yeah, incredible. And you're a living testament of that 2% already and going further. But you've done the work. You put in the reps. You continue to put in the reps. You told me before we started this episode that you spend 70% of Yep. Yeah. And yeah. And, and, uh, for everybody listening, just so you know, so Brett asked me, uh, he says, uh, um, he says, he asked me, you know, oh, so are you doing, like, are you batching some interviews today? Cause we just had a book release and I'm proud to announce our book. 1 billion podcasts went to number one on Amazon. And, uh, I'm, I'm, and I'm telling them and I just laughed, but I didn't, I didn't know for sure if Brett knew who I was or knew about me. Definitely. I don't know. Maybe the agent he booked his agent might've booked me on his show or something. I don't know. So. So I didn't know, but when I saw those, I just laughed. I'm like, um, yeah, I'm doing a couple of interviews today, Brett. And I know typically people that are in your industry. I wasn't surprised when you told me you were 70% in front of the camera. I had a, another person in your industry is similar. Yeah. That, uh, when I was interviewing him, he was, he had six So my record is 91 interviews in a week. I averaged when I first started in the business, I averaged maybe 70 a week for a long, long time, like talking years Yeah. And so incredible mindset, what you had to do to be able to do that, because you obviously have surrounded yourself with people that allow you to do what you enjoy doing. So you're not doing all the work to get you on the podcast and you're not doing all the other work that entrepreneurs do. You're, you're, you're surrounding yourself with people Absolutely. And, and in this case, and just if we're kind of juxtaposing this to other businesses, all I've really done is, um, in this case, my widget is the interview, right? That's my widget. And so, um, when I was creating what I, and I call it this internally, I don't know if I've said this on other podcasts, but I call it my factory. Like, like many people, they, um, they go out there and they, um, they go after, and it's okay. I'm not saying it's wrong, but entertainment specifically. Many people, they go, they want to get a lot of attention, they go to get the followers, they go to get all these other things, which is very important. Some people are very talented at that. They're talented at getting and gaining a large audience quickly. For myself, I didn't ever want to be in a position to where I would be out of the game if I didn't succeed or if the audience had all the control, meaning the people listening to the show. So I kind of did it a little bit backwards. I built the factory and the factory being the production, the distribution, like all of that, literally the editors, the business model to make sure I was profitable enough to stay in the business to where I wasn't dependent on one particular thing so that I could make sure I'd be in the game indefinitely because I figured, you know, Talent and, you know, is this show good or is it bad or whatever, that's subjective, like taste change. But what isn't subjective is cash flow and can you stay in the game? That's not subjective. That's like if you crap out and you can't do the business anymore, then it doesn't matter how good your show was if you couldn't do the Yeah. I like the pennies. When I first started in the business, Brett, I didn't know if this was going to work. And I, uh, and I didn't take it as a serious, like, as like it is now. I didn't have a bunch of employees, anything like that. I edited my own episodes. I didn't want to put a penny into it. I had it down to where each piece of content, it was somewhere around, I don't remember right this moment, say 25 to 35 cents per piece of content put out. That's how quick, how closely Had. Now it's a little bigger. There's a lot more moving pieces. I don't like, you know what I mean? It's a little bit different. Now I'm steering a little bit of a bigger ship, but in the beginning it was, that's what I was looking at. Cause I was ultimately thinking like, if I can have the factory, you know, then you own the factory, you can do other things with it. And you know, you can pivot, you can find other ways to use those resources. So just one quick example is during the pandemic, we, We weren't doing this prior really to the pandemic much, but we started launching shows and helping other people launch shows with our production capabilities and now we've launched over 250. So go figure, we have a thriving business on that side where we help people start podcasts and we help people that already have podcasts grow them. That's Well, you have the factory, you can repurpose content, you can help others repurpose content. There's a connection there to an organization in my part of the world where a business conglomerate has built the factory. They had the distribution. They have other supply chains that supply in. So there's the factory and the distribution. It's a beautiful little ecosystem. Sounds like you've built Yeah, and on that side, really, we didn't know that part was gonna happen, so I don't really like to oversell that part, Brett, because we didn't. No, no. No, no, and not saying you're doing it, but it's for people listening, and the reason why I say that is because sometimes people think that if somebody's a little polished or they have a certain thing that they can possibly, you know, oh, that person could do it, but I can't, but just to be really clear here, I started as the world's worst podcaster, and I'm not being humble, I'm not being, let me give you an example, Brett. Let me no, no, no, hold on. No, I'll give you an example of why I was worse I my first podcast and my or I should say my first show. I was so scared Brett. I didn't even use my real name. I Didn't do a video right now. You're on video. You're on zoom I didn't do video and do a video interview until I did over 1500 episodes you try to camera forget my name I couldn't talk. I didn't do an in-person interview until after 3,000 interviews. I didn't interview people in front of a live audience or in front of a stage and stuff like that until I think, don't quote me, maybe over 4,000 interviews, something like that. It might have been a little bit more, 4,000 interviews. everything that I've done has really been a progression of just understanding my true limitation, and I wasn't really born with that skill. Some people are born funny, or they're born with some things, and some people are born to be in front of the camera, or this or that, or whatever. That wasn't my case, and so I share that, because for those that are listening or watching, we're sharing some certain numbers here. Even, okay, I'll do 1,500 episodes a week, or a year, excuse me. and I may seem polished to some, some may be like, that guy sucks, I can do it, whatever, it's okay. But the point is that I come on these shows because I want other people to get in the game and also share their stories, no matter where they feel they're at and their capability. Some people are going to resonate, for example, to your voice, Brett, some are going to like mine, some are going to like us working together. That's all subjective, but it's important to get out Oh, yes. We, a lot of times we underestimate how interesting we really are and what your story, your story can have an impact on somebody. And we take that for granted. And like, when you're talking about, you know, you put in the reps of being, you know, not even doing video at first till But I remember the first time, I've been recording myself on social media for years. And I went back and looked at my previous content. Oh I'd never do that. Rule number one, I'm gonna say rule number one like 50 times. But rule number one, never listen or look at your content that you put out I love it though, because I think there's some joy in that though, to celebrate the growth. Yeah, the journey of who you can become. And sometimes there's somebody that's listening here right now may have on their heart to start a podcast or to start something or get in front of the camera and share online about their own journey. Hey, stop making I love it. I looked at, so once a year usually I'll do a post or I'll recycle a particular post on Instagram and this post is back, speaking of looking back, this post is back from 2016, that's when I released my first book, I was still in finance, it was called Money Matters, and I did this, and I can see myself, and I had, somebody took a picture, or a video, excuse me, and you could see how nervous I was in the video, and I'm like opening the box, and I'm like, oh my gosh, here it is, my first book, like whatever, and I'm just trying, I'm just talking, and I'm like, oh my gosh, look at that. It's interesting to look back in time and then our most recent book, just to see the progression, like you said, when we released that book yesterday, it was just a whole different, you could see nine years of going from absolute amateur neophyte to holy smokes. We went number one on Amazon a couple hours and it's like, wait a minute, this is two different, not two different people, but you could see a matured product versus a just getting started product. And it did feel good, so you're right, I do agree. Sometimes you gotta look back, but don't look back too much. And if you have a podcast, don't listen to every episode that you do and dissect it and this and that. I'm trying to, that's the part that I I know you wouldn't. But I just, you're a pro, but for people listening, I try to give them a couple tips. Don't do that, don't get in your heads. Your podcast is gonna get better when you record more episodes and you just keep on going. That's like you're exercising a muscle, it's a marathon. and it's not a sprint. You misspeak, you do this, the ums, the ahs, the forget what everybody tells you. Like my first show, Brett, I didn't even edit. I had almost 300 episodes unedited because I still didn't even know my first like 300. We built an audience from it. I think part of the reason people subscribe is like, this guy's a train wreck. He's like, I'm like, I think this is another podcast episode or we could just call it a phone call I often say a lot of times the mindset is a muscle and you have to work it out. So that mindset of putting in the reps and just getting comfortable being uncomfortable is key. You I don't know if I'd say I was a master. What I was was at the end of a day of doing 15 to 20 interviews, I'd be in the fetal position with the ice pack on my head, literally, because I just had splitting headache of pain. So I think what really kept me in the game was just the, almost the responsibility or even the guilt I would say. Maybe the guilt, a little bit of Catholic guilt thrown in there maybe, but I just couldn't like, I didn't want to let somebody down. Like they, some people had been waiting like months to get on the show. And I didn't want to let people down. They were excited to be on the show, and I don't take that for granted that somebody wants to come on your show or wants to give you their time or their story. So I just kept saying yes. In the beginning, there was no plan to do this many interviews. Oh God, no, that'd be crazy. For me, I'm saying that'd be crazy. I would've never been like, okay, what I'm going to do is I'm going to do a crazy amount of interviews. That wouldn't have sounded right, but it was a progression. It had to be very, very beginning. I had to beg people to come to the show. Hey, I don't know what I'm doing, but come to the show. we'll figure it out, and many people were very supportive and did do it, and then over time, the word got out a little bit, then it got out a little bit more, then it just started to grow, and then before I knew it, I had a packed schedule, and I'm like, oh my gosh, and I just felt guilty. I'm like, I can't cancel on all these people. They're depending on me. So it was more almost responsibility more than a plan. There But look what it's become. So you've done over 6,000 interviews, and I would say more than that now, but after all those conversations, what's the common thread behind a story that truly moves Authenticity is for sure. People can just, the BS, people could tell the BS factor so fast. And I think it's because of social media. I feel like once upon a time, if you think about like, look at this progression in entertainment. So if you go way back when, you even think about something like theater and it's a little bit of an exaggerated expression from the standpoint of they're projecting their voice, there's no microphones, anything else depending, right? And so you look at that and then you progress and you look at as media forms change and other things, then you go to something like a radio, right? And then you look at like, especially radio, like you look at Orson Welles when he evoked literally panic from one of his broadcasts and people thought that like, that's crazy. Like, and then you think about now we have a new format, which is TV. And then when we look at TV and there's a screen for the first time and then acting and then all these other things kind of change. and you think about things like movies, right? And then sound in movies. And so now when you think about social media, the fact that they're screened so close to our eyes and also in such intimate areas. So for example, just even the fact, if you think about this, okay, maybe our parents grew up and maybe there was a TV in the bedroom and it was like on the dresser all the way across the room. Now with a cell phone, it's in your hand. You're literally touching the object and in bed with the object a couple, like a foot or two from your, depending on your eyes and if you have your glasses or not, whatever, a couple feet from your head. Like, literally, it doesn't get any closer. And then, let's imagine you're wearing AirPods or something. Now, you even have, literally, the content is in your orifice. It's in your ears, physically. It's physically touching your ears and making a vibration. So I personally believe, I can't prove it scientifically. If somebody can, great, but I can't. But it's just logical to me. that now at this point, like the waves and the energy, it's just so, people are so quick, especially the younger generation who, they never grew up without not having these screens. So they're programmed from literally babies, like they could be literally as babies, they're already seeing screens. So they're programmed to be so highly in tuned and process and understand. So for those that like, maybe in the past could have faked something or could have been this certain type of thing. Now, if you can't get an Oscar with your faking, you're better off with authenticity. Just be yourself and ugly scars and all because in all reality, if you can do that and if your heart's in the right place, it's a lot of money to be made and you can help a lot of people at the same time while doing that. Oh, a hundred percent. I've heard, uh, I'm in Dan Martel's, uh, coaching program is elite program. And Yeah. Like, and I have a few messes like everybody else. There's a few that I, that I don't have the courage to share just yet. I know I will share it. And I, I've shared it a few times personally. I like that you say that too, though, because you don't have to force it. If it's feels forced, then it's not time. It's okay. If you're, you're being Exactly. There's a message that I know I will share to a certain audience. It may never be public, but there's the message that I proudly share. I'm a man who's reclaiming his identity. As of today, I've released 140 pounds. Wow, congratulations. I say that like I've lost it, Yeah. And it's, it's all that authentic story though, that can move people. So like, I, I share it to inspire people. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm a fan of that. And it's interesting because as I, as I've kind of progressed in this business, I've little by little started to share more things. And I remember like, and when I first started in this business, I didn't really. share too much about my upbringing only because I wasn't used to it because I come from finance and in finance like the last thing so my office was in Century City I lived in Beverly Hills the last thing I wanted one of my you know pretty wealthy Beverly Hills clients know was that I was from the Midwest number one I wouldn't lie but I just wouldn't bring it up obviously. I wouldn't want them to know I'm from the Midwest, I'm from Michigan, I'm from Detroit. These are all reasons why they wouldn't do business with me, just to be honest. It wasn't that, again, I didn't hide it. If somebody asked or came up with a conversation, great, but I wasn't leading with my story in any means because that would have hurt me for my business in that particular case. for the clientele I was targeting, for who I was serving, so it wouldn't have been a good thing. But as I progressed, and now, for example, in this most recent release, One Billion Podcast, I actually do talk about my upbringing, and I talk about some of my earliest influences, which people wouldn't actually expect. So most people, they see me, I'm normally in a suit if I'm recording or anything like that, and I cover some of the top events in the world, so like Davos and Milken Institutes, their global conference and FII priority. I mean, I'm literally at the covering the top things and I'm always in a suit and tie. So they probably wouldn't expect that some of my earliest influences were actually people like Master P and who started No Limit Records and Little Wayne. had a lot of hip-hop influence growing up in Detroit, and those were my earliest influences of seeing somebody that came from a place like where I came from, the inner city of really a hood, and to make it out of there and to be super successful. Those are my earliest influences and inspirations, and I talk about that in the book. People wouldn't expect that from me, but I never led with that story because, all kidding aside, can you imagine this, Brett? So who are some of your early, and then I bring up Lil Wayne? Yeah, especially in that industry. Beverly Hills clientele is not really feeling that. I'm sorry. I don't care. Somebody disagrees. Yeah, send But now it's part of a bigger story about today. Yeah, it just makes your whole character richer and people understand more And I think that's a privilege now. And I think also society though has kind of shifted a bit. So now, the comment I've been talking about and just laughing because I'm thinking about it, that was nine years ago. I haven't managed money in nine years. So I actually think nowadays I probably could share that story more because people are more accepting and more understanding, even the Beverly Hills clientele, so not ragging on them. I actually think I could share that now and I think it would, It's changed though, but that's because of social media. It's changed. I believe we're becoming uncertain. It could be both sides, so I'm not going to say this is a sweeping comment, but I will say that in many instances we've become more tolerant just because we're starting to understand the humanity in other places. Because, I mean, even whether we realize it or not, you pull up your phone, you see some random, like, I don't know, I'll give you an example. There was in the Philippines, there was a, when the typhoons came, and obviously we hear about it, we see it on TV, we see the floods. but it was very humanizing. We never want to see anybody get hurt, obviously, but we see the floods, and I saw this one Instagram reel, and it was like Filipino people, it said something like, Filipino people are the happiest in a typhoon ever, and it had people literally dancing and creating content and cheering, not saying everybody's happy that their house is flooded, but they were making the best of it, and they were resilient, and you see, I saw some old guy do like a flip off a boat into the water everywhere, and it's just like, And these are people, like I've never been to the Philippines, I'd love to go one day and I will go one day, but it just kind of humanizes it. Now it's not a meteorologist giving a quick couple seconds on the news. Now I can see the people and be like, oh my gosh, they're like me, what would I be doing if I was there? I probably wouldn't be doing a flip in there, I'd be freaking out. So then I'm thinking, dang, who said that? Everyone's my master in something or my, I think it was Emerson. Well, go figure. I was like, man, that person is like, they're killing me on that one. I don't know what I do and they're over here like Enjoying life. Great. Like you said, social media has brought us So, in a lot of ways, closer together, and giving us the opportunity to have niches. Yeah, I believe that. Today, you could have niches in the former industry that you were in, So your whole brand is built on elevating stories. Why do you believe that sharing our story is one of the most powerful things that we can do? We touched a little bit So I've seen it, and I talk about this a little bit. Well, I've seen what it's done in my life. That's the first thing. So I didn't believe this before, just to be clear. When I was in finance, I started in that business when I was 16. When I was asked to write my first book, which I talk about in my new book, I literally was like, what why like broke people write books i don't wanna focus on a five dollar product like that's that was my initial reaction so my mentor christopher kyle talkatives like this is stupid why would i ever write a book is silly see by the way now the okay the irony out of circle back to the start but the irony now is now i have a publishing company published over four hundred authors including one of my prides, Barry Sanders. I'm from Detroit, so to publish the Lions famous all-time, I say running back over Barry Sanders, complete dream come true. Okay, back to the story. I didn't believe it at all. I didn't understand marketing, I didn't understand brand, I understood numbers. I understood compound interest. I didn't understand. I understood investing. That was it. So what happened and where I became kind of a convert to what it was, it's what happened to me. I put out my first book and I start getting people like, it wasn't, just to be clear, it wasn't like some inspirational, motivational, it's called Money Matters. Okay. So it's not like, I mean, I'm a big Wayne Dyer fan. I love him. I love, I enjoy inspirational content. Okay. I mean, I enjoy that. Les Brown's the like, I zigs, I enjoy all of that, but that's not what this book was. It was, but I got response from people that were responses and it was just like, it was really helping them. And I was, it was a weird feeling for me at first. I'm like, what? And then. I started finding myself going on speaking tours. I mean, I went on a speaking tour as far away as China. Insane. And I'm like, whoa. In the past, when I was a financial advisor, I paid to get on stage. For those of you that have ever been in that business, it's called you got to throw a big event, or you have to bring people to a steakhouse and wine them and dine them. And ultimately, some of them become your clients, and you do it again. but it's ultimately you're paying to be on stage in front of people. Then I started getting paid to be on stage in front of people and I'm like, what? It's insane. I didn't even understand it. I booked, I had the speaking fees as high as $30,000 to stand on stage. I couldn't believe it. I didn't even understand what that was to be honest. I'm like, now I understand and I understand, oh, well, if my name can help drive tickets and sales and if I can, you know provide an experience for the audience and they come back and now I get the business but at that time I'm like what is this a scam I didn't understand it I just didn't even know the business so now I look I kind of like it's been a progression for me and God's really just been working on me and kind of like showing me things along the way and giving me opportunities and bringing people into my life that have brought me to different levels And that's where I see, I believe, by me sharing that story with others, not everybody has the goal that I have. Everybody needs to do all these interviews. Some people, great, do one interview a week, launch your podcast, do one interview a week, help your community. Do one a month, whatever. I'm not saying, this isn't a comparison, it's just saying that I believe that by me sharing my story, I think it's gonna give, for some people, maybe some permission to feel like, well, if that guy could do it, I could do it too, or maybe, and that's what this whole book, so One Billion Podcasts, the reason I wrote it, Brett, it was because I was coming on shows, and I kept getting, sometimes I go on a new podcaster show, sometimes I go on a more experienced podcaster show, all these different things, but what I realized was kind of like twofold, and this is what I wrote it, like the avatars, if you will, One was for somebody that already had a podcast, but doesn't actually really know the business. They don't actually know the opportunity. They're just having fun, but they don't really understand the business, and that's why many of them quit. So you hear a bunch of stats. I don't know if these are true or not, and I don't quote them in the book at all, because I don't know if it's true, but it's something like most podcasts don't make it past 25 episodes, or 24, or 26, whatever they say. That's because they don't actually know what the opportunity is there. So they're missing some information. If they had that information, I don't believe that would be the case. So that was my first avatar. The second avatar was somebody that doesn't understand the power of sharing their story. And through the book, I share my story a bit, but then I also kind of give reasons why and lessons and other things to take away from it. So hopefully I can inspire other people to share their own story, whether it's starting their own podcasts or their own social media channels or their own, but this is the real bottom line. This is the first time in history, the history of the world, that everybody can participate in telling their own story. Entire histories of peoples that have been wiped out no longer exist. And some of this was by design, by the way, some of this was not. And I'll just give you a quick example. At one point, if you were the one that had the power, the money, the intellect, you go far back enough, maybe you had the ink, great. Maybe you could read and write, great. Maybe you had the intellect to memorize long prose and pass it down to generation to generation, great. If you didn't have those things, money, power, access, birthright, above average intellect, then all those people wrote what your story was, period. And some of that was by design, some of it wasn't. Some stuff is conspiracy and accurate and true, some stuff is just that's the nature of the way it was. It wasn't that important. So now, we can take part in that. And the more that we all take part in that, the more that I believe that humanity has the ability to be uplifted by our Yep. I've seen it in my own experience and starting mine, my own podcast, the people I've had the opportunity to meet. It's blessed me. Yeah. And seriously, one of my first guests said something beautiful to me. He said to me, my goal is to said something else before that, but he said one thing that impacted me and I shared it with my wife. My goal is to love my wife even more You know, and if I never heard that I had, I had the opportunity to share that with my wife very I am thankful for that moment. And I wouldn't have had that opportunity Hmm. That's It doesn't get any better than that. And I, I've heard this said this way before, everybody has a story and, um, and you know, pathway to sharing that story is one way podcasting or, or just meeting with somebody going for coffee, but I've heard that so many times and we, for me, when I started my podcast, I had it on my heart to start one for about five years. And I finally, this Gonna have cake, you know. But I overthought it. There was different versions of it. And maybe this podcast will be reinvented later. But just because of the way it is right now doesn't mean it has to be this way all the time. So we can still share I want to challenge kind of like one little point here that you said about sharing your story, having a cup of coffee. And I talk about this in the book, and I might sound a little biased, but I am biased, but it's for a very specific reason. When you go and have a cup of coffee or when you go talk to somebody, and this is one of the reasons why I started my original podcast. I don't come from a background of means and I now had access and I'm in these meetings and I have these amazing clients, many that are very wealthy and that had a lot of success. And I go to coffee with them all the time. And I have meetings with them and I talk to them on the phone, all these other things. And I always had this nagging thing in my head. And the nagging thing was, nobody else benefits from this but me and the person on the other side of the phone. So I'm not saying it's not good to share your story one-on-one, but I would challenge people to think about the impact of how and where you share that and how these interactions are had. Because you have that one conversation, you're like, man, you walk away with that. Now, can you imagine when you record that and you put that on a podcast and now thousands I agree with you, Adam, 100%. diminish the power of having an impact on one person's day, and then And then they go on a podcast and make somebody's day. But I agree with you 100%. I don't diminish it. No, I know. I know. But sometimes we're... I've talked to some people that I've invited on the podcast. I don't think I could ever be on a podcast. Of course you can. You have an amazing story. You know, like we need to get your message It's tricky because here's the thing, and I'll give you an example I give in the book as I talk about my mom and I talk about her. She's no longer with us, unfortunately. She, of all things, last year during Hurricane Milton, like literally there were six people that passed due to the tornadoes ahead of time. She was literally swooped up in a tornado, you can't make this up, and made like national news. Absolutely ridiculous, like crazy. Like, act of God, it doesn't get any more act of God than that. It was like, literally the home was picked up and thrown across. The houses on both sides were still standing. Like, it was really like a direct, it was crazy. In the book, I talk about my mother spent 40 plus years, and she made a difference in a lot of people's lives as a social worker, and she worked with at-risk youth. So she used to say the least of these, those that society had forgotten. And I think about it, and now that she's not around anymore, what I value most really is, I brought her on the show multiple times, so I have podcast recordings of her on the show. So I don't have kids yet, I don't have a wife, but hopefully one day that's going to be in my future. they'll get to hear from their grandmother or great-grandmother, who knows, one day, her voice and her telling her story. So that feels good for me, for my legacy and for my personal, let's just say, thought process for my familial unit and just to make me feel good. But I take it a step further and I'm like, man, That's 40 years of knowledge of a social worker, of working with at-risk youth, and what would her podcast have been like? She would have had compassion. She would have had forgiveness. She would have talked about, to the people that have been abused, both sexually or otherwise, physically, all these other, the worst things that ever happened, she would have told them it's not their fault. She would have told them, she would have preached forgiveness. And that, those recordings, her show, that could But think about it this way, like, that's just one social worker. I love my mother, obviously, and obviously I'm going to be biased, right? But that's one social worker. Can you imagine, you know how many social workers there are, you know how many people there are that are amazing like that individual? Obviously I'm biased, it's my mother and she was an amazing person, but there's many amazing people that are social workers that are in the trenches that are helping people. They need podcasts, they need to be sharing their message because that's the shared knowledge that lifts humanity. And so I'm not against to have coffee and again I love it. She impacted people one at a time for 40 years. And to those people and their lives, that could have been some of the most amazing. One of the shows that I haven't released this one yet, I'm going to very likely release it on the next anniversary of her passing, but she talks about how she would connect with kids. And she would connect with them many times and she'd do something for them that maybe they'd never done before. She'd get them a McDonald's hamburger, a dollar hamburger is what she says. And she's like, and I treat them with respect and I look them in the eyes. And sometimes these kids have never in their entire life had anybody do that for them. Like that, that's where they were coming from. And so like for people to hear that, again, this is my mother, very biased, but she's one social worker. How many other ones out there? So sometimes the media and the attention and the things that we get, we look at celebrities, we look at other people and we look at the people that are kind of in the business and know what to do. And so for me, okay, I was in finance and I, you know, I'm doing my best and obviously, and the book that I released, I did, I dedicated that just dedicated to my mom and I put, I'm continuing your work. But I look at it and I'm like, man, she was the one, she could have had a show. And so the reason I'm coming on shows and the reason I'm so passionate about this book is because I want other social workers, I want other people to think about this in a whole different way. Don't stop the one-on-one, keep doing that, but consider that now, for the first time in history, Yeah, first time in history you can do it really doesn't cost that much money if any you can do it yourself. My first one was I started my first podcast on a phone. It was nothing. I don't think I spent a dime. I A lot of times people we overthink things and just That's what I did. I didn't double penny. If you are a business owner and if you are somebody that already has a brand and stuff, sure, you're going to have to invest because that's two different scenarios. If you're a social worker and you're just doing this to help people and you don't have any budget, do it yourself. Go online, figure it out. My book, it does tell you how to do it, so that's a shameless plug there, but I want people to do it. I want them to launch. If you have budget and you want to go out there and you want to do something a little bit more elaborate, great, that's your means and what you want to do, but it doesn't have to be that way. It doesn't have to be that way. Because in my opinion, it's more so about the participation. I can't even imagine, if she'd done her show for 20 years, what kind of content she would have came out with, what kind of things she would have, just conversations, record those conversations. Those are episodes. Your cup of coffee, Jerry Seinfeld, right? Comedians and coffee getting car, what? comedians getting coffee and I never say that dang show right and I love it I've watched it twice but uh one of my I love that show but come on that was a freaking network tv show he's getting coffee just record it I literally Brett I'm not joking I have a recorder that I put in my back pocket and I will do an impromptu interview with somebody when I'm drinking coffee or when I meet them for the first time, I'll be like, you know what, this is gonna be a good conversation. Let's record it, I wanna put this on the podcast. I know a little bit about you, I just have a feeling it's gonna be good. If it is, we can release it. If you don't want to afterwards, no big deal, I'll delete it. And I've literally done episodes that way. Strangest place I've ever recorded a podcast episode, You can do this anywhere. One of my earliest podcasts where I was a guest, I was in the back of a brewery. That's That was a lot of fun. I love that you said that because that's what I'm trying to get people to understand. This can be fun, this can be part of your lifestyle. I'm in a suit normally, I look like I'm on the news or something. It doesn't have to be some stuffy anchor guy. You can just be yourself. You can have fun. And the more authentic you are in just yourself, the better your show's gonna do. And for some of you, this will turn into a monetization and a money venture. So when I, going back to my mom as a social worker, like, and I think about like, she had her master's from University of Michigan. She was, you know, let's say in Michigan in her market, she was probably on the top to upper tier of her profession, especially before she retired. But that being said, compared to money made in content creation and in media specifically in podcasting, she made nothing. What would have been the extra work? Again, this is a different time period, but I'm saying this more so for people that are in that same position right now, like figuring out other ways to make money and do things. Your story starting a show is a great way to do it and that compounds over time you'd be shocked what's what would happen you stick with it Yeah i'm already seeing it myself personally and just getting shy of one year in. There's It's a pathway to open up new connections, new possibilities, even with potential clients, but just having beautiful conversations Yeah, I love that. I've done over 6,000 interviews. I've never heard anybody say that. That's a blessing that you got to hear that. It's amazing what he said, what was most impactful for that. He said his friend who was a client knew that he was about to take his life. Wow. He called him. He said, I need you at my office right away. He knew he was going to do it for our drive. Okay. Well, that man drove two and a half hours. to get there, that man saved his life. Wow. And now he's a beacon being able to share that story, how important we all are and how important the one thing you could say to somebody can change their life. That man saved my guest. And then I got the privilege and my audience had the privilege to hear what he said about Yeah. And now, and here just to add to that, and now we're talking about it, and now my audience is going to hear about it, and now other things. So when you think about energy, and I'm not, again, I hate to go back to this, but just an example, if you weren't doing a podcast, then you may have told that story to your wife, maybe your kids, maybe it became a family story. So, so good. So over time, maybe 50 people heard it, a hundred people heard it maximum in your entire lifetime, maximum, probably you went up more than a hundred people went up. And then how long would that have lasted? Maybe, Maybe your kids remembered it, maybe. Maybe they remembered it, maybe they retold it a couple times maybe in their life. So basically, within one generation, that amazing story that has the ability to help thousands of people and uplift, literally sharing stories like that uplifts humanity in my opinion, would be lost and forgotten, period. But because you recorded that episode with him, now you have a piece of content that now both of your legacies, I don't know if you ever really considered this, but it's something I only understood when I lost my mother, and that's just last October, is I didn't understand that when you do a podcast episode with somebody, you're now part of their legacy. Like, you've now created another piece of content that links you forever. Like, I never really thought And so now, because you did the recording and you did the work, and now we're talking about it. that many more people get to be helped. And who knows, maybe somebody that really needs to hear it and is in that dark place is going to hear that. So now tens of thousands of people will likely hear that story versus, and I'm not against a hundred people, by the way, hearing, I mean, no, no, I just mean, numbers are important. Like I'm sure I want people to wrap their head around the true impact of what this is because it's bigger than most people kind of understand. I, I, I can't think of any better way to say Sharing people get to hear the stories of your mother, that legacy helping her knowledge has been recorded. and you get to talk and share it in that future episode that you're Yeah. And when I'm gone, it'll still be there. And what's it, what's, I don't think that's not, so I've had, I've been doing this long enough to where I've had other individuals that I've, that, that are no longer with us that have either been on the show or also that we've published in our books, actually, like we've had a couple of authors that, you know, they, some things happen, but are no longer with us. It's interesting because their legacy is still there. And I don't mean legacy for the sake of ego, which I'm not against ego. If somebody has it and that's part of it and they want to remember it forever or however, great. I'm not against any of that. I'm not judging when I say ego. I don't really think that's a bad word. Some people, it helps them. Some people, it doesn't. I don't know. That's above my pay grade, Brett, but when I say it, I just mean that people are going to be able to benefit from your story and your time on this planet far after you're here in ways that you won't even understand, that I don't understand yet. That's just one little shade. understanding that i believe i've been allowed to have at this point that it's good but there's other levels and we'll see and when i look at perspective breath this is something i try to tell a lot of new podcasters i say like if you think about it like entertainment or other things like. People are in the business for like 30 years. To do anything like to have a meaningful impact in a career, you're going to be doing it for like 30 years, period. It's going to be multiple decades. So if you're just getting started with your show and you're early in, I want to talk to the new podcasters. You're a year in, you're two years in. Don't even think about it. Just keep having fun. Figure out new ways to have it fun. If your show's getting stale or you're getting bored, it's not the format, it's not that. It's that you got to figure out maybe you need new ideas to make it fun to keep doing I shared with you at the beginning of the show that I just finished listening to The Big Leap by Gay Hendrix. Are you in your genius zone? When you're doing this. And then there's that upper limit, what, why, like what, when you're just about to have a breakthrough, why are you self sabotaging? So there's, there's one thing I want to make sure I touch on to the, before we finish up today, it was a common thread that came up for a number of minutes while we were talking. The execution. I feel like people that are listening, if there's something on your heart to start, and perhaps it's the podcast or a book you want to write. or something that's on your heart, take action. Don't hold back, start. Put your sneakers on and go. And you've lived that. We touched on it, but I just wanted to really bring it front and center for Yeah, I'll say that my my lazy brain and my like I'm not I'm not all that like I would I when it comes to execution the secret to me is systems That's it. Like I can't I don't have I don't have I don't have a bunch of like this willpower to like succeed and to do all these things the reason for I'll give you a couple really super quick ones is Number one, for podcasting, what helped me was having people on the calendar already scheduled. I didn't want to let people down. It was hard. I made it so hard by having my calendar filled that it would take just as much work to start getting people rescheduled as it would to just do the dang interview. So I just do the interview. So that's number one. My schedule was always filled with people with a calendar link and everything else like that. So then I didn't have a choice. I'll give you one recently just so you could see the personal life. I don't have all this execution ability. It's just I create systems. So I noticed that I was, a while back I gained a little bit of weight and I'm like, what's going on here? And then I looked at my pantry and I'm like, oh, That's what's going on. I got a bunch of junk food. So now I don't let myself go to the, I don't know when it happened. It was like junk food creep. It just started showing up. One bag of chips turned to two, turned to three, and then they just got me. I didn't even notice it. So my new system for that is, and they're not paying me to say this, but just so you know, Uber Eats, I have my groceries delivered now. I won't walk into a grocery store. So then I have no junk food in my house, like period. I allow myself like one bag of pretzels, but I don't even miss it. That's It's just, it was there. You don't even miss it. So you don't do it. My system, chocolate chips and peanut butter are my downfall. I put the chocolate chips, in our bedroom closet. If I don't see So, so for some people listening that they might laugh, but like, it's just the truth. I don't want to think about it. Yeah. That's what I mean. It's like, well, I won't step in a grocery store. I'm like, I wasn't there. People were like, what? You won't go. I'm like, Nope, I won't do it because then I'm going to get, but now, you know, it's amazing. I don't even think about it. I have no like want to like grab any, I don't miss any of it. It was just, they're really good at their market. I'm walking by. Oh, that looks tasty. Let's taste that. No, and you've built that system and what I like my own transformation. I've really Oh, yeah. You realize that when you don't have it anymore, that's for sure. Then that's a get a get a get a toothache, a minor toothache and get one of those. And let's see how your day goes. Like all of a sudden, that toothache is 100%. Hey, Adam, how do people find you and your Super simple. Ask Adam Torres on Instagram. Love for everybody to connect there. When you click on the link in the bio, you can get the book, One Billion Podcasts, The Future of All Media. Nine years to write 100 and something pages. It's something that if you've ever thought about having a podcast, if you have a podcast, absolutely you have to read it. but ask Adam Torres on Instagram. Click on the link. You'll also that link tree link there on Instagram. You can get everything like, and there's a bunch of free eBooks. There's, you know, the podcast of course, and just a lot of other free. I like to say we give out more free content and free things than any other media company of our size on the planet. Like, so definitely check that out and that I'll link to the website and Incredible. Thank you, Adam. I want to end with something fun I like doing. Rapid fire questions with you. Oh, snap. Go for it. First thing comes to your mind. One story that Uh, sixth grade, uh, a police officer came to my, to my, uh, social studies class or no science class and said, look to your left, look to your right. Um, one of you will be a dad and one of you will be, it will, we'll see the penitentiary before the age of 21. That was the numbers during that time, um, caused me to think about life a whole lot differently. And I got serious at a really young Wow, what a message. Morning routine that's non-negotiable. I would say, look at my podcast schedule. Who do I get to interview today? Like, what do I get to, I'm in bed looking at my schedule like, who's next? Come on, this is gonna be a wonderful day. Oh, anybody that's ever had a Mrs. Fields cookie? By the way, I've had tons of amazing famous people on the show, but this one's just my favorite because it's so funny to me. So anybody that's ever had Mrs. Fields cookies? I had Mr. Fields on the show. And let me tell you, Mrs. Fields cookies was a tech show. or excuse me, was a tech company. It was one of the first tech companies. It's not, the people that bought it, bought it because of the technology of just in time, what they had back then. They were pioneers in tech, but the most, the favorite part about that interview is when I asked him, you know, kind of like the pay it forward question, like, what would you tell entrepreneurs? I expected some like nice, sweet answer. No, he's like, you gotta be crazy. You gotta be almost a masochist. You gotta like, like pain to be an entrepreneur. And I'm like, you're the Mrs. Fields, like you're the cookie guy. You can't say that. But Mr. Fields was awesome. Love it. I love that. Oh, man, that's good. A book every The first book they should write should be the one and I got this from from the Ted, from Ted founder or the founder of Ted talks. And he, uh, he says that to write, so like he, he doesn't write what he knows. He writes what he wants to learn. He writes books about what he wants to learn. So I would argue that the book that you should write should be about something you want to learn because it's Love it. Um, most underrated skill for 2025. Podcasting, What are you talking about? The whole book's about it. One billion podcasts. People are getting on my nerves. They keep saying, podcasting saturated, this, that. Read the book. There's only four million podcasts. There's over 150 million YouTube channels. Are you kidding me? I make the argument of why that's gonna change. Podcasting is the next YouTube and you're early and you're in Beautiful. What word describes your One word? Yeah. I would say conduit. I really think I'm a conduit for all of this. All the products, everything that we design, what we do, my mission, I'm just a conduit. In all reality, I made it literally on this planet far longer than I thought I would, considering my early upbringing. So for there, I already won. And I've just had all these blessings and all these blessings really all of my goal is any bit of Shine any bit of like accolade anything I get I'm trying to help other people. I'm trying to lift others up So I just think I'm a conduit beautiful Adam, thank you for an incredible time. I've had a great pleasure getting to know you and meet with you, and I know our audience is going to be impacted by this. Like Adam shared, please connect with him. Reach out, DM him, read his book, and let him know how much this has impacted you. Thank you, Brett, man. Appreciate it. And congrats again on the one Yeah. Thank you. Thanks for tuning in to The Adaptive Mindset. If you found value in today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who's ready to thrive in the digital age. Stay secure,