In this episode, we delve into the intricate journey of entrepreneurship, emphasizing the salient truth that it often takes longer and costs more than initially anticipated. We engage in a profound dialogue with Adam McChesney, a seasoned entrepreneur who candidly shares his evolution from the medical device sales industry to establishing multiple successful ventures. His narrative underscores the importance of resilience, adaptability, and the willingness to embrace failures as stepping stones to success. Throughout our conversation, we explore the critical role of personal branding and the necessity of investing in oneself through coaches and mentors, which McChesney attributes to his remarkable growth and achievements. This episode ultimately serves as an invaluable resource for aspiring entrepreneurs, offering insights into the realities of building a business while navigating the complexities of personal and professional growth. The discussion between Adam Marburger and Adam McChesney delves deeply into the nuances of entrepreneurship, emphasizing the personal and professional growth that arises from overcoming challenges. McChesney, a seasoned entrepreneur, reflects on his journey from selling items on eBay in his youth to managing a successful digital marketing agency and branching into various business sectors. The conversation touches on critical themes such as the importance of personal branding, resilience in the face of adversity, and the necessity of trusting one's instincts in decision-making. McChesney articulates the profound lessons learned from past experiences, particularly during tumultuous times, highlighting the significance of mentorship, accountability, and continuous learning. This episode serves as an inspiring testament to the entrepreneurial spirit, encouraging listeners to embrace their journeys, learn from failures, and seek support from those who have navigated similar paths.

Takeaways:

• The podcast emphasizes the importance of authenticity and real conversations in building meaningful connections.
• Listeners are encouraged to embrace their journeys of personal development and self-improvement through shared stories.
• The speakers reflect on the necessity of failing quickly and learning from those failures to achieve success in entrepreneurship.
• A strong personal brand is portrayed as a critical asset for business growth and resilience in challenging times.
• The discussion highlights the value of mentorship and coaching from experienced individuals to navigate the complexities of business.
• Listeners are reminded that the entrepreneurial journey often requires more time and financial resources than initially anticipated.

This is Adam Marburger.

And this is humans that build real conversations with real people.

Not just about what they've built in the world, but what had to be built inside them first.

No hype, no shortcuts.

Just humans doing the work.

Humans that build.

Real people.

Real work.

Welcome to another episode of Humans that Build Again.

This show is designed to help individuals become better versions of themselves.

And we do that by sharing stories.

And I don't just share stories from just anyone.

I share stories from people that have actually exited companies, those that are building companies, those that are making and impact on our local community by acts of service.

I have the honor and privilege to be connected to just so many great humans, and I get to share them with you.

So at humans that build.

We're not going to ever water this down.

You're going to get real truth.

We're not fabricating anything in today's episode.

I mean, I've got a guy that.

I mean, I look up to this guy.

I mean, he's done.

We share the same name, which is awesome.

We're both serial entrepreneurs.

We.

Which is awesome.

I was invited to his podcast first, so I've got the honor and privilege to have him come on mine.

So, Adam McChesney, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule just to come hang out with me, Brother man.

Thank you for having me.

Thank you for coming on my podcast a couple of months ago.

And you mentioned that you look up to me, but I've been looking up to you for a very long time.

I know we've been connected on social media.

Just had the opportunity to meet each other in person a couple months ago, but the way that you do life and business, I know we look at it very, very similar, but again, I look up to you.

So thanks for everything you do.

Yeah, I appreciate that.

And I'll tell you, I had this on the calendar here for a few weeks.

I'm glad our schedules aligned.

I remember you and I both had some scheduling conflicts over the last year, and just to get together for this hour and just kind of talk, because you do a lot of stuff, you got a lot of energy.

I relate to you at a very high level.

And you got a pretty cool name, which we'll just leave it at that.

But let's talk about entrepreneurship and let's go back in time because, you know, I know in middle school, maybe even in high school, I knew I was destined for something.

I didn't really know what that looked like until I got a little older.

But when did you know you were going to be an entrepreneur?

When did you know you were unemployable?

I'm an entrepreneur.

I'm going to take over the world.

What was that kind of aha moment for you?

Well, so looking back on it, it kind of started at a young age, but it never really came to fruition until I was 27.

I think is is when I got.

I started a side hustle, but I was in the sixth grade and I was selling my brother's stuff on ebay and some of my own stuff that like old video games and stuff like that.

And at the time I was figuring out how to price it and package it and then ask my dad to take me up to UPS to go ship it out.

He had no idea really what I was doing.

And then my mom found out and like slapped me on the wrist.

Is like, hey, you can't be doing this to your own stuff and your brother's stuff.

But I was addicted, right, to the idea of making money because my grandparents still do own a bakery in, in Affton, Missouri.

And with that I was like working for them, you know, by the time I was in sixth and seventh grade.

But I was like washing dishes and doing all this other stuff.

So like working and probably making like a couple bucks an hour.

So I was like, man, if I'm going to work, I want to find a way to make a little bit more money, right?

And so I ended up graduating college.

I had different degrees in college, I played college soccer.

And then I ended up not even really having a job after college.

And it wasn't because I wasn't applying or doing anything like that.

I was doing it.

And people are like, Adam, like you have all these internships, like you're almost over qualified.

And I have all these different degrees and all that stuff.

So I just took a kind of a entry level job with one of the places that did have an internship.

Stumbled my way through about the first nine months.

I ended up staying in Columbia, Missouri for a little bit longer.

After graduation, I moved back home and then I quit that job and I was working like odd in jobs.

I was trying to.

I had a couple buddies that ran companies.

One was doing digital marketing, the other was doing like outsourced sales stuff and then the other was selling like a paint product.

So I was just trying to sling deals left and right, just figuring out what I wanted to do when I grew up.

I managed in 18 state territory.

So I was on the road 70% of the time, in and out of hotels, in and out of airplanes.

And then I got on with a company called ResMed.

So for those of you that are familiar with CPAPs, the devices, the mask, the ventilators, all that stuff, I then went and worked there for a little over three and a half years, managed a $25 million a year territory, made $200,000 my first full year in the key account manager role.

And I was the age of 26.

And so I'm like, I didn't know what a lot of money was growing up.

Not that I didn't have or a family didn't have money, but like, I just thought if I could make $100,000 back in the day, like, that would be cool.

And I did 200,000 at the age of 26.

What I realized though is that obviously a lot of this was like, not necessarily cutthroat medical device sales, but you're traveling still, you're going in and out of sleep labs, you're putting up with a bunch of stuff that in reality I was like, I just don't think this is meant to, for me to do this.

So I started to look at ways to try to make money online.

I had just proposed my now wife, Delaney.

I was in Kansas City and it was the day before.

So it was the two days Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

And I was like, man, I have a long day tomorrow.

I'm going to have to drive home, start celebrating Thanksgiving, like, this sucks.

And so especially knowing that we would eventually have, have kids and all of that stuff, I was like, there's got to be another way out there to make money and to basically have some freedom.

So I typed in how to make money online.

I came across an ad that sold me the idea of building out digital real estate through websites, Google business profiles.

And then eventually I taught myself through courses, how to run paid ads.

And I was just building a bunch of case studies, throwing crap against the wall, and then giving everything away for free essentially to all these contractors across the country.

So that's typically the, the websites that I was building out.

And then the pandemic happened.

And so this was a side hustle.

I was losing money on it the pandemic happened.

And then I just said, hey, we bought our forever dream home.

May 1st, six weeks later, I go.

At the end of our fiscal year, I put my two weeks in, and I leave the security of all that stuff to try to go full time.

But that's how it started, right?

Just with a little bit of, you know, grit, wanting more freedom across everything, but the willingness to just take a bet on myself and take a risk and go from there.

I've got a question.

Okay.

So most 26 year olds can't fathom the idea of making a couple hundred thousand a year.

So there's two ways you can go here.

There's the, wow, I'm making $200,000 a year.

I'm appropriating my money the right way.

I'm doing the right things with it.

And then there's a crap.

I'm 26.

I'm making $200,000 a year.

Let's freaking run the club up.

I'm taking my friends everywhere.

I'm going to Miami.

Which one were you?

I just got to know Adam.

Yeah, I was the first one.

So, like, I didn't really spend.

Like, I said, hey, I'm gonna save this up.

Like, I was just like, hey, I'm gonna live frugal, right?

Essentially.

And then I was traveling so much, and so I had all these points.

So, like, when we would go take vacations, everything was already paid for.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I was still hanging out, like, which is a good and a bad thing.

I was still hanging around, like, a lot of the same people that didn't necessarily, like, have the money to go live the lavish lifestyles.

I also wasn't telling people, like, what I was making either.

So people are just like, hey, Adam's just another guy.

Like, he's around us.

Like, I know he's got a good job, but I don't know what he makes.

It's pretty crazy.

Yeah.

That's tough.

Well, I mean, a lot of people would have a hard time, too.

And I'm not saying that age is young, but it kind of is, unfortunately, don't mature as fast as women.

And, you know, a lot of people too, when you don't come from money and you start making a bunch of money, it's, you know, that's a challenge on its own.

And guess they don't really teach you that in school either.

That's not unless you have a mentor or somebody close to you and your family that can guide you and lead you.

Because money, I've seen money ruin lives.

I've seen money bless people in abundance.

It ruined people, you know, So I want to talk a little bit about, because I know you run a pretty large outfit.

What got you.

So you started running digital ads, but you're building these websites.

So what led you to the digital ads?

And what was that secret sauce that allowed you to build the company that you have now?

Because you've got, I mean, quite a few employees.

I'll let you tell that story.

You got a lot of employees.

You got a successful business.

Kind of share the kind of infancy of that, if you would.

Yeah.

So I knew.

And this kind of goes back to just like playing sports.

I was the youngest key account manager at ResMed by almost 10 years.

Like, I always found a way to take my work ethic and a little bit of experience and just work more efficiently, be smarter, like, thing, think 10 steps ahead.

So I was never the fastest player, but, like, I couldn't.

I could tell where the ball was going to go.

So I need to put myself in a position.

So then that way I was able to do the best of my ability without being the fastest, the strongest, or the tallest.

Right.

And so with that, I started to do research basically for 18 months before I went full time in the digital marketing agency.

And I said, you know, business owners, especially contractors who we typically worked with, they just didn't like working with marketing agencies because they would overcharge under, over promise and under deliver and all that stuff.

So here I am putting my own money and time and energy and effort in building all these sites and just giving people essentially free leads until they realize, like, hey, I kind of want to work with Adam.

He's been giving me a bunch of stuff for free.

How can I repay him?

And so I had 200 case studies before I needed to actually go and do that.

And most agencies never built 200 websites in its entirety.

So that was the mindset shift that I had.

Now when I went full time, I was basically like selling leads kind of as like an outsourced salesperson, lead aggregator, whatever you want to call it.

But then I realized like, hey, I just left that very nice job with the benefits and the security and I need to find a way to make money.

So very quickly I transitioned from just selling those leads and doing that to now building out websites, doing SEO, Google business profile and paid ads for companies because they're like, hey Adam, you clearly know how to do this.

But I don't want to rent this out, I don't want to pay for the leads.

I want you to rebuild or build my assets.

And then I coupled that with just building my personal brand.

Podcast launched in 22, YouTube channel launched in 22.

So I've been stacking all these platforms of just basically consistency of posting and posting in a way where you're not like, oh my gosh, Adam's just a digital marketer trying to shove content down your throat.

I then grew that agency to $1 million in 15 months.

Then we came up at like right, right at about 1.7 million.

Then I became a partner at that agency.

A lot of different things going on.

We had 28, 29 franchisees.

Everything started, started to kind of go after a downturn once I became a partner and everything due to multiple factors.

And then I just said, hey, you know what, I'm out.

Like, I can't sleep at night, I can't do this.

I don't know what it looks like.

I have no idea what I'm going to do other than the fact that I had started Builders of Authority teaching people in a mastermind and group coaching format on how to create content and do some of their own digital marketing.

So I just said, hey, I'm out.

Well, that turned into between my, my other partner that got out with me and then the people that we ended up having to do the lawsuit with.

About an eight month battle where I had a non compete, I couldn't make money.

The way that I wanted to.

I just knew that I couldn't sleep at night.

2024 Was, like, one of the worst and best years of my life because of all that stuff.

I then told myself, I'm not starting another digital marketing agency.

I already wasted the last three years of doing all this stuff.

I don't know what I'm gonna do.

I was looking for jobs.

I was trying to build this mastermind.

I was trying to do coaching, trying to do a lot of different stuff.

And then the longer that that lawsuit went on, the more I realized, like, my bank account is getting depleted.

I have no idea what I want to do.

I'm basically unemployable at this point, too, because I've been getting itched with the entrepreneurial bug.

And people started to reach out to me.

They heard what was going on.

They're like, adam, like, please, the minute you can do this again, like, we want to give you our money.

We want to work with you.

So I started kind of crafting in the back of my mind, like, what it would look like.

So I decided, hey, I'm going to relaunch the agency under the Builders of Authority name.

We're going to do all the same stuff, but we're going to do it better, more efficiently, stronger, faster, whatever way you want to look at it.

And then all of a sudden, clients started reaching out to me, like, potential clients.

Right.

The first day I announced it, we had 30 business owners reach out saying, hey, Adam, I'm in.

We've been wanting to work with you, etc.

Then I had.

We had about 175 employees at this last agency.

So a lot of them had moved on to other agencies.

Then saw that I was going to be restarting this agency.

So people are starting to reach out.

Hey, Adam, we want to come work for you.

We loved who you were as a leader, how you showed up, like, it was awesome.

So we grew to $100,000 a month in revenue in 90 days from just the relaunch of, like, we have no idea how this is going to go.

We go do that.

So that gets us up to last year.

Then from there, last year, we crossed a million and crossed 2 million in the same year and our first full year, and then we went to 30 employees.

And then this year we're on pace to do right around 2.8, working with over 100 contractors on all the digital marketing stuff across the country, and we have 45 employees.

Insane.

So there's, first of all, extremely impressive.

And for me, motivating, like, for those listening, like, there's got to be some inspiration and motivation that just is inside hearing that, because you've been through some stuff, man, like, you kind of.

And we can get into.

We don't need to get into great details.

We can talk about what you feel comfortable talking about.

But you've learned some tough lessons, and you and I have talked off the air.

We've.

We've gone through some darkness to get to the light, right?

Yep.

What was your biggest learning lesson in the transition before you started the agency that's now wildly successful?

The lawsuit, the.

The situation?

What was your greatest lesson through that you would share with a younger entrepreneur?

Yeah.

So.

And.

And.

And I get.

I've gotten asked this so many different times, and there's so many different lessons.

But I think the biggest lesson, and I think where most people are shocked by what I share is what I learned about myself and what I could have done better.

Because a lot of people were like, you know, even these other franchisees that also went through the lawsuits and also got out, like, they're so upset and so pissed off, and they're blaming every everybody else.

And I was the most successful one, number one franchise from the inception until everything came crashing down.

And Bernie and I say, you know what?

There are so many different things, like, maybe I shouldn't have even, like, I'm grateful that I did sign up to be a franchisee, but there was a lot of red flags before that.

There was a lot of red flags that as I was becoming a partner that I just kind of turned my head to say, hey, you know what?

I think this is my only option right now.

There's so much stuff going on.

I'm getting ready to be a dad.

I'm getting ready to be a father.

I don't know if I'm capable of doing this.

What I learned about myself in the process is that I truly do need to trust my gut and bet on myself.

And.

And that's the investment that I want to continue to pour into time and time and time again.

But I shied away from conversations.

I. I turned my head at red flags, and those are the same thing as Adam that I've struggled with my personal life as well.

There's a lot of correlations between my issues that have came up in my personal life and my business life.

And I think so many people are so quickly to say, well, I mean, I could say so many different things about what they did or whatever, but I'm like, you know what this was everything coming down, crashing and burning that I avoided my entire life.

And it resurfaced of everything coming, crashing down and burning.

You know, you said a couple of things that are worth billions of dollars.

The one thing I want people to hear, and I'm going to echo, is trusting your gut, because your gut typically is right.

It's very rare.

Do you look back and say, damn, my gut was wrong.

It's very rare.

And in scenarios, too.

Trust but verify.

Like, you know, in the business world that we're in, I tell the younger generation, you can't believe what people say.

You've got to do diligence.

You can't rush into a deal or rush into a partnership.

And I'll tell you, the biggest lesson I learned was I had a guy steal a bunch of money from me.

I went in business with a guy in a SaaS company.

He did all this talking and talking, not a lot of walking.

I trust, but didn't verify.

I blindly went into a deal and got robbed.

And I learned a lot from that.

So for those that are listening, the younger generation, what Adam's saying is, trust your gut and do your homework.

Now, I want to say something because you brought up something that I think is important, really important in business.

And I don't think everybody embraced it yet.

But you talked about personal branding.

Because if I'm hearing you right, and I think that I did, you did a couple brilliant things.

You had 200 websites that you had built, and you used the art of reciprocity and the hermosi effect at some level to re engage these individuals to generate revenue.

That's a, that's brilliant, brilliant business strategy.

But the branding, how important is the personal branding?

What, what, what would have happened if you didn't brand?

Yeah, that's the crazy part, right?

And so I talked about this.

People like, I, I go, I am literally the perfect case study, living proof.

And I told people as I was getting a relaunch, I obviously, I had no idea it was going to grow like it has today.

Like it has surpassed every.

If you would have told me this two years ago, I said, adam, you're absolutely crazy.

But I said, I'm literally building in public or rebuilding in public, whatever you want to call it, like, just watch me do this and you'll see the impact of personal branding.

The one thing I never stopped doing was building my personal brand.

So I was still creating content, helping people, essentially for free, right through all of this stuff.

So then that way, when I relaunched, nobody even, I mean, there was plenty of people that knew what was going on or kind of knew that I wasn't doing it anymore, but it was like he didn't miss a beat.

And so if I had only hid behind the company brand, regardless of what company it was, whether it was my company or franchise company that I was a part of, right when I restarted, it would have been essentially trying to start over from zero outside of the experience.

Well, I started with the experience plus the brand, so that's why, honestly, why it's skyrocketed since we relaunched.

I. I love that.

I know.

You know, I remember.

And I.

And I want you to piggyback off this.

So I, I remember.

I. I was very consistent on social media for years before we really made it.

And I don't.

I remember.

I don't know how many times, you know, hey, you know, I'm sure you got a few haters, Adam.

You know, maybe you got a few that are going to listen to us.

Maybe we'll just hate, you know, let's give them a good show, Adam, at least.

But, like, it's a real thing, though.

And I want to.

I want to talk about this because I want to help those struggling with this because I meet people I don't know weekly that are afraid to put themselves out there.

Well, what do I look like?

What do I sound like?

Oh, my God, are people going to think I'm too into myself or, you know, are they going to get annoyed with me?

Well, because I'll tell you right now, I had a lot of people kind of talking crap.

Man, Adam, you post too much.

Yeah.

You share too much.

But let me tell you a little something.

Because I posted so much and I shared so much, we built a sent dealer services into a behemoth of a company.

Yeah.

Cost very little money.

Like, very little ad spend.

This was organic LinkedIn and Facebook.

So if you.

If you don't mind Echo or Piggy Sherry, I mean, because the younger, you cannot win in business in today's marketplace without Optimizing your personal brand.

That's what I believe.

I mean, I mean, we've still spent $0 on paid ads, you know, regrowing this company.

It's all been through our own, like organic SEO from the website stuff, but 90% of it from my relationships, from my personal brand, from the partnerships that I'm building.

All those different things that you and I both know go an extremely long way.

What I tell people, though, because I, I had over 100 people in my mastermind when I was teaching personal branding.

I was coaching people one on one.

I'm like, the right strategy and all that stuff.

The biggest common denominator, whether I was coaching somebody one on one and they were willing to pay whatever to fix their personal brand or build it, or somebody that was paying us, you know, a couple hundred bucks a month in the mastermind for some group calls, right?

Was the thought of, oh my gosh, what happens if this works?

And then people start to talk about me, say stuff.

The backlash, tell me all the time is like, those aren't your ideal customers.

They're not interested in getting the information that you're willing to put out.

So from fear of those people, you're turning away business or the potential of business, you're also turning away the impact.

The impact is what people consistently engage with my stuff, share my stuff better.

They're never going to pay me a dollar, but they love what I'm talking about.

And it's not just about the business.

It's about everything in that that helps build my authority, quote unquote, and grow.

But the haters and the people that don't want to see it, you'll find out very quickly.

First off, again, they're not going to pay your bills.

There's people in your network or your support system that you thought were lifelong people that they show their true colors through it.

So in the very beginning, I was very self conscious about all this stuff.

My, my college buddies, right?

The college soccer group chat, they're screenshot and stuff.

They're like, hey, Adam, did somebody hack your Facebook account?

Who do you think you are, Tony Robbins?

I know they're whipping on me.

And it, oh, I mean, it affected me in the beginning.

Now it's like when people, I see people and they make fun of me, I'm like, whatever.

But the other aspect of it is like one of the, the groomsmen in my wedding was caught on camera talking about me and somebody took it from a corner.

He was making fun of me.

You know, I was doing A, a video talking about my journey from medical device sales to whatever.

And you know, he's whipping on it and I'm like, man, like, you just showed your true colors because you didn't know I was going to find out about that.

And somebody took a video and sent it to me or whatever.

I, I, I.

And that was like a couple months after the, the first thing.

I just like, now it doesn't phase me.

And I'm glad I know those things because I can now go help so many more people.

But the biggest aspect is, is I've helped myself in the process.

Right.

Had I gave in to all those people and said, you know what?

I'm going to, you know, stop doing this, go a different direction, whatever, it would have been a lot more expensive, it would have been a lot tougher to do.

And all for what?

People that were willing to whip on me and talk shit on me just because that's what they wanted to do.

Like, I'm glad I know that now and I'm glad I didn't quit.

It's amazing too.

And I don't know if you're a Grant Cardone fan.

Some are, some aren't.

I'm a huge Grant Cardone fan.

But, you know, say if you don't have any haters, go get you some.

You know, if you don't have haters, you're not doing enough.

And I, I relate to what you said in the beginning.

I was a little self conscious over.

It's kind of like, man, I want everyone to love me.

I met a wise man that once told me, he says, other people's opinions of you are none of your business.

Yeah.

And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait.

That was kind of deep.

Now my opinions from my significant other and my daughters, my close inner circle, my lord and savior.

Yeah, those opinions matter.

But in the business world, it shouldn't matter.

And I'll tell you, I think people get stuck because in some haters, you described one of them, one was kind of a hater in disguise.

And then it was exposed.

Some of the people closest to us are the ones just wait for us to fall on our face.

And so for those, the younger generation listening out there that haven't got it started yet, or you're just getting started, it's coming.

Just wait.

It's coming.

The hate's going to come.

You got to embrace it.

So to that point, and I think it's a very crucial point, is we all think, right, that we know it all, right?

And we all Think like, hey, if I strategically do this.

So I was thinking like mathematically, hey, if I just do it this way, everybody's going to love me.

If I don't say this and I do say this, like, I'll find a way to make it all work.

I'm here to tell you, doesn't matter how much you think, overthink it, don't think it, it's all going to happen.

As you mentioned.

And I think the lawsuit and going through that because that was like with a business partner that I had built a massive relationship with and we would go on vacations together and go on work trips together, like became almost like a best friend of sorts.

It was one of those things where it's like this earth shattering thing that has a ripple effect on my entire life, both personally and professionally.

It, it's, I'm not even going to say the word challenge.

It requires you to rethink why you do what you do and how you're not going to let those things impact you.

Because when you think nothing can go wrong, one, it usually ends up going wrong.

But you then I guess now I just have like, I'm not going to call it blinders, but I have this wall that's up that's like, hey, like if I'm not for that person or they're not for me, like, it is what it is.

Let's just move on and, you know, respect each other.

If nothing else, respect each other.

Right.

And that took me so long to actually learn because I hadn't gone through something I guess, that critical.

But once you do, it's tough to look at things in a different light.

Yeah.

And I think too, on top of that, there's so much market share to have.

Like some will, some won't.

So what?

Like, like I have a deal.

One of my partners, I think it was yesterday, he said, hey, have you followed up?

And I said, I followed up enough times to where if they don't want to do business with us, like, let's just move on and find someone who does.

Yeah, I mean, you know, I mean our businesses, praise God that our healthy is.

Our business is healthy, that we can have a mindset.

But I don't want to.

The market is.

The market's massive.

Yes.

There's so many individuals out there.

You know, there's.

I think it's like an entrepreneurship.

I think it's like 95.

5.

Yeah.

Literally there's 5% of us and we talk about the 1 percenters.

But I think.

I think there's a little bigger than one.

I think there's 5% of entrepreneurs are progressive, forward thinking, embracing new challenges, challenging themselves.

You know, the rest of the world's kind of coasting around.

You know, that's my opinion.

How do you.

What I'd like to know from you is because you juggle a lot.

You've got a family business growing, and I don't.

We won't use the.

The employee or.

But you got 45 teammates.

So that.

That's.

That's 45, not just individual humans you're responsible for, but you're responsible for their family.

So that's a lot of pressure.

And I believe pressure is a privilege as an entrepreneur.

But how do you keep it together?

I'd like to know from you.

I want to get personal for a minute.

I'll throw this side a little curveball at you.

What does your day look like?

I mean, what does your morning routine look like?

How does Adam McChesney get the day going and stay grounded?

Yeah.

And I'm actually working with.

She calls herself like a high performance or peak performance coach right now.

We've been working together for a couple months, and I'll say that the beginning of this year kind of started to wreck me again, because I wake up every single day right now, and this is the biggest company I've ever ran, with the most employees I've ever ran.

And it starts to get to you because of all those things that you mentioned, trying to be the entrepreneur but knowing first and foremost, right, you're a father and a husband and all that stuff.

And then you look up at your company and you're like, we got over 100 clients.

We got 45 team members.

We got them, their families, et cetera.

And so with that, right.

The biggest thing that I do now is I don't look at text messages, phone calls, social media stuff, emails, any of that stuff until as I'm getting in the office in the morning.

And so usually right now, I'm waking up around 4, 45 or 5, get my workout in from there, doing the sauna, meditation, journaling a little bit.

And then I read a daily scripture that's like my nuts and bolts of what I have to do right before the world gets access to me.

And that over the years has been like, up and down, but in a very good rhythm right now, because if I.

You know, they say you can't pour from an empty cup.

Right.

I was trying to be everything for everybody and trying to exhaust myself and Then I was putting myself last.

And that's where a lot of entrepreneurs especially go wrong.

So I've had coaches over the years right now working with this specific coach, making sure that everything that is in Adam's ecosystem is good, but starts first with him.

Outside of that.

Right.

It's came from a couple other things.

I've been going to therapy now for the better part of the last two years since I've been going through all this.

And it's been one of the most life changing things that I think not a lot of people think about or they don't want to admit to going, or they just don't want to go in general.

Coupled that with just hiring people that are smarter than me and also not waiting too long to go do that.

So I've made hires way quicker this time along and made different hires than the first time I did it.

I waited till the last minute, took on all the more work and said, hey, I'll just figure out a way to do it.

And then when we need someone at the last minute, we'll bring that person on.

So that's a little bit of a mindset shift that has helped the personal side where it's like, hey, there's always more money to be made.

Where can I get my time back?

Where can I find people and pay them what they're worth, that they're smarter than me?

So in that way I can be, you know, Adam the individual, Adam the husband, Adam the father, and not sacrifice everything.

I love that.

So the younger generation, the younger up and coming entrepreneurs that are listening or watching this, how you start your day is a direct reflection of how your day will go.

Having non negotiables and having structure and having discipline, having the ability to not return messages.

Because if you think about it like you want to wake up, Adam, and start serving others.

Like, no, I mean, because you're serving people all day that morning.

Time is so sacred.

And I'll tell you, there's a common theme with high achievers.

What you just talked about is a very, very common theme in superachievers.

So you brought up therapy.

I want to touch on this for just a minute because I think it's more in men.

They're too kind of.

Ego gets in the way.

But a therapist is just designed to hold you accountable and it allows you to get your thoughts and feelings, desires, struggles out in the open in a safe space that you can't say everything to your spouse all the time.

Right.

Or, or the people you work with or business Partners or kids, you know, but having somebody that's licensed, that's there is critical.

I mean, so I applaud you for that.

How much better is your business and your personal life at home gotten since you've been in therapy?

Well, and that's the crazy part too is like a lot of our growth has happened not immediately right after that stuff started to happen, but know, within 90 days, as with anything, right.

So six months into doing a lot of this stuff, consistently been doing therapy since kind of all this stuff has been going on.

There is a indirect direct correlation with that.

But even I was on my coaching call with my coach this morning, who again, is.

Is mostly just working on like routines and habits and.

And just where is Adam at his best throughout the day, given day of the week?

Like all that stuff is.

You start to realize how much time we waste when we're doing certain activities that are just draining ourselves and where we're giving ourselves to other people before we can even actually operate in that.

So I look at it like right now, between the therapy and the coaching is like I go and I focus on specific things and then the business ends up getting impacted because the.

The accountability, the shared accountability, where it's like, hey, they're going to hold me accountable.

They're going to be asking for this.

They're going to want to know what I'm worked on since the last time that we met.

And it is that just outlet, that extra layer of support that you can't get in a lot of places and you're paying them to do it.

So they need to see you be successful, otherwise you're going to stop coming back to them and that impacts their business.

Yeah, you got.

Well, hey, having skin in the game is important, but I want to talk, you know, because I have seen therapists off and on for years, and it's really helped my life.

I mean, I've had different seasons of stuff, man.

You know, I'm going to be 46 this year.

I'm a little bit.

Couple years older than you.

But I will tell you, I've seen a lot and therapy's really, really been a blessing to me.

But I invested in a business coach just couple years ago, so, I mean, I kind of feel like I'm late to the game.

So I want your opinion on something here in a minute.

Hiring somebody that is on mountains.

Because here's the fact, fellow entrepreneurs, we're all created equal in the eyes of God.

In this world.

We're human.

We are mortal beings that we're all not going to be here 100 years from now.

That's a fact.

All right, so we're equal in that sense, but in business we are not all equal and there are different levels.

And I think it's absolutely critical you said something so brilliant.

Hire people smarter than you.

I just embraced that about two years ago.

Thank God that I did that.

But you should also look for mentors and professional coaches that you have to spend your money on.

They're on several levels above you.

I want you to kind of back, back.

I would like to hear your thought process on that too, Adam.

Just a little, little echo that, if you would.

Yeah.

That I was out on my own.

And meanwhile, like I had about $10,000 a month in recurring revenue in this business from some of the leads that we were flipping and website deals that we were doing and things like that.

And then I started posting about my business and I'm like, hey, this is what I'm doing now in.

In medical device sales selling for ResMed.

I had two competitors.

So it was like in order to get reimbursed by insurance for these durable medical equipment companies, it's like me the other guy or the other guy.

And I was really good and we had great products.

So I had obviously sold other things in the past.

So I knew how to sell.

But the marketing and the branding was like foreign to me.

So I make these posts all throughout July.

I'm like, why aren't people frickin buying my stuff?

Like I thought I had all these friends on Facebook.

I know all these business owners.

Like I built these 200 sites, you know, all that.

So in August I joined my first mastermind.

I couldn't afford a one on one coach, right?

But I joined this mastermind that taught me personal branding and essentially becoming the authority and all that stuff.

A program that I'm still in active to this day almost six years later now.

Then a couple months later I hired my first one on one coach.

Mostly business, but life and mindset coaching now peak performance fitness coaches.

For most of the part of the last six years it has been absolutely crucial to my success.

Not just because of the accountability, but paying for access to information that otherwise would have taken me to years and cost thousands if not Hundreds of thousands of dollars more in lessons along the way in losses if I hadn't paid for those coaches.

So it's been absolutely crucial.

And then the other piece of advice I would give you is don't expect everything from everyone.

So I used to hire a business coach and say, hey, oh my gosh, here's my business.

You're going to know how to do all this stuff.

I know you have this business up here and you've done some cool stuff, but make sure to your point is having clear and understanding of why you're hiring that coach.

And also if you don't want everything that they have meaning, like somebody could be a great business coach, but a shitty person, if you're hiring them just for the business, you're going to end up picking up some of their habits.

On the personal side, I've done that too.

And then also you end up hiring somebody that you're like, they're a great person, but they don't have all of the business experience that you're looking for.

You're hiring for the wrong thing.

So as an example, this peak performance coach that I'm hiring right now, she's just focused on the performance side.

We're touching a little bit on business, but I'm not expecting her to come in and finish fix my business.

I'm expecting her to make sure that Adam is performing at a peak level in the morning, throughout the day, at home, right before I go to bed.

And that's all we're fricking focused on.

But it came from referral of some guy that I've seen go from way crazier stuff than me struggling way more than that to now just literally being dialed in and all these different aspects.

I'm like, I want that and I just want to pay you to help me with this.

Yeah, I will say this too.

There are many people that are listening to this or that will watch this that may not have the financial means right now.

And that's okay because I've been there before.

I've been there and I can remember not that long ago where money was a real situation situation for me.

So for those out there that, that may not have the financial means.

The beautiful thing about the world that we live in today is the greatest teachers, the thought leaders, the hermosis, the Grant Cardone's, the Tony Robbins, you know, the Ed Mylett's, the Andy Fracillas, you know, Adam McChesney's got a business, got a podcast, right?

There's so much access to knowledge that is free of charge.

Here's the one thing I want to say about this too, because there's nothing more that drives me insane than when you learn something great and there's a great idea and you get some great advice, taking that great advice and doing nothing with it.

So I challenge the younger generation out there that's you got an idea and you see somebody give you a couple of clues.

Success leaves clues.

Don't just leave them behind.

Right?

What I want to say to you, Adam, is what's next?

I mean, here we're nearing the end of our conversation here, I could talk with you for seven hours.

We got a lot of symmetry here and a lot of same energy.

So what's next?

What's your next big thing?

What do we.

What are we doing?

Yeah, so we had.

So funny enough on that 200 websites that I had built, one of those was an auto glass company.

And I was selling them to a one man band here in Fenton.

He's like, dude, I can't pay the worth of this.

Like, you can continue to send me the calls, but I'm out.

And so I tried to sell that website.

I tried to sell it to a couple companies, I tried to find new tenants or whatever you want to call it.

And then I decided to start to create the company.

A lot of ups and downs, whole slew of issues.

People stealing employees, stealing money, driving a nice truck across the country and crashing it in Colorado.

Like the craziest stories.

And I had no idea myself as the owner of that company how to repair or replace auto glass.

So the first year was like kicking the nuts time and time again.

We just scaled it up to over seven figures, five trucks, and ended up selling that company on October 1st.

But again, another good case study from exactly what I had built through the digital marketing stuff that I now sell the businesses all the time.

Thank you so much.

That same day, right, we ended up launching a roofing company and an outdoor living company in Long island with some of our existing clients that own an outdoor lighting company.

So we have equity there.

We bought the short term rental as I was telling you about before earlier today.

You have one down in Panama City too.

We're continuing to grow the digital marketing agency, but I'm really looking at like, hey, now that things are where they are, where can I expand with investments in generational wealth and really start to look at business differently than just saying, oh, hey, I got to grow this agency to $10 million, because I have no aspirations to do that.

We're trying to get to a decent level, you know, let's say between 3 and 5 million, and just kind of stay there and be the best we can at that level.

But using the profits and the funds and the.

The resources, we have to diversify.

So it doesn't require Adam to just go, go, go all the time.

So I know it's a long winded answer.

I love it, though.

That's what.

That's what the game plan is.

You can't buy your time back.

And, you know, and I think you and I are both in a similar phases where you.

I had a partial exit from a company.

You had an exit from a company.

I still have to work.

I mean, I work differently now because I built a team and I can go away for 90 days and come back.

The thing still runs.

However, I still am in the business long term.

When I say long term, seven years from now is my personal goal.

You can hold me accountable.

That to Adam, seven years from now, I don't want to be involved in any of my businesses.

That's kind of where the idea.

Because you can't buy your time back.

Time is the most valuable currency, and I can't shout that enough from the rooftops.

Y' all like, having freedom and time is the most valuable currency.

Being able to have your health along with that is also very valuable.

So investing in your nutrition, investing in your mental health, hiring trainers, hiring therapists, those things are all prerequisites to living an incredible life.

Adam, before I let you go, we'll put you on the spot one final time here.

All right, what is one piece of advice you would give an entrepreneur that just started their company?

So they've already.

The idea of the company is there, the concept is there, The LLC is filed.

They're in business.

It's week one.

What is some advice you would give that young, brand new entrepreneur?

It's going to take longer and cost more than you originally thought.

And the backstory to that, too, is so many people go in.

I mean, some people don't go into business with plans, so that's kind of a problem usually.

I mean, I've been there and I've done that, but other people go into plans and then they get so frustrated, right, when they're like, oh, my Gosh, I thought I was going to do this in revenue or I thought it was only going to cost this, or it's not going to go according to plan.

And it starts with it's usually going to take longer and it's usually going to cost more than you originally planned.

And you have to be willing to adapt and change and navigate that on the fly, not quit.

I'm not saying pivot either.

Just have that buffer in there to where you're not so frustrated that, oh, my gosh, I didn't hit this goal.

This costs more here.

It's like you're going to fail along the way.

It's not about failing.

In fact, I tell people, fail as quickly as you possibly can.

Fail as much as you possibly can so you can learn from those lessons and turn those failures into learning lessons to make sure that you get through to the other side.

Love it.

That's brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.

So how can people follow your podcast, follow you personally?

What's the best way to get in contact with you?

Adam?

Yeah, so if you type in Builders of Authority podcast across all the different platforms, you'll be able to see it.

You can go to buildauthority.com, learn more about our business, and then follow me on social media.

Adam McChesney, I usually always have the red or the black Builders of Authority stuff on, so you'll be able to find me from there.

Yeah, Adam, I'm going to have you hang tight with me here for two minutes.

Talk to you off air for just a second.

But for those listening and those eventually going to watch, thanks for tuning in.

This episode right here is really the reason I do this.

I personally am fired up.

I want to go take over the world after this conversation.

So, Adam, thank you for that very much.

And for the listeners and the viewers, thank you for the support.

Thank you for the messages.

You guys are the real MVPs.

This show is designed to help people invest, period.

Amen.

This show is designed to help entrepreneurs that are just curious get to actually in business.

This show is designed to take entrepreneurs that have been in business to help them level up.

The idea is to become a better version today than we were yesterday for a much better tomorrow.

So thank you for tuning in to another episode of Humans that Build.

I'll see you guys sooner than later.

Humans that Build.

Real people, real work.

See you next time.