Episode 424 Adam Peters Empowering Veteran Entrepreneurs Transcript
This transcript is from episode 424 with guest Adam Peters.
Scott DeLuzio: [00:00:00] Thanks for tuning in to the Drive On Podcast where we are focused on giving hope and strength to the entire military community. Whether you’re a veteran, active duty, guard, reserve, or a family member, this podcast will share inspirational stories and resources that are useful to you. I’m your host, Scott DeLuzio, and now let’s get on with the show.
Hey everyone. Welcome back to Drive On. I’m your host, Scott DeLuzio. And today my guest is Adam Peters. Adam is an army veteran and the host of the Strategic Veteran Podcast, which focuses on veteran entrepreneurship. And each episode on his podcast looks into the lives of veterans who’ve transitioned from military service to a successful business venture and Sharing their stories and their insights to help other folks along the way.
And today we’re going to talk about Adam’s, uh, military services podcast and, uh, you know, how entrepreneurship [00:01:00] and veteran life kind of go hand in hand. So Adam, welcome to the show, man. I’m glad to have you here.
Adam Peters: Dude, Scott, thank you so much for having me, man. I’m, I’m super grateful to be here and, uh, return the favor for you coming on my show, man.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, absolutely. And it was great, uh, you know, being on your show, uh, you know, for the listeners. I don’t think my episode will be out quite when this episode comes out, but, um, Uh, but check out the strategic veteran podcast. You’ll, you’ll be able to see my episode come out within probably a couple of weeks of when this episode comes out.
So, um, let’s just kind of get into it in, into your background. Um, you know, talk about, uh, You know, kind of what, what got you into the army? What, what led you to, you know, what you’re doing now, how you kind of discovered entrepreneurship and, and, and all that.
Adam Peters: Yeah, man, I grew up in rural Indiana, Southern Indiana, a little town called Poseyville. Um, and really what led me to the Army is I wanted out. I knew there was more to the world and I [00:02:00] just, Didn’t want to do the typical things that, you know, people 21 years, 22 years now, later are still doing, you know, work in the farms, uh, working in some of the established businesses, construction companies, whatever, manufacturing facilities, or, you know, being a teacher.
That was not for me. I knew there was more to the world. And so I wanted to get out of there. Um, so I joined the army at like 17, spent a year on the delayed entry program. Um, you know, tried to ship the summer between my junior and senior year, but missed that cutoff by a day. So, uh, that didn’t pan out for me, but, uh, ended up doing three deployments to Iraq and one to Afghanistan, where after I got back, I had a couple of shoulder surgeries and ended up getting med boarded out, medically retired.
I would then spend the next, uh, pretty much eight years of my life in what I call the transition hole. Try to find my place in the world. Uh, I did everything from, I started going to flight school. Cause I thought that was my dream quickly realized that the aviation [00:03:00] industry is really, really, really expensive.
It’s about who, you know, and to get anywhere, um, you know, making the kind of money you want to make as an airline pilot or a private pilot. You have to put in a lot of time as an instructor and I didn’t want to be, you know, bound to students for a paycheck. Plus, um, I, I wanted to fly because it’s really cool to go from point A to point B at 30, 000 feet.
When you’re training, that’s not at all what you do. You get in a little Cessna 172 and particularly as a CFI, you’ll have four or five students and you’ll go do the same lesson every single day. And it’s just hot and boring. So I didn’t want to do that. Uh, I dabbled in insurance. I managed a gun store. I tried to start.
Any kind of online business you can think of from dropshipping to Amazon FBA to, um, blogging to faceless YouTube and TikTok to everything. And, uh, July of last year really kind of changed my life. I [00:04:00] got picked up by heroic hearts to go to Peru and do an ayahuasca, uh, retreat. And that really kind of cured all of my ailments, showed me what I was capable of, taught me how to love and respect myself and really, um, kind of showed me what my purpose in life is, and that is to help as many veterans as I can, uh, stop them from killing themselves.
So, I, I, Started as a strategic veteran, um, didn’t really know where it was going to go. I met with some people who are smarter than I am and have more experience than I do, suggested I do a podcast and the rest is kind of history, man. It’s just taken off from there.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. And your podcast, and I know this cause I was interviewed on one of the episodes. Uh, your podcasts go into a lot of detail. They’re, they’re kind of longer form, uh, kind of just free flowing, you know, kind of conversations. But, uh, with a heavy focus on. On the business side of things too, uh, where, where you tend to, [00:05:00] you know, look at, you know, what, what people are doing, kind of a, um, uh, you know, path to success for them.
Um, and that kind of serves as a roadmap, uh, in, in some ways for other folks too. Right. Is that, that kind of the goal with, with the show
Adam Peters: A hundred percent, man. Um, I, I came up with this crazy idea that if I, if I could put on a show that speaks, um, well, you know, cause you were a guest on the show, so we can just talk about it. You know, I don’t spend a lot of time on your, your career or, you know, Unless you’re particularly interesting, right?
And you had an interesting career, because then it’s hard not to, but I talk a little early life and career just to kind of set the stage, let the audience know who you are. And then we, we spend a lot of time in the transition and the transition kind of goes into entrepreneurship. And, I really came up with the idea because I was talking to, I got the opportunity to present to a skill bridge program, uh, over on LinkedIn [00:06:00] through Allegiant Vets.
And I was just talking about entrepreneurship and it really, it started, it was supposed to be a PowerPoint presentation. I hate those. So about two slides in, uh, to the presentation, I just, I just dropped everything. I was like, look, like, Let me just answer your questions because I know you have a ton and that was so well received that um, I found out veterans didn’t know entrepreneurship was an option.
And so I quickly kind of came to this idea that the path back to purpose for veterans is through entrepreneurship and it’s because it’s taking charge of your own life, your own time, building something that is yours. Um, and, and something, You know, that’s a never ending mission, right? Like it just gives you infinite purpose because it is your baby and it is something that, you know, a lot of people will tell you not everybody can do.
And I do agree with that. Not everybody’s cut out to do it, but I do think anybody can do it. If you’re willing to change your mindset, sacrifice some things, delay some [00:07:00] gratification and work your ass off.
Scott DeLuzio: and, and you’re right. There’s some people who they don’t want that. They don’t want to, uh, be. Putting in all the hours and sacrificing the way you, you just described, they might want a nine to five where they go and they punch a clock and they, they do their thing. They get their paycheck, they go home and they don’t have to think about any of this stuff afterwards.
Right. But for the people who are really kind of lacking a sense of purpose, uh, when you, you use the word, it’s, it’s your baby, right? Um, when you have a business, it’s your baby. And When you have a baby, like any parent out there, you want to see your child grow. Right. And you want to see them grow into something bigger and better.
And, and, um, you know, every day there’s something new. And when you have a business, I don’t care what the business is. So it could be anything. It could be [00:08:00] consulting to tax preparation. I don’t care what your business is. Uh, anything. Um, and so. When you are doing it, you, you want that business to get better.
You want it to get bigger and better and grow and grow. And that’s a tough journey for a lot of folks. Right.
Adam Peters: it is a tough journey and I’ll tell you, you know, the toughest part is just not knowing. You never ever know. You know, I started with 92 followers on LinkedIn. I started, uh, you know, I was challenged by one of my very best friends to, to find five creators. That content resonated with me and to post something every day.
And so I didn’t know what that looked like. I had no idea what I was interested in. I had no idea what I was going to post about. So I’ve posted, you know, I was throwing shit at a wall, seeing what would stick. I’d, I’d post about. SEO. I’d post about branding before I really understood branding. I would post [00:09:00] about all kinds of shit.
Now, basically I, I just, uh, you guys get an inside look into what’s going on in my head. I, I post a lot of stuff about. You know, veterans, mental health and the tools and the mindfulness stuff that I’ve used to heal myself and how it all applies to business and you know, what it truly takes to, to build something that is yours and, and kind of adopt the mindset to establish that vision to create your baby.
And, and, um, I don’t know, man, I’m having a lot of fun. It’s super rewarding and I think the best part is, is like, I know what I’m doing is already making a difference the way I set out to do. And so, you know, as long as that’s always the case, as long as I have veterans who reach out to me who are saying, I love your content, it’s, it’s doing wonders to help people, then Um, you know, I’m accomplishing my mission because the mission with the strategic veteran was for me to, to create a platform and show [00:10:00] examples of the guy I didn’t have when I was getting out and transitioning,
Scott DeLuzio: Right. And I think it’s important to have that, like I said earlier, kind of like a roadmap of like what to do. Like you you’ve made mistakes along the way we, any entrepreneur has. Right. And if you talk about those things and say, Hey, don’t do this, like That sucked. I spent a ton of money on something and, and it didn’t pan out.
It didn’t work. That’s a, it was a scam or, you know, some other thing that it just doesn’t work out. Um, you know, okay, cool. You, you help that person not make that mistake. So it just is that much easier or, Hey, I did this other thing and it really worked. And it’s. It’s super effective and do more of that because that’s the kind of stuff that you want to do.
Right. There are, like you said, a lot of veterans out there who don’t realize entrepreneurship is even in the cards for them when they get out of the military. Um, they, I don’t know if it’s. If it’s, [00:11:00] they think it’s too expensive or too risky or too, what, what do you see, uh, with other veterans who, who come to you, who don’t realize that, um, you know, starting their own businesses is even an option for them.
What are, what are some of the things that hold them back?
Adam Peters: um, well, themselves to answer that question or what hold them back. And, and I mean that because my. My, really my whole thing is, is I’m actually working on a t shirt design for this right now, is get out of your own way. Um, we stand in our own ways in all areas of our lives more often than we care to admit or care to see.
But, um, the broader answer to that question is it’s an education problem. Um, you know, the United States is. is the school system is set up to teach us how to be laborers, right? Um, I think it was Dale Carnegie who famously said, you know, I don’t want a nation of thinkers. I want a nation [00:12:00] of doers. So our entire public school system, our entire higher education system has been designed to plug us into these, you know, What I call wage slave jobs, and you work 30 or 40 years, you retire, you live decent for maybe 10 or 15 years, and then you die.
And so I think it’s an education problem. And. You’re going further into that military, uh, the military. com article that I read that really kind of sparked everything for me was, um, after World War II, like 78 percent of small businesses were veteran owned after World War II. That number fell to like something in the 30 or 40 percent after Vietnam.
Do you care to wager a guess how many, uh, veteran small owned businesses there are for post 9 11 veterans?
Scott DeLuzio: I’m just going to go out just based on that trend going from the seventies down to the thirties, forties. I’m going to guess it’s in the teens
Adam Peters: It’s, it’s lower than that. It’s like
Scott DeLuzio: Than that.
Adam Peters: 3%, [00:13:00] at least at the time the article was published, I’ve looked and looked and looked and can’t find this article again. Um, but, but that’s really kind of where my inspiration came from. And so, you know, that leads into, you know, answering your question, it’s an education problem.
They don’t know that it’s an option. And they also don’t know, you know, we have from our time in the military, all of these high leverage skills that you can turn into a business, uh, you can take a skill that you have. And you can sell that as a service and that’s a business, right? You, you can do that.
You can, you can take a topic that you are absolutely over the moon in love with and spend all of your free time reading and, and, you know, researching and all that. And you can write about it and turn it into a newsletter and sell products that way. You know, email marketing for every dollar you invest, you get 40 back.
That’s, that’s insane. And so, you know, Veterans, you guys can go out, you can form an LLC, you can do it fairly cheap [00:14:00] through your state, if you care to learn how to do that, or you can pay like, I think I paid 300 bucks to Inkfile at the time, which is now known as Bizzy, they took care of everything for me, And now I have a business and then I can connect you with a guy who will walk you through getting your SAM.
gov certification and your SBA certification so that you can be a, uh, SDVOB, which is a service disabled veteran owned business. And then you can take government and fortune 500 contracts. That’s the simplest way you can get into business. It’s going to be hard. You’re going to have to learn a lot. You’re going to have to learn what a capability statement is.
You’re going to have to learn how to fulfill on contracts, but you can absolutely do that. And, you know, I just, that’s what I see in the world and what I see for veterans. And so that’s, um, kind of where I’m going with my company. Ideally in 10 to 15 years, I’d like the strategic veteran to be a skill bridge program that is presented to transitioning veterans.
You know, military members who are getting out as a six month program where [00:15:00] they can be really close, if not making some kind of revenue by the time they get out.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. And I think to your point, this is not something that you just flip the switch overnight and money starts flowing in. Right. It’s, it takes a lot of work, uh, to, to get there. Right?
Adam Peters: to tell them, you know, two to five years is what you’re going to invest in this. And there are outliers. There are people who do get rich overnight, but you know, my mission is also to crush the YouTube gurus because I’ve fallen victim to those people. You know, I’ve spent thousands of dollars on courses.
Most of them I finished. Some of them I haven’t finished only to be upsold to their next course. That’s going to give you the next piece of information that they claim that you’re missing. And really what I found out is what you’re missing is just the ability to continue to grind and, and put out massive action without knowing what you’re doing and wait for it to work, be patient because.
You know, I, [00:16:00] myself a few months ago was sitting in that same spot, like ready to just, Not want to do this anymore because I’m grinding and I’m not seeing results. And then boom, all of a sudden it’s like on a Tuesday, like everything changes. And then you, you kind of get this plateau again and then another Wednesday, everything changes.
And so it’s, it’s consistency and patience and, um, you know, two to five years, man. Honestly, it’s not overnight.
Scott DeLuzio: No, it definitely isn’t. I remember, I remember, uh, a business that I started, probably 10. 12 years ago, somewhere around there. I remember the, um, first month that I was in business and I had some money saved up to, to do this, but I’m leading into that the first month. I think I only made a couple hundred bucks and I was like, Well, this is going to be tough.
How am I going to, you know, pay for food and keep the lights on and all these other things that you, I mean, just need to have money coming in. [00:17:00] And I was like, that’s going to be tough if this is, this is it. But the thing is, it’s, it’s, it’s. It’s an uphill battle, but once when you start gaining some momentum, things move a little bit smoother and, and you start to figure things out.
There’s going to be some trial and error. You know, the things I did in the first month were not the things I was doing a year later. And You know, and a year after that was different too. And I, I kept evolving, kept changing. And I think one of the things that people need to have in the back of their head is this mindset of always looking to improve.
Don’t just get into the mindset of, Oh, this is how I’ve always done it. Because if what you’ve. Always done is what you’re doing. You’re going to get the same results that you’ve always gotten. And so you have to have that continue to improve kind of mindset. Yeah. Maybe there’s going to be some courses that you need to take to level up your skills, to be able to sell, uh, you know, higher ticket items or [00:18:00] services or whatever you also, to your point, you also don’t want to fall in into the, you know, YouTube guru trap where they’re selling you these bullshit courses that Really, you’re not learning anything that you couldn’t find online anyways, uh, with some of these.
Um, You know, for free, but they, they keep pushing these things as if they’re, they’re gold, right? You know, like you don’t necessarily need to go that route, go, go a more established route with something, um, you know, maybe through, uh, you know, community college or, you know, local, you know, university or something like that, where you’re taking some courses to, to learn how to do a specific thing.
Whether or not you get a degree is up to you, that, that’s completely up to you. But, um, You know, you may not need it. You may only need a couple of courses just to get you moving in the right direction as far as the education piece goes. Right,
Adam Peters: I agree with that and I will take it one step further. You could [00:19:00] do it for free. You just need to get out of your own way and start networking with people. I have learned 95 percent of everything that has gotten me to where I am and will get me to where I’m going just through networking and on one platform on LinkedIn primarily.
Um, that’s, that’s where I’ve learned so, so, so, so much. And. can do it. In fact, I’m launching my community, The Stronghold on August 1st. And it’s one of the courses within my community is a four minute networking video where I show you how I network on LinkedIn, and I’m so happy. I’m so excited for people to see this because I did a demonstration where I reached out to a guy to be a guest on my podcast, because it’s kind of the phase I’m in with networking right now.
And as I’m signing off on the video, the guy actually responds. And, and so it just drives my point home. You don’t need these fancy courses. You don’t, you don’t. [00:20:00] You just need to get out of your way. You need to stop being shy or introverted or scared and, and trust your gut. And if somebody’s interesting to you and you think you can learn something from them, which key point here is I don’t care if you’re interested in somebody or not.
You can learn something from everybody if you’re looking for it, but just reach out to them. Send them a cold DM, send them an email, whatever that may be, and just ask for what you want and understand that you may be told no, but there are a billion people on LinkedIn. You can find another one in that same space that will say yes to you.
And you know, that’s, It’s really that simple for me, man. And, and I don’t, I don’t want to sound condescending or egotistical, but, but genuinely I had to get out of my own way. I had all the same fears. I was scared. I was, you know, timid. I didn’t want to reach out to people. I felt silly. I still feel silly when I put out my morning walk videos or create [00:21:00] content, you know, later today I have to create some more content for some, some things that will help grow the business.
And I. I just really feel awkward doing it, but I know at the end of the day, these are the steps I have to take to get to where I want to go. So this is another sacrifice I have to make. I have to be a little uncomfortable to do that.
Scott DeLuzio: right. And speaking of being uncomfortable, it kind of led into the next thought that I had, um, you know, someone transitioning out of the military, coming from an environment that’s very structured, very disciplined, very regimented, like the way everything is done, there is a way. And you learn that way and you do that thing and everything is relatively, uh, well oiled.
I mean, yeah, there’s,
Adam Peters: We’re talking about the military. So
Scott DeLuzio: We are talking to the military. They think that with a grain of salt, but you know, if you were to take, let’s just say you were to take somebody from, uh, you know, one infantry unit in, in Remove them and drop them [00:22:00] into another infantry unit. All the battle drills and all the things like that are, are pretty much the same.
Yeah. They may have some small tweaks that they make on, uh, you know, from a unit to, to unit basis, but, um, You generally can pick it up and figure out what’s going on. Take one guy out of one place and into another, because there is a structure that in place, like there is a way to do things right. And that, I know that’s just one example.
There’s, there’s probably others that maybe are a better example. It’s just the first thing that popped into my head. But, um, when you’re looking at entrepreneurship, starting a business, you got a blank canvas. And you could do whatever the hell you want, however you want, and your success or your failure is going to be on you.
There’s no, there’s no guardrails in place to keep you in line. There’s no, uh, there’s no first sergeant breathing down your neck, making sure that you’re, you’re [00:23:00] getting your shit done, right? There’s, there’s none of that. It’s, it’s on you. And so I would think kind of that creative, you know, Freedom, if you will, uh, for entrepreneurs could be a stumbling point for some veterans who are just like recently transitioning out of a more disciplined environment.
Uh, what do you think about that?
Adam Peters: I think, I think, yes, you’re correct. And I think, I think that’s because so much of who we are, our identities are wrapped up in our military careers and we don’t realize it until the minute that we get out. So we have this tendency and I’m super guilty of it. I didn’t think very highly of myself. I didn’t think I was a creative person.
I didn’t think that I was bringing value to anybody. Uh, you know, the, the age old imposter syndrome. And again, it goes back to my slogan, get out of your own way. Um, you need to, when you get out. You need to take a step [00:24:00] back and really sit with yourself and, and understand who you are as a person. Ask those tough questions.
Be selfish. What do I want out of my life? Who am I? What are my core values? What am I put here to do? And spend some time with that. And then I think you’ll really see, you know, You are someone who has acquired these high leverage skills from your career in the military, and that’s all it was, was a career.
It doesn’t have to define you. It doesn’t have to shape you. It just, it just is a part of your life. And then you can take all of that and apply it to what you’re talking about and create. Systems within that blank canvas. And I use a lot of systems like you were talking about, you know, I was an infantry guy and you could take me out of one infantry unit and drop me into another infantry unit.
And the only thing I’m going to have to do is figure out how to mesh with personalities because all of the systems are already in place. And so. You’ve operated in systems your entire career. So if you’re interested [00:25:00] in business, you can create your own business using some of those very same systems. And so, you know, it just requires getting out of your own way.
It requires you to spend time with yourself, understand who you are, what your values are and what direction, what do you want for your own life? Because you are the arbiter of your own destiny.
Scott DeLuzio: Absolutely. Um, and one of the things you’re saying was, you know, what, what is it that you want? Out of life, um, and kind of being selfish like that. But also what are you willing to sacrifice because you’re going to have to make some sort of sacrifices, especially in the very early days of your business.
So there’s, there’s going to be a time commitment. You know, how much time are you willing to put in to this? If you’re not willing to put in a sufficient amount of time, then. This is going to be no, no more than just like a side hobby type thing. You can’t really expect it to flourish and grow if you’re not willing to [00:26:00] put the time and effort into it.
Um, and, but you gotta be realistic with yourself. You know, if, if you don’t have a ton of time to put into it, um, then, then maybe. Maybe you keep it as a hobby and you get a nine to five and you do that. That’s your, your paycheck coming in and you work on a hobby and that’s your thing. Right. But I think what we’re talking about is more than that.
And people who are listening to this, I think you guys understand there’s, there’s gotta be something more, um, that as far as effort goes to be put into this. Um, I, I think we, we need to, uh, just, just figure out like What it is that we’re willing to put into it. Um, and, uh, and what we want out, you know, it’s a kind of simple math equation, right?
Like what the inputs got to equal the outputs or something. Right. And if you don’t put a lot in, you’re not going to get a lot out. Um, in, in that, that respect. So
Adam Peters: I love your [00:27:00] point, man. Talking about sacrifice. Uh, I. I would love to share how I sacrifice because I think this is important. You know, I’m, I’m kind of an outlier getting out of the military. I, I am married, but no kids, just two dogs. So, you know, I understand that my position is unique. Most of you are getting out with.
You know, a family that you have to take care of. But as far as sacrifice, I took my VA disability. I paid off all my debts. So I have no debt except for a few, you know, zero interest credit cards. Cause that’s a game I like to play. It’s a little fun or whatever. I also don’t have a car. We don’t, we only have one car.
So my wife works out of the home and I don’t need a car. I don’t need to go anywhere. I start my days at six o’clock and you know, there’s days where I’ll work for I say work, but I’ll sit down at the computer at 7 a. m. after I’m done working out or whatever, and I won’t really be done in my office, you know, taking care of the things I need to take care of until sometimes 10 o’clock at night.
And that’s what I’m willing [00:28:00] to do. And oh, by the way, I haven’t made a single dollar. Since I started this in November, not a single dollar yet. I have some commissions on Podmatch that I can’t get paid out until I hit a hundred bucks. We’re like over 60 percent of the way there right now, you know, and I’m launching the community on August 1st.
So hopefully, you know, that’ll be fruitful, but it’s, it’s, it’s, It’s a long road and you have to be patient and consistent and delay gratification. I can’t stress that enough because there’s been a hundred times where I’m like, I don’t want to do this anymore. Let me go get a regular job because I want money.
I want more control over what I can go and do. So I’ve sacrificed some of the freedoms and the ability to take my wife on nice dates or go do fun things. So that I can build this thing right now. Like I don’t even have a car, man. Like how many people don’t have a car in 2024, right? Like that’s a big point of freedom, but it’s, it’s really, what are you willing to sacrifice and, and give up to get to where you want to go?
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. And I think to that point, some [00:29:00] people need to recognize that, um, you either need to have some source of income or, uh, you need to have, um, Uh, some savings built up, uh, in order for, for you to be able to do the type of stuff that you’re talking about right now. Um, now there’s, there’s other ways to get into, uh, you know, your own business that I’ll say maybe fast track some things, but it also requires A sacrifice of some sort, right?
If you were to buy an existing business, right. And you’re going to hit the ground running, basically it’s already in existence. It already has customers and, you know, sales, all that kind of stuff, but it’s going to cost you some money. Um, you know, so
Adam Peters: you a lot of money.
Scott DeLuzio: it’s going to cost you a lot of, yeah, that, that kind of thing.
You think about like all the stuff that we’re talking about here, where. Somebody had to start that business at some point, and then they grew it over, over years and years. [00:30:00] And they got all these customers and they have all this money coming in and all this kind of stuff. There’s some compelling reason that they want to let this thing go now.
Maybe they’re, they’re getting old and they want to retire and they just, they’re, they’re done with it. Um, you know, whatever it is, they, they want it, they want out, but. They put a crap ton of work into that. And if you think you’re just going to walk right in and just like, Hey, I’m the new boss. And I’m just going to walk in and take over day one.
Well, they’re going to want something for it. And, and it’s going to be in the terms of some money because, um, you know, that’s just what. The way businesses work. Right. Um, and, and so, yeah, you’re, you’re going to have to put in a significant amount of money. So whether you’re investing your time or you’re investing your money, you’re investing something into this business.
Um, and even if you buy an existing business, there’s no guarantee that it’s going to continue to be a success. Um, you know, there are, [00:31:00] uh, things you, you might. Have, uh, you know, an idea, Oh, I’m going to change this. I’m going to make it better. It turns out it makes it worse. And then you start losing customers or whatever.
Right? So there’s risks involved. It is. Um, but I think, um, to what you were saying before, those processes that you have in place, you’re going to have to figure out the things that work and build that into a process and do those things religiously. Like you, you, whatever the process is. And I, I can’t come up with these off top my head right now, but, um, whatever those processes are, you do those things that work over and over and you keep doing them and improve them, make those things better, find little flaws in them and make them better and keep improving them.
That’s how you grow. But when you, when you have, um. You know, just a sporadic day where you don’t have a plan for, like, when you wake up in the morning, if you don’t have a clue what you’re going to do [00:32:00] when you walk into your office or your, you know, wherever you do your work and you’re just kind of winging it, all you’re doing is just putting out fires.
There’s no process in place. You, you have to kind of have a plan, right?
Adam Peters: Yeah, absolutely, man. I can give you an example. The podcast, for example, it started as basically me just tracking guests and the responses to the, you know, questionnaire in my email inbox and that’s, and a Google doc and then, you know, meeting people and talking to people. I meet people who are smarter than I.
Now it’s a notion doc that is huge. It’s so big. It’s got like eight tabs so I can move it. Different cards along the process. I know exactly where things are and, you know, that system wasn’t born overnight. It was born from doing the same tasks over and over and over and keep doing those until you get frustrated.
Like, okay, there’s gotta be an easier way to do this. And so you set up a new system [00:33:00] and you get familiar with that system. And you’re like, Oh, this is missing. I’d really like to add that. Right. And so like at any given point now for any episode that has been recorded, I can go into my notion doc, I can find the final edit, I can find the thumbnail.
I can find the descriptions. I can find all the keywords that need to be there. You know, I can find everything. All in one place. It’s never going to get lost because it uploads to a cloud. You know, I can log into it from any computer, whatever. It doesn’t matter. So I can take that with me. And I think that’s just a good example of, you know, that system started in my email inbox.
And now I have 58 on the schedule right now that can’t live in an email inbox anymore. It needs to be in an organized place. And you just, You just figure it out, man. You just, and, and I know you’re an automation guy, right? Like, you like automations and
Scott DeLuzio: love it.
Adam Peters: I haven’t made it to automations yet because my brain just doesn’t work like that.
My, my, my brand strategist, he’s an automations guy, he, he actually sent me a message this [00:34:00] morning talking about we need to get you some automation set up. And I’m like, man, you know, I’m a professional networker. It’s really hard to set up a lot of automations because a lot of what’s eating my time right now is just meetings with other people.
Like you can’t really automate that part of it.
Scott DeLuzio: No, there’s that part of it. You can’t. But, um, so it kind of made me smile because. You came up with your systems. We’re, we’re both our podcasters, right? And you came up with your system for essentially the same thing that I do. Uh, you know, you, you book a guest, the, you gotta, you know, have, you know, a place to, for all the guests information to live, uh, you know, a little bio information background, their websites and links and all that kind of stuff.
You gotta have a place for it. All of that stuff, their photos, all of those things. And you, you and I started off in our email inbox. Like that’s where I started to, and, and I’m at 400 in whatever episodes this is. This is going to be 425, [00:35:00] right? It ain’t living in my inbox anymore. I can’t do it. That, that would be, I would, I would have been done 300 episodes ago.
If, if that’s, if that’s how I was doing it. Right. Um, Over time it evolved. Mine evolved in a different way. My, the way my mind works, it works differently. I’m not saying it’s better or worse than, than yours. It’s, it’s just different. Um, and I have a lot of automations built into the process because. I don’t want to ever forget anything.
And that’s why I build in those automations and I don’t have to do these things. If it happens automatically, I don’t have to do it and I can make it. So it kind of seems like I’m still sending you a personalized email. I’m still sending you, you know, all this stuff is, is all personalized. I didn’t do any of it.
I set it up once and I don’t have to think about it anymore. And that’s just a system that I put into place over the Gears of doing this, [00:36:00] always thinking to myself, how can I do this better? What, where am I spending my time that I don’t have to spend my time anymore. Um, and, and just figuring out how to do all of those things.
So I don’t have to spend more time on that. I could spend my time doing other things. Some people may be listening to that and hearing, Oh, where do I not have to spend my time anymore? That kind of as a, a lazy. Mindset, but it’s not lazy. It’s I want to be able to do something else. That’s more valuable with my time.
And. If I can have a system in place, whether it’s an automation like I, I use, or a system like you’re talking about, where it’s not automated, uh, you know, it, it’s a, a system where everything happens in a particular order. Uh, there’s, there’s a place for everything. There’s a, a time that you do everything.
There’s just everything is done in a particular way, believe it or not, saves you a ton of time. And [00:37:00] gives you the time to do the networking that you need to do or, uh, other tasks that you might need to do that otherwise you’d be running around like a chicken with your head cut off, trying to figure out how fit all those, those random tasks, seemingly random tasks into your day.
And you’re without a process in place, you’re forgetting something. And things are falling through the crack and it’s, it’s not going to work out. So with, with those processes, just like in the military, there’s a process. There’s a way that you do just about everything. There’s a form for damn near everything, right?
Like there’s, there’s everything is documented, right? Um, I think that’s another, another important piece too, is even if you’re a solo entrepreneur, solopreneur, whatever they, they call it, right. Document it because you may not always be. The only person working there, you may get to a point where you hire somebody and you got somebody working for you.[00:38:00]
Um, even if it’s on a contract basis, like you said, you had a brand person, uh, you know, who’s, who’s working with you. Um, well, there might be something that you offload to that person or somebody else, and they’re going to be like, okay, well, how do I do this? Now, do you really want to sit there and explain everything that you do and hold their hand?
No, show them how you do it. It’s already documented, right? And, and that is, is just another, uh, one of those things that you’re talking about as far as having the discipline to make sure that you have everything, uh, done the way you want it to be done.
Adam Peters: I love that you’re talking about that because there’s a tool I just discovered the other day and I’m sure this isn’t new to some people, but it’s basically a screen recorder that will then take and all your mouse clicks, everything, it just knows what you’ve done and it will write it into a transcript.
So now you have a video and a transcript that you can send to whomever you want to pawn that task off onto, and it’s like. I’m going to play with that this week because, you know, uh, [00:39:00] to your point, right? Like it’s not because I’m lazy. It’s because I have better things to do with my time. You know, like these, these become menial tasks were in the beginning, these were daunting tasks.
These were, these were, I got to get these done because this is all I have to do right now. But as you start to level up, You get, you know, I call them higher level problems. You know, you get higher level problems that require high, higher level solutions. And you don’t have those solutions because you’ve never been in this situation before.
So, you know, keeping that mindset and your mind open to like, okay, I leveled up. I don’t know what I don’t know and I know my capacity for work is not on par with the amount of work I have to do right now. You just kind of attack it with the systems you already have in place. You identify places that you can do better that save you time and, and allow you to do the, uh, your work on the higher level problems.
And then before you know it, you’ve created a whole new system, made your system better and you’re ready for the next step.
Scott DeLuzio: [00:40:00] Exactly. And I kind of think of it kind of like Lego blocks too, like where you’re building something, right? You start off with nothing. You might have just like that flat piece that like where you
Adam Peters: You got the email inbox. That’s what you got.
Scott DeLuzio: There you go. That’s your email inbox, right? That, that is the basic of the basic.
Like everyone has an email these days, right? That, that’s the basic, but then you start adding these things, right? And then, then you notice like, okay, well, this is getting a little wobbly and, and let’s, you know, support this some other way and we figure it out and you, you build it and it gets better and better and better over time.
And the more you work on it, the better it’s going to get. The way I see it is it, it can’t go. Backwards, uh, if, if you’re working on it and, and with the intention of getting it better, uh, let’s put it that way. Um, it can’t go backwards because as you’re, you’re building the system, if you notice something that just like if you’re building, you know, a [00:41:00] Lego set, if you put a piece in and notice, Oh, this thing that made it a little more wobbly or it’s too much weight on one side.
Okay. Well, don’t do that. Like, don’t do that. Take that away and go back into the drawing board and figure it out. Yeah, sure. You may take one step back, but, but that one step is going to be a learning lesson that you can then take and apply and apply it to the business. And I think this really does apply to just about everything that we do.
Right. I mean, we’re. We have to figure things out. I mean, life is life. There’s no owner’s manual to life, right? You got to figure shit out. And, and, um, you know, business is no different.
Adam Peters: Yeah, absolutely, man. And you’re right. It’s, it’s not really a step back if you really think about it because your system is already in place. It’s already working for you. You now have these, these set of higher level problems. So now you’re just, you’re really just split testing. You’re implementing something to see how that works and okay, that didn’t work so well back, you know, to the beginning.
Let’s, [00:42:00] Let’s do it this way. Oh, that, that fucking worked sick, dude. Right? Like I’ve got the new piece of my system, right? That Lego piece just fits perfectly in there. And then that usually informs the next move that you need to make. And then so on and so forth. And I don’t know, it’s really cool, man, because as you start to kind of grow and get things figured out, yeah.
You really start to be able to see and identify those things faster. And you’re like, okay, you know, I’ve tried to implement a couple of things into my system that I’m just simply not ready for. They don’t benefit me. They actually cost me time and energy because I’m just not to the point where I can implement those things.
But also, You know, I learned that from talking to other people who use that in their system and they’re way further ahead than I am. Now I have that tool in my back pocket, I know when I get there, I can already just go and implement that because I’m already looking for that problem that that particular thing in my system fixes.
And that becomes the [00:43:00] game. That’s really what business is about. It’s, it’s, it’s creating a system and then making that system work for you.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. As opposed to you working for the system, I think. And that’s, if you want to work for the system, get a nine to five
Adam Peters: Yeah, go to the, go to the wage plantation, man.
Scott DeLuzio: there it is. Right. Um, you, you mentioned earlier the community, uh, that you’re, you’re building. Um, Can you tell us a little bit about that community? Kind of what you’re, you’re hoping to, to build from that, that community.
Adam Peters: Yeah, absolutely, man. Um, this is something I’ve been spending a lot of time with because, you know, there’s a lot of communities out there. Community, I think is one of the most important things that you can have when trying to build anything, whether that’s be a good entrepreneur, be a good entrepreneur, be, you know, whether it’s your finances, whatever.
So, um, I can, my paid community is called the stronghold. And. Um, right now when we launch on August 1st, it’s really just a networking opportunity. I’ve taken some of the [00:44:00] brightest and best entrepreneurs who have been on my show, um, who are also veterans. Um, there’s a couple of civilians in there, mainly just my team, who, you know, a brilliant brand guy and a brilliant email marketing copywriter.
Um, and I just, I got sick of Facebook and the toxicity and the, the, just the bullshit that goes on in Facebook groups. And this doesn’t just apply to veterans. So please don’t think that I’m speaking bad about those. I’ll give you an example. When I was in flight school, I joined a bunch of groups to try and learn and get help with some instrument stuff.
And I would ask basic questions that a student instrument pilot would, would ask. And I would get shredded by guys that had 30, 40 years in the business. And I just hated that. And what I see going on in veteran groups is a lot of the same thing. It’s pity me. It’s, I don’t want to get out of my own way.
Somebody owes me something and I just, I can’t stand for it. So I created this community for people to come and talk about their [00:45:00] transition problems. Get information about being an entrepreneur from people who are actively building their own things and finding success. You can be vulnerable. You can get advice without being picked on and without, you know, having to deal with all that.
Just real, genuine, actionable, bold. Thank you. Advice and shit that will help you because the shit on Facebook isn’t helping anybody. It’s, it’s perpetuating the problem. So inside, inside of the community, eventually it’s, it’s a tiered thing. So 30 bucks a month, every month, just to, to be a part and chat with one another, you know, there will be another tier, which will give you access to some courses.
And I’m taking a unique approach to the courses. I’m finding Other creators who want to create kind of an introductory course, um, to introduce you to something where you can find out if you’re interested in this. So right now there’s branding in there. There’s copywriting in there. I’m going to have a gut health thing in there.
And by doing this, I’m going to, [00:46:00] Send you to these other creators and you can use their services. So basically I just want to create a library of resources for, for people to go find things that you’re interested in. People from my network that I know and trust that I know are not going to steer you in the wrong direction.
They’re not gurus, they’re people who are actually making a difference. And then it’s kind of twofold because I enjoyed the podcasting and the networking part of it so much. I don’t want to create a bunch of courses. So I’m just going to let other creators do it, put them in, in the community, and you can go and pay for the course if you want, and then do business with that person that teaches you the course.
If that resonates with you and we all win, I make a little bit of money, you get information, you get an opportunity to find something that you’re interested in. And then, uh, uh, eventually there’ll be a third tier, which will be the high ticket offer, which will be, uh, access to me and my team. Inside of like a mastermind, whether that’s Signal [00:47:00] or Slack or whatever, and then a one on one coaching with me.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. I found, uh, this is just kind of a off tangent kind of thing because, because you mentioned it, but I found mastermind groups. Uh, a couple that I’ve been in have been extremely beneficial, um, where you, you bring together a bunch of people. Um, and this is my experience anyways. Um, we had a few people come in, uh, we met.
What I forget what it was once a week, once every other week, whatever, whatever the time period was. Um, and we just bounce ideas off each other. Hey, this is what I got going on. Um, you know, and I, uh, you know, I’m having trouble with this. And any of you guys ever, you know, run into this kind of thing and you kind of bounce ideas off each other.
Um, and, um, You help each other out. And, and the people that were in the group with me, they all were in the same, uh, type of [00:48:00] business that we had, but none of us were competing against each other. So it kind of was like a win win, right? If I can help you out, um, and you can help me out. Like we’re all going to win in this, this situation here.
It’s not like I’m, you know, uh, given away trade secrets to my competitor. And now all of a sudden my business is shot, you know, it was, um, it was good. But I think part of that, um, I never would have been. In a group like that, had I not done the networking, like you were talking about, um, you know, I did some in person networking.
There’s some online stuff too. Um, and you just build those connections. And then eventually those people, um, you know, you’ll realize, Hey, these are going to be some good people that I can, I can do a mastermind with. And, and there doesn’t need to be anything formal. It’s like. Meet on Zoom every, you know, once a week or something like that, you know, it’s, it’s super simple, uh, to do, but, um, you know, yeah, have, maybe have an agenda, so you’re not just [00:49:00] bullshitting the whole time, but, um, It, it really is a good way to help level things up a little bit quicker too, right?
Adam Peters: Dude, I’m a thousand percent. This is why I created the stronghold is because I’m not having this conversation with you without joining the couple of communities that I’ve been a part of since I started my journey and got the invites when I just started reaching out to people. Hey, you’re cool. I’m cool.
I like what you’re doing. Let’s have a conversation, which leads to getting invited to these communities, which were paid communities. So I paid my dues as well. Um, And, and I’ve met in one community every Wednesday for the last six months. And I’ve learned an incredible amount of stuff. And to your point, man, uh, if you come to the Stronghold, I hope to see as many veterans in there as possible.
Yo. We’re not here to compete with one another. There is more than enough to go around. I can’t help everybody. You [00:50:00] can’t help everybody. The other 16 members that are already on the wait list in my community in their respective fields cannot help the entire market that they are pitching to. It really is a place where you can, you know, I plan on being in there telling people what I’m going through, what problems I have, because I think that I can learn something from everybody, no matter if you’re just starting out or if you’re 15 years into this or whatever, there is so much good information out there.
And, and that’s really just what I want to do. I’ve built this network of like 3, 100 people on LinkedIn and, and, Several of them are successful veteran entrepreneurs. One of them, you know, he’s got multiple seven figure companies that he’s built, scaled and sold. And it’s just a ton of it. And I want to share it with everybody because it makes your life better.
You don’t have to fall into the transition hole. You don’t have to be working a corporate job that you hate. There is a better way. And, and my community. Will be a place where you [00:51:00] can come and feel safe and be vulnerable and tell everybody what you’ve got going on without judgment and just get solid actionable advice.
But that’s just it, you have to take the action. I can’t do that for you.
Scott DeLuzio: Right. And, and I think first step is, is signing up and, and joining, uh, the, the Stronghold and getting involved with it. Uh, you know, it’s one thing to join. A group like that, right? But if you’re not participating, you’re not involved in it and you’re just a fly on the wall, um, nobody’s going to know you’re there and
Adam Peters: only that, but you’re not going to be in my community for very long because I specifically put that in the rules. Like I don’t want a community of inactive people. So if you’re not active and you’re not participating, I’m going to kick you out for a minimum of a year and I’m going to keep your money because you’ve showed me that you’re willing to pay for something, but you’re not willing to take action.
And. We don’t have time for that, man. We really don’t have time for that because that’s going to [00:52:00] lead into excuses that you’re going to make, which is going to turn you into one of those people who is throwing a pity party for yourself because somebody won’t come and do it for you. And I’m sorry if that rubs people the wrong way, but then my community is not the place for you.
Every
Scott DeLuzio: it, and it should, I think you’re, you’re right. You should do things. You know, in that, that direction, because, um, you don’t want that one person bringing the whole group down. Um, you know, not, not to say that that person doesn’t deserve help, but that that’s not the kind of help that they’re, they need.
Um, you know, they don’t, they don’t need the pity party. But they’re asking for it, you know, they, they need to kind of get their head out of their ass and know what it is that they do need. Um, and what they need is to ask these experts in their field, uh, you know, the, the folks who know, maybe it’s branding or email marketing or, uh, you name it, all these different things.[00:53:00]
How do I, how do I, Level this up. How do I, you know, I I’m doing this now. I got, I got this roadblock that I I’ve run into. How do I move it on from there? And, and those people, they’ve been there, they’ve done that. They’ve, they’ve been at that same roadblock at some point. Um, and they know how to move on from there.
And so talking to those people are going to be the, the. The people who get you past that. Um, and
Adam Peters: time, man, every single time. It’s, and, and really it’s no harder than just asking.
Scott DeLuzio: right,
Adam Peters: and it’s just, it’s just so mind blowing to me. Cause for so long, I was so afraid to ask and, you know, like you just ask, just, just ask and you’ll be amazed at what happens.
Scott DeLuzio: exactly. I, I think people get. Afraid of asking people, just, you know, strangers, or even if you [00:54:00] kind of know them, uh, you know, but not super well, maybe, uh, they, they’re afraid of asking, like, I don’t know if they’re afraid of the rejection or, or whatever the case may be, they, they just have this, this fear when, when it comes to asking, uh, you know, people like that.
And it, sometimes it’s just like, Think about the absolute worst case scenario. If you ask a question to somebody, are they going to pull out a gun and blow your brains out? Like, no, like
Adam Peters: are not going to do that,
Scott DeLuzio: not going to happen.
Adam Peters: internet.
Scott DeLuzio: Exactly. Right. The worst, worst case scenario is they come back and say, no.
Or, you know, something along those lines, some, you know, kind of negative response that they’re not helping in, in one way or another, okay, we’ll move on. Like, so what, who cares? It’s not the end of the world. Um, you know, or, or the next worst case scenario is they just don’t respond at all. Okay, [00:55:00] cool. Move on.
You know, it’s not that big of a deal. So ask if you need help, ask. And that goes with everything. It’s not business, uh, related only, you know, your fricking mental health too. Go get help if you need help, right? We’re talking earlier at the beginning of the episode, you know, you know, trying to help reduce that 22 a day down to zero, right?
Go ask for help. It’s not. It’s hard. It is hard. I was about to say it’s not that hard. It is
Adam Peters: is, it’s definitely hard to ask for help. And, and that’s because we’ve been conditioned our whole lives. At least most of us in the military, I can only speak from my experience in the infantry combat arms, growing, growing 03 to 15. Really, you didn’t ask for help. I watched careers get ended for that.
So we’re conditioned to not ask for help. And then you’re right. There is an element of fear and there’s also an element of not [00:56:00] liking to be told no, but here’s the deal, man. I’ll tell you how cool it really is. I reached out to a guy, asked him if he would do a podcast. He’s a multimillionaire, a lot of, a lot of value he could contribute.
He said, no, flat out rejected. Right. Woke up this morning to a message from him. Like, Hey man, I’m so sorry. My team rejected you. I always like to help veterans because I’m a veteran myself. I’d love to do your show. And it’s like, I would have never known that had I not asked. And, and you know, it’s like, what is a no to me?
What, what really is it? I just gets me closer to a yes.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. No, that’s a good point, too. Because, okay, fine, that person was a no. You’re not going to go back and hound that person, right? If they’re a no, they’re a no. Okay, cool. Move on to the next person. Whereas, previously, you may have Spent more time chasing that person, um, you know, trying to find that yes, uh, and that, which ultimately would lead to a no and you wasted all the time and you’ve missed, you know, five other [00:57:00] yeses that you could have gotten if you, if you kept going that route.
So
Adam Peters: And, and don’t hang on to the nose at all. Just like I take, I take the approach particularly when, you know, again, not tooting my own horn, but I’ve landed on something with a strategic veteran in the podcast. I’m at like over a thousand downloads in 11 episodes, which I’m told is really good. So, I don’t, I don’t know if those numbers are really that great or not.
I don’t really care about the numbers. What I care about is the value I’m providing to the Veteran community. But I’ve had several, I think, I think a handful, five or six people have flat out told me no, um, to be on the podcast. And as I start to get more popular, and I’m not saying I’m popular, but I’m They start to reach back out and it’s like, no, you had your opportunity to be a guest on my show.
And unfortunately your episode wouldn’t even come out until February of next year. Cause that’s how, how far ahead I am with recordings right now. So it’s like you only want to come on my platform now because you see that I’m actually doing something with, and it gets you the exposure. Well, because you [00:58:00] weren’t willing to help me out.
It’s a no for me, dog. You know what I mean? Like, like it’s a two way street, right? And so, you know, for example, we’re doing this show, you said yes to me. So who would I be to say no to you? Plus this is just fun for me, right? Like,
Scott DeLuzio: right,
Adam Peters: we can genuinely help each other out and that’s, that’s really all it is.
Like, don’t be afraid of a no. That person is just not somebody you need to work with. You can find another one in the 7 billion people that are on this planet. And you know, most of them are on the internet somewhere. Go find them.
Scott DeLuzio: right, exactly. And exactly. There’s so many people out there. And so, yeah, maybe you had your heart set on this. I’m talking to this one person who, Oh, that person’s going to really help me out with my career or my, my, my business or whatever. Okay. Well, that person said no, but like you said on LinkedIn, there’s, there’s what, a billion people or something on there.
Um, okay. If you’re reaching out there, chances are you can find somebody else in a similar role, uh, that with a similar experience, that’s [00:59:00] going to be able to help you out. And so just move on. It’s okay to move on. Um, I, I think we get in our own way sometimes where we don’t want to ask for help because maybe you’re just afraid of the rejection or don’t want to be told that, you know, what we’re doing, that the baby that we built is ugly and we don’t want to be told that.
And so we’re afraid to ask for help because someone might tell me, no, that baby sucks and you’ve got to change everything about this baby. Otherwise, it’s going to be growing up to look like. Some terrible creature. Like you’re afraid of that because you spent a lot of time and energy building that baby.
Well, okay, fine. But you still want the baby to grow. You still want the baby to look good in the end. Right? So take the advice because that’s only going to help sculpt it into something better,
Adam Peters: Well, it’s not, you don’t [01:00:00] necessarily have to take the advice all the time either. At the end of the day, this is your thing and you are free to do with it, whatever you want. I’m a prime example of this. We had this conversation before I recorded with you and I was, Hard line in the sand on length of podcasts, right?
And I had had four or five people tell me, you need to shorten it. You need to shorten it. It’s simply too long. And I’m like, there are other creators out there with millions of subscribers on YouTube doing millions of dollars a year in revenue and their podcasts are twice as long as mine. And so I know that I can make this happen.
Then along comes, uh, a man who founded a media network and he presented it to me in a way that made a lot more sense to me. He gave it to me in a business way. He’s like, I don’t care how long your podcasts are, but this is something to think about. If you can keep it between an hour and an hour and a half, you come over to my network.
I can have you making 5, 000 a month inside of your first six [01:01:00] months on my network. I just need you to understand that to do that, you need to shorten the length of your podcast so we can put ads in there. And it’s like, okay, now you’ve made that palatable to me. Instead of just simply telling me my podcasts are too long and nobody has time for that shit.
Right. So, so I passed on the advice four times over the course of probably three or four months, and then I do an awesome interview with Adam Bird and Heroes Media Group. And, you know, he wants me to come to his platform. He opened that up for me and I’m like, okay, let’s, let’s hear what he has to say. And it was just advice.
It was just that he prefaced it with, You know, I’m not going to tell you how to run your show. It’s your show. But I would suggest that you do this, this and this because of this, this and this. Well, that makes sense for my business. So yeah, absolutely. I’m going to take you up on that. And now it’s, it’s back to the system, right?
Like now I have to, to learn how to podcast an hour shorter than I normally go. And it’s like, okay, well we can create a system for that. And [01:02:00] I can, I can tailor my interview style to that. And. Watch what happens with the business. So I’m excited for, for all of that to happen. And, and you’re right, man. It’s again, just advice is advice at the end of the day, your business is your business and run it the way that you want to, but also, you know, sometimes it’s okay to heed some advice because there’s a lot of good advice out there.
Uh, I wanted to touch on too, you said you had your heart set on working with a certain person. And you think that this person’s going to do all these wonderful things for your business. Well, I’m here to tell you. The people that will do the most for your business are the people you would at least expect to do or expected that from the relationship.
That’s, that’s been like my biggest lesson is like, you know, I won’t say no to any meeting with anybody for any reason, because more often than not, these people have. Push my business so far along because of taking those meetings. And [01:03:00] I, you know, where I wasn’t able to see the value, you know, before the call, after the call, I was like, holy shit, I’m glad I took this meeting.
You know what I mean? So there’s so much opportunity out there, I guess is just what I’m saying. And it’s just like, anybody can do this. You just, you just need a few things to, to be able to do it. And it starts with getting out of your own way.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. And I think that’s, that’s kind of the gist of all of this is get out of your own way.
Adam Peters: Just get out of your way. Yep.
Scott DeLuzio: no, that there is advice out there. And to your point, I think maybe I didn’t, I didn’t clarify what I was trying to say. Take, when, when I say take the advice, take the advice and do with it, what you think makes the most sense.
Some of it might be garbage advice and you might just need to throw that advice away, but you might be able to take bits and pieces of it. Here and there and, and be able to utilize it somehow in your business. And if you can’t, great, do that because that, that’ll just make it all that much better. Um, but you might, uh, might not [01:04:00] be able to use it at all.
You might be able to use all of it. Um, you know, and anywhere in between, but, um, you know, take it. And do what makes the most sense for you in your business, uh, for your particular application, because what worked for one person may not work for you for everybody. Um, and so you gotta just utilize some common sense.
And I think that, um, that goes back to.
Adam Peters: Yeah,
Scott DeLuzio: That goes back to, you know, military things too, because sometimes things just don’t make sense. And sometimes you just have to say, screw it. I’m not doing that. You know,
Adam Peters: man. No, for sure. I, I’m, I agree, man. Uh, and you’re, you’re absolutely again with the advice. It’s, it’s, you can take all of it. You can take some of it. You can take bits and pieces of it. Um, I would encourage you to pay attention to all of it because. I’ve gotten a lot of advice that wasn’t helpful in the moment that has turned around and I’ve remembered it when I’ve gotten to a point where I could use it and implemented it and it’s made all the difference in the world.
And [01:05:00] I think that’s another part of like, why this is so much fun is because you don’t have a fucking clue what to do with it at certain times. And then, you know, a random Thursday comes along and you’ve got this problem and you’re like, Oh, I had this meeting with this guy and he told me this, like, Oh, shit.
This works. Like, okay,
Scott DeLuzio: light bulb goes on,
Adam Peters: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, man. So, so, you know, last, last little, uh, comment on the advice there. Cause you’re absolutely right. And I agree with what you’re saying.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, absolutely. Well, uh, before we wrap up this episode, I know that there’s probably some folks who want to get in touch. Maybe they want to get involved with, uh, the community that you’re setting up or, you know, check out your podcasts or anything like that. Uh, where can people go to find out more information about, uh, Uh, what you do and, and get involved in, in some of these other things.
Adam Peters: Yeah, man, I’m most active on LinkedIn. You can find me on LinkedIn, Adam Peters. Um, you, everything for the newsletter, the podcast, the community will be on the [01:06:00] featured section of my LinkedIn. Uh, my website should be live here in a couple of weeks. I say by the middle of August, it should be live, uh, thestrategicveteran.
com. You can find everything there as well. Uh, that that’s, I’m really excited for that to come out. And then the podcast is basically everywhere you can find podcasts. Uh, all the big ones are covered except for, uh, iHeartRadio and Amazon, because for some reason they don’t want to see that I’ve uploaded an MP3 and give me access.
So yeah, it’s really strange. I’ve had a big issue with them. I’m hoping Heroes Media Group can fix that for me when, when I migrate over, but, uh, uh, I’m everywhere else. I’m on some, Obscure apps that I’ve never even heard of for podcasting too. And believe it or not, I’m getting, getting downloads from there too.
So it’s really cool, but that’s, that’s the main places you can find me.
Scott DeLuzio: Excellent. Yeah. And I’ll have links to this, all this stuff in the show notes as well, for folks to check it out. Um, your, your website, when that goes live, I’m sure we’ll have, uh, links to everything, so it can kind of be a central hub, but [01:07:00] I’ll, I’ll try to link to everything in, in the, uh, show notes,
Adam Peters: Yeah. The website is actually live, but the professional, like really cool coded version, that’s going to have multiple pages and all of that is almost done. And I’m super excited about it because like. For me, that’s like a pinnacle of success is like having a really cool professional website. And so I’m, I’m just excited about it, but you can go to the website now.
Uh, it’ll have all the information on it. It’s just a little landing page.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, cool. So, so again, the link will be in the show notes for everybody, uh, to, to check it out and get involved with the community. Hopefully, um, you know, offering some advice from yourself to the community, but also, uh, you know, helping, uh, your, your own situation, get, get involved. Get a little bit better by getting some advice from that community as well.
So, um, you know, it works both ways. You can’t, you can’t expect to be able to take all and not be able to, uh, give back. So, um, Adam, man, it’s been great talking with you. Get great, uh, [01:08:00] you know, sharing some insights and advice, uh, you know, for. Potential veteran entrepreneurs out there. Um, and folks who maybe are already in it and they’re, they’re struggling, man, and, and they, you know, now, now have a resource that’s available to them and, um, can hopefully get them out of their own way.
Adam Peters: Yes, sir, man. I really appreciate you having me, man. I’m super grateful. This was a lot of fun and, uh, I hope to see as many of you in the community as possible. Um, because I know I can learn a ton from you. Uh, in fact, I think I’ll learn more in the community than I’ll teach.
Scott DeLuzio: I hopefully, I mean, cause if, if you’re the smartest guy in the room, then you’re in the
Adam Peters: got a problem. Yeah. I’m in the wrong room for sure.
Scott DeLuzio: And that goes for everybody. I’m not saying that to you as an insult. I’m saying that for everybody. If you’re the smartest person in the room, find another room because you got more to learn, right? So, all right.
Thank you again, Adam. I really appreciate it.
Adam Peters: Yeah, man. Take care.
Scott DeLuzio: Thanks for listening to the Drive On Podcast. If you want to support the show, [01:09:00] please check out Scott’s book, Surviving Son on Amazon. All of the sales from that book go directly back into this podcast and work to help veterans in need. You can also follow the Drive On Podcast on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and wherever you listen to podcasts.