#5 Adam Walsh: The Secret to Success Is Insecurity?

Are you Blaming external factors for your un-happiness?

Don’t know where to start? How about identifying what you don’t want?

Today we are joined by Adam Walsh an accomplished entrepreneur who built and sold a 7 figure marketing agency & has coached 100+ students make $10,000/month online.

We dissect the meaning of success, dealing with insecurity the and the realization of personal responsibility. Adam reflects on his personal growth since starting from zero and pitfalls to avoid.

Adam also shares his insights on his journey to success at such a young age, his strategy of identifying what you don’t want and the no-bs millionaire morning routine.

Found the conversation to be insightful? Make sure you to subscribe!

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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adamwlsh/

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Overcoming Adversity and Achieving Entrepreneurial Success
• 5:09 Finding Your Inner Drive: Where Hunger & Ambition Come From
• 8:48 Clarity Through Negatives: Knowing What You Don’t Want
• 14:06 From Bedroom to Boardroom: Taking Sales Calls in Your Childhood Room
• 28:48 The Power of Persistence: Benefits of Being Stubborn
• 36:39 Embracing Personal Responsibility for Success
• 44:17 Defining and Measuring Success
• 51:15 The Downsides of Monk Mode in Entrepreneurship
• 52:25 Healthy Habits for a Successful Life

Transcript

0:02

Hey Arn, how are you today? I'm doing good my man, how you doing? Yeah, doing good also, Adam. It's actually funny. I first heard of you. You were speaking at a university event in UCC, University College Cork back in Ireland. Remember? Yeah, my friend, Fionn Cox organized the event. He was running like an incubation entrepreneurial event and you were a guest speaker and I joined like halfway through and yeah, I thought it was really interesting what you were saying, but I only found out at the end that you are like my, you are from our cohort. So like you were the same age as me and I was kind of like baffled at like, you just finished, you just finished university one year. And you would like you achieved like you had this marketing agency and you're just coaching business and you'd succeed. You had like, you know, you've seen you had seen success in both of those businesses you had. And yeah, it's time I was baffled. So maybe first question, Adam, is how did you do so much at such a young age? Damn. First man, I actually didn't know that's how you found me. Cause that was like a pretty small scale like group. I don't think there was many people there, maybe 20, 30 people. Yeah, I'm an OG, Adam. gee, man, I love it, I love it. I love it, man. Well, yeah, I guess like the thing for me is I always kind of did some online stuff. So ever since, like I was quite young, kind of tapping into the online world, probably, I was going to mix up around 12. I always say 12 because it was sometime in around that age. That's when I like first, you know, like logged into my dad's computer and was like, I'm actually going to learn some of the stuff that you could do on this thing. You know, not just sign up to Facebook to do. Farmville, right or whatever was going on. So I remember he used to be kind of a photographer, not like proper professionally, but just on the side. So he had Photoshop on his computer. So naturally, maybe me, I was like, fuck it. Yeah, I'll have a look at that. That looks fun. He edits photos. Maybe I can create some graphics or something cool on there. Long story short, that kind of got me into that world of, I could create something digitally and then sell it. And that could potentially make me money. Wow. That's fascinating. And so that's kind of where I got the little initial inspiration to say, hey, look, I don't know what I want to do online. I was 12, right? I had no idea what I was doing. But I know there's ways of making money, and this is actually really fun. So really since then, man, I just always knew I'd do something online, tried many things throughout those years, most of which didn't work very well, some of which I'd make some money, lose a bunch of money, and some would just be a complete waste of time. But. All in all, man, it led me to when I went to college, I went to UCD, studied commerce, was going down the route of I'm going to do college, but I'm never going to use my degree. Like that was my thought process. But naturally being in that, like in that environment with people that were all looking to become accountants or, you know, be placed in finance companies. When you're around all those people, those thoughts enter your head of actually, maybe that is the best route. That does sound pretty safe, secure. There's clear progression over the years and hey, when I'm 50, 60, I'll be making some decent money. So I did apply for jobs during college and I think it was the second year. Mine was like a three year course. Yeah, didn't get them because obviously my heart wasn't fully in it. So I definitely didn't put in the effort needed. I'll put my hand up and say that. But yeah, and then I just said, right, cool. I have no other options. This didn't work. I didn't get a job. Fantastic. And I remember the last job I applied to. I think it was Enterprise Ireland. I got the email, the rejection email, and I was absolutely delighted. Like I thought I wanted the job, but I got it. And I was like, this is unreal because now I have no option. I have to figure something out. So I started freelancing, offering basically social media services, website development, email marketing, anything that I could get my hands on. I worked with a few online coaches and like for one guy, I was basically his assistant. doing anything from taking sales calls to posting content to his Instagram to email marketing. Just whatever he needed, I would do. I didn't give a shit. I just wanted to make some money. And if I could learn on the job, because he was paying me very, very little, so he didn't expect me to be an expert. I was like, that's fantastic. So then later that year, started an agency. It kind of kicked off pretty much straight away. I think from the bit of freelancing experience I had, that all came together. where things clicked pretty fast. So yeah, when we would have connected, I guess, man, through the speech that I gave that time, I would have had the agency. I'm not sure we probably were doing maybe 200 grand a year at that stage. And then I had the coaching that I was just starting up really at that stage, which was doing okay. But currently that's my full -time thing. And obviously I exited the agency. Yeah, probably about a year and a half ago now. cool. And you mentioned like your freelancing, your background in freelancing kind of stood to you to kind of go in and set up your own agency. Where do you think like your mentality came from, like that kind of hunger? Because a lot of guys, myself included, would have always said like, entrepreneurship is cool. And I would have in university, I would have said like, man, I'd love to be an entrepreneur, but I was like, I need to get experience in the workplace and got a job. But you know, a lot of people like envision that they want to be an entrepreneur. But you went and did it and you had that kind of hunger and that drive and where do you think that ambition came from? Good question, man. It's definitely hard for me to say exactly where it comes from. And I wouldn't call myself a serial entrepreneur or anything by any means, because I've done pretty much two things well, which is the agency and the coaching. And I'm pretty set on those two things. I don't really have a goal of starting 10 SaaS companies on the side and exiting them for 10 million each or something. I'm very much just like, cool, these things work. They're really good cash flow. and they're really enjoyable, so fantastic. I'll kind of stick in my lane per se. But good question, man. Where does that come from? I think for me, it came from insecurity. So when I was 12, 13, my family was like, right, cool, you got to start making some money. Because where I live, most people would just work with little local jobs, you know, with a cash in hand, down the amusement park, whatever it may be. And I was just super shy, like super shy, insecure. did not want to do that, that sounded absolutely terrible to have to deal with people and be in the public eye all the time. So that's where combined with the, you know, seeing Photoshop on my dad's computer, those two things converging, I was like, aha, these two things are something I could work with here. Cause that drive, you know, if you, if you don't want to get a job so much because of what you would feel like doing it, that to me was so powerful. Cause then I would put in hours and hours and hours. for barely any pay just to get things moving. Because that would show me that there's a potential future out there where I didn't have to do that thing that I really didn't want to do. So I think I'd be lying if I would just sit here and go like, yeah, I was always super confident that I'd do this thing or whatever. Not at all. It was definitely insecurity for sure. But I guess instead of shying away from it, I just kind of leant into it. I was like, that's what it is. But I can find a way to make money and do OK. without kind of doing that thing that I really didn't want to do, which was get a job, work with people like in person. And yeah, I think that's really where it comes from. Throughout college, I feel like that changed quite a lot. You know, I obviously developed, got more confident, was more sure of who I was. And I think it was just seeing how, you know, my family, we never had a lot of money. We were always fine. You know, we got by, not a problem, but, you know, we weren't loaded. My parents always worked close to minimum wage jobs. So kind of just seeing that and seeing not the stress, but the potential lack of things that we could do stood out to me. And I definitely made a mental note of that. And that was definitely a driver as well. I was like, I don't want that. Like I want to have the freedom to be able to do more things. I want to have the freedom to be able to, heck, maybe I could just like make five grand a month and travel. That was my initial goal. So I think, yeah, man. insecurity, but then seeing like, again, diving into the negative side and seeing this kind of semi struggle that my family had and going right cool, that's not what I want. So I'll try and figure out a way to not have that for myself. Interesting. Yeah, it's funny because often when I look at like people who've achieved success online, I'm always like, how do they know like what was their strategy or like what was the roadmap and I'm always just like so curious about it like and then to hear you say that you simply just knew what you didn't want to do and the way circumstances worked out and that's how you ended up where you are. That's quite interesting. Hmm. I think it's more powerful sometimes to lean into that, right? Like you said, instead of sitting there, like if you're 20 listening to this and you're like, yeah, man, I want to start a business. I want to be an entrepreneur. You're like, figure, you're always focused on what is the idea going to be? What's that one strategy I'm going to use? What's the one business model? That's fine things to look at. But if you can just really lean into the other side and say, what are the things I really don't want to do? For me personally, leaning into negativity has always been more motivating than. positivity, right? So instead of just being like, wow, I could make loads of money. For me, it's more powerful to go, wow, I could be homeless if I don't make this thing work. Or I could be living in a situation that I really, really hate and feel like a failure. That's more motivating to me. So know yourself, man. Cool, so like leveraging that insecurity and kind of using that as kind of activation energy almost. Do you, how, so on your journey, like you knew what you didn't want to do and that was kind of your compass. How did you deal then with like your friends and your family kind of saying, listen Adam, come back, like you can't make money online. We put you through university or you went to university. Like how did you deal with like your peers and your family kind of, cause I'm sure you must've got some judgements there. Definitely, man, definitely. It's funny, I get this question a lot from the people I coach and mentor now, because a lot of people I'm coaching and mentoring are our age or they're a little younger and they're in college currently and this is the exact thing they're going through. They've said to their parents, look, I want to do this thing. And then there's backlash and they're going to fight that. I think the key thing to notice is it's nearly always coming from such a good place. Like whenever my, like my mother was very much like. become a primary school teacher, because my two siblings are primary school teachers. So that was always the thing. And that was never from a negative place. It was always from, it's a job, that's okay money, it's safe, it's secure, and you'll be fine, right? So I think that's the key thing you first have to know is it's coming from a good place and realize that it's not just your parents trying to be annoying you, like they want the best for you. But really for me, I think it only changed when I could show proof. So. when I could go to my mother and say, hey, we just did 30 grand in a month or 40 grand and show her, like not just tell her and show her and be like, look, these are the numbers. Here's the screenshots. Here's the app. Here's the payments. Then of course she's going to be like, okay, I see that that's real. So yeah, I think that's a key part of you're not going to probably be able to convince your parents to believe in you from day one. And there will be a degree of you just going through the shit, proving it to yourself and then proving it to them. And then at that point, if they still don't believe you, when you've made a ton of money, then that's a different issue. So essentially you're kind of saying just take ownership. For sure. For sure. So like friends as well, right? Like I hear this a lot, especially from younger guys, like, yeah, but my friends don't think this is going to work or they think that this is a bad idea because they heard of some guy who tried it and it didn't work. I'm like, yeah, cool. That's fantastic. But you want to do this for you, right? Of course you want to still be friends with your friends, but like do the thing you want to do, man. If they don't believe in it, they don't believe it. That's fine. That's fine. Again, when you've got proof that it's worked and you show them, I'm sure their minds will change. Gotcha. And then, so where were you when you set up your agency? Were you in Ireland or were you abroad? You didn't, yeah. So we actually set it up in Ireland. Like we set up a limited company in, I believe it was like March 2020. That's when it was like officially incorporated and everything. And, but really I'd say about a month after that, me and my business partner Bo were like, yeah, we don't want to be in Ireland, do we? No. Why did we just set up a company in Ireland? Like this is probably the worst, not the worst thing we've done, but this is a really... bad financial decision for income tax, for the company set up for the whole thing. So pretty shortly after that, we left. I set up in a different European country. And first, that's when I set up my coaching business because I hadn't had that set up and I didn't start coaching until kind of like a year or so after the agency kicked off. So I set that up in a different country and then we brought the agency over the year after. So basically closed the Irish branch, set up a new one and did it that way. But... I was in Ireland when things started to work, as in I had enough money coming from the agency to live. That's when I went and started to travel more. So mainly just around Europe and what COVID obviously happened in 2020. So there was this point where I think we did, you know, like our first maybe 15 or 20 K a month with the agency, not all profit. That's revenue by the way. So, you know, profit might be 70 % of that and me and a business partner. So we'd have to split it 50 50. but it was enough for me to be able to do it like full time, comfortably and not have to worry about money. And I remember I had a trip booked to Vietnam. I had my visa, my Airbnb, my one way flight. The whole thing was lined up and I kid you not, it was one of those scenarios of two days before the flight that was like the full lockdown being enforced and I had to stay at home. So I pretty much just stayed in my childhood bedroom then for probably like another six months. taking sales calls with business owners with bunk beds in the background because me and my brother used to share a room. So definitely not ideal for scaling what was then a multi six figure business. But yeah, a nice experience to look back on nonetheless. Yeah. A good entrepreneurial story with the bunk beds in the background. You should have got a few photos. Yeah, that would have been gold. Yeah, reshoot, reshoot. You mentioned you had a business partner. Do you think at such a young age starting a business that was important for stability and structure and accountability? for sure. Definitely, man. It definitely helped. Yeah, for sure. He was older as well. I think there was like maybe five years between us. So he definitely had like a different mindset. You know, he had been through more life experiences. He had done more things. And when I had failed at five things, he had failed at 10. So he just like he had more lessons to share, you know, so definitely did help. Yeah, like I think if I started without a business partner, it just would have taken me longer. Right? Like I think it just sped up the journey massively because when you have two people pushing each other on, okay, yeah, you're going to like, you're going to scale faster, right? You're going to push each other both as long as you're both aligned to the same mission. It's why if I was to do it again, let's say going back in time and I didn't have a business partner, I would hire, you know, a coach or a mentor straight away for that exact reason, because coach or mentor can kind of be your business partner, but they just don't have equity, but you've skinned in the game because you're paying them. I would kind of view it the same way, whereas I didn't have a coach or mentor, but I had a business partner. So I do think you need one of them. Of course, you can build a business without a coach, without a mentor, doing everything for free. But is it going to take you much, much longer? Yeah, I think it will. Same with a business partner. It can speed up the journey for sure. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And even me, I'm starting my podcast currently and I'm actually looking for like a business partner or yeah, just, just have someone to like bounce ideas off and like accountability. I think that's so important. It is, man. It is. It's a two -sided coin like anything. So there's obviously massive cons that comes with having a partner as well. Obviously, you're probably going to split 50 -50. So you've got to look at the financial side. And of course, there's going to be come times where you're boat -making good money, but there's going to be decisions that you're going to disagree on. And the bigger the business gets, the more consequences of those decisions become. So like for us, we got to a point where... Yeah, we kind of, I think we had hit our peak as to what we were going to do together. And we're like, great, this is cool. We got to this point, it was around 50,000 a month with the agency. And we just had very different visions of how we were going to continue to grow personally, professionally, and all of that. So we parted ways not too long after that. And that's obviously how I exited was I exited and he essentially took over my half. But yeah, man. If you are going to take on a partner, definitely spend some time vetting the person first. We knew each other for about a year beforehand and we did some other mini projects. We were both vegan at the time, so we were posting content about that online and we were selling these e -books, super cheap, but just as a partnership. But there was also two others in the partnership, so it was this four -way partnership. But that allowed, obviously, the two of us to see, okay, yeah, you have a good work ethic. You have a similar mindset to me. And it was kind of like the testing ground for them being able to do the agency just together, just the two of us. So what traits would you look for in someone that you want to do business with? Is there anything now like any red flags that you'd have or any green flags? For sure, for sure man, lots. Red flags, you want to look at their personal life. It's like if you're going into a relationship with someone, right? Like you got to know what they're like personally, not just because you both feel good together and you think you'll go far together. Like how do you both work in your personal lives? That's going to be a big key indicator. How do they manage relationships? Whether that's friends, family, or romantic, doesn't matter. It's all going to give you an indicator as to how they're going to act. And how someone acts is how well they're going to do in business, right? Cause your result in business is just the compound effect of your actions. So that's really, really important. The other thing on the positive side you want to look for is to be honest with you, it's kind of a basic one, but like you need to have opposing skill sets or that you're going to learn opposing skill sets. So in the example of, let's say you were going to get a partner for your podcast. If you were going to be the one, let's say, hosting the podcast, you'd probably want to have someone more, let's say, it's someone more techie on the back end that's going to handle the operation. So the way we kind of split things was I was more front -facing marketing and sales for the agency, and he was more client focused, more about when a client comes in, make sure they're happy, they got a good experience, they're getting good results, and that our team is doing what we need to be doing. Of course, there's times where the boundary blurs, right? And I would lean into more operations and he would lean a little more into marketing, of course. But yeah, having a clear, clear distinction between what you do and are going to do is key for sure. And yeah, that makes a lot of sense, Adam. It's very interesting for me personally. And also I'm sure people listening will find that valuable also. When everything remote these days and like online businesses and remote podcasts, et cetera, like where, how do you network? Like where are good places to go or is there any good communities you'd recommend? Yeah, man, for me personally, I didn't really put a lot of effort into networking, to be honest. I started posting content online, it was 2020, and obviously that was during COVID, so nobody was really doing networking events or anything like that anyway. So to be honest, and to my advantage, I think I got lucky where it's the right time, where I could grow my audience there. Can you still grow an audience? Of course, it was just, it was a little easier back then on TikTok for sure. And because of that, I had quite a few Irish people see my content and reach out just because, you know, we're a small island. So you see one guy doing business and you do business, you're going to reach out. You're going to probably know a friend of his or someone that went to college or there's always going to be a connection. So that's kind of how I first started networking was I posted content. There was this guy Keane that reached out to me and he was from a similar close to where I was from in Ireland. He reached out and he was like, yo, I see you're in this place in Spain at the moment. Me and a friend are going to go down to Marbella. There's a bunch of guys going down there for the month of, I think it was November. We're going to just rent an Airbnb and there's like a group of 10 of them between Ireland, UK. Do you want to come with us? And like, I didn't even know these guys hopped on a quick call with Keane. It was like, you know what? I have no fucking plans. I have no plans. So yeah, why fucking not? Let's do it. Let's give it a shot. I remember him and this guy Jordan picked me up. They drove from, I think they were in Madrid. So they drove from Madrid down to where I was. And then we went down to Marbella from there. And yeah, that was fantastic, man. That was my first look into networking because again, there was about 10 guys there in total. We didn't all live together. It was me, Keen and Jordan, three of us in an Airbnb and then the rest were all spread out. But everyone was doing marketing. Like every one of us, whether it was a guy doing drop shipping. or a guy who had a marketing agency or a guy that had a Facebook ad agency or an email marketing agency. It was all marketing related. That was like my first look at people that were making more money than me first. Some were making way more, some were making a bit less, but also just connecting with people more so on like a vision level. But we were all young and we all had a similar vision. We all wanted to make a lot of money, but we were also very much focused in our health relationships. just becoming better as a human. It wasn't just purely, let's just make as much money as possible. It was very much self -improvement kind of vibes. So for me, man, that's really how I've done networking. And from there, my network has just kind of slowly grown from those connections I've made since then. So my advice to someone is if you're not afraid of posting yourself, get that going. That was the best thing I did for the network for sure. And the second thing, and this is what I hear from people that join my program, is join a program. It doesn't have to be mine, it could be somebody else's. But just, you know, if there's a group of people doing the thing you want to do and you want to be friends with those people, it probably makes sense to be in the group where those people are. You know, it's pretty simple, but obviously you do have to pay to play. It comes down to how much do you want it? Like is it worth paying a few hundred or thousand to get access to that network, which might pay back massive dividends? Yeah, that's a decision you'll have to make, you know. Makes sense. So that networking event with Keane and those guys, that was obviously a good way to spend your weekend or a few days in terms of productivity and vision. Like probably like you can't quantify it, I imagine. no, 100%. Like I've made so much money from those connections, you know, and again, it's hard to put a number on that. But like even Jordan, for example, he's still a good friend of mine now. Last year, I was with him for a week and he was walking me through VSL upsell funnels, something I'd never heard of. It's a marketing term for Basically, you purchase a product and after you purchase it, there's all these other products on offer. But doing that, not just in the typical way you'd see on like a Shopify store where it says, hey, add these products also to your cart or to your order, but actually with videos. I'd never heard of this. Super interesting. He walked me through it for about 30 minutes of some community he was in. And I was like, I could definitely do this for what I do for the program I run. This could work because we have other stuff we can offer, other materials, trainings, resources. And we did it. And like that one small thing that he just showed to me from that connection has made me a significant amount of money. And it was done once, made it once. And that has just produced, yeah, like an extra few thousand a month for well over a year now. Just one small thing, but that came from the right connection of a guy that just knew the stuff and he had access to the information on how to make it work. So how valuable is that? Very, very. Your network is your net worth, as they say. Do you think that the online entrepreneurs, is there like a community in Ireland at the moment? Or do you think if someone was listening to this, maybe like 21 or just finished college, do you think that like a lot of these meetups and a lot of these kind of networking events, can you stay in Ireland and meet these people, do you think? Or is it more so abroad, do you think? Because. From me, from my perspective now, I haven't done too much research, but a lot of these guys seem to living in Spain and Dubai and is Ireland a conducive place? Yeah, I think it's possible for sure. There's definitely some people there still, but I think it depends on who you want to connect with. Ireland's small, right? So why do people leave Ireland? For a lot of times it is that reason. It's small and the network is limited, but also just financially, taxes are obviously crazy. So it depends on who you want to connect with, right? So if you're connecting with other guys just starting out, Ireland's probably a really damn good - place man for sure but if you're trying to connect with a guy doing I don't know that's made a million or two million or something he might be in Ireland but there's more chances if he was Irish he is he has left just from what I've seen there's way more chance he has gone quite a long time so can you meet them yet but meeting the people that are maybe doing more than what you're currently at yeah that's what it like Dubai is great for that right like it's probably one of the best parts about Dubai. is the network. Whatever you have to say about the country or the city in the country or if you don't like it or it's not for you or you don't agree with the ethics, the morals, whatever, the network is phenomenal. And there's people I know that will just go there once every year or twice every year purely for that reason. A week or two, connect with a bunch of people. And again, if someone's in Dubai, they're probably doing okay because they have to have enough to live out there. Yeah, makes complete sense, Adam. So you have this personal brand and you spoke previously about how beneficial it is to have a personal brand and to have some authority. Is there any downsides to having an online presence? Do you ever get recognized when you don't want to get recognized? Or have you ever had any incidents? Yeah, for sure, for sure, man. I remember when I first started posting on TikTok, so 2020, I think it was a year after 2021. And I remember coming back, I got into Dublin Airport, left the airport, got in a taxi or whatever, got out somewhere near the city center. And I mean, immediately, it was just coincidence, because I didn't have that many followers. It was just real coincidence that I just saw this guy flying a drone in a park. And I was just like, that's interesting. And he looked over, caught my eye and he was like, I follow you on TikTok. And then he joined my program the week later, because obviously the trust and the rapport of meeting me in person. And so look, I haven't had really negatives. Of course you'll get hate comments and you'll get people like I get on a lot of my posts from Irish people, they'll say spoof, just that beautiful five letter word. And they'll never give you like a reason as to why they think that it would just be user one four or five, no profile photo spoof. That's all I need to know. When I see the profile, I'm like, cool, that's fine by me, man. You can keep hitting me with those comments. It does good for the algorithm, so I'll take it. But yeah, man, that's definitely it's I wouldn't say it's a downside. It's just something that people have to be aware of. You got to be willing to, of course, deal with that, because if you've never posted yourself before and you post a video and you have three guys calling you this and that, yeah, it's probably going to, you know, it's going to hit your ego a little bit. So there's definitely a case of thick skin, just building that up over time. But I think the positives, no, I don't even think, for me, it's an absolute no brainer. The positives outweigh it 10 to one for sure. Yeah, 100%. 100%, Adam. Did you always have thick skin or is that something that came with time? I think time, man. I think time. I've always been a bit stubborn. So I guess that's kind of similar. Like my family would always say, you know, if I got as a kid, like just some idea, I'd have to see the idea true. I have this funny story. I was shopping with my parents. I was super young. I saw a Nike t -shirt and I was like, that's so cool. I want the Nike t -shirt. And again, we didn't have tons and tons of money. So they're like, no, like you're not getting the Nike t -shirt. You can get one in pennies. You can go to Primark, get one in there. completely cool, it'll be fine. And we did, and I went home and I drew on the Nike symbol, just with a marker, and I was so proud of this, but I hid it away because I didn't want them to see it. And I remember them pulling it out and just making such a case of it to me later on, like a few years later. I was like, yeah, that's an interesting example. But I think it was definitely stubborn. And if you're stubborn, that can obviously be a bad thing. You have to be aware of that. It's how you use the stubbornness. because it might mean that you're close-minded and you get an idea, you won't let anybody convince you otherwise. So you do have to remain open -minded, but if you are stubborn, yeah, that could be a really good thing. Because if you get an idea, you should then use your stubbornness to stick with that idea until it makes sense to change. So, think skin takes time, but I think the stubbornness leads into that for sure, man. Yeah, I agree. I think definitely a healthy amount of stubbornness can be very useful. So yeah, from the outside looking in, Adam, like you've achieved success, you've achieved substantial success, like at a young age. And I know people often put their best foot forward on social media, everyone knows that. Have you had any setbacks along the way or any moments where you were kind of like, maybe I shouldn't be doing this or? Definitely, man, definitely. So I think it's important to know, just for people listening, before I got into business, right? So like before I started in 2019 and graduated college and all of that, beforehand, so back in school when I was like 16, 17, I had a really like dark patch, like really dark. And I've talked about this publicly. Sometimes it can feel weird to talk about it publicly, but I know I've gotten some really good feedback from people going through similar things. So. Yeah, I had really bad acne when I was a kid. Cystic acne, so it's not like your typical pimples, like big boulders on your face. And like I mentioned, you know, at 12, 13, I was really shy. I was really insecure anyway. So when I got acne at whatever 15, 16, that really took me down from, you know, on a confidence level, I was already two out of 10. And that took me to fucking ground zero, man. Like, so for a solid two years, whew. Yeah, like I really was not in a good place. I say this and it's a little bit cringe. Sometimes people hear it. They're probably like, that's ridiculous. But I do think the whole possibility of making money online kind of saved my life because when I was in that period, I realized, yeah, OK, I can make money online. I can make money without showing my face. And like you can imagine if you're insecure and then you've got all these these spots and things making it even worse for you. that can be such a relief knowing that, wow, there's this way of making money where I don't have to show my face. So I say that not lightly. Like I genuinely do think that kind of saved my life knowing that that was a possibility because that was like the glimmer of hope that I always had. It's like that one day I'll get to that point. But yeah, during that time, that was really rough, like really bad. Like I and again, I don't say it lightly. I did not think there was a possibility. or a reality in which I could be happy, like genuinely. I didn't feel, it's not that I was like, I was just sad. It was like, I didn't, I couldn't conceptualize how that could ever be possible. And that was, that's obviously a really bleak thought to have. So once I got out of that, I feel like I got to a point where I realized I never want to be as low as that ever again. So any little hiccups or setbacks I've had with business or. personal life, they haven't hit me as much. And I think that's just because, again, once you've gone so low, if anybody's listening to this and you've had like a serious period of a year or two of depression and potentially suicidal thoughts, you really never want to get to that level ever again. So you will embody and act and become the person that won't really ever get to that point again. So I've had hiccups for sure. When I was exiting the agency, there was like a three month period where the most stress I've ever felt in my life by far, like three months of feeling like something was wrong with me, you know, like there's something off here. My sleep was gone to shit. My libido was all over the place. Super stressful. So yeah, I've had those stressors and you will with business, of course. There's always going to be little things that, you know, are really difficult to deal with, but. For me, that helped. It helped going through a really hard, rough patch at a younger age because then, you know, exiting the business, okay, it was really still stressful, but it didn't hit me as hard as it could have hit me if I didn't have the thick skin built up from that previous experience. So, yeah, happy to go deeper, obviously, on any of that there if you want. But yeah, I think that's important for people to know, you know, that there will be struggles. But if you've had a lot of struggles beforehand, that's really good. And if you view it as that, it will be like such an asset to you. Yeah, thanks so much for sharing your vulnerabilities, Adam. And you said, people might find this cringe. And yeah, first thing I just have to say, I don't think anyone will find that cringe. I don't think anyone will find that cringe. Yeah, I think it's very brave of you to open up in your vulnerabilities. And I'm sure a lot of people will be able to relate to that also. Yeah, for me, growing up in secondary school, it was definitely had its highs and its lows also. So I can really relate to what you're saying. And I think at such a young age, maybe if you feel like you're getting bullied or if you feel like you're you know, if you're unhappy or you feel a little isolated, like when you're that young as well, it's the first time you kind of feel these strong emotions at like 16, 17, and you don't know how to process them. Yeah, exactly, man. It can be a very, very scary time. So yeah, I think if there's someone that's going through something of that nature, I can just realize that it's only going to continue that way if you let it continue that way. So for me, there was this moment, and I've told this one before, and I know it's caught people. So I'll say it again. There was this little moment I had where I'd come back from a dermatology appointment with my mother. At the time, I'm going to guess it was like 17. maybe 18. And so I wasn't even driving at the time. So she drove me into this appointment. I had to come out of school for it. And I had this issue, obviously, with the acne, but I also had this issue with my lips where because of the medication I was taking for acne, it's called Accutane or Roacutane in Ireland. It's very strong. And I was on a very, very high dose for it. It dries out your skin and anybody that takes it will know that. And it's a really horrible feeling. And mine reacted in such a way where the skin on my lips wouldn't grow properly. So it would scab over. And I was like, fucking hell, man, this is just another thing. Because it was like, now I had the acne, I had the insecurity anyway, just being super shy. And now you're trolling this extra thing on. So I had this moment where I came up with an appointment and I had just gotten some really bad news about it. I was hoping I'd come out of this appointment and the day be like, yeah, in two months it'll be gone and you'll be set. And it was very much the opposite of that. And they were like, no, this thing's going to be here. I don't see this going away anytime soon. Like a year, two years, three years, we don't know. And obviously I think I was going to college the next year. So it was just soul crushing to hear that, you know? And I remember at that point, I came outside, I was in the car with my mother and the sun was shining like really bright. You know, that kind of Irish sun where it's still fresh outside, but you got beautiful blue skies, sun is just beaming in. And I started crying, man. Like I just, I just couldn't control myself. Started crying. And I had a moment where I just realized that it was, it was all on me. Like it didn't matter how I looked. It was my perception of what I thought people were thinking when they saw me. That was the problem. It wasn't that people thought I looked a certain way or would judge me a certain way. If they did, fuck them. But most people wouldn't, right? Cause they'd have, they'd have empathy. They'd have humility and... For me, that was such a key moment, such a key moment. Knowing that, that was like the thing. The thing that was holding me back all that time, that was keeping me sad, depressed, not in a good position, was me not taking control, not controlling the things I could control and just putting the blame on external factors. So I was blaming my skin, my acne, my this, my that. And I realized like, man, you're the problem. Like it's you. Like it's how you're viewing this whole situation. Like nobody is going to... massively judge you because of how you look. If they do, then they're not worth the salt. And that for me was a game changer. And things changed for me at that point. And I think whatever you're going through, you can apply that, right? If you've started a business and it's not working, well, look at it and go, well, are there other people making it work? Okay. If yes, it's you. It's not the business model is broken. Right? I hear that all the time from people with business. Like, how do I start an agency? It's not working. Yeah. It's not meant to work right away. It's going to take some time, right? But at the same time, if there's other people making it work, you can too. So you've got to look at what you're doing. Your inputs are going to give you the output that you're trying to get. So if the output isn't what you want, change the input. So that's like a really simple example, but I know that was very true for me on a personal level, but then you can apply that to business or really anything else that you're doing, you know, so the podcast, man, right? Like if you get to a point and you're like, podcast isn't going as well as I thought, which might come into your minds, I would urge you to look at that as well and go, cool, well, are there other people doing better than me with the podcast? If so, it's the input. It's maybe how I'm doing it or how marketing it, or there's something else I could change to get the results that other people are getting. I like that a lot Adam, so like focus on what you can control is kind of a key message there. 100%. It's all you can do, right? Like there's always going to be external factors and things happening, a recession, a COVID or, you know, whatever, but all you can control is what you control. Do you have any, does anyone inspire you at the moment? Do you have anyone who inspires you in the business world or personally, is there any particular author that stands out to you? Yeah, I've got a couple, man. I've got a couple. I feel like I've quite a few and there wouldn't be just one person that I'd want to kind of emulate. And you might relate to this. Like there's guys I'd be reading books from about business that I really respect. And then there's a guy about mindset and there's a guy more on the health and fitness side. So I feel for me right now, it's just like a big combination of a bunch of very inspirational people. So for example, I'll do... I'll do my second marathon this year. It's just something I did. I did one last year, so I'm like, cool, I'll do another one. There's a couple of guys in that space that I'd really look up to. A guy, Nick Bear, great example of just a guy who runs a business, has a family, but also has time for his health and fitness. On the business side, there's, yeah, there's a few. There's a really interesting guy based out in Dubai called William Brown. If anybody's into starting a coaching business or consulting. He's definitely someone I would look at. And then of course, there's some older dudes that I'm looking up to right now in terms of property and some other things on that level. But yeah, not just one person, man. It's definitely a mix right now. Yeah, same here actually. Yeah, it's kind of a hard question saying like who is your one idol, but yeah, different influences. Do you? sure. Would you find as well you'd have people for specific things? Because I know for me that's normally seems to be the case. Yeah, absolutely, Adam. I have various different interests. I'm kind of getting into the world of entrepreneurship, spirituality, anything. Various different people interest me in various different fields, different authors. I'm doing a course at the moment by Justin Welch. So that's interesting to me at the moment. It's on how to build your brand on LinkedIn. So I'm finding that interesting. Yeah. My favorite book is by Eckhart Tolle. It's called The Power of Now. yes. Have you read that, Adam? Not the full thing though, I'll be honest. So I do need to finish it. I've only dipped in and out. Yeah, it's a really interesting one. Just on the whole, it really got me thinking about, I suppose, I think my analysis would be it draws on Buddhism and being present in your ego. It really opened my mind to different topics. For sure, for sure. Again, haven't dove deep enough in it, but I think it's definitely more on the spiritual side for sure. Yeah. And do you have any mentors at the moment? Do you have a formal mentorship relationship with anyone? Not currently. There's one that's about to start, but it's for property. So it won't be directly, you know, about online business. cool. And what's drawing you into a property? Why do you think that's a good investment? Yeah, it's a good question, man. For me, it's very much a personal thing. Like I know there's other things I could do with my money for sure. There's other places I could put it, other investments that might be more liquid. So it's not so much that it's like the best investment. I wouldn't believe that. It's just it's really safe and secure. And I like that. And it's physical and you can touch it. And can somebody steal your property? No, they can rob your property. They can come in and smash the place up and do what they want to it. But they aren't just like, you know, forklift your property out of the ground and it's gone. So I just, I like that. So I bought my first property last year and I'll, yeah, I'll continue to buy some more, you know, I'll spread them out. I think I won't just buy in one country, probably spread it out. But yeah, I think long -term, obviously it makes a lot of sense if you can have some. some properties that you have for yourself and your family and friends and whatever, but then also to have properties that you would rent out. I think it's a nice nest egg to have. I wouldn't try to term passive income because most income isn't cruelly passive. It takes some work, same as a property, unless you have management company and all the people in place to do that for you. But that's kind of the next step for me is to kind of look at, okay, I've made some money. I'll continue to make money with the coaching I do and everything. But yeah, when you have the money, then you need to put it somewhere. Letting it stack in a bank account, it can be scary. Yeah, definitely. So I think from listening to your content or just in general, you are Yeah, like there's different aspects of success and I know like maybe you've achieved financial freedom and you have like, you kind of have a roadmap for certain investments. What does like success look like for you? Like what are the other components of success? Love the question, man, because it really isn't. The money is... The reason I focus on money so much with my social media content, because 99 % of people that follow my stuff, the problem is the money. They need the money. When they get the money, they can focus on the other things. So I do strongly, strongly believe in that, that if you're trying to get success, again, whatever that means for you, it makes a lot of sense to go through a period, like an intense period of a couple of years, whether it's two years or five years. depend on your situation where you just make as much money as you can. Right. Not at the expense of other things, but like that is your top priority. Okay. So for me, that's kind of what I did since college. Was I still working out and pursuing fitness? Yes, I was. Was I still putting time into relationships, friends, all that stuff, family? Yeah, I have. But business was number one. So have those priorities. And I think that what that does for you is that if you do not have to think about your bills, you don't have to think about... You know, can I afford rent for the next six months when you can have the freedom to not think about, well, if I get fired and effect that gives you a degree of security, which then from that you can build other things. So for me personally, what does success look like? It's, I feel like it's. It's multifaceted for sure. It's financial, but then it's more so what the finance brings. So for myself. Like last year when I bought a property, that was a really key moment for me because I always wanted to do that where it's a place that my family could use and I could use. And that's like a big component of being able to support the people that I truly care about. You know, if that's giving back, if it's having a place they can use, having materials of the success be things that they'll also benefit from. But yeah, man, look, you know, my life plan is I'll have kids. I'll... You know, raising a family is a big, big priority. It's something I, I'm very excited to do and I won't be one of these, you know, billionaire CEOs. It's not attractive to me whatsoever. It's make money, continue what I'm doing, invest it wisely. Don't be too risky and be rather safe with the investments I make. That's the way I've always kind of done things. Not live beyond my means, keep my expenses low as I need to and have that time, man. Whether it's. do more marathons and do more running, or it's, if I can have kids early and have a bunch of them, like that's what I want. And I want the freedom to be able to do that. And really where that comes from again is, it's money, so. Yeah, it's a very solid plan and yeah, makes complete sense again. Adam, you mentioned. what's success for you? What success for me? Yeah, I think as you said, like I think you need income coming in, like you don't want that stress or that uncertainty. So that's, you know, I think definitely to achieve financial freedom, something I'm kind of working towards are definitely one of my goals. I think that's essential. And I agree with you 100%. You need that security and that certainty. And then I think it's like relationships, like having relationships, having those friends and yeah. And then family, I think also family is obviously number one, but. I think your priorities in your 20s, I think making money, it does make a lot of sense, if you can do that in your 20s. You mentioned that you prioritized making money and you were successful in that pursuit. Did you, like when you said that, you still focused on relationships, but it wasn't a priority. So I was backpacking last year, I was in South America. I was backpacking for like four months and then I came back and I was like, okay, like I've, I haven't, I've just been kind of like soul searching and doing yoga and partying for the past four and a half months. I was like, I need to do a bit of work. And so my friend was actually in a similar position and we moved here to Los Palmas and we're like, okay, like we need to like kind of lock ourselves away and get some work, lock ourselves away for a period and get some work done. But. We tried the social media fad monk mode where we were super tracking everything, our fitness. We're tracking our fitness, our business goals, goals outside of our nine to five. We did achieve certain successes, but definitely after four weeks, I really felt that we were neglecting relationships. Because we weren't even on Saturday, we were like, Saturday would be our rest day. And we were like, do we want to go to this party? If there's a drink there, will that just be a distraction? But after a while, I think, neglecting social relationships, you do just get a bit kind of isolated and you almost get a bit like socially awkward. How did you handle that? Because you must have had periods of like, you must have had those periods of kind of locking yourself away. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I can also relate, man. I went to Asia for five months in total. So very similar experience where it was in college. It was an Erasmus. So I was studying and I had a drop shipping store at the time. So I had a bit of income coming in, whatever. But yeah, it was very much just I'm here to have the time. And I remember coming back and the itch I had to just do some fucking work was insane. I was like, right, last year college now, what the hell am I going to do? really put the foot down and yeah, it just brings back the memories. I can relate to that a lot. In terms of making that sacrifice socially, I think it's personal, man. I think it's up to the person. If you're a super extroverted person, well, yeah, doing monk mode and locking yourself away for three months probably make you go clinically insane. You'll probably come out of that in a stretcher. But if you're... If you're like me and you're introverted, you won't need as much of it. You're still going to need it, right? You're still going to need people. You're going to need human interaction. You just won't need as much. So like for me, I think it was a bit of an advantage. And, but I did have periods. So for example, those guys, Keenan Jordan that I met when they invited me to Marbella, one of the main reasons I went with them was because I had been by myself for 30 days in a part of Spain where I was like, I went there just to work. And that was my goal. And I got 30 days in and I was like, Man, I'm starting to lose my mind a bit here. This is getting a bit too, too Truman show vibes. Like I just feel like a character now. I feel like a character in a movie here. This is weird. So when they gave me that invitation, I hopped on it because I was like, this is great. This gives me exactly what I'm looking for. Social interaction with the right people that are on the same path as me. This is fantastic. So yeah, it's a part of it. You know, do you need to cut off all your relationships to be successful? Hell no. Definitely not. I think there's a bit of a glorification of that as well in social media, because it sounds extreme and it kind of sounds cool in a sense. You know, like the whole monk mode, like, cut everyone off, don't drink, don't party, do nothing but work for six months. Yeah, I agree, that will get you really far. But what's more likely is that 30 days in, you'll have a moment and you'll be like, this is fucking crazy. I'm losing my mind here. And then you'll just quit completely. versus what if you just tried to balance the things. Again, going back to my example of business being top priority, but still having to go to things there, just less of them. I think you'd actually get quite a bit further. Yeah, cool solid advice, Adam. And I agree with you. I do agree with you with social media and YouTube, like going to monk mode. I think there is a bit of BS in the whole productivity space. Like I see a lot of these morning routines, like red light, 20 minute stretching, cold shower every morning, 6 a I don't hear many actual successful people talking about their morning routine. Yeah, there's a whole lot of successful people just get up and work, man. It's real boring, you know? Just get the jocks on, brush the teeth, and straight into it. You should vlog that. My morning routine. Yeah. Do you like so while we're on the topic of like kind of productivity, what do you find useful? Like I know from your content that you meditate a bit. Good question man. There's a few things for sure. I feel like I need to do a lot more of it at the beginning. So it's like if you are trying to progress in fitness, you'll start, you know, and you'll have to do all the things and you'll get to a point and you've built your foundation and you won't need to do as much of it. It's very much the same for me with this. So going back to that episode that I mentioned, right, being 16, 17, really dark, deep place. One of the main kind of ways I feel like I got out of that was true. It actually wasn't true business. That was the possibility of making money online was like this hope, this beacon of light. But like the practical things I did was very much kind of a lot of what you just mentioned, like a lot of the cold showers, meditation, cold sea swimming, a lot of uncomfortable things at that age just to get outside of your comfort zone. And then from that, see new parts of myself. You know, like every every five minute cold shower, you'd realize some other little insecurity you had or little flaw or little. unspoken fear that was holding you back. So a lot of those things help me out. Currently, I would still meditate from time to time. I would still do yoga. Like every morning I will stretch, you know, it's not a full yoga routine. It's like maybe 10, 15 minutes. I'll always get enough steps each day, 10,000 steps. I'll do weights workouts, maybe three times a week and do three runs, you know, stuff like that. But it's very much again, it supports what I do. It's not. the be all end all. So if I injured myself tomorrow, would my life completely fall off a cliff because I couldn't do my 10 ,000 steps? No, it wouldn't. I would still do the work I need to do. I would just put more time into the other things such as meditating and all those things. Tips I can give that I do want to give, again, especially for the people that are kind of getting into this world for the first time, the online business world is... Be very intentional with your screen time, because if you're going to now work online for yourself, you're going to spend more time on the screen. Right. And if you're putting that on top of four hours a day of scrolling on TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and all these other things, then that's going to be a bit too much. So be very intentional with how much time you spend on screens. You don't need to hustle 16 hours a day, right, on your laptop just to make money online. You can do it in a lot less time. do it with a lot better focus and more strategic work. That'll get you there faster. Cut out pornography. If that's something that you were dabbling in, for me, that was massive. And that definitely helped me back for a very long time. Cut that out, get it gone. It's going to take time to get it out of your life because you've probably been watching it since you're like 13 or 14, if you're like most young guys. So it's not going to go like that, but probably the biggest advice you could cut out before, before anybody talks about, you know, drinking. drugs, anything, man, pornography, get that shit going first. That's definitely number one in my books. But yeah, just plenty of other things, but you know, you do those two things, you keep your screen time down and you stay away from those devices. Yeah, you'll be in a pretty good position to be pretty productive. Then it just comes down to discipline, you know, actually getting what you need to get done when you say you're gonna get it done. Yeah, it's interesting you mentioned like pornography. I think that's like such an issue for like so many guys, like especially guys in like secondary school and high school. And it's just so bad. Like it's such an unhealthy habit. Like you wonder like what are the effects of like generations of young guys like watching porn? Because yeah. It's not gonna look good. That's what I know for sure. That's not gonna be pretty. Like you can imagine, like our parents, you know, they didn't really have that, right? Could they still find pornography? Yeah, of course. I'm sure they'd find magazines and fucking movies when movies came out, right? But like the access now is just so insane. And it is scary to think what that access will look like in 40 years from now when technology has advanced 40 years. So it's scary to think, but... Yeah, what's funny is I remember my mother once asking me when I was really young, you know, have you ever watched pornography? And I was like, no, no God, I'd never do that. And obviously I did. Right. And I remember just thinking like, my God, mom, you're actually just such a, you're such a mom. Like, you know, this is just so like not cool for you to say that. Like, why are you trying to tell me what I shouldn't watch? And it's funny then coming years later going like, man, she was right the whole time. God damn. She was right the whole time. And so people listening to me and you say it might think the same thing, might be like, these lads are just, these lads are just boring, man, what are they on about? But I'm telling you, when you see through that and you cut it out for a period of time, you'll feel a lot better. Your head's going to be clearer. You're going to be more motivated and you're going to see the world more for what the world is. Like you're going to respect people more. That was definitely something I found as well. So. Yeah man, what an issue. Yeah, 100 % an issue. And I think it's something that's not talked about enough. How do you de -stress? So do you always take Saturdays off? Do you always say, okay, Saturday, I'm not thinking about the business. Do you go on a holiday or do you have anything specific routine? Just completely take your head away from the work. Yeah, man, I'll be honest, I don't often feel like I need to do that. I don't often feel like I need to get away completely. I really like knowing what's going on in my business. So for me, like last weekend, for example, I took Sunday completely off, which is not something I do regularly. Like that's probably something I do. I could count the number of times per year I do that. It's very rare that I take a full day off. And when I say a full day off, I mean like not check anything. Don't look at. any team messages, students, nothing, the whole lot completely off. And yeah, man, I actually like I was finishing the day and I was just like, yeah, I just, I'm really looking forward to getting back into it. So it definitely works and it definitely rejuvenates me. But at the same time, I like what I do, which is, you know, it's a funny thing to say because I know a lot of people's situation is, yeah, like your weekend is your escape and that's fine. But. Just know that you can get to a position where the stuff you do, you actually do enjoy. Of course, there's gonna be headaches you gotta deal with, like anything. But like I deal with 99 % things that are quite enjoyable to deal with because I've learned to love the game of what I do. And that's quite beautiful. And that's really just a message I wanna get to people is like, the business you wanna build, if it's online, it doesn't have to be the things you hate. You know, you can very much build a business around the life you want. And that's something that I didn't do for a long time. And now for the last year or so, I've done that with a lot more intentionality. So my business now versus two years ago, I enjoy it a lot more now. I have less anxiety about it now. I have less stress about it now because I've just eliminated the things I hate and I've done more of the things that I really like and that I'm good at. So I think that's a key part, man. But... Yeah, for me, exercise is such a good way to de -stress. So like that I'll work out not every single day, but most days of the week, whether it's a run or at home with the weights or at a gym. I'll pretty much do something every day. It's massive. I'll know if I haven't done that for three days, I'll feel a bit off. So I'm definitely addicted to the release from exercise for short. But yeah, man, I love a good book. You know, love a good book. Get me down to the beach on a Sunday. Couple of hours with a book. Yeah, I'm doing good. So that's a big part of it, man. Family time as well. Time with people I care about. That's always good. Just to kind of ground you a bit again. You know, stop thinking about payments and this coaching call and this thing that's going on and just reality, man. Just back to the basics. No, sick Adam. And yeah, good for you. Do you ever drink? Like, do you enjoy a drink every now and then? Yeah, not too often. I'll have, you know, I'd say maybe one or two glasses of wine a month, just casually at a dinner. Started to get into the wine world a year and a half ago and my eyes have been opened. So I'm very much a wine man now. Proud to say it. Apart from that man, I'd say there's a couple of times a year where I'll go, you know, proper session. Good, good few drinks. Normally when I'm back home in Ireland, but it's normally for an event. and an occasion. So I will enjoy that, but it's not something I do regularly. Every time I do it, I'm like, cool, great. That's me done for six months. Fantastic. Don't feel the need to do it again now. So I'm set. When in Rome, as they say. As they say, man, as they say. Funny on that, John, I do want to mention I did three years with no alcohol when I was in college. So I've done the period of, you know, cutting it out completely. And yeah, like I kind of just reintegrated it then. And I was like, yeah, cool. It's not controlling me anymore. I feel like I have good control over it now. But there's certain times in life you will have a better time with alcohol. Like I remember going out in college to nightclubs completely sober. And my God, looking back, they were some of the most boring nights of my life because everybody else is just fucking hammered and I was just sober. So there's certain things in life. You just got to, like you said, do what the Romans would do, man. So if you're going out clubbing, either just don't go out clubbing or maybe go out and have a few drinks. Yeah, definitely. I did like a patch. I did like four months not drinking here. And I think it is beneficial to take a break for a while, especially if it's like, for me, it was getting a bit too much. Like, so I like, I needed a break. But yeah, I'm kind of similar to you. Like I enjoy a drink every now and then, but yeah, I definitely think it was beneficial to take some time away from it. Three years in university, that must have taken a lot of willpower. It didn't, it didn't, man. You know, my course was, it wasn't the hardest in the world. You know, I do have to say that compared to a lot of courses, it was probably very chill. You know, I think we did 20 hours a week as like lectures, 20 hours a week of lectures and then projects and homework and whatever you had to do for, you know, I guess a few hours a day. I really struggled with maths. So like in primary school, not primary school, secondary school I did. and like lower level maths. So I passed that or whatever, but then my college course kind of assumed you had a higher level, but you didn't need it. So everybody had pretty much done higher level. So I know I really struggled with that. It was a case of first year I'd spent like four, three, four hours a week getting grinds just on maths. UCD actually provided them for free. So shout out to them. Otherwise I definitely wouldn't have got them, wouldn't have been paying for them. But yeah, man, it definitely derailed me from business for sure. This is the thing I look back and like I was doing business before with other things like drop shipping in a few things. And then I kind of stopped for three years while in college and just did little bits and pieces and then obviously started properly afterwards. So sometimes I think back like where would I be if I had just not gone to college? I think in some regard I'd be further ahead on the money side, but I think I'd be further behind on the life experience side. So like the... Five months I spent in Asia, that was for college, that was an Erasmus. I did two months in Mexico in first year of college, which was during summer. I lived with a Mexican family. They just spoke Spanish, so I kind of almost got to fluent level Spanish with them. I taught kids English in this little school. It was a really fun experience. I wouldn't have done that, you know? That was just purely because it was a college society that was organizing this thing. A company called EIL Ireland, by the way, I'm just going to shout them out because it was free. They paid for the whole trip and everything, which was insane. It's the only reason I did it, to be honest, is why it got my attention. So if someone wants to go down that path of volunteering, then have a look at what they do. Overall, man, I think college definitely held me back financially, but I think on the life experience side, it was for sure it was worth it. And that experience is invaluable in your early 20s. Yeah. yeah, for sure. Because like you can imagine, let's say I escaped and then at age 35, I went and did that. It just wouldn't have been the same man. 35, living with a family, you know, it just wouldn't have worked. Whereas I was like 19 or 20. Perfect man. They just brought me in as their own son for two months. They were like the nicest people ever. I still, you know, I still have contact with them. I still visit them. So like that's a bond I'll have for life. Again, wouldn't have got that if I wasn't in college and I didn't get this email that said, do you want to travel for free? If I didn't get that email, I wouldn't have done that. So it was definitely worth it. Cool. If you met 18 -year -old Adam, what would you say to him? What a great question. I would tell him. that he needs to realize it's him and it's not the world. Because at 18, that's when I was in that period of being very dark, down, not in a good place. So if I could just tell him, look man, you'll be fine. You will be happy. It is possible for you. You can get to that point and you'll do fine. You'll make money you want to make and you'll get the life that you've been thinking of. But the only reason you'll have gotten it is because you will have realized. that everything in your life is because of you and not the world. So like the success you want to get is not going to just come to you. You're going to have to go get it. The unhappiness you're going through right now doesn't have to be there. It's because you are allowing it be there. Like you need to change how you're viewing the world. You need to change your inputs, your actions, your habits, your beliefs. And if you change all that, you will be completely fine. And you know, that's what I truly believe. got me to where I am and yeah, I'm happy where I am. So that's exactly what I would say. Yeah, I really love that, Adam. And I really like what you said is like, you will be happy. I think that's such an important thing to like, to like be cognizant of like if you're ever going through a rough patch or like anxiety, just think like you will be joy, you will have joy again and you will be in a good place. Like just maintain that belief. Sure. And that's so hard to believe when you're in that moment. So hard. But like you will. The only reason you won't is if, okay, God forbid you do something, number one, or number two, clinically, chemicals in the brain, you actually have like a clinical depression. Like that's different. I can only speak on what I went through, which was like circumstantial depression, which is I feel depressed because of these factors and these thoughts I'm having. but very much things I could change. So, you know, if someone has something clinical, hey, I definitely am not the man to give you advice on that. You need extra help. But yeah, I mean, it's, I think it's so important because like, have you been in a period like that where you feel like you had anxiety, stress, depression, and just an overall sense of not being where you want to be? 100 % like definitely like definitely in university like I kind of like sucked into like the party scene and like house parties and I found I kind of got lost in that and I definitely felt kind of like isolated at a stage and but yeah I definitely felt isolated and I could really relate to like just feeling that you will never be happy again kind of a dark place like overwhelmed with kind of anxiety and but yeah that's why I kind of related to what you said just like. believe that you will be happy again. It's just a period. For sure, man. Yeah. It's great, obviously, hindsight and be able for us to look back and see that. But again, I think for both of us going forward, you have that awareness now that you'll carry through so that if you're in a period like that again, which, hey, might happen because we're human, that you'll have the tools now and the awareness to get through it. Yeah, no, I couldn't agree more, Adam. Yeah, it was such a pleasure having you on today, Adam. I think you've a great story and you really have a lot of experience and invaluable insights from your life journey so far. So personally, I'm extremely excited to see how far you go and what you will do next. And yeah, you're just a really genuine and nice person, Adam. So I really appreciate your time today. Appreciate you having me on, man. It's been a great chat and yeah, sure that you man, the questions were, you know, questions that yeah, really made me reflect as well. So I really enjoyed the time with you, man. And I'm excited to see where you go with things as well. Yeah, I'm glad to hear that Adam. Talk soon then. Peace man, have a good one.