Let's Ride w/ Paul Estrada

Serial Entrepreneur: Building a Business Empire from Scratch

• Paul Estrada • Season 1 • Episode 15

Share episode

What happens when calculated risk-taking, unwavering values, and financial discipline converge? Adam Blanchard's remarkable journey from third-generation lawyer to multi-business entrepreneur provides the blueprint.

After realizing that a career in litigation wasn't his passion, Blanchard pivoted dramatically when a casual beer conversation with a friend sparked the idea to start a trucking company. This decision marked the beginning of a entrepreneurial path that would lead to founding multiple successful businesses across trucking, consulting, and real estate sectors. But what makes Blanchard's story particularly compelling isn't just his business acumen—it's the intentional approach that fueled his success.

Living with his grandmother to aggressively pay off student loans, Blanchard demonstrates how early financial discipline creates the foundation for entrepreneurial freedom. "The more frugal you are earlier on, the more the success is meaningful down the road," he shares, offering a refreshing counterpoint to the instant-gratification narrative often associated with entrepreneurship. His partnership philosophy—preferring to share ownership with people whose strengths complement his weaknesses—reveals how effective team-building has enabled him to scale multiple ventures simultaneously.

Beyond business, Blanchard's story includes unexpected chapters, from running for the Texas State Legislature to giving congressional testimony before U.S. Senators. Throughout these experiences, his commitment to core values remains unwavering, whether instilling financial responsibility in his four sons despite family success, or refusing to compromise his principles during his political campaign.

His parting wisdom resonates with aspiring entrepreneurs and executives alike: "If you can dream it, you can do it. Don't be sitting on your deathbed one day saying 'what if?' Just do it." Discover how Blanchard's journey demonstrates that entrepreneurial success comes not from avoiding risks, but taking calculated ones while staying grounded in solid financial principles and personal values.

Subscribe now to hear more conversations with business leaders who are charting unconventional paths to success.

Paul:

So, Adrian, I have to ask you a question. So we've been talking about how you never want to spend any money, and then last week you came to me and you said Dad, can I buy the Minecraft movie? And I said, yeah, you sure can with your own money. And then what did you do?

Adrian:

I bought it.

Paul:

But there are some things that happened before you just bought it.

Adrian:

Yeah.

Paul:

What did you do?

Adrian:

Me and my brother split 12 and 12.

Paul:

So you were smart. You said, hmm, I don't want to pay $24.99. I'm going to ask my brother if he'll pay half right.

Adrian:

Yeah.

Paul:

So you negotiated a deal with him, right?

Adrian:

Yeah, and he agreed.

Paul:

And he was in agreement with you, right? And you also negotiated one other thing with mom. What did you negotiate with her? My mom said that she'll pay the 99 cents. So you got 12 for your brother and you got 99 cents from your mom and you only had to pay 12 and then you got to buy the minecraft movie, right?

Adrian:

no, but uh, mom just said I didn't ask her to pay the 99 cents, but she just said it she just offered yeah and you gladly accepted right yeah yeah, uh, so cool.

Paul:

So then you got to watch the movie. So now you're now you own it, so that's pretty cool yeah, I know but then this week yesterday you were like I really want my 12 back, right yeah and so then, what did you say? I want to do chores, so when I earned it back, so explain to everybody, like what did you do to earn your money back?

Adrian:

Um, I did chores.

Paul:

Yeah, like what? But tell them. So you made a deal with me.

Adrian:

So I made a deal with my dad to pay me $2 for picking up all the cardboard and then I made a deal with my mom to pay me $10 to clean the whole entire fence and the swing set like clean the spider webs off and one of the plants.

Paul:

Oh, so you made all $12 back, didn't you? Yeah, that's pretty sweet. So one thing, though when you negotiated your deal with me you know that's what dad does for a living I negotiate deals, right, yeah. And so you negotiated $2, and then you tried to negotiate for more money, didn't you?

Adrian:

well, yeah, because it was a bigger job it was.

Paul:

It was outside of the original scope of work, or what? Yeah yeah, and what did I say? I'm like a deal's a deal, dude yeah right, and then you went to mom and you negotiated a way better deal for yourself. Yeah Well, you know what? You're already becoming a good businessman, son.

Adrian:

So good job, I try, I try, I try.

Paul:

Hi, let's Ride listeners. It's your friend, paul Estrada. If you've gotten any value out of any of the episodes, I'm here to ask you to pause this episode and take a moment to subscribe to the show. Wherever you're listening to this podcast. If you're a real go-getter, please take a moment to leave a review of the podcast. I'd be indebted to you forever. Thank you for supporting and listening to the show and for going on this journey with us. Pause, subscribe and let's ride.

Paul:

Our guest today is an example of what can happen when calculated risk-taking, business acumen, sacrifice and staying true to your values can lead to exceptional results. Following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, he became a third-generation lawyer Early into that journey and after much self-reflection, he pivoted when he realized litigation wasn't his passion. His new direction was revealed during a casual conversation with friends over beers. Since then, he's gone on to found multiple companies in the trucking, consulting and real estate industries. In addition to running several businesses, he found the time to run for public office, knocking on hundreds of doors and writing personalized messages to his potential constituents. Most recently, he gave congressional testimony in Washington DC in front of a US Senate subcommittee that was attended by several US senators and televised on C-SPAN.

Paul:

I'm excited for our guest today, adam Blanchard. So, adam, I got to say I've been working on this podcast for a while and I've been kind of assessing my own career through this process, as I've been talking to people and I was feeling pretty good. I'm like you know, I'm pretty proud of what I've accomplished. I'm kind of coming up on the 40-year birthday here in August, so I'm doing a lot of reflection and I was feeling really good about myself. And then I go and I looked at your LinkedIn and I realized that we're basically the same age but your LinkedIn is a lot longer and more developed than mine. So you really kind of put me back in reality. So appreciate that.

Adam:

That's nice of you to say it. It is tough getting to 40. Although 40 is not a big deal to me, paul, I'm kind of getting ready for 40. 30 hit pretty hard. I think it was just like the end of an era at 30 where my adolescence I couldn't be a knucklehead anymore. But I'm kind of looking forward to 40. Is it hitting you hard? It's not hitting me too bad.

Paul:

I feel great. We'll see how long that lasts. But yeah, they say I don't know, you remember when you were young, maybe in your teens or something, you'd look at your parents or your grandparents like man, you guys are old and now you're kind of getting to that age. I'm like, wait, maybe that's not so old after all.

Adam:

Exactly that's what I'm telling myself.

Paul:

In my head, age is much more relative as you start tacking more years on, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, so we have a lot to cover today, so I'm going to jump straight into it and I'm a little bit joking aside but I think we have to start by touching on your resume, because you've been, let's say, of working age, the professional age, for maybe not even quite 20 years, or maybe right around 20 years. But what you've been able to accomplish, both from a career perspective and from an extracurricular perspective I'll call it educational perspective has really been tremendous. So let's start all the way back at the beginning, and I know you got your bachelor's and then you went straight in to get your JD. So what was the impetus or thoughts behind just kind of super powering your educational journey and having that build the foundation for what you're going to do professionally?

Adam:

Yeah, I mean, I'm a third generation attorney, so we'll start from the beginning here. I grew up in Amarillo, texas, up in the panhandle, just a good old West Texas boy, and you know, education was really big for my family, and so my dad I was a little more focused on other extracurriculars in high school, didn't have the best grades, and so I ended up going to Oklahoma State, as you saw, and when I got there my dad was just he and I are very close and he's been my best friend my whole life. He's still around, which is great, which I'm very thankful for. And when I got to college he said look, adam, this is your life's going to depend on your career or, excuse me, your life's going to depend on your education. It's time to get it together. And so I really focused on my grades in college, went from college. I was thinking about getting my MBA or going to law school, but as close as my dad and I are, I decided to go to law school, and so his father was attorney, my father's attorney, and so that was kind of the impetus of me.

Adam:

Going to law school was really involved in all of our trial advocacy, so I was on the national trial competition teams and all that. When I got out I wanted to try cases, but the reality is and in business I'm glad this is the case but when I got out I couldn't try cases, and so it was a lot of writing and just things that I didn't really enjoy. It's very contentious. I did litigation, so trial work, so it was battling all day and I've never been one to walk away from a fight, but I've never been one to look for one either, and so I just kind of got tired of that. And also seeing my dad older still billing hours, you know there's just not any equity. You're going to spend your whole life grinding.

Adam:

If that's the direction you go, it's a very great career, but it was just something that I didn't didn't really suit me, and so I started dating my wife. Her father was a, was an entrepreneur, and became really a mentor of mine. I said you know, I'd like to be in business but I don't have any particular skill sets, and so I'd been practicing, I'd gone out on my own. When I was practicing I met a good buddy in Lubbock, texas, that worked for a trucking company, and we actually met through the church we went to. But fast forward. You know, he kept telling me things he'd do differently where he was working. And we were out one night drinking beer watching baseball, and he kept telling me things he'd do different. I said well, heck, why don't we start a trucking?

Paul:

company. I feel like that's the origin story for a lot of businesses beginnings drinking beers and talking about business. Yeah, exactly, and so you know.

Adam:

He was like, well, how do we do that? I'm like I don't really know. I said, can you get drivers and you can't take them from the place you work at right now and can you move the trucks? And he goes yeah, I know some drivers from places I worked before. My father's a freight broker. I said, well, I'll handle the rest. And so I went and bought a truck out of Groom, texas, and then we bought another truck and a trailer, sold the truck to pay for the trailer and we got our first truck on the road July 1st 2014. And so it promptly broke down. And so it promptly broke down. Paul, welcome to logistics. I broke down Fort Lyft city limits.

Adam:

But a lot of people ask me, as I've kind of grown into my career, is you know? Would you change your educational path? And what I've always told people is is I really wouldn't, while I think there would have been some additional skills I would have learned, getting an MBA specifically in finance and accounting and some other things. You know, when you get a law degree, you basically are getting a PhD in analytics. You're so hyper analytical through that education and I think it really suits being in business very well, and so I'm very big on education. I wouldn't change anything and I'm glad for my path. I think you know that you're put on a certain path. I've enjoyed the one I've been on and very thankful to have had some success too.

Paul:

Well great, there's so much to unpack in the first two minutes of what you just said, so I'm going to do my best to go back and do that. The first thing I want to touch on is you had mentioned that you come from a third generation of lawyers, and I find that fascinating, because what we've talked about on this podcast, that is kind of a normal trajectory, which is, you know, my son's on a baseball team. His father, the head coach, is a firefighter. His son wants to be a firefighter. You're in law, your dad was in law. You want to be a lawyer. My dad was a police officer.

Paul:

For the longest time I thought I was going to be a police officer, right. So and that's very common right To to hear those things. And what I talked about was for those that maybe don't have that, or they don't understand what their parents do for work, and so they don't have any foresight into maybe some ideas around the types of careers that they could have. But, like you said, what was most interesting about that is you went down that path because it seems like it was maybe the path of least resistance. It was the most well-known path, and so you started down it. But I think what's unique about you is you pivoted quickly. You did that for, I think, a couple of years, before you decided what I heard from you and correct me if I'm wrong it wasn't necessarily for you and then you pivoted into something completely different. Is that right?

Adam:

Yep, absolutely, that's exactly what happened, and my dad was very supportive of that. Strangely enough, we were actually working together at the time.

Paul:

Yeah, that strangely enough, we were actually working together at the time, yeah, and I think that some people it would take them a lot longer to come to that conclusion, but you did it within a couple of years. So is that just based on a lot of? You're just very in tune with yourself. You were self-reflect a lot. How did you pivot so quickly?

Adam:

You know, at the time, paul, I was. You know, I was enjoying my career, I was having some success, and so it certainly wasn't an easy decision. A lot of what I was thinking at the time is at that moment I wasn't married, I didn't have children, I was living with my grandmother. Actually, I'm practicing law, trying to pay my student loans off. Living with my grandmother, you know, kind of defines me a little bit. I'm pretty pretty conservative guy financially.

Adam:

But I was sitting there, paul, going. You know, if I really want to try this, now's the perfect time To me. You know, going broke has never been something that has caused me to not make a decision. And so what I was thinking at the time is look, if I'm going to make a decision here to try to start a business, I might as well do it at this age, when I'm not married, when I don't have kids. Go, take a real shot at it, and if it's successful, wonderful.

Adam:

If I go broke, then I got plenty of time to make that up over a career. And that's I guess the beauty of having a law degree is and being licensed in Texas. Here is, I always have a backup. I'm always going to be able to put food on my table May not be my favorite way to put food on the table, but now, with four kids and a wife, that's pretty darn important. But that was really the impetus of me making that decision when I did is there's no better time than the present, and when you're younger it seems insurmountable. But the reality is is that you have a lot more grit. You have a lot more. I mean we're about turning 40, right. I mean you have more stamina, mental, physical. You know you've got that drive in you at the time, and so that was really kind of what drew me to that conclusion to do what I did at that time.

Paul:

Yeah, that's interesting. You say that because as soon as you said that, I thought of sports athletes and they peak in their late 20s, early 30s. It's kind of the same thing, right. I don't say that you peak, but, like you said, you've got a lot of energy and that's a good time to do it.

Adam:

Especially when you start having kids and family. Paul.

Paul:

Oh yeah.

Adam:

That's a game changer. I mean, I'm thinking now, if I was where I am now trying to start a new business, it would be a whole different equation, much more difficult, because now you've got your kids relying on you, your wife relying on you. I mean just the financial dynamics are substantially different than when you're younger and single.

Paul:

Right, Absolutely. The other thing I want to tell you we can't just gloss over the fact that you live with your grandmother, so let's go back to that for a second. That's not to make fun, but I think there's an important lesson to be told there, and that is you went into the trucking business. A truck. They're not cheap, right? A brand new tractor today is over $100,000. A new tractor is over $50,000. So you're talking about something that requires some capital some $50,000. So you're talking about something that requires some capital, some money up front to start a business like that. I'm assuming what I heard and I'm reading between the lines, but would love for you to clarify a little bit more. You sound like a somewhat frugal person, at least in those early days, and I'm assuming you were socking away all kinds of cash that puts you in a position to be able to start that business. Is that right? If not, tell us more about that?

Adam:

No, that's exactly what I was doing, Paul. I mean, the real reason I was living with my grandmother at the time was so I could pay my student loans off. When I left college, I was fortunate enough for my dad. Mom paid for my college. They paid for my books and tuition. I had to pay my living expenses through college, which I'm thankful for now. But when I graduated college, my dad was like, look, I paid my way through law school, your granddad, Ed, you are. And so I paid my whole way through law school and I was living with my grandmother because I wanted to get those student loans paid off, and I'm very proud of the fact that I paid them off in about two and a half years and so very aggressively did that. And then, as this business opportunity came up, it was perfect too because I didn't have a bunch of expenses, and I think it's very important, if you want to start a business, that you have to be very frugal, because you need to have cash for the down payments for those trucks. You need to have the good credit so that the banks are going to loan you the money for those. You know we leveraged that first truck. Borrow the money through the bank, Although when you're doing it to begin with, as you can imagine, Paul, they want quite a bit down.

Adam:

Oh yeah, I mean living with her. I stayed with her and then I ended up. I mean, it was even worse, Paul. I started dating my wife at the time. She had a ferret, like she had cats, Like it was like every crazy story you can think of was this place, but I was thankful that she had me and it helped me save a lot of money and I think that's very important when you're starting a business and really in life. I think, pay off what you can and and then start investing. The only thing I wish I would have done differently is is the excess cash I had. I wish I would have put in, like the S and P 500 back in the day it had quite a different return than spending it on stuff.

Adam:

But you know, rich dad, poor dad's a book I read. I mean that's such a great book with just basic fundamentals.

Paul:

Yeah, I think what you did is something maybe a lot of people aren't willing to do, because I mean, I'm just painting this picture in my head as you're talking about living with a grandparent. I'm sure she was a wonderful woman, she's probably a good cook too, right, but it's a lot of people maybe want to skip that step because again, I'm trying to date somebody. Again I'm trying to date somebody. I'm trying to do this. This is not cool, but you kind of had the foresight to think, hey, you know what, I'm going to take this hopefully very short period in my life to erase all my debt and kind of get back to zero, which will set me up in a much better place from that point going forward. Yeah, I don't know, I wish there was something just to drive that point home with people that are listening to maybe want to lean that direction as opposed to do something else.

Adam:

Yeah, I think it's. It's a lot of internal reflection and I think it's a mindset, paul. I mean for those of your listeners that are starting their careers. Okay, look, when you get out of school, you want to have the nice cars, you want to live in the Chicago's or the Dallas's, you want, want to live in the nice areas of those towns, going out with all of your friends that are starting their careers. You're going to spend most of the money you make and that's great.

Adam:

But if you truly want to go start a business, you have to realize that it's expensive and you're going to have to put your ego aside.

Adam:

In business as you know, paul I mean you're an executive the ego goes first.

Adam:

So, getting rid of that ego and those things and really focusing more on hey, what do I want to be in five years?

Adam:

What do I want to be there in 10 years, and putting yourself in the best position to do that, and the more frugal you are earlier on, I think, the more the success is meaningful down the road and the more you're able to grow. I mean we have multiple businesses now and it's because that frugal nature that came somewhat naturally to me and also through reading a bunch of books has afforded me the ability to start five or six operating companies now, and so we have continued, and I have continued to kind of live that. And so I think when you start early, you enjoy a lot more success later in your career than blowing all that money early on, right, and then you're sitting there when you're married with kids going man, I've always lived in a way, paul, where I'd rather sit on my deathbed than say, oh well, then what if? And I think when you start blowing all that early on and you're getting married, you're missing a huge opportunity to have a great trajectory in a career down the road as an entrepreneur.

Paul:

Yeah, so that's one huge component to this, and thank you for sharing that level of detail. I think the second piece is there's a lot of us sitting at the bar with our buddy drinking a beer, talking about businesses. We want to start. Most people don't start it, though, right, that conversation remains at the bar. So, or what do you think was in you that allowed you to take that conversation from the bar and turn it into reality?

Adam:

I think a little bit of that is just my natural personality, paul. I want to win more than anything. I'm highly competitive, but I'm also competitive highly detailed. So it's kind of a unique. And so to me, when we were doing it, you know a lot of people would. You know. They'll sit around, and I've had conversations with folks over the years that are that do exactly. What you were just saying is, hey, I, we should do this, I could do this. It's like, okay, well, then go do it. And I think you just got to, you got to jump off and do it.

Adam:

And there's what, over the years, starting multiple businesses is that you can almost become paralyzed by overanalyzing. You need to analyze it as best as you can, taking into account the financial requirements, the human capital requirements, the people requirements, assessing the industry, making sure you see viability and whatever that market is. And then you just got to go and you'll figure it out as you go. It's kind of like technology, right, the first iPhone we had was version one, right, and every version gets better. You need a version as you're going. You don't need to get paralyzed by trying to overanalyze, jumping off, and I believe that you look over that cliff and you're like oh, it's a big black hole, is that 400 feet down or four feet down? And the reality is is if you've got the drive to do it.

Adam:

You're in a good financial position to do it, kind of as we were talking about a minute ago. Then jump off and you'll realize real fast it's four feet down, as long as you surround yourself with people better and smarter than you throughout the course of it.

Paul:

Okay, you just set me up perfectly for my next question, that is, if I've learned one thing about how you operate a business and I'm fast forwarding a couple of years because we have a lot to cover today but one thing I know about you and your running of your business is the people that you've surrounded yourself with. You mentioned something about running five different companies. I'm not familiar with all of them, but I do know that in order to run that many companies, you have to have a heck of a lot of good people surrounding you. So if you could just speak a little bit to how you identify the right people and have built the teams that allow you to generate the success To begin with, I have partners in all my businesses and I think that's kind of fundamentally where you need to go is.

Adam:

There's a lot of people, my father-in-law, for instance. He thinks I'm completely nuts. He owns all of his businesses himself. He thinks I'm an idiot for having partners. And that's just a philosophical decision you have to make. Do you want to have partners or do you want to do it on your own? I think there's value both ways.

Adam:

I enjoy winning and losing as a team. That's a big thing for me, and so having partners is certainly been a huge first step, because then we can each take ownership of different aspects of the job with the same intensity and the same drive, because you own it Right. And so that's. I think I would start there. That's been very instrumental in me having the opportunity to have started many businesses. And then after that, you know I have found that you need to have a really good. You know your finance and accounting team's got to be strong and your operations team's got to be strong, and my job now is to build teams, fix problems and set the direction right. And so the team we have built has been a phenomenal team, and I can tell you, paul, over the years, every single year I've had salespeople have made more money than me, and I love that. I am okay not being the highest paid person here, and if you're going to start a business, please don't expect to make the most money, because I don't think you can be successful if you are.

Adam:

And so we have gone out there and very intentionally focused on creating a comp structure that was going to incentivize people, retain people. You don't retain people with non-competes. You retain people with culture and the support they need and then the financial incentives for them to have a successful career. And then you watch and then you focus on helping them elevate their careers and then, as you grow, they elevate into director roles, for instance, with the team you know we have. And then there's people underneath them and you hope that your leadership is paying itself forward by and you're hoping to pass along the leadership skills you've learned over the years to those people that can then, in turn, pass it on to those that they surround themselves with. Like, I don't hire people anymore, paul, I'll let them hire their teams. They need to own it. Yeah Right, all right.

Paul:

Well, I want to go back, and I sorry I keep going back, but you keep saying a lot. You're dropping a lot of good nuggets here that I want to make sure we don't gloss over. So, going back to the team, and I want to just share a quick story about myself, and that is I know. I left the organization that I'm at. I did consulting for a little over a year, and I was working as a solo, solopreneur, let's say, getting business, you know, being my own salesman, doing all the work myself, and it was going really, really well. I could have continued down that path, and I probably would have continued to do really well.

Paul:

What I realized through that experience, though, was I didn't like not being part of a team. I was by myself. I'd go into these meetings with the companies that I was consulting with, and I always felt like there was always a sense of I'm not one of you. I know we're kind of working together and we're solving the same problems, but I'm not one of you. I'm the outsider, and that may be just my own perception. They may not have felt that way, but that's how I felt, and so it just felt like something was missing, and so I didn't continue down that path. What I did do, to your point, was I did start getting into real estate, investing.

Paul:

And now, knowing this about myself, about not wanting to do things alone, I did go to a childhood friend of mine, a guy that I've known since first grade, and I said, hey, let's do this together. And friend of mine, a guy that I've known since first grade, and I said, hey, let's do this together. And I think two things happened there. One was, like you said, you can distribute the workload based on your strengths. But two, it gave me a little bit more confidence, knowing that I wasn't going into something by myself, that if I ran into problems, I'd have somebody that I could kick ideas off of.

Paul:

And there was a day I mean, I'm basically putting at risk a 25-year relationship, right, because in the back of your mind you're thinking we could have disagreements, something could go wrong. Worst case scenario we destroy this friendship that we built because of a disagreement in how we're wanting to run the business. Thankfully, we're five years into this and it's gone extremely well and we've kind of found our respective places and I'm very happy that I kind of have this guy to go on this journey with me. So I just want to throw that out there for people. It's just, you know, you got to kind of know about yourself, right?

Adam:

Yeah, and I think it's important, paul, that you know, as you're looking to have a partner, it can't just because you like somebody doesn't mean they're going to be a good partner.

Adam:

And I think to your point is I've always been very intentional to bring on people as partners with me that complement my strengths, because we all have strengths and weaknesses and, in fact, some of your strengths can actually be weaknesses as well. And so I think you've got to be very careful with partnerships of ensuring that you don't both have the same strengths in areas right. And, for instance, my partners are very strong on the front and operational side. I'm very strong on the backend finance, accounting, safety, all the other HR, those things. And I think you've got to communicate and you've got to just go ahead and talk through the hard conversations you're going to have to have in the future. Just recognize that and say look, we're going to solve it today when we have a disagreement, we're going to call it out when there's a problem, and when we leave the office that day it's going to be over with and we're going to leave there united. And so I think the communication, together with ensuring that person that you've chosen to work with, compliments you are two very important things.

Paul:

And then you mentioned the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad. You briefly talked on mentorship, but that's something that I think we should touch on a little bit more, and that is you mentioned your father-in-law being somebody that has kind of maybe helped mentor you in your business career. Obviously, he came along with your wife as you guys got married. Did you have other mentors coming up, or was he really the first one that opened your eyes to what the world of possibilities?

Adam:

was. It was really him. I mean, if you've ever read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, I've essentially lived that I had a. My poor dad was-.

Paul:

For those that don't know, can you just give like a quick synopsis of what it's about?

Adam:

Yeah, so Rich Dad, poor Dad, is kind of dumb man's accounting and it's essentially the book is teaching you how to use your money. You earn money through your salary. You then reinvest that into assets that generate money and then you use that money for the toys and things you want, right? That's so in a big part of that book is that his poor dad, which is his biological father, much like mine, was huge on education and teaching him that education was what's going to make you successful in life, whereas his mentor his rich dad not biological dad was a very successful entrepreneur, I think in Hawaii, if I recall, but taught him all of these investment philosophies and dyslexic and all the things that you know, just checking the box in terms of all the things working against him, but has had a great career, and so he's taught me a lot of things, recommended books. He's always been somebody I've been able to call and lean into and my dad's been very supportive too.

Adam:

But you know I reached a certain point when I wasn't practicing law anymore and you know my dad's mentorship kind of ended in a certain respect. But my father-in-law is still somebody I rely on. I called him a month ago asking about bank stuff. You know just his lines of credit and credit facilities are renewing. I call him hey, how do you manage this kind of stuff and how would you do this? And so that's, I think, a very important thing, and he's been a big mentor to me.

Adam:

He was the one that gave me the courage to jump off. And then over the years, through you know, my father did tell me growing up, paul and I and I believe this in my heart is to be successful in life, be involved in your community, be involved in your industry, and I've really lived that and I've found so many great mentors over the years. And when you're going to volunteer in the community and industry, do it for the sake of that organization, not your own self-ambition, because the benefits will come from it. But great intangibles is surrounding yourself with people that have done it. They can empathize and lead you along the way, similar to how you hire employees that are better and smarter than you. Right, absolutely.

Paul:

Okay, so I think that that's awesome to hear that, and I think what the last piece I want to touch on as it relates to that is you've got four boys and what's the age range?

Adam:

it, you will find out if you love your wife and your wife loves you if you have three kids in three and a half years. But at least when I was done wiping dirty bottoms I didn't have to wipe anymore, so I guess there is some value there, but yeah.

Paul:

Yeah. So as you think about your four boys especially, you know you got a 17 year old, so he's getting ready to go to college soon. What is the message that you share with them around mentorship? Or either how you're guiding them or how you're helping them understand where to find mentors for themselves?

Adam:

Yeah, I think, inevitably, if you are a strong father yours was strong, mine was you're inevitably going to look up to your father, and I think our job as fathers is to be a good role model for our children and instilling in them the morals and values that were instilled in us and those that we have learned over time. And so I've spent a lot of time doing that. I have also my wife and I have done. We're very intentional about the fact that we still at the house, live frugally so that they don't have any sense of the financial success that fortunately has come from these businesses. They don't really see that and we have them manage their own money. They will, you know, open a bank account for them, make them appreciate every dollar that they have, and my wife's real big too. We have let all of them know. The younger ones are too young to really have this conversation with paul, but our older one is ariel has my wife's name is ariel has told them that you cannot go work with dad until you start your own career and have your own career down the road, and maybe that opportunity presents itself. So we've made it very clear to them that they're going to have to go make it on their own and they're not going to inherit a bunch of money, lord willing. I'd love to be able to pay for their college and then, if I could, their first house. That's a huge goal of mine. But other than that, they're going to be on their own and my job is to teach them how to earn a living, and you can do that through education, like my dad taught me. But I think I'm in a unique position where I can teach them also how to go earn money in the rich dad, poor dad mentality. They're kind of my father-in-law, I think. Fortunately, and I'm hoping I have the opportunity to be able to give them both perspectives.

Adam:

I'm big on education, but I also want to teach them how to go earn a living, because giving them money isn't going to help them long term. What's going to help them long term is teaching them how they can go earn a living, and that doesn't mean they have to start a business. You can be an executive in business. There's so many great ways to be fulfilled in life. You don't have to start a business to do that, right, paul? I mean, you know it. It's just about finding what you love and you're passionate about, and so that's what we're focusing on right now and making sure they surround themselves with good kids and they lean into each other. I didn't. My brother and sister were seven years younger than me. I don't know what it's like to have a sibling close to my age, so I'm hoping they're going to have each other and hold each other accountable over the years.

Paul:

You know it's such an interesting balance because I'm assuming part of the reason why you did this to begin with was because you want to set your family up for success. You want to give them all the things that you want to give them the best headstart, the best leg up that you possibly can. But what you also just said I think is important, which is balancing yes, I want to give them those things, but I don't want to give them so much so that it can almost be a deterrence or a negative thing. Absolutely how deliberate. It sounds like you and your wife are pretty deliberate about your approach to that, but I don't know if you can just talk a little bit more into how that balance works.

Adam:

I've been very fortunate, paul, that in my wife she's able to stay at home with the kids, and I'm very thankful for that. I think that's great. And so she takes her job very seriously. You know she reads books on how to be a better mom, how to be a better wife, I mean. So a lot of the child rearing, especially at the younger age, is going to depend on the mother.

Adam:

Boys If you have anybody, you or your listeners out there have girls. I'm sorry, I cannot empathize. I wish I had one, but the Lord didn't give me one of those. But so, ariel, I think it's very important early on to for mothers to teach them how to manage and control their emotions and all these things that I mean. I might as well have been Irish, but my wife's doing such a good job of, just you know, teaching them those, those fundamentals that, frankly, I didn't really have growing up.

Adam:

My job at this young age is to teach them things like yes, sir, no sir, yes, ma'am, no ma'am. They have responsibilities every single day. They have to clean up the room, they have to clean up our playroom. They, every night, they've got to brush their teeth, comb their hair, hang up their towels. I think the more you have chores and responsibilities at a younger age, I think is very important because you're instilling that structure and that kind of mindset that you and I and your listeners out there know in a career is very fundamental.

Adam:

And then, as they get older, bennett has to go earn his own money. I mean I told Bennett, like we're not paying for your fuel bud, like well, we got your vehicle, but you're going to have to pay for your own fuel, and so he has to work, and he found a great job, and we didn't help him find that job. I think that's important was when you're giving your kids all this stuff, it's just not as meaningful as if they go earn it, and I can tell you he cares a lot more about the money he earns. In fact, his accounts connected to my wife, so one time she actually transferred money out and I think she got a call in about 10 minutes from him. But I was like, honey, I'd have called you too. You don't mess with a man's money if he's earned it.

Adam:

And so those are things we're really working on and just encouraging them to go to college, enjoy some of that experience and then get out and find a meaningful career. I don't care if my kids are the starting quarterback on the football team, Paul, or if they're in the band. I just want them to find something that they love and they're passionate about and that, I think, is what translates into ultimate happiness throughout your life. I love that.

Paul:

I love that. Just quick about my younger son. My oldest son is six and a half, going on seven here in July. He knows down to the penny how much is in his piggy bank. And yesterday we're driving on the way to school and he's like hey dad, how much is so-and-so stock today? His big thing is it's called Rocket Lab. It's kind of like a SpaceX type. How much is Rocket Lab today? I'm like, oh, it's $22.40. I go okay, I want to buy five of those tomorrow. Can we do that?

Adam:

I'm like absolutely, son, 100% that is so smart, paul, just try to, like you said.

Paul:

That's so smart. I'm going to do that with my kids. Actually you should. You'd be amazed at how much they actually retain and, to your point, it's just teaching them not to be scared of money and at least like, hey, it's not this bogeyman what is investing. I can teach you not crazy things about it, but hey, let's start with the basics.

Adam:

Yeah, that's real smart and then they can watch it grow right, having put a little bit of money in a money market account versus a S&P 500 index fund, see the difference in the two, right, I think that's so smart I'm going to do that.

Paul:

Hey, do you want to buy this Lego today, or do you want to buy three Legos tomorrow? You tell me Exactly.

Adam:

Exactly. No, that's smart. I'm going to do that. That's good stuff.

Paul:

All right, awesome. Yeah, you've had a very successful business career and it feels like you're even just getting started because you're still, like we said, right, but not even 40 or right around 40 we're young, paul.

Adam:

I don't care what anybody says about long ways to go right.

Paul:

We got a long ways to go, um, and so, um, let's, let's move into your, your, some of your, I'll call them your extracurriculars and you touched on it a little bit but being more involved beyond just the business world, and, um, you've done so, uh, in a big way, by trying to or running for a political office, which is just a massive undertaking.

Paul:

You're not just talking about local city council and we need those people and nothing against them. But you went straight for it and you went big time for Texas state legislature role, so just kind of jumping way ahead, so one, when I think about that and you kind of look at the landscape of politics today, you say, man, these people are just heavily scrutinized and they're putting their life out there and people are out to get you. That's what I personally think, so for you to kind of put your whole life on display in an effort to just want to do something meaningful and positive for your community. But before we get into that, well, I would imagine there had to have been a conversation with your wife, maybe even with your kids around hey, this is what dad's going to go do. How do we feel about this? And so can you just what was kind of the beginning stages of considering that? Sure yeah.

Adam:

What a road. So I, with my legal background and also owning a trucking company, I am just naturally very involved in tort reform efforts we have in Texas, and so those of your listeners out there that operate trucking companies, especially in Texas, know that every dadgum trial lawyer is after us, and so I've been working over the last five years on really very major tort reform efforts with some other associations, including Texas for Lawsuit Reform, the Texas Trucking Association, over the years. We're actually working on it right now this session, and so that's where it really began was my involvement there. And then we got a big bill passed in 2021. It was House Bill 19. And I was testifying in front of the House and the Senate and really working hard to get that bill, get votes and get that bill passed.

Adam:

And the individual, the state representative from where I live, was retiring, and so a lot of the business community came to me and said hey, adam, we saw what you did on House Bill 19. Would you be willing to run for Lyle Larson's seat? And I've got kids, I've got businesses. I don't really have the time for this and I never really had the ambition to be a politician, but, as I mentioned earlier, I do have a heart for the community and I want to give back because, lord knows, we're not going to take it with us when we're gone. And so I talked to I said, all right, let me. I had some pretty influential people in the business community reach out and ask and said, okay, well, let me, let me think about it, let me talk to my wife. So I sat down with Ariel and she's like Adam, are you crazy? I thought you were crazy when you were going to start a trucking company. You want to do this. I said you know my heart's kind of leading me there. I think we could be impactful there and you know, if you're on board with me, I'd love to do it with you. And like everything, things as you can imagine. I just jumped in with both feet and the ground hit the ground running.

Adam:

We didn't have to have any conversations with the little ones, but our oldest was in high school and we said look, this is ugly and sure as I'm sitting here, paul, it was not the most fun experience, especially when you start leading. They'll hit you pretty hard and as a business person, you can imagine, I've given money to both Republicans and Democrats. I live in Bexar County. It's predominantly Democrat here, so I've I've supported both sides of the aisle. I just like pro-business elected officials. Well, they'll hammer you on that in a Republican primary in Texas, believe you me. I think by the end of that thing some of my neighbors thought I was communist or something. It was bizarre.

Adam:

But we had to tell our oldest like, look, there's going to be things that are going to come out. I mean there wasn't anything bad, I mean it was just it all came down to me given Democrats. But he said look, if anybody approaches you with this, bennett, this is a great learning opportunity on how to turn the other cheek, how not to be baited into these things. Don't send anything silly on social media, you know, and there's right, cause it's going to affect the whole family is what we're telling them. And so I think unfortunately I lost. But what a great thing to instill in a young man at that age. Now he's much more thoughtful about those things. He definitely had some people come up to him in high school. I know they were like, oh, your dad man, he's like a closet liberal and he's like, ah, don't listen to it. It was funny. But you know, I think, very valuable lessons for him and seeing the way that Ariel and I responded to it too, I think was very meaningful to him in terms of his value system.

Paul:

Well, adam, this is a podcast, but for those I'll just describe you've got the hair and the beard to be a politician, so I think you're on your way just from the look alone. But yeah, I think if you could give us a peek under the hood, because I think for a lot of us we just see what we see on the mainstream news channels and hear about all those sorts of things, but and just to clarify, you're running for it's a Texas House of Representatives seat, was what it was right, it was.

Adam:

yes, it was a state position.

Paul:

State position Peek under the hood just in terms of what are the mechanics of it. How much money do you have to have? How much work goes into it? Just give us a sense of what goes into running a campaign like that. Oh, paul, it makes how much time you got.

Adam:

Yeah, it makes how much time you got. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's kind of like a text we say hold my beer, you know it's like, but a lot.

Adam:

And I very naively thought that it was going to be a kind of a part-time deal for me. I thought I was still going to be able to run my businesses and do this kind of on the side. Let me tell you this it is not that Okay. It is a full-time job and I would imagine at any level whether it's a local position, city council, state seat, certainly federal it's a full-time job and I remember after the election, when I lost, came to the office, I was bummed and all of my leadership was there going hey, adam, really sorry about what happened, but we're really glad you're back. It was like boom.

Paul:

It was just like here's all the things.

Adam:

So it's a full-time deal. You're knocking on doors and I say this, paul, I don't do things half-hearted, as you can imagine, and so certainly you could do it differently than I did. But I was like, if I'm going to do this, I'm in it to win it, and I only missed it by about 500 votes, unfortunately, but I'm thinking at this point it was quite fortunate that I lost.

Adam:

But be that as it may, it's a all day, every day, and you know the getting out the community, knocking on the doors, going to events, meeting people, hearing what their needs were. Every door I knocked on, I wrote them a handwritten letter, a little note. I had all these little postcards. I don't even know if many people know what postcards are anymore, paul, but we do, and I would reference what I'd talked to him about at the door, and that was a lot of fun. I enjoyed that.

Adam:

The fundraising, though, was the worst. I mean, it was the most expensive state representative race in the state of Texas that cycle. I think between the four candidates it was a $3 million race. I raised myself almost $800,000. And so when I wasn't knocking on doors, my campaign manager had me strapped to a chair with a call list where she was like okay, these are the people you're going to call, and when you call them, you're going to ask for their endorsement and you're going to ask for their money. And so I was all day. I had 10 times more of the respect for my sales team after I had to do that, but that was what I didn't really enjoy.

Adam:

But you know, the support I got from the community was great and you know the state of politics right now I just don't think is in a place in primaries in Texas specifically, where moderate people like myself that are more business focused. I'd liken it to like the Bush and Clinton eras. It's so divisive now and I was never going to sacrifice my reputation, my value system. I didn't come out and say a bunch of stuff I didn't believe in. There were things that my strategists were telling me that we should be talking about and I said I don't believe in that and I'm not going there. I'm not going to run to the right on this If I'm going to win or lose and I'm going to wake up the next morning being able to look myself in the mirror and look my children in the face.

Paul:

And I'm not going to sacrifice that. No, that's, you know well. First of all, that sounds exhausting, so part of me in the back of my head is thinking like who in the world would want to subject themselves to that? But I think what you just said is important too, which is, yeah, unfortunately, you know, this isn't a political podcast, so we probably won't, we won't get deep into it, but I do. I do think it's unfortunate that you know for those people that you know what you just said, right, which is you're not going to say something you don't believe in, and it just it seems like today, no matter what party you're in, you're going to say the most extreme thing you need to say just to to get the votes, and unfortunately, it's unfortunate.

Adam:

But that is unfortunate and it tears people apart and families and stuff too Right. It's like you know, we, we got to. It's like that. It's like Jackie moon. You know, ele baby, everybody love everybody. Like we can get along and there's more we agree on than we don't, right.

Paul:

And so I.

Adam:

I'd say at this point I don't have any intention of all running again, but I still stay very active politically and and and love it, and I'm now supporting those people that want to run and I'm able to give some advice to them on what to expect and and so I'm kind of I'm loving that space and who knows where the road takes me. But I certainly won't look at that again until my kids are raised and I've got enough leadership here within our organizations that they're ready to send me out to sea too.

Paul:

Yeah, I'm wondering again, maybe for a teenager or young 20-something looking at this, you have student council going through high school. You can run for office in high school, which is all great I think in college they have that to a degree but it seems like for a lot of younger people that goes away. And then maybe when you're in your 30s, late 30s, 40s, 50s, you pick up in that world. So it just feels like there's this gap of like well, hey, I'm a young person and I may have interest in pursuing being an elected official one day. What do I do to kind of build myself to get into that space? You kind of went a business route and then jumped into it.

Adam:

But I think what your thoughts are, and, yeah, I've encouraged my son to do that. I think really, it's more fundamental than that, paul. It's really about learning leadership right, and that's what is an elected official the way our system of government is set up right is we are electing those people to represent all of us right? It's not a pure democracy, and so I think it's really important, because leadership is certainly an art, not a science, and I think you have to learn that through a lot of failure. And so I spent a lot of years when I was in school in leadership positions. You know, I did the you know for turn to your out, I was an officer in that. I was an officer of a whole bunch of associations on campus and so with a broad group of different people I was associated with and look, I've made a lot of mistakes over the years. I had a lot of people mad at me and thinking I was a really crummy leader. And frankly, at the time, paul, I was a crummy leader, but if you spend enough time and self-reflection of what could I have done better in that instance, I think that's what helps develop you and define you and in your leadership skills, because everybody's is different and so I think, as you're coming up, it's very important to do that Be involved in industry associations.

Adam:

If you're younger in your career, those are great ways to get involved and when you do it, do it for the sake of the industry. And I tell my leadership here I want all of you to join a local board and I want you to be involved in our industry associations and when you're doing it I don't want you to sell anything. Go do it for the sake of the organization and when you go join, get on a committee and ask how you can move up in leadership, because that is the fastest way to get involved and I think that's so meaningful because you don't realize the personal satisfaction that brings and then inevitably it will bring the professional Professionally. It will help you ultimately right if you do it right. But I think doing it for the sake of the organization is very important and I would encourage anybody out there that's listening find something, find something you're passionate about, find a nonprofit industry association, something you love, and go get involved in it, and that's a great way to look at it.

Paul:

I've been going back and forth about whether I should get involved in my son's little league board of directors, so I think you're kind of moving the needle for me. I just I just rolled off my kids' youth football board.

Adam:

They're not the funnest. Paul, that's my kids youth football board. They're not the funnest. Paul, it's not the most fun, but okay, it's, it's worth doing and your kids will appreciate it, I assure you.

Paul:

okay, all right, and uh, yeah, just to touch on the part where you said that you are still uh linked to, and actually what started this conversation was you recently uh just testified to congress, I believe in front of a panel of US senators, is that right?

Adam:

that it was I. In fact, right before I got started, I was looking at Ted Cruz, senator Cruz, senator Thune, the current Republican majority leader. I was like what is going on? I am way out of my league in this room.

Paul:

So these guys are basically celebrities. Obviously they're politicians, but everybody knows who they are and so just curious, what? What was that experience like? Well, like, how did it, how did it come about? And then, when you're actually sitting there, like what, what are the nerves and thoughts that are going through your head?

Adam:

It was a really neat experience. Anybody out there that has the opportunity I would encourage you to do it. Was I puckered? Up in sweating and afraid I was going to fail a 1000%, but man it's such a cool opportunity.

Adam:

You're in a room on TV, make them look bigger than they are. It's actually a pretty small room and everybody's kind of jammed in there, but you can just imagine if those walls could talk right, like all of the things that have happened in these committee rooms right over the years. But the reason I was able to do that was, frankly, paul, kind of a bit unfortunate. I've gone through a bunch of just crap we've had to deal with over the years related to thefts and the double brokering and all these criminals out there. So those that are out there listening to this that are in the logistics space I was there fighting for the cargo theft and the fraud situations that are impacting all of us so that I had talked to, with my involvement in the Texas Trucking Association. I'm very close with John Esparza, who's the president of TXTA, and I had talked to him. His son actually works with me for real estate brokers but I was telling him about some of these crazy stories that we'd gone through where you know we had our identity stolen at one point. Aside from the double brokering, stuff like the size and sophistication of these groups is just incredible whether they're spoofing your emails and all of these various things, right. And so he knew that. Well, he went up to DC and they were going to have him come testify and he's like, well, you ought to talk to this guy. So he introduced me and it was the ATA team American Trucking Association. So they called me and I gave them, you know, a rundown of the various things. I mean, I've had hostage loads, I've had all kinds of things happen and they were like, will you come testify? I said, if you'll help me, I'll do it, and so that was it. It was really neat.

Adam:

Ata did a phenomenal job. The script that we came up with they helped write, and so their support was great. I'm usually atIA is the same way. They have you so well prepared that you're in there just ready for it and in fact you already kind of know the questions they're going to ask, as the senator's staff will send those to you in advance. So they, honestly, it's kind of and this was good because it wasn't super contentious All the members US senators were kind of briefed on this ahead of time and it was a bipartisan issue. And the US senators were kind of briefed on this ahead of time and it was a bipartisan issue, and so we're throwing a lot of softballs to us. Okay, but still you got to know how to work the room. But, fortunately, what's really cool about that, paul, is they have now filed a bill with a huge bipartisan group of US senators after that hearing. So you know it was really neat.

Adam:

It was cool to see the results of that, that's awesome, yeah, because in DC not much moves up there, but I think this actually will. And it was a unique instance where I had the guy from OIDA. Sitting to my left. I had a guy that was senior executive of Academy Sports and Outdoors, texas-based I assume. They got him because Senator Cruz is chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee from Texas and so retailers are next to me. And then I had the rail uh rail guys BNSF. So there was the four of us that aren't always aligned on issues, paul, but on this one we were darn sure all aligned and it was. It was kind of fun to see.

Paul:

Yeah, and what? Uh, so thanks for sharing that. Uh, yeah, you mentioned, I think it just on TV. It looks like these guys are on like an elevated stage looking down on you. Right, You're just kind of like this, right, there's all these bright lights shining on you. Like you said, it sounds like you were well-prepared, which certainly helps, but still there's got to be a ton of nerves and it's so formal. I mean, what was?

Adam:

that, like you go to Texas legislators, especially the Texas House. It's formal but, like you know, you kind of go along and it is a do not exceed shot clock. So you're literally there giving your opening statement, watching the time go down and you want to talk about something distracting. You're sitting there going. Am I talking too fast? Am I talking on fast enough? You know, am I looking up enough? Should be looking down more? And you're sitting there just sweating.

Adam:

You know, the reality is on tv and then there's cameras everywhere. There's one in front of you, there's a gal over here taking all these photos like click, click, click, click, click, and you're like this. It's just incredibly distracting. But the reality is, paul is, you're not, but four or five feet from them. I mean, I'm probably eight at most. They're right on you and that stage is not as high as it appears on TV, to your point, like it is, and they're on it. And when they ask questions you're like, oh man, is this one coming for me? But it was interesting and a neat experience. But that room's not as big as you think. Everybody's in there together. It's been the same size room because it's in the US Capitol for how long? Hundreds of years, right, I mean, it's got to have been there for a long time.

Paul:

Yeah, and when the lights go off, when the cameras shut down, do you get a chance to have like an informal interaction?

Adam:

We did, actually, we had one of them that came up and shook my hand afterwards and thanked me for my testimony. I guess they appreciate it.

Adam:

He was a US Senator for a reason, let's just say that, but a really good guy, right. And so he shook my hand and that was very nice. Talked to a lot of staff after the fact. I think they just appreciated the vulnerability of my testimony, because I think a lot of people out there in our industry, paul, don't want to talk about these things that have happened to them, and frankly, I don't either. I mean, I don't want everybody to know all the trials and tribulations including customers, of having cargo theft situations and all that.

Adam:

But the way I looked at it is best way I can do is pay it forward to get it resolved for all of us. I'm sure my customers will appreciate that. And lo and behold, I've had several that have reached out and thanked me for doing that, and so I thought it was great. And then, including that, we got to meet with Senator Cruz before the hearing. That was great and kind of got to have some one-on-one and really reinforce the urgency of this situation and it sounds like it worked because he's going to carry this bill for us. So that's great.

Paul:

Well, it's nice and, I think, just giving a sense behind the curtain. And the last thing I'll mention on this is that, like we said, in the news and the media, it's always about divisiveness, but it is nice to know that you actually got to work on something that had bipartisan support. That looks like it is moving through.

Adam:

and one thing I'll say that's pretty cool news nowadays is competing with social media, right, so it's all clickbait. So we hear in the media about all of the contentious stuff and the divisiveness. When you're in those buildings working on stuff, whether it's the federal level or state level, there's actually more they get they agree on than they disagree on, and there's a lot of issues important to our communities that need to be advanced, need the advocacy from business owners, executives to support those things that they actually get along and agree on. And so, just because of what you're seeing in the news, don't let it jade you too much. They're really, they're not all bad.

Adam:

Now that we all know the big social issues that are divisive and I don't want to get into that because I don't touch them in my personal life either Frankly, I don't focus on those things. I focus on the business fundamentals and a strong economy, and you do have a lot of folks on both sides of the aisle that work very hard. These elected officials do work hard. I mean it's a very taxing job because you got to run for office and win, then you got to go in there and focus on what are good policy decisions, and they actually do work very hard and work quite well together on many things.

Paul:

Oh, that's great, and I think many of us know that in the back of our minds. But when you're inundated with garbage on the news it's kind of sometimes you forget that.

Adam:

Frustrating. I stopped reading a bunch of that, paul yeah, frustrating. I stopped reading a bunch of that, paul.

Paul:

Yeah, I hear you, I hear you. Well, adam, it's been a blast. I know we were kind of all over the place, but you've just done so many darn things. We had to touch on everything. So, yeah, I don't know last thoughts that you have. Like I said, we focus on just you know how do we develop as parents and what we want for our kids, and so just any last thoughts on that.

Adam:

You know, I think what I would say, paul, to you and your listeners out there is if you can dream it, you can do it. Don't be sitting on your deathbed one day saying what if? Just do it. If you can dream it, you can do it. Just know that you've got to have the heart and the tenacity to go get it done.

Adam:

And I think, even if you don't start a business, you know, really focus, you can have a great career as an executive for a company. Right, continue to move up, know your core value systems. Don't ever sacrifice those for anything. You know, my dad always told me growing up it takes a lifetime to build a reputation, five minutes to lose one. So you know, stay true to who you are. And then, I'm sure, much like you, same with me, paul, as I was fortunate to marry an incredible woman and I've got a great wife, that is a huge part of my success is her support, watching how great of a mother she is. I think when you start having kids, the real joy you have is watching them, and so you know, focusing on that, not losing that, is always very important, and so what a blessing, and I I wish the best for you and all your listeners out there, and I appreciate you having me on. It's been a lot of fun.

Paul:

Yeah, thank you, and I, you know the one thing I want to leave and I know I said we'd stop, but you just said something that we haven't talked a lot about and that is staying true to your core values. That's a topic or something we haven't discussed, but I just love that You've done so many different things where you could have that maybe would have been the path of least resistance, but you stay true to yourself and you know, as we are raising our kids, it's such an important lesson to teach them.

Adam:

And it's always hard to do that, right, paul and I think. But you find when you do it the right way, though, your satisfaction is so much greater, right, like if you did it the right way and you still succeeded, like it's just such a better feeling than if you had cut quarters and sacrificed that core value system. I just don't think it would be as rewarding. I've never done it, but I would imagine if you do that it's kind of a win, but it's like a win with an asterisk. I think there's just a lot of satisfaction in doing it the right way.

Paul:

I couldn't agree with you more. Thanks for the time, adam. I really appreciate it. Thanks, paul. The Rockies ain't too far from here. If we drive all night the cold, that will do you well in the mountain morning light.

Adrian:

So let's ride, let's ride on through the rain. Come on and take me anywhere that you want to be. Let's ride and let's ride. Let's follow the skyline and when we make it to the other side, we'll find all the bluest skies Disguised.