Dragon's Gold: The Magic of Mindset

From Corporate to Creator: Adrian Rae’s Mold-Breaking Rise to Entrepreneurship

• Justin Mills • Season 1 • Episode 10

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🎙️ Episode Summary:

In this episode of Dragon’s Gold: The Magic of Mindset, Justin Mills sits down with Adrian Rae, founder of HeyRaise, to explore her journey from a thriving advertising career to entrepreneurship in the capital-raising space. Adrian shares how she gamified her transition, recognizing the financial system as a strategic game rather than an inevitable structure. She reveals her decision to pivot at the peak of her career, break free from traditional financial roles, and take control of her future.

✨ Key Themes:

  • Why Adrian left a high-powered career to forge her own path
  • How viewing life as a game reshaped her mindset and decision-making
  • The impact of burnout and recognizing the need for reinvention
  • Whole life insurance as a wealth-building tool
  • The power of storytelling in capital raising
  • The importance of trust and authenticity in branding

🔑 What You’ll Learn:

  • How to identify and seize opportunities for reinvention
  • The mindset shifts necessary to break free from conventional financial roles
  • How whole life insurance and real estate can be tools for financial freedom
  • The role of branding in investor relationships and capital raising
  • How Adrian applies storytelling to business success

📚 Tools & Weapons:

  • Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki – The book that changed Adrian’s financial perspective
  • The Creature from Jekyll Island by G. Edward Griffin – Understanding the Federal Reserve and monetary systems
  • The Gap and The Gain by Dan Sullivan – Reframing progress and personal growth
  • NLP & Mental Emotional Release (MER) – The mindset tools Adrian is using for transformation

🔗 Links & Resources:

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About Gold Dragon Investments:
At Gold Dragon Investments, our mission is to bring joy to others by helping them win the game of investing — helping every client become the hero of their financial journey. We believe that wealth is a tool, but joy is the ultimate outcome.
Through meaningful partnerships, we strive to empower our investors to create freedom, and build lasting legacies of purpose, fulfillment, and wealth.

Join Us on the Adventure:

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome once again to another episode of Dragon's Gold:

The Magic of Mindset. Today we have the pleasure of having Adrian Rae founder of HeyRaise, a marketing agency for capital raisers and also an incredibly amazing human. Adrian, thanks for coming to the show today. Thank you, Justin. This is gonna be really fun chat. I'm really excited about it. let's dive in. Let's go straight into the origin story. How did it all begin for Adrian Rae? Well, it's interesting right now in my life. I've been climbing a really big mountain. I feel like the last few years. So how did I get here? You know, Grew up in California a child of four my parents were working you kind of taking the traditional paths in life and I think one of those original I guess nudges was seeing my mom juggle a full-time job and raising four kids. I love that she worked. She was a rock star. Maybe not always handled it with grace, but she was still like super badass for taking us to all of our sports and supporting us in so many ways. But she always talked about that desire to retire, like just looking forward to being 65 so she could retire. So then she could go do all the fun things in life. And that really planted a seed of that sounds awful. You know, like, I don't want to do that. so, you know, I didn't really think about it maybe too much as a kid, but then growing up, I played sports. That's how I got into college. my whole upbringing was very focused on athletics. And then out of college, I entered, the commercial production industry and I was a producer and then went back to school for photography. And I thought that would be my industry. I thought that would be the thing that defined me. There was probably some misalignment in that, in my own self-confidence and trying to figure out who I was along the way. But I guess to spare you of all the details, which I'm sure we'll get into more, the summary here, some big life shifts happened. I picked up Rich Dad Poor Dad, the gateway drug. that really set me on a different path. here we are. no so much in what you said I feel is powerful, even just from the start. Like one of the items that you mentioned about your mom doing so much for you and your siblings, but always looking forward to, when I retire. And I think that there's so much value in finding joy in the journey itself, right? Finding joy in the here and the now, as opposed to, yes, you want to have goals and you want to look forward. You got to enjoy the experience that you're in. and on the way there. There's so much power in that. when did you know that you were destined for something greater? When did you get hungry to achieve more? you know, it's kind of a loaded question. It kind of came in phases and waves. And it really was that seed when I was younger of realizing that I don't want to wait till I'm 65 to live the life. know, life is kind of presented to us as this linear timeline. I really struggled with that. I don't want to go from checking all these boxes through life and then dead. I want my life to be kind of woundy and twisty and turny and let it be malleable and flex and mold and go out and see the world. I left the country when I 23 for a five week trip to Ecuador and that was a really pivotal time in my life. That shaped me a lot. The biggest takeaway from that, it was really interesting. I thought I was going to go to learn about sustainable development. was working with a local volunteer organization that sent me to different communities. this is actually a direct quote out of my journal. I was in this town called Puerto Velo, I believe it was, in Isla Corazon in Ecuador. And it was, if the people of Puerto Velo can find happiness under these circumstances. why the hell can I not be happy in America, in this land that gives me everything? And that really sent me spiraling in a way, in a positive way. Just me constantly searching for the happiness here at home and trying to figure that out. know that I ever answered it, but it was just something that I've always chewed on. with so much opportunity around us, so many choices, sometimes you wanna do everything. You wanna, you just get antsy and you wanna leave and jump and try different things. And that's amazing. And I super support that. But like you had mentioned is finding happiness in that journey. And it's not always about the end goal and the end results. We're so influenced by people online that, you know, how to make a million dollars on this car, you know, like this end target. and that's great, know, but between where I'm at right now, let's call it zero and a million, whatever that goal is, whatever that object that you want at the end, there are rewards along the way. There is an increase your situation. And those moments are part of the journey where we can find happiness and be proud. And it's not always zero or nothing. There's the progression in between. So. I I completely derailed off of your question, but for some reason that experience in Ecuador popped into my mind and that was just, it shaped a lot of the way I think about life today. And yeah. sharing that, like that perspective, right? You being in a situation where you had an opportunity to see things in a different light to see people appreciating and valuing their experience when they didn't have nearly from a materialistic standpoint, like what we have available or resources, sometimes literally just housing and clean water, like how lucky are we to have what we have here? And I think a lot of people don't appreciate how incredible our situation really is. What they had was community. It's just the tightest community. I mean, really tight, like families of 10 almost living in a single room home, very tight. But the whole community was so tight knit. And I think that's something that I have been able to find in the past five years in this journey of trying to figure out who I am, finding those communities of people that I really connect with. I kind of moved around a lot in my early 20s. I went to college across the country and then I moved back to a different, California, Connecticut, Seattle. And so like every five years, I felt like I was moving and I'm kind of an introverted person. It's not the easiest for me to make tight connections with people. So as my interests evolved, I had a hard time finding that sense of community. And you and I met through Mastermind, and that's kind what I'm getting at here is finding groups of people to build your community. When we live in this very materialistic, isolated world, all behind a screen, it's hard, but there are ways. And that has really made a big difference in finding my purpose and feeling like I'm working towards something not alone, but with a collective of people that have a similar mindset. And that's been huge. So one of the things you make me think about with allies, mentors, people that we go along the fellowship that we travel with on this, the people that come into our life and the relationships that we make, there's so much value in that. We talked before about the material and not having a lot of material, but having the community, right? Those people, they found power in the relationship and the connections that they had. And along that way, we meet people that really help to inspire us or help to support us or that we can help and support. And that brings and adds value to us. I'm curious along the way, if you were to share who were some of the key or most influential members, people in your life that inspired you and helped you on your journey. Well, you know, I have to say that even though my mother's, I guess, inspiration came from a point of me deciding I didn't want that, that was still huge. And supporting me by not saying, no, you're not gonna, she was terrified that I was traveling at the young age of 23 to a foreign country, know, third world country, but supported that. And every weird turn that I made, she was very supportive. didn't always understand, actually never understood. I still don't know that she understands what I'm doing in life, but just constantly supporting and saying, I don't know what you're doing, but go, you can do it. You can do this. So that's huge. Having that person is really, really important. The other thing that I found a lot of value in, and this goes back to trying to find my tribe, but in the process of doing so, podcasts are an amazing way to find mentors, you may not know them, but you learn so much from them. when I was at that point in my life where I needed to make a big change, I was trying to learn about real estate, finance, every topic that was of interest to me. I, you know, they say you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. So I like, I need to spend my time with five people that are freaking rock stars that know what they're doing and that I aspire to be like. And the closest way that I could get to them given my physical situation, my work schedule, all the other factors in life was hanging out with them on podcasts. So every time I was in LA traffic, was listening to podcasts, trying to absorb as much of their wisdom as possible. And I was like, these are my five friends. You know, it sounds lonely and kind of sad, but if that's what you have to do to get around people that can actually give you that mentorship and teach you the ropes, that's the way you do it. And from there, your voice, follow the inner voice that tells you to go out into the world and now go meet people and find them in real life, you know? But sometimes it just has to start with podcasts, you know? think it's a great resource. I granted, I'm slightly biased considering, but I mean, I've listened to many, many myself, and I think that you just shared something that is significant gold. The idea about finding and surrounding yourself with those people, doesn't mean that those people have to be directly in your network. You can still, especially in today's day and age with the information and accessibility that we have. You can find the people that inspire you that you can learn from that can educate you and that you resonate with. And even if they don't know that you exist, right, you can still grow and learn from the value that they share. Right. I'm, I'm a huge fan of Bob Proctor and Jim Rohn. And no, I've never met them. But I am very grateful for all the lessons that they've taught me. And there are so many more, but the point that I'm getting at is, I resonate completely with what you say. And I think that a lot of people. ever question the benefit of that, they should go out and find those interviews that are available, or even just the literature, books on tape. They can find that data and they can download it and gain the value and benefit. And then they got to go and apply it. Because whatever you learn, you got to go and do something with. Otherwise, knowledge is only a power if you apply it. Yeah. Yeah. I've probably spent way too much time in this cycle of learning, learning, absorbing, absorbing, and, know, probably addicted to that even in a way. and yeah, and maybe I'm still a little bit stuck in that, but definitely getting out into the world and applying it is, you have to, you have to do it. So talking about applying and thinking about putting that time and effort, right? Not everything's a success. And so my point in saying that is that sometimes we go through and we have trials, have gauntlets, right? The tribulations that we have to overcome. And I'm curious in your experience, what are concerns or issues that have come up in your life that you've had to overcome? So it's maybe like seven or eight years ago. I was in a long-term relationship that went sour, real bad. And at the time I really put my financial security in his hands. And I thought we would be together forever, but clearly that didn't work out. And so I was left with basically no money to my name. I took the dog, a very big dog who needed a lot of care, very expensive dog. And that was terrifying when I really looked at my bank account and I was like, shit, I really don't know what I'm doing. I don't have money that will last. I am not set up for success. I will literally never retire. So this whole dream of like this lifestyle that I wanted to live was completely completely falling through the cracks. There was new reality. And I think that's where that's when it hit me I was kind of living my 20s like I'll figure it out. It'll come. I'll figure it out. Those are like your best years to try things and do things, but don't sit back and just wait. I'll figure it out someday because someday it will come like before you know it. It is someday. And had I understood truly the power of compound interest, then I may have done something different, but It was at that moment when I packed up my stuff, moved from Seattle down to LA, where shit got real. And I had to actually look at myself and like realize that I am the only person who's gonna save me in this moment. There is nobody coming to rescue me. There is no trust fund. There is nothing there. So figure it out. And that's what I had to do. I probably put, I did put one of my dreams on hold to get more of a secure job. then I just went to work learning everything there is I can learn about personal finance. And that moment really shaped who I am today. I had mentioned previously that I read Rich Dad Poor Dad. This was in that time when I picked up that book, found my five friends on podcasts, listened to them religiously and really developed a habit, a smart money saving habit and built that foundation that I needed to get me to where I am. today I'm so glad I did. That massive struggle, that massive pain was horrible. to this day, I'm still kind of ironing out some of the residue, the stickiness comes with losing a lot of self-confidence. But that propelled me to a point where I could take independence of my finance, learn a shit ton about money, how the world works. I don't know how the world works still, but. My eyes are open to figuring it out and realizing there's a lot of systems and games out there that other people are playing. And I am at, you know, way down here thinking I'm playing the right game. And that is just not the case. There are so many levels to this game. And my eyes were just like peeled open to this reality. And it has been an ever evolving journey trying to figure out what level I'm at. How do I get to the next level? What else is going on behind the veil? And rolling with it. so this journey has been so fun and rewarding. And it has come out of that really shitty moment in life. And I'm so glad that it has. So I think that there's so much value in the thought that when people are in a moment that is so unfortunate, uncomfortable, painful, it's really hard to see the forest through the trees. And when you're in that moment, it feels like it's a game over event, right? Or something that that's just really takes you down. When you look back at that moment, days, weeks, months, years later, whatever the case, and you're able to see how far you've come from that. And because of that, because of the the growth that you were able to experience. It turns out that it was an invaluable experience and something that absolutely was meant to happen. It just doesn't always feel good at the time, right? I think a lot of people, especially with social media, et cetera, I think so often people think everyone has this perfect life or that there's people that actually have that. And the reality is, is nothing like that. Nothing's ever perfect. everyone's always got their drama or their difficult times, right? And I think a lot of that comes back then to perspective and how you can look at it and what benefit, what lesson you can take from it, how you can grow from it and how you can apply that knowledge in order to not repeat the same mistakes, right? To learn and grow from that, but also to learn more about yourself and then how you can be better for others, right? As you grow and evolve, then you can give your best version of yourself to other people. And I think that that's a really powerful perspective to look back on these moments, these pains that we have, and then to grow from them and to help others to grow as well, which is a big part of this podcast. And you feel like when you're in the throes of all of that, that positive, you know, it's like, how could any of this be good? But it's all about how you frame those moments. And one of this newer enlightened version of me that I'm at now is able to stop and be like, this moment really sucks. But this is how transformation happens. This is how change happens. This means I'm ready. I've plateaued, you know, like this is the world telling me like you're ready for your next challenge and you're in it. Here's your next challenge. Now overcome this so you can level up. Like this is your next step up in life. And ever since I've kind of taken on frame of, you know, facing different challenges, it's completely, well, one, it's eliminated a lot of stress, that's for sure. Cause you can like, it's so wound up and like squeezing so tight and you can't see anything. You're like, you've got blinders on. So now all of that's cleared. It's like, okay, how do I work my way through this? How do I get out of this? And that has been probably how I've stayed afloat throughout all of this is really changing that perspective and just reframing things. I love when you say about the idea about it taking the stress away, right? I obviously doesn't get rid of it, but it reduces it. When you look at the same thing, but through a different lens, have a completely different outtake and emotionally you feel different about it. And when you have less stress, when you have less reticence or reservation, it opens you to be able to take those challenges head on and to go into your next adventure like earlier you mentioned like eyes wide open, right? You can see. So, you know what goals are you start understanding what you want from life and you start positioning yourself to achieve those successes. So, I'm curious in that what are some of the goals that you have set that you're striving towards and what steps are you taking to achieve them? I haven't set my goals yet for 2025, but there is, my vision of a lifestyle that I want to accomplish. And that's kind of like the long vision. that's the overarching progressive part of the journey. But what I really like are more, when it comes to goals, more tangible, smaller things, developing habits. I think habits have become very important in my life. And most of my goals revolve around what are the types of habits that I want to develop that I really want to stick. And there are a few that I'm really proud of that I've accomplished in my adult life, like better financial habits, for one, saving, that helped me buy my real estate portfolio, flossing as an adult. I'm so glad I picked that up in my 20s. That was awesome. and becoming a reader. Little things, just small habits like that. It's like, what do want to focus on this month, this year that I want to secure? And one of the big habits for 2024 was becoming a member of the 5 a.m. club But to be a member of the 5 a.m. club, you have to be a member of the 9 p.m. club. And that is a habit that is very hard, especially when my mind turns on in a really weird way around midnight. And that's when I like to get most of my work done. just developing these habits that help you become that BHAG, that big hairy audacious goal version of yourself, the little stepping stones. And that is part of the journey, Justin. Those are the little stepping stones along the journey where you can learn new things, discover new things. through this reading habit, I'm learning so much about other interests, which is awesome. And it helps you really evolve as a person. So, my take on goals is sure, have that big, awesome vision for yourself, whatever you wanna do by the end of the year or even 10 years, five years, 10 years. Have that as like directional goals. guess directions on your map, whatever. I think the goal should be those more tiny little things that you can actually accomplish and be really proud of when you add this new layer of a positive habit to your life. Completely agree and celebrating those wins as you have them right putting in those habits those consistent habits It's the little things that create the foundation and it's the consistency and the discipline that you use to engage them, and then you get to look back and you see how far you've come and it was all because of that Compounding like we talked about earlier right the compounding effect of those habits. But I do think that the magic is really in, those, those forward steps, those single steps that you take forward consistently and just continuing to press forward, that's how you get to your journey. That's how you ascend to those goals. Getting to goals, unfortunately, is never a completely clean and easy experience. Oftentimes, we trip or fall along the way. And I know we talked a little bit about some trials and tribulations, but I'm curious, and you may have shared one of them, but I call it the darkest hour, is there a moment that you look back and you just think, you know what, I'm throwing in the towel, I'm gonna quit, I don't wanna do this anymore? how did you overcome it and how did it make you feel? Okay, I think a really good example of this is actually not all long ago. And by not all that long ago, I think a lot of 2024. entrepreneurship is hard. It's really hard. And you you hear these people on the internet, you know, my first year was really tough, you know, you're like, whatever, I can figure this out. Like you're you, but I'm me. And I'll figure this one out. And then you're doing it and you're like, this is what they meant by hard. This is hard. It's really hard. I really don't know as much as I thought I did as it turns out. And that is humbling because especially when you quit your job. to go pursue this other thing, you've completely transformed from, you've ditched that traditional lifestyle to go pursue this non-traditional lifestyle, thinking that everybody else who takes like three to five years to figure it out, I'm gonna do it in six months. You know, like you have this ridiculous expectation and you just realize like, that's not the truth. It's not really how it goes. And that journey that you see from zero to a million online, there's a lot of growth that happens for those individuals too. And that's the point that I was in throughout 2024. And looking back on it now through this frame, through a different lens, and at the time I really tried to see it this way as well. I just tried to remind myself, you're in it. This is the part that everybody warned you about. This is hard. But trust that you are making progress. So I think that's really important too. Dan Sullivan talks about the gap and the gain and There's always gonna be a never ending gap between where we are in that BHAG, but you have to look at your gains in order to stay sane. That's, added that part in order to stay sane because you can go absolutely nuts, constantly wanting and striving and never appreciating how far you've actually come. So this entrepreneurial journey for me has been one of the biggest learning lessons of life and super rewarding all at the same time, not necessarily financially. Like that hasn't come yet. It will, I know that it will in time, but it has been such a learning process. And I'm learning everything at this time when AI is coming up, there are all these new tools, everybody's selling you different products. And it's like, my gosh, there is so much to learn and it's moving so fast. So, you know, that being said, anybody who's on this journey, like give yourself some freaking grace. because it's a madhouse out there. Like it's crazy. And you have to really be able to dial down the noise and like block out things and trust like I'm focusing on this right now and this is what I need to be focusing on. And that, and you just gotta trust like that's the right choice for you in that moment and keep going and then just be open to pivoting and taking in new information little by little. Don't let yourself get overwhelmed because I did that as well. I love learning. and you could get really bogged down, stuck in this cycle of never-ending learning and constantly iterating before you've even tested anything. think that such a key point. So I call it sifting the gold. You go through a lot of dirt to be able to try and find it. When you find it, I think something you mentioned right now is regards to actually applying those iterations. You keep going on to the next new shiny thing. You got to find something. You got to learn. You got to try it. You got to experience that, whether it's a tool or whether it's a path you're on. Whatever that is, really devoting yourself and actually giving yourself time to experience it. before you jump on to the new next thing, right? Yeah. I agree, and I'll just add a little more to that. This is coming from somebody who's all for quitting. know, like don't be afraid to quit. That is like a concept that I like to live my life by. You don't need to overly commit to any one thing forever just because you said you would do it, but put in the time to actually test it. Like really figure out if this is the right move for you and you have to give it time. Time has to be allowed to see the results. fruits of your labor or else that all would have been for nothing. You made a pretty pivotal move, so you had a career and at the height of your career, you stepped back from that and adjusted. Can you tell us more about that how was the experience and where was your mindset at when you made that choice? Yeah, I reaching the point where I could see the final accomplishment. I like, that's what the end goal is going to be. And it was so close. I was pretty much doing the role. The only, I guess, barrier to reaching that full point of, I guess, financial reward was more of what I was already doing. which would have made the job even more demanding. you know, kind of knowing what I know now, maybe there were some tools or tricks I could have implemented to lessen the time demand, but essentially to reach the full expression of my career, it was more of what was already happening. And I already felt so burned out in my career. was so much struggle, like every step of the way. I was in the commercial video advertising. fashion photography space and it was very demanding. And COVID was a really weird time where there was a period where things kind of died out, but then it ramped up so fast. And that was right when I had switched over to becoming an agent. I was a producer, then I was an agent representing commercial photographers. And it was a dream job, absolutely a dream job. If I wasn't gonna be on set behind a camera myself, I wanted to be kind of in the mentor position of being an agent. and negotiating deals and going to bat for these artists that are wildly talented. And I'm negotiating against these national companies that are making millions of billions of dollars and they want to pay artists measly little fees. And that was the constant struggle every day. And it was a rewarding one, especially when I was able to build up my artists careers and see them move out of rougher neighborhoods and into the valley where they could buy a house for their kids, send them to a different school, where they're able to take on different projects around their own homes and just see their careers flourish and reach their dreams. That was so rewarding and I loved every second of it. But from my perspective, the work that was required on my end, it was just constant 24 seven and it just wasn't allowing me to live the life and balance that I really wanted. And it just got to a point where actually, when I was 30, before I even like really hit this point of burnout, I was on the journey learning about financial independence and real estate and how to use that as my kind of my tool to get to retirement. Cause as I mapped it out, living in a high cost of living city like LA, making what I was making, like I wasn't going to have any money come retirement. Like I had started too late and I wasn't able to put enough, allocate enough. So I needed a different strategy. So I decided that I was going to start saving up to buy real estate. I said, when I have five properties, I will be able to make a choice. And that's all I really wanted. I just wanted to be able to have the choice. I didn't want to go retire and sit on a beach and, you know, reach fire and, and then just travel the world. It's like, I don't know if that's what I want, but I want to be able to choose that when the time comes. So I started saving, started saving. And, you know, I didn't reach five properties. I reached three. but I leveraged the short-term rental strategy that became super hot at the time. And at 35, I was able to make the choice. Like, is this something that I wanna do? Is this really the choice that I wanna make? Do I wanna leave this career that I've worked so hard, put in so many hours to get to this point? I was like, yep, actually it wasn't that hard of a decision, but it was still really tough. It definitely was. A lot of fear of future regrets. You just don't know if what you're gonna jump into next is gonna pan out. But you have to be brave and make the choice. the side, just wondering and noodling over it forever isn't gonna get you any further. You gotta test it. And you can always go back. You can always go find another job. But the reality was I knew that what my future looked like wasn't going to be much different than the life I was currently experiencing in that role. so I made the jump. I actually took week trip down to South America, visited Chile and the Galapagos as a reset in my mind right before I quit. Like, is this really what I wanna do? And sometimes you gotta pull yourself out of that chaotic moment. Like physically leave, go somewhere else. When you have to make a big decision, get out. Get away from all those influences that are like bogging you down and making you feel all that stress. Go look at something different, smell different smells. And through that experience, I was able to feel confident in my decision. Like, yeah, this is the next move for me. This is what I wanna pursue. So I went for it. I think it's amazing. So much of what you said and going backwards on that, stepping away from something sometimes is that reset that you need to be able to get outside the influences of everything else. But when you talk about you put in so much time, so much effort, so much energy to learn and to grow and to become the best in your business and the best at what you do. And then realize that, wait, is this really what I want? that's terrifying to consider having to suddenly change that trajectory. I'm sure there are a lot of people that have put all their time, effort, energy into a career and then suddenly get to a point of burnout or to say like, is this really what I want with my life? And to take the bold leap to be brave enough to step away from that and go into something unknown that's commendable. Absolutely an inspiration to myself and I'm sure to other people that listen to this as well to say you know what I can do this and then to believe in yourself You're like obviously you got to where you were Already because of the time effort energy and the dedication you put to it So why can't you do that somewhere else because you can right you just got you have to find the thing that brings you joy that that you're passionate about and I love how you said that you were you were helping people and you were helping them to to get out of lower quality neighborhoods or into better homes and be able to give their kids new schools and give them a better chance. Right? And so being an advocate for other people, I'm sure that brought amazing joy. Yeah, that was one of the hardest parts to have to detach from was the relationship with the roster that I had built with my artists. you become such a key point of their lives that, you know, when I told them I was leaving, they probably felt so alone because you are the person in this role in that career. You're the person that they look to for all of their career guidance. at the end of the day, though, I was building 12 other careers, but I felt like mine was suffering. I was kind of living Groundhog Day every day and there were so many skill sets that I wanted to further develop. in that moment it was easy to make the decision, it had actually been years of planning. Being 30, say when I'm 35, I'm gonna be able to make this decision. Like that was kind of the beginning of making that choice. And it had. taking all of that time to get to that definitive, positive yes. And that's when you know you're ready. Do you think that making that choice, when you say like that it was easy to make the choice at that time, was it then because you put in all the work before it? Yes, yes, it was because I had built up a community, education and resources in this other sphere, in this other industry, these other areas of interest that I felt comfortable making the jump. And my current business, HeyRaise, wasn't really in effect at the time, but I was working with, I was basically doing the work in a very informal way for peers in the industry. So I saw an opportunity and and went for it. And sometimes you just, you gotta do it. And we feel so stuck sometimes in this obligation. I've put in this time, I got this degree and my parents did this job for 40 years of their careers. Like that all may be true, but you are a dynamic human learning and growing. And leaning into that is so fun to figure out what is the extent of my ability. So now you don't know when you do the same thing every day, but like us humans are. freaking awesome creatures that can learn so much and evolve and to feel like I was gonna be selling, cutting myself short, not necessarily selling myself short, but cutting back on what my potential could have been was such a sad reality for me. And I did not want to regret not learning more about who I am and what I'm capable of accomplishing. And the only way I was gonna do that was to jump off a cliff and figure out how to build a parachute, because there wasn't anything. I love that. I love that, right? Leaping, right? And there is, it makes me think of the comment, burn the boats, right? To leap off that cliff and you don't have the parachute yet, right? But you know that you're gonna, I mean, you have to survive. You have to make it happen. And so that imagery that is very vivid in my mind right now, and I appreciate you just painting that perspective. And I think so much of that is sometimes you just gotta jump, right? You know there's something more and you've gotta take the leap. The hope is that you do create that parachute. Not everybody does. And that's a reality. Not everybody wins. And that's an unfortunate truth, right? You won't know if you don't try. the reality that you have it in you if you want to, And even if you hit rock bottom, you can still pick yourself back up and try again, but this time with all the skills and experience to support you achieve your goals. So speaking of goals and achieving them, I call it Dragon's Gold, right? The success, achievements or accolades, things that you've experienced and appreciated in your life. What would you share are some of those moments that you're very grateful to have learned and to experience? gosh, I feel like I've shared so many of the moments along this journey I am really proud of. Even developing the habits. Like, I don't know why I'm like so proud that I'm a reader now. It's just like really changed my life. But taking this entrepreneurial leap has been one of the most amazing experiences. There's no accolade attached to that other than my own self joy. I would argue that's one of the most powerful things. I would say that to feel confident and successful about that, there is so much power in that, Regardless of there's anything that is attached to that monetarily or materialistically, right? Just being able to feel confident and happy in yourself to know that you took this leap and you're becoming successful in that, that's amazing and congratulations to you for that. Thank you, and on the note of creating habits, it is helping me build that muscle of appreciating my successes. And that is overlooked. And it's a muscle that you do have to build. You have to work on that. always just come out happy. waking up and finding gratitude and happiness in your journey. It's not something we are wired to do when we're fed social media ads, all this junk every day. But if you detach from that, you can learn this new habit of finding gratitude and being proud of what you've done your journey. it's a muscle that needs to be worked out and built up. Just like habits, right? The repetition that comes into play, right? Putting in that time effort energy and getting the reps in, And suddenly it becomes easier, right? And you become accustomed to it and it's rewarding. So. flow. One thing feeds into another and that positive energy and that manifestation of just fruitfulness just begins to flow. And I feel like I'm only at, I feel like I'm at the beginning of that part of my journey is realizing the power of manifestation, the power of positive energy and how that feeds into the results and successes that you see in life, because you can see the positive outcomes and you're not in this dark tunnel of negativity and blocking out opportunities. You're open, open to letting things happen in a positive way for you. And I think that's gonna be a lot of what 2025 will be for me is allowing that to just happen naturally, manifest itself through this power of positive thinking and I agree with you a thousand percent, a thousand percent. Not just having that feeling of gratitude, but you feel that, and I love how you use the word flow, It's like these gates open and all of this success, if you will, and I say success, not just again, from monetary materialistic, but from the habits that you form, from the experiences that you have, the relationships that you make, and then they start to compound and they start to build. These ripples that come out and oftentimes unintended. You do something with an expectation or intention and there's this unintended consequence that comes about that oftentimes can be its own positive or you help someone else and then in turn it comes back to you in ways that you never expected, which only helps to keep continuing to feed that, right? a perspective to consider. So I call this the Hall of Heroes, right? It's like passing the torch. It's leaving a legacy. It's looking forward. If someone were to go through the Hall of Heroes and see a statue of Adrian Rae and on there, there is a plaque that has something to share some insight for future ages. What would you want it to say and what would you want them to feel? So, I'm in this process of learning how to listen to the unconscious mind and just letting things come up. And right now the thing that just came up was unapologetic. And I don't know that that's where I'm currently at, but that's where I want to be. I want to live my life unapologetically me. Everything that I am capable of creating. everything that I'm capable of giving to others, the value that I can produce, And I think unapologetic is just one of the ways to describe that. And for some reason, it's the first one that came up. So let's go with that. I love it. I love it. Thank you. what's next? What's the next quest for Adrian Rae and for HeyRaise? well, it's funny you mentioned the next quest, because today, after this call, actually, I'll be on part two of this quest. And this quest has been very, very life changing. It's going to be so I'll just talk about it briefly. But I'm in the process of doing an NLP breakthrough session, neuro linguistic programming, using the mental and emotional release. process and I have an amazing guy who I met through the mastermind that you and I are in. Her name is Trudi Kelly and I met her through that mastermind by putting myself in rooms where I did not feel comfortable, where I didn't feel like I fit, where I did not have the accolades or the bank account or anything to measure up to anybody else in that room. But I went in and I've made amazing relationships and one of them is Trudi Kelly and she is a phenomenal human and she is guiding me through this quest to figure out who I really am, what is the baggage that is holding me back, and then helping me release that. So if anybody has ever heard about NLP and MER, like this is a massive transformational journey that I am like in the midst of right now. I am so excited for what it's going to produce in 2025 and who I'm going to become out of this process. So that's the biggest. quest and journey that I'm on right now for me personally. And that is going to feed 100 % into everything that HeyRaise is and what it becomes. Like I'd mentioned, I'm much more about the smaller habits than the bigger goals. But there are obviously big goals there for HeyRaise. I want to be able to help a lot of capital raises with a lot of people in our industry and be the brain that's learning all of the tools as the marketing industry kind of evolves right now in this moment of technological advancement that we're in, you know, with AI and everything else. So I want to be able to learn all that and help the industry apply that to how they're raising capital and building their brands, like building confidence in who they are and stepping into that confidently communicate with their target audience. You don't need to create some fake phony thing. Like you can be you and Justin, you are phenomenal example of being you and 100 % building a brand and a persona around that and attracting like-minded people to that. And I just love the way you've embraced it. And it's been so fun to see you grow your brand and this podcast all within that theme of Dragon's Gold. It's phenomenal. So I want to be able to help other people do exactly as you're doing and become more of who they are through their business, but really stepping into being proud of who they are, who they connect with, what their story is, and then helping them shape their marketing campaigns around that. Because we are our greatest assets. And if we stay hidden, we'll never know what we're really capable of accomplishing, who we're capable of connecting with, and what lives we're capable of changing. I think that's really why we're here. That's the meaning of this journey that we're all on, finding that greater purpose. So powerful. Thank you. I completely agree with everything you said. are there any resources or books or podcast hosts besides me that you would like to encourage people to listen to or to read? There are so many, there are so many. I have very interesting set of interests, as many people do. But in general, I would say, follow your interests. find what speaks to you, but just make sure that your interest isn't scrolling on Instagram or TikTok. Like get off of those apps, right? Like that's not the interest I'm talking about. Find what speaks to you and go read about that, learn about that. And what I'm in the middle of right now, The Creature from Jekyll Island. And this is about the true story of the Federal Reserve. And this will really open up your eyes to the monetary systems in our country. And once you figure that out, once you learn what's really happening, you'll know what to do. And that's actually a direct quote from Nelson Nash, I guess the godfather of the infinite banking concept, which I'm a huge proponent of. Again, once you know what's really going on, you'll know what to do. So get curious about the systems that are running our country, that are running our monetary systems, and figure out a way to pull yourself out of being that conveyor belt. Get control of your destiny, and you only can do that by understanding what's really going on. So that's the book that I would recommend. The creature from Jekyll Island. That's awesome. Thank you. All right. So the last question that I want to ask, and this is my favorite one to ask, if you were to be any mythical creature, what would you be and why? Phoenix. transformation rising from darkness. I haven't had much darkness in my life. You know, I've been very fortunate, but every pivot, every twist and turn is always faced with new challenges. And I, so far I've been rising to the occasion. And I think if you just keep doing that in life, you'll, you'll get ahead. Thank you, Adrian. Thank you so much for joining us today. If anyone wants to reach out to you, as I'm sure many people will, I'm going to ask how can they connect with you? Maybe the best way is LinkedIn. I'm pretty active on that platform. And it's just my name, Adrian Rae. Rae is R-A-E. So yeah. Awesome. Well, thank you. I appreciate it. Well, I feel the same. Great. Grateful for you spending the time with us and the listeners today. So thank you for that. All right, my friends, well, thank you once again for joining us on our quest to inspire, educate, and empower you to turn your dreams into reality, one mindset shift at a time. We'll see you next time.

People on this episode

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Justin Mills

Host
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Aaron Iler

Producer
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Adrian Rae

Guest