The Tables Turn: Adam in the Hot Seat

Just one episode in, and Adam is already switching seats.

In our next podcast, Adam steps out from behind the mic, with Mike, to answer a few of his own. 

In this episode, he opens up to share the story behind the Friendship Tree: the upbringing that shaped him, the values handed down by the people who raised him, and the experiences that helped channel his creativity into building a positive movement for good. 

He also talks about something that's followed him through every chapter of his life: a refusal to give up. Where it comes from, and why, no matter how steep the climb, quitting has never been on the table.

It's an honest, grounded introduction to the person behind the Tree — and sets a foundation for the journey yet to come.

Welcome to Episode Two. This one's about Adam.

Transcript

G'day. My name is Mike Goldman. 
Today we are meeting Adam,

the founder of Friendship Tree.
Adam, welcome to your show!

Thank you so much, Mike. Thanks for having me.

I've been studying you, learning all 
about you and all of your incredible

adventures over your life that has 
brought you to this moment. Let's go

back to the beginning. Your family were 
growing daffodils and you felt a little

bit different as a kid. Do you want to start 
there and just tell us a bit about yourself?

I'd love to. Yeah, I grew up in rural Victoria 
on a daffodil farm. I know a lot of people may

feel the same, but when I was a kid, I just felt 
I was a little bit different.

I always had a real affinity for nature and for animals — probably 
in my early days, even more so than people.

So I felt really at home spending a lot of time on 
my own, at the farm, in nature. We had horses,

daffodils and flowers everywhere. It was a 
beautiful way to grow up, but I think it really

fed into allowing me to be an introvert and create 
my own little world and my own little space.

As I've got older, with all the diagnoses going 
around now, I was an introvert. I probably had

ADD. I've always had an amazing ability to 
hyperfocus on things and then completely

not focus on the things I wasn't interested in. 
That culminated, Mike, when I was in

grade five or six. My parents and the school 
actually had me tested. The teacher said,

"Adam's really good at some things, but other 
things — it's like he's not even here." So they

went through a whole process. First, I got tested 
to see if my eyes were okay, to see if that was a

reason I wasn't connecting with things that didn't 
mean a lot to me. Then they sorted that my eyes

were okay. Then they said maybe he's a bit deaf. 
So we got checked for deafness. It turns out,

obviously back then there was no 
diagnosis for ADD or kids who are

very obsessed about certain things and 
really living in their own little world.

I was one of those boys, and one 
of those kids in general, that

was hyperfocused on what I liked. At that 
time, it was being outside, being outdoors,

being in my own world and creating that world in 
my own head. To me, too many people and things

were distractions, where animals and nature
— you 
have to feel their voice. You can't always hear it.

There's a deeper understanding there. So that 
created a little bit of the basis of who I am.

Leading on from there, one of the other big things 
that's molded me, Mike, is the conversations you

have with your parents growing up. We didn't have 
a lot of money growing up. My parents were always

trying to do more with less. But one thing 
my dad told me in my mid-teens, which stuck

with me really heavily — I was always very close 
to my dad. We had a very special [relationship];

he was almost like a brother to me, an 
older brother I never had. One day he said,

"Adam," or "son" — I don't remember which 
one — he said, "I believe that in your life,

you'll be able to achieve whatever you want 
as long as you believe in yourself." He said,

"You have the ability to really hyperfocus 
and be obsessed. That can be your superpower."

And honestly — not giving up. Not giving up, 
Mike. Friendship Tree is the fifth organisation

that I've created with a team from ground 
zero, and the one thing that drives me is

not that I'm smarter than anyone else. 
It's just that I don't give up.

That obsessive discipline to get through the 
shitty times and the hard times — that's

my way of delivering to all the people I work 
with: being that person who doesn't give up.

You've talked before about having a need 
to create, whether it's building homes or

any other businesses you've built 
from the ground up. What is that,

and where does that inspiration come from?

It comes from my childhood. I used to sit at 
the dinner table at night. My mum was an artist,

and we'd just sit there for hours and she taught 
me how to draw. My dad was always making things

in the shed we had — usually out of bits and 
pieces of stuff he'd found. So from a young age,

I was exposed to gardening, building furniture, 
doing art. As I got older, your hobbies just get

bigger. For me, part of how I feel my worth 
is to build things, Mike. As I've got older,

that's businesses, teams. I still love to 
build furniture and I love to restore cars.

I love to reforest. If it's about creating, 
I've always been up for it, and it's been a

huge part of my life. It's hard for me to actually 
describe how I feel when I'm creating something.

Now that I'm older, Friendship Tree has become 
about creating something for purpose — not just

for something that's beautiful or to make other 
people happy or make myself happy. Friendship

Tree is the creation of that, and the teams and 
the technology we're using to build the platform

are now a culmination of those 55 years on this 
planet of all the things I've wanted to do, except

now it's the ability to turn that into something 
that's always been deep in my soul. I've finally

come to an intersection in time where you have the 
headspace, you have the passion, there's a calling

that comes. So yeah, building things is huge. 
Without building things, Mike, there is no Adam.

You advocate for so much — whether it's 
animals, helping people, other charities,

helping the environment. Where do you find 
the time to do all this, and why do you

think you advocate for so many different 
things to help people in different areas?

When things are really important to you, you 
find the time. Whether it's to go to the gym

or to have a beautiful relationship 
with your partner, whatever it might be,

you have to make the time. You have to find 
the time to get it done. For me, I've placed

this new journey with Friendship Tree at the top 
of the list. I've moved everything else aside.

My early days have really now reflected, as I'm 
older, into wanting to help people and the planet.

The planet can't talk to you, but you can watch 
— and if you listen very carefully and watch

what goes on, you realise what help needs to be 
done. People in need, minorities — they also hit

me in the chest, in my heart and my soul, in 
the same way. To have a voice for the people

that don't often get heard, and for the people 
and things that, in our very fast-paced society,

are slightly misplaced and don't quite fit in 
— those are the things that really sing to me,

Mike. I've come a full 360 and returned exactly 
back to where I was in my own little world, except

now we're in a grown-up world and the impact we're 
making is for real people and for real things.

When was that moment when everything 
clicked — that aha moment, the epiphany,

that made you realise you needed 
to start Friendship Tree and

there was an opportunity for 
you to do something like this?

About six years ago. I was 
going to a lot of networking,

talking to government, saying a few 
words in parliament, going to schools,

just basically networking and trying to really 
understand how I could take Friendship Tree to the

next level. It initially started, Mike, where we 
wanted to be boots-on-the-ground. We wanted to be the doers.

But after quite a few years 
of researching, speaking, and networking,

I saw — and I now share this with the team 
— the issue out there is there are so many

good people doing amazing things. Everyone's 
working individually, and a lot of companies,

corporations, organisations, and 
foundations are working individually.

So I listened to as many people as I possibly 
could to try to mold who we are today and to

offer that solution: not to be someone 
else competing, but to be someone out

there to support and amplify all the people doing 
amazing things that were initially close to my heart,

and now close to the whole Friendship Tree 
team's heart. That was a huge drawcard. It was

a huge pivot for us, because I've always 
been a builder. I want to build things,

so I'm naturally a hands-on doer. But this 
is a different style of company. This is a

digital platform. We're solving the solution 
— changing the way people give to make it more

clear and transparent. That took a long time for 
me to see, Mike. That wasn't an overnight thing.

Did that come from looking at other charities and 
having frustrations about knowing where the money

was going, knowing what the organisations were 
doing with it, and so many other aspects that made

you a little bit frustrated, and you thought, 
hang on a minute, there's a gap here where

people need to know what's going on and whether 
their cash is actually helping an organisation?

Yeah. From some of the research I did initially, 
there are actually people out there who have

dedicated their whole lives, after being burnt 
by giving money to somewhere that perhaps wasn't

quite as they thought. Some people dedicate 
their whole lives to just researching charities

and researching organisations in general — not just  not-for-profits, but everybody. So that was

part of what I looked at: there's a real need for 
people to feel they have control in their giving,

that they know where their money's going. That's 
what drove me — but also just the siloing, Mike,

of so many wonderful organisations and people out

there working individually. Why not put 
them together? There's power in numbers,

and to me, doing things together has always 
been part of how we get things done better.

Also, to scale — to bring people 
into the platform. For instance,

you might come in looking for a community 
project or an organisation you'd like to help,

but on the way through, you might see a 
completely different organisation you never

even knew existed. That gives you the ability 
not just to give straight away. This is not just

about giving straight away; it's about building a 
community together so there's more understanding.

Yeah, because there are so many 
charities out there. Over the

years I've hosted events and raised money 
for charities. You hear their stories,

but it's hard to be across it all. From what 
I see you're doing, an organisation that has

built trust with the community and has 
helped various charities and explained

their cause makes it so much easier for people 
to give. It gives them peace of mind as well.

You mentioned before the hitchhiking analogy. Do 
you want to explain to me what that's all about?

It's an analogy I fall back to. When we're trying 
to explain, if you want to get from A to B,

you can stick your thumb out and hitchhike, but 
you're not quite sure if you're going to get there

or not. What we've tried to do is bring almost 
an Uber experience — Uber is the wrong word,

but let's say an Uber experience — where if you 
want to get from A to B, you hop in an Uber,

and there's some governance, some clarity around 
it, and some understanding that you're going to be

served and you're going to get what you thought 
you were going to get: a safe trip to your next

destination. At Friendship Tree, we are that 
safe trip that links donors with charities and

corporates to make sure no one gets left behind 
or ends up somewhere they didn't anticipate

going. That's a simple way for me to explain it. 
It's just putting the trust and transparency in.

What we looked at was that there was no one place 
that was the family, the home — the Friendship Tree.

There was no platform where people could 
go and honestly say the experience was nice,

that their giving had more control, they thought that there was clarity and transparency around it.

Really,  that's our sole purpose for being: to put 
that trust back in there, and to make it

a really nice experience, Mike, from doers 
to building an actual platform that works.

What have you found along the way 
that has changed the organisation?

Is it constantly learning and changing every day?

Yes, it is. And if I can be completely honest, it's much 
harder than we ever anticipated. Without the team,

it's near impossible to achieve what we have. 
It's taken three or four years to collect the

amazing people we now have. Even though I was 
the spark to start this, it's grown way bigger

than me. Now my ability to help the team is — 
I'm kind of the 5%; the team does the 95% of

the heavy lifting now. You get to a point where you realise that as a founder and as a CEO, you're

useful in certain ways, but as a business grows, 
and as your dreams and visions and mission grow,

and your partnerships grow, you realise you are 
not to be utilised everywhere all the time. I'm

best utilised in the things I can do well, and 
that's doing well for the team and our partners.

It's being honest with yourself and 
realising — I have a lot of shortcomings,

and I've made a lot of mistakes in my time. 
It's a reason I'm here now. As I said,

not because I'm the best, but because I don't 
give up. Understanding where your own skills lie,

putting the team first and putting everything 
first, Mike — that's what I've done with

Friendship Tree, to be honest. If you said to 
me, "What am I most proud of?" — it's the team

we've built that can carry out the amazing 
connection between donors and charities.

A lot of people have found you online, whether 
it's friends or family who have introduced them to

what you're doing. It's a great little community 
of people who are all working together to help

really important charities doing great work. But 
what if you're a business out there that wants

to do good in the world? How would you explain 
it to a business and how they can get involved?

What we're starting to move into now is our 
corporate partnerships. What we've tried to

do is take the guesswork out of it for the donors 
— the individual community donors. We're trying

to do the same thing right now to build beautiful 
partnerships with corporates so we can tailor-make

their giving, that they can advertise back 
through their own businesses and their own

social networks. Tailor-making it with trust 
and transparency so there's absolute clarity.

One of the big things that drives the whole 
landscape we're in — which is giving — is impact.

Everybody wants a really clear understanding, 
not just of the impact today, but what does

that mean for tomorrow, next year, and beyond. So 
impact for us is huge. We see it as a three-piece

ecosystem. We are simply the platform 
that allows those relationships to happen.

You have corporates coming in through the website 
and through the app, and we can actually help

those corporates build beautiful relationships 
with the carefully vetted charities to make sure

that relationship is really clear and transparent. 
These days, whether it's ESG or impact reports,

everyone needs absolute clarity about where their 
money is going and what it's doing. So really,

it's just a different scale. We've done it for the 
individual; now we're doing it for the business.

Is that an organisation just making donations,

or is it people who work at an organization 
all having an opportunity to give?

We're really trying to build those 
relationships with corporates,

and our new initiative is workplace giving, to 
allow not just the owners of the corporates and

businesses but also the staff to give through 
a tailor-made solution for their particular

business. They might want to give in a specific 
way to a specific set of organisations. It's our

job to house that within Friendship Tree, to 
give not just the staff but the owners of the

companies that authenticity, transparency, 
and clarity around where their money goes.

There are so many different ways to donate now, 
and they're coming out of the woodwork. You get

them on your rates bill — would you like to donate 
to the Lord Mayor's fund? And he's going to do all

this cool stuff. Or even buying a burger the other 
day, they give you a bottle cap and you can put it

in one of three charity bins. It might be the 
local football club, the community center, or

whatever that is. So it's great that you're really 
experimenting with that kind of technology to be

able to raise funds for worthy causes. You've got 
a great team with you. You've built a brilliant

platform. The online community is growing. What 
about the charities? We need to get more charities

involved. What would you say to them out there 
right now, and how are you reaching out to them?

It's been a long process for us. We have a really 
strong vetting process to make sure that who we

partner with on the platform completely mirrors 
all those obligations people are looking for.

Giving in Australia can be really hard, and 
it's our job to make sure the charities we

platform are meeting a certain criteria to 
give people that feeling, as I said earlier,

of control. So yes, Mike, we're reaching out to 
charities and charities are reaching out to us.

We have a four-stage process — it's 
a very nurturing process. Even the

charities that perhaps don't make it onto 
the platform, it's still a lovely experience,

and at some point down the track we 
can reconvene and work together again.

For us at the moment, it's the first 
founding charities. This week coming,

we're onboarding Orange Sky and A Brave Life.

Oh, great.

Which is fantastic. It's a slow burn. We're not 
in a hurry to build masses of charities for the

sake of having charities. What we're doing 
is trying to build a beautiful collective

of impact-driven organisations that are really 
true to their word in carrying out beautiful

work that we feel is having a massive impact. 
For us, that is almost our recipe that we stand by —

it's a direct reflection of how we all work 
together. So it's incredibly important for us,

Mike, to have charities that 
are not just talking the talk,

but walking the [walk], and that haven't 
lost sight of their initial vision.

There are so many beautiful charities out there. 
There are so many people, so many organisations

doing incredible stuff, Mike. I leave sometimes 
with a tear in my eye from some of the sites we

visit, just seeing the depth and the impact 
they're making — not just environmental,

but a lot of the social charities are doing 
amazing work. When you see the recipients on

the other end of that and you get to hear their 
stories, our Friendship Tree story is the charity story.

To us, that's a huge benefit, and we're 
better for being involved with these charities.

Clarity, choice, and security is something 
that you push to the people who want to

donate and the charities that want to work 
with you as well. Why is that important?

It's hugely important to make sure we give giving 
a really level playing field, that people know

we've done the heavy lifting. We've spent dozens 
of hours looking at each charity we decide to

platform, and it needs to be a mutually 
beneficial decision. It's not just about,

"you meet this criteria." We like to have really 
deep, meaningful discussions with staff members,

CEOs, whoever's in that particular organisation. 
We like to make sure there's a common purpose

and bond between us and that charity, that we 
feel we can actually work together and help.

For people out there wanting to give — and as I 
said earlier, this is just for the small community

donations, but now for the corporates — I don't 
think there's ever been a more important time

in the lifestyle we all have, which is fast. 
There's so much white noise out there. Life is

hectic. Cost of living's up. There's a whole lot 
of things that are thrown at us to knock us off

course. So I don't think there's ever been a more 
important time to bring clarity and transparency,

to show impact and where your money's 
going. As money becomes harder to keep in

your pocket with the cost of living, 
every dollar, every $10, $20 — for us,

we take it extremely seriously where that money 
goes, how it's spent, the impact, and how we let

you know about how that's gone. That little 
$10 donation, it helps. They all help, Mike.

It's not about the quantity. And can I just 
reiterate, it's not always about the dollar

sign. It's about being part of a community. Some 
people — and I know myself how I've given in the

past — really look at different opportunities 
and different organisations before they're

ready to give. So we ask that people come to 
the platform. We don't have any big banners

out saying spend this, spend that. We're 
not a sales team. We are a community-driven

organisation for impact. The way we impact is 
by giving you a wonderful choice of carefully

vetted charities and allowing you to make your 
own decision, knowing we've spent dozens of hours

on each one to get to know them, to make sure 
your money is going where you want it to go.

What feeling do you want to create 
for people and businesses when

they get involved and they get on 
your website and they do donate?

I want them to feel they've found something 
they didn't know existed — something a little

bit magical, a place that can be trusted. 
We've spent a lot of money, a lot of time,

a lot of back-end work on the technology 
to make it beautiful, to make it safe,

to make our payment gateways safe, to make the 
whole experience wrapped up so you don't feel

you're giving one place here and one place there. 
We've tried to make it a universal place to go,

where we bring a lot of options in. And it's not 
just about giving — it's about learning, looking,

and seeing. We're talking to another amazing 
company at the moment about childhood dementia,

and until I met those wonderful people, I didn't 
even know childhood dementia was such a thing.

So there are all these small things out there. You 
come on the platform and you'll learn as well,

Mike. It's not just about giving — it's about 
learning. When you learn and when you understand,

you're probably more likely at some point to put 
your money somewhere. That's our role. As I said,

it's not about sales; it's about providing 
opportunity for people to give with confidence.

You're well and truly changing how people give. 
If you're sitting on the fence right now going,

"How do I get involved? What would I do?" 
— what would you say to someone like that?

Mike, I would say jump on to 
friendshiptree.com.au. Jump on the platform, have

a look at our beautiful charities. Subscribe, get 
the newsletter. You don't have to give straight

away. We're growing at the moment. We're heading 
towards having 50 to 100 beautiful charities on

before Christmas. So it's a slow burn for us, 
but I really want people to jump on Friendship

Tree and feel that experience — feel they're 
part of a culture and a community and a shift.

We are not competition. We are amplification 
of the good that's being done out there.

One question that gets asked of me, Mike, 
quite often is, "Adam, what does Friendship

Tree mean to you? If we're able to make 
giving feel better and more transparent,

what does that mean to Adam?" It means everything, 
man. It means everything. It means the last six

years and everything we've done, everything 
we've been through, all the setbacks.

It means absolutely everything to me — if we 
can bring a new way of giving in this landscape

that's fragmented. friendshiptree.com.au is where 
you go. Any donation over $2 is tax-deductible.

One final message you'd like to say to people

out there about what they should 
do when they get on the website?

Yeah, just have a look, Mike. Jump on, everybody, 
have a look. It's about our beautiful charities.

We have an amazing app about to be launched — 
that's been a really big back story. I won't

go into it now, but the app will allow 
you to have giving right in your pocket,

make it easy and simple. I'd love everyone to jump 
on to friendshiptree.com.au. Have a look at our

community, look at what we're trying to create. 
Maybe ask for a newsletter, just be part of us,

be part of the community we're trying to push.
Be part of the new way of giving. That would make us,

the team, and all our partners incredibly 
grateful, because together we are better

than all working individually. Check 
it out — friendshiptree.com.au.

Thanks, Mike. Thank you. Thank you. 
Keep up the good work, my friend.

Thanks, everyone.