Bedros Keuilian Podcast Show - Gerard Adams: The Millennial Mentor - 098

Episode Date: May 11, 2019

Thought leader, serial entrepreneur, angel investor, philanthropist, and co-founder of Elite Daily is known as the millennial mentor. He was able to turn his passion for storytelling into a $50 million-plus dollar business! A company he literally started out sheer hustle and determination! Watch or listen to this Inside Look now to hear all the ups and downs of his journey as the co-founder of this gigantic news platform, and why there is no reason you can’t be in the same position he was!   “Every odd was stacked against you” “Success leaves clues” - Bedros Keuilian   Here’s what you’ll discover: 1:20 - How Gerard’s passion for storytelling helped leverage him into success 4:30 - Who Gerard got his self-awareness from - and how it helped him keep his head on his shoulders 8:50 - What it took for Gerard and Elite Daily to become what they are today 17:22 - What a good pitch consists of - and how it can make you more money 31:12 - What to do when your “business identity” is taken away from you   “No ones truly paying attention to the economy” “Entrepreneurship is like going to war” “There is no plan B”   “You have the ability to take ownership of your life” “Simplify to amplify” -Gerard Adams

Hey friends, welcome to another episode of The Empire Show. This is an inside look into a young man who is driven, who is cause-based, impact-based, and has been the co-founder of Elite Daily where they built up this amazing company and exited. He's not only a prolific entrepreneur, but he's also using entrepreneurship as a form of giving back and a form of art. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Djarred Adams, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me, Vajos. Yes, sir. It's a great opportunity for us to be able to look into your life because you're 34 years old.

I'm 44, so I've got a decade on you, and I've got such massive respect for millennials who create a massive wave in the space that you're in. Because I believe millennials have a bad rap, and I know this to be a fact because we're one of the fastest-scoring franchises and we're hitting ink lists and entrepreneur 500 fast-scoring list. And it's like 80% millennials that run my company. And so the millennials are not the problem. The problem is how we approach them, work with them, deal with them, because it's a completely

different generation. And so to see what you've done is huge. And I wanted to really get an inside look in your life and business. So from what I understand, as the economy crashed, you created Elite Daily. What was Elite Daily? Yeah. Well, you know, to be honest, when we first started it, I was extremely naive. I did not know how we were going to build it to become what it had become.

But I had a passion for storytelling. And at the time when the economy crashed, I had lost millions of dollars that I had saved up previously from being an online marketer for small-cap publicly traded companies. And when I lost all that money when the stock market crashed, I was like, you know, not only did I lose all my money, but my parents got laid off. My friends were graduating from college and they couldn't get, you know, they had this worthless degree, couldn't get a job, they're coming to me for work. Yet my entire generation was just paying attention to what Kim Kardashian was doing.

And reality TV, like the Jersey Shore, which gave Jersey a totally terrible... Which is where you're from, right? Yeah, right? And I was just like, you know, no one's really truly paying attention to what's happening with the economy. And that's when I really decided to start, before I started at Daily, really just start to take my passion for storytelling and just start creating documentaries. And I started doing documentaries around the economy.

I created one called College Conspiracy, and I was the first to expose the student loan debt crisis for my generation because my friends that I graduated high school with were all going through it. Everyone had debt. Everyone was graduating with this degree, and they couldn't even get a job. You know what I mean? Yet they're paying off their debt for like, you know, many, many, many years,

like interest accrues. And I just was like, man, someone needs to really speak out about a lot of what's going on with the economy. And I'm, you know, think about America, like how great America really truly is in the land of opportunity, which I'd love to talk to you about. You should know better than anyone

with your family sacrificing to come here, right? And we were this like powerhouse of this opportunity, but yet we become the most indebted nation in the world. So, you know, and again, millennials, you know, weren't really paying attention to that. So that's where, you know, I started doing those documentaries and then I was like, where can I, how can I take this to the next level?

Because the documentaries were getting millions of views, but they were just going on YouTube, and I was like, I feel like we can do something even bigger. So I had a couple of young guys that were working for me. Now, what was the era that you were doing the documentaries? Like, what were the years that you were doing that? That was like 2010. 2010.

So at this point, you're 25 years old. Yeah. I just want to draw the picture here because a 25-year-old young man should be drinking, maybe doing some drugs, sleeping in, chasing tail. Previous to that, before the economy crashed in 2008, you were really heavily involved in the stock market. Yeah. Right?

Yeah. And so you were already entrepreneurial. And even previous to that, you went to college and dropped out. First semester, yeah. And so according to society, every odds should be stacked against you. Yet the economy crashes. You've dropped out of college. You were heavily involved in the stock market and you lose millions as a young man.

And you're just like, all right, there's this crisis going on and no one's paying attention to it. Like where do you get this like self-awareness from at such a young age? Because our audience is two part. They're the entrepreneurs. And then there's the I'm about to become. I'm an entrepreneur enough, but I'm young and I'm scared. And speak to those people. Where do you get that self-awareness from?

To be honest, you know, for me, it really stemmed from the foundation that I had with my, and I know not everybody has that foundation of parenting, but for me, that's why mentorship is just so important because my first mentors were my parents and my mother was the catalyst for all of this. Because when I had lost all that money and I was like completely self-discipline, and my ego shattered, you know, again, all my friends are graduating coming to me for work because they thought I was the guy who was like who may, had made it, and little did they know that I had just lost it all.

And it was my mother who kind of told me the story of how when she immigrated to this country from Columbia, they had a studio, all they had was a studio apartment with a family of five, very similar to your story, and they had literally nothing. And that, and even though they only had nothing and they had that one little, you know, studio, it caught on fire and the building caught on fire. And they lost everything. So here I am at my mid-20s, you know, completely self-destraught and not knowing how I was going to bounce back.

But my mother had told me that story with tears in her eyes and she was like, you know, if I was able to get through that and she was like, and I was like 15, 16 years old going and getting a job in the middle of the winter on Canal Street in Manhattan just to get a little bit of money to help your grandparents put food on the table. And she's like, I went through that, you know. And now I'm able to put a roof over you in your sister's head. So, you know, if you, you can have everything stripped from you, but they'll never take this and they'll never take this. So she was like, go out there and you can do it again.

And that's what gave me the belief system. That's what gave me the foundation of the belief that, you know what, you know, to this day, right? Like entrepreneurship is, you know, it is like, you know, a sport, you know, or it is like going to war. I mean, you're going to get knocked down. you're going to get beat up, you know, and it's the, how much can you fight and get back up and adapt and keep working and moving forward? That's going to allow you to eventually create success, you know? And for me, it's just always been in those darkest moments where I thought about giving up.

And I, you know, it was about to be like, I didn't know how I was going to really be able to push forward. And that was one of them. And my mother telling me that story was the first, like, real push that I was like, all right, you know what, like, I didn't have that, you know, a roadblock in my life, what you went through, what my mother went through, right? Like, I was actually born here and had every opportunity to succeed, just like every single person that is watching this.

No matter what your past circumstances are, you have the ability to take ownership of your life and your destiny. And I just, I owe so much to the sacrifice of my ancestors, my parents, my great-grandparents. So when my mother cried to me and told me that, and it really hit me. It hit me like, wow, like my grandparents, what they had to go through to just allow me to have the opportunity for me to become successful. So I was like, there is no plan B. There's only plan A. Like, what do you grade?

What do you love doing? And I was just like, all right, you know, start using your skills for online marketing and telling stories and video and just start doing it with, you know, talking about things that other people are not really wanting to open up about for our generation. And that was with the documentaries. And then it was like, all right, now how can we turn this into a business? Right? And that's when we bought Elite Daily for $9.99 on GoDaddy. We were naive.

We didn't know how we're going to start this publication. We were like, you know what? There's Huffington Post. There's like, you know, you got the New York Times. You got all these big publications that were handed down to millennials. Where's the voice of Generation Y that covers everything from business to health? to dating, to entertainment, to like really covering all verticals, but it's written for millennials by millennials.

And that was it. We were just like, I don't know how we're going to do this, but we just started, you know, saying let's do it. Let's build it. Let's figure it out. Let's build it as we go. So from the time you bought the domain name EliteDaily.com at GoDaddy. Yeah.

I'm guessing it was you and your partner. Yeah. To the time that you actually saw your first dollar, draw that picture. how much the timeline the effort yeah the doubts what happened what went into making that first dollar sheesh um it was it was tough i would say it took about believe it or not i would say i would say it took us like eight eight to ten months before we really saw like we didn't make any money for the close to a year we really we were just like trying to understand how to

we were interviewing our friends and our friends friends just figuring out how to get articles up and see how we can create this brand. And I had a little bit, I had a little bit of money saved, right? So I lost primarily everything, but I had enough to cover us. And again, we were a lean. It was me and two guys. And we were doing it out of my apartment with folding chairs. Right.

You know what I'm saying? So we had a very lean. And we were young, right? We don't have a family. We didn't have crazy bills. So you can work 24 hours a day. We were bootstrapped, right? And we just bootstrapped it, you know, and built it out.

And in about about eight to 10 months, I was able to get in touch with a guy named Larry, who happened to be in the advertising world. And we pitched them on what we had built and how we started to build this Facebook page. We started to have traffic. And we got him. He represented a lot of the automobile companies. And he had a client Fiat. And we were like, well, give us a chance to do a campaign together.

And that was our first ever final brand that bought into us, gave us a budget. I want to say it was like a $10,000 campaign, which was huge for us. We were super excited. And we got a Fiat and the campaign was how many millennials can we fit inside of a Fiat? And we did this whole video campaign around like all these millennials, like how many can we fit as like a challenge in a Fiat? And the video did extremely well. And then the way that we really were able to start to turn it into a real business was

who we surrounded ourselves with. We started to really get the right advisors, and I owe a lot to the advisors that we brought on board. Andrew, who he had built another company. He was like yourself. He was a lot older, well respected in the media world. He had built a company that had done really well in the past, and he kind of showed us the ad tech world and how we can set to monitor.

I'm going to stop you there because I'm dying to know, how do you go from let's cram a ton of millennials in the fiat to get our mentor let's get our first mentor and have them really show us the path because we know that success leaves clues and a good mentor is someone who's already been through the pain that you're experiencing and has achieved the outcome that you want so you said you went and found this guy yeah well or maybe he found you how did you even find this person how do you get him to help you show you the directions you know So he in particular was us going to different friends that we had known and we literally just started asking people like, do you know anybody who's an investor?

Do you know anybody who's in the media world? And it led to one guy named Oliver that we, that was in New York that had an incubator. And we were like, okay, this guy's an incubator, he probably has access to a network. And then Oliver had a partner named Andrew Reese and we had got a meeting and we just didn't, We didn't necessarily know how it was going to turn out, but once we sat with them, we realized that they can really genuinely help us a lot, and that's when we did a deal with them. They made an investment.

Andy became a really important advisor to us. And then from there, it was like, all right, you know, who else in this industry do we look up to? Arellana Huffington was somebody that was like, all right, you know, we look up to what they've done. So I started just emailing Ariana nonstop and just getting in touch with her and then got her to the office. And I got a picture like, you know, I got to find out, we gave her an elite.

Daily Band and like made her hold her hand of it. And was like, you know. Love that. Love that. But she became a person who really guided us and taught us how to scale the culture of our company to have contributors to scale the content. All right. Let me see, again, I'm speaking for the audience.

Yeah. I was like, because here's what's happening. The audience is saying, who the fuck am I to be able to go and reach out to Ariana Huffington and have the balls and the nerve to think that she's going to come and give me any of her time, put on the wrist, band, take a picture with me, advise me, right? And so it's a self-defeating mentality of, so how do you even have the nerve?

Because you guys weren't this big, known giant yet. Yep. So how do you have that confidence to go and reach out to an Ariana Huffington? Yo, it's the belief, you know. We really genuinely knew that the way that we were going about beating a media company was unconventional. We, you know, there's certain kind of energy that, like, when you really are on a mission and you know,

And you just, you can feel when it's, you're on to something, you know, you had that idea. And for us, it started off the three of us. Next thing, you know, there's 10 of us. Then there's 12 of us. And people, like, loved working at the company. And then all of a sudden, we have this in, you know, someone who sees that growth and makes an investment. And, you know, it was a little, you know, micro steps. But, you know, we just, we both truly, truly believed in it.

And I think you have to have that. You have to know that, like, this is, you're going all in on this dream. and you have to believe in that vision and you have to be able to pitch that vision, you know, and that's what we did. We just, you know, I was relentless at, you know, going after people. The way I got acquired was that same,

you know, the same way that I was relentless at getting my first mentor, my first advisor, the same way that I was able to create a $50 million exit was because of, you know, actually being, going and tracking down these individuals and knowing how to pitch. You have to, you have to know how to convey a message and tell a story.

People buy into the story. Let's hold it right there for a minute because I'm going to really have you break down to the most granular level on how to pitch and craft your story. And you are one hell of a storyteller. Like that, I believe, is a gift that you have then built upon and created something magical. But what I'm hearing you say when I said, well, how do you even work up the nerve, the confidence, the guts to go catch a Ariana Huffington? And you said belief. Belief. And I'll tell you why that's so powerful.

I got several friends who are special forces, specifically in the Navy SEAL world. And these guys will actually break into the bad guy's house in Afghanistan and Iraq. And they're so quiet in approaching them that they will go in there run their finger across the person's chest while they're sleeping to make sure they're not wearing a vest. Because those guys are so committed to their beliefs. See, they're not just participating in a war or a battle and then leaving when things get hot. They are so committed, they sleep in an explosive vest. And so these seals go in and then they run their finger gently across the body so that If they can feel any wires, they're going to cap them before they clack off the vest.

As soon as they wake up, they see Americans and they clack off the vest. And so as they're telling me this, I'm like, you guys are nuts. You guys are nuts. But I realize there's a big difference between just participating in a business or in a battle or in a sport and being committed because of your belief systems. Because when you're committed to your belief system, you will die before you stop. And I know that's a twisted analogy of the, some guy who's wearing a vest and is ready to go jihad,

but that's the level of commitment that you had, and that's the level of commitment that we need as entrepreneurs, if we want to take our business to its fullest potential. And that's what I'm hearing you say, and I'm just blown away by that, because you don't see enough of a younger generation willing to take that risk. And I think more people should,

and you're a great example of that. And be the, you know, again, resilient, persistent, you know, you're not going to, you're not going to get that response on that first trial. Right. Even people who try to reach out to, me today, reach out to me now, whether they want me to invest in their company, they want me to mentor them. It's the ones that I see that are not going to just DM me and be like, hey, can

you mentor me? Or, hey, can you teach me how to make a million dollars or just hit me up once or whatever? It's the people that I see really put the effort and want it, and I'll give you my time. Like, I will give someone my time, especially a young entrepreneur, if I see that they're willing to do the work and be resilient and push to get my attention, you know? And I've had people write me letters, consistently email me on a daily basis until if I see that they genuinely want it, then anything is possible. You can get anyone's attention. I've had Mark Cuban respond, you know, being relentless. Yeah. So let's talk about the pitch then. Obviously, you're pitching Ariane Huffington. You're pitching towards Mark Cuban. You're pitching towards someone who's going to

acquire you and buy your company for multiple. So what is a good pitch consist of, whether you're trying to sell or you're trying to get attention from a mentor or an advisor. I mean, I guess there's different, you know, different aspects where they're trying to raise capital, whether you're trying to sell your company. The first thing I would say is that you have to simplify to amplify. You really understand clearly in like a very concise way how to describe what your company actually does and who it's for and what problem you solve. I've had so many people that want to go and pitch again,

depending on whether you're going to raise capital, whether they're trying to sell a customer, whether they're trying to sell their entire company, and they don't know how to really be concise and explaining simply what they actually, what are they actually solving? What is the company's actual mission without going on a long tangent

and talking about all the things that you are considering doing in the next two years, three years, four years, five years. And that for me is something that I notice is really important, right? Because most people that are at the level of acquiring you or investing, they're seeing tons of ideas all day long. You know, so they don't have a lot of time. So you have to be able to, you ever hear about an elevator pitch? You have to be able to, within that elevator,

captivate them quickly as to, you know, what you've been able to do, what problem you're solving, and why you, what's different about you compared to everybody else. And a lot of times that's where I think, you have to show your character. You know, a lot of, for me, I only will invest in someone not because of their idea. I want to know they can explain to me in a very simple way what problem they're actually solving and why they're great at it, but I'm also looking at who they are as a leader.

So I think the best thing, once you're able to explain that problem clearly and in a concise way, why you? And I think that's where you have to really show, you know, your character as a leader and why is this important to you? why you're the person that is going to do whatever it takes, regardless of, you know, that person coming in or not, you never see that show billions? Like, I love that guy, you know?

Yes, it's like, this is it, you know? This is your opportunity. Axelrod, you have to have what I call, like, that billionaire's mindset that, like, regardless, you already know that that's where you're going and nothing's stopping you. So this is, you know, respect their time, but have that, again, that self-confidence.

Yeah. So let's look at Elite Daily. Like, when you go back and go, all right, how did I break this down? How were you able to, because I love your quote, simplify to amplify. And you're right, because when I'm busy and someone sends me a really long DM,

I'm not reading it. But if someone just takes the point to say, I read your book and love it, listen to the podcast, oh, by the way, three bullet points. And if it makes sense, I'm going to respond back. But if I'm hearing their whole life story and how they were depressed. Look, I was depressed.

I was an immigrant. I ate out of the dumpster. I'm not going to tell everybody that story. You're going to learn that after the fact once you fall in love with me. So simplify to amplify. So let's say we're recreating that pitch, or at least the blueprint of that pitch. How did you approach that pitch?

How did you simplify your message of what Elite Daily is? Right. Basically, I basically said we've created the Huffington Post for Generation Y. We are the voice of millennials, written by millennials for millennials. And then it was the results. I would talk about the fact that we have grown, And up to, you know, I think at the time, I would explain to John Steinberg, who was one who bought our company.

And when I went and pitched him, I explained that. I said, we're the fastest growing millennial publication in the world. Were there others? Oh, there's others that were trying to compete, but we were the fastest growing. Yeah. And basically explained to him that, like, you know, we've gone now from 10 million unique visitors up to 40 million unique visitors. And then I invited, made an invitation.

You know, a lot of people, when they're pitching, they don't even make the invitation of what the ask is. So for me, it's like making sure that I was clear about that invitation. And for him, it was, you know, take, I want to show you the culture that we built. I want to show you the analytics. Give me just 10 minutes of your time to just show you that. And then you can make your decision if you would like to, you know. Was it a physical invitation to our office?

It was. It was. It was. Because you want them to experience the body energy. I did. I wanted them to experience that. And, you know, that, because I knew that would be a game changer. Because at the time we had, we had over 200 employees.

I think at the time when I pitched in though, it was more like maybe about a hundred and twenty. All in location? Yeah, all in location in New York. And we just had this amazing culture. I mean, people, you know, everyone was so focused on a common mission. And when you walked into the office, you had to slap a wall that said, you know, this is where our goal was. There was 150 million unique visitors. And, you know, from the moment you walked in, you just saw this culture that everyone's slapping it.

Everyone had a common mission. Everyone. But we also gave people this like free. at that office. So you would see people skateboarding through the office. Some people smoke joints, you know, and we had a Buddha room for them, you know, and it doesn't mean, as long as you got your work done, we accepted you for who you were. Millennials want to be able to express themselves.

They want to be in an environment that's going to really feel that they can grow, personally, right? Like they want to feel, and they want to be part of a bigger, common mission that they feel is actually making a difference in the world. And they want to, they also want a place where they can learn. So similar to you, we would host things. bring in speakers, we would run workshops for them. And so I knew that like if John just got a glimpse of that kind of culture that we've created,

that team, there's an intangible value to that culture that was the, what that was elite daily, that was behind the scenes what was actually creating this brand. Brilliant. So he comes in, he sees this. And what is his response or feedback to you? Like does he play it cool or is he like- Oh, he plays a cool. He never thought in a million years we were selling the company.

did not want to sell the company. And, you know, that's a story we got to get into. It's a long story. Yeah. Because my co-founders that I mentored at the time were 19 when we started this thing. So they never been in a position like that. So now John, he started being very strategic on how he was talking to my other co-founders, trying to, you know, position himself to acquire the company.

And I was the blocking vote, and I was like, no way. So then why did you invite him over? you invite him over? You just want, you wanted more capital? No, I wanted him to be an advisor. Gotcha. And I thought about the acquisition. It's not that I didn't. I knew that he was going from the Daily Mail to BuzzFeed, which was his $800 million company.

And I said, you know, like, this could potentially be this acquired down the road. I just didn't think it would happen within six months. You know what I mean? You weren't emotionally ready to give the baby away yet. I was not emotionally ready. Because it's a baby what we build. Yeah.

I mean, we nurture it. It cries at night. We wake up and we rock it and change it and feed it. It is a baby what we do. 100%. Oh, yeah, for sure. So tell me how that goes. When he takes to your partners and he just gets right into their head, and they're now going, oh, my God, we're going to have an exit, we're going to make money.

And then you're the blocking vote. Yeah. How do the tides turn? Well, you know, I got a threatening letter in the mail from a venture capitalist. Okay, I was at the mafia. You're in New York, man. I don't know what happens on the West Coast area. That's what it felt like, though.

That's what it felt like. It was like it was like one of the biggest VCs in the world. What was the threat? It basically was like, this is a really good for the company. It was written in a way that was like if you don't really, you know, I don't know the language. It was like, if you do not waver towards this vote, then we're going to be reevaluating your position. And I said of having to think about like, whoa, like, what could these VCs really do? And again.

Because they were investors into your company. They were investors in the company. And folks, you guys need to listen to this. When you bring on investors, really what you're doing is you're letting other people start sit at the table and make decisions with you. And sometimes if you give up enough shares, they end up making decisions for you. Steve Jobs is a great example of, hey, sorry Steve, we don't need you anymore. Now later we know the story, he came back and changed things around.

But I'm guessing the vibe was similar where you brought them on, they helped you raise capital or they were the capital and they helped you grow your business. But now they're saying, listen, we're on. the side of selling so are your two partners and you might want to consider that if you want to hold your position yeah yeah pretty much that's kind of strong arming it was it was it was a little strong arming um and you know i was just trying to at the time make the most educated decision that i could possibly make that was in the best interest of our shareholders and um you know so i was taking the time to go and meet all the advisors speak to the company speak to the employees

like really get what the what the sediment was between everybody and then And then I also just wanted to give us another option. So I knew that if we weren't going to sell, the biggest reason why the company was also looking at was like we needed additional capital to sustain the growth. So I went out and raised $5 million within like a, I don't know, I think it was probably like a three week period of time from a couple of like my mentors that believed in what we had great. And I at that day at that board meeting, I made a speech of why I believe in this company, why I think that there's an intangible value to the brand that we're not getting that's not being valued here.

And then I gave them the other option. And guess what? I have investors that are ready to put $5 million to keep us going. They didn't want to believe it. So it went to his long board meeting and the investors are on the phone and we're putting these documents together to see if it's real. They added what's called a kill switch. And a kill switch.

So a kill switch is basically like when an investor says, basically I'll give this example, right? I was raising $5 million. So a kill switch meant that if we move forward and And there has to be a million dollars that was put up front. And if we move forward and they don't fulfill the entire $5 million, you lose the million dollars. No equity, no nothing.

You just basically lose the million dollars. We keep the million dollars. That's what a kill switch was. And they wanted to, and I'm assuming most investors would never do that. But my investors were like, we're so committed. We're doing the $5 million if you decide not to sell the company that we'll agree to a kill switch. That's a pretty rare thing.

Pretty rare. Yeah. So now they knew that that happened. But this is where it came down to finally me and my co-fellers. founders stepping out, going into another room, I said, guys, look, I did everything I possibly could. We now have more than one option. What do you just want to do? And, you know, my co-founders looked me in the eye and at that point in time, they were just like, you know what, gee, we did it. It may not be a billion dollar exit, but we have a huge win. This is going to protect all 200 of

our employees. Elite Daily is going to live on. And what we do after this is really important. And, you know, they were like, and we're out. So if you want to stay, then basically you can, you know, you can buy us out and continue. And my, one of my closest mentors told me that rule of thumb is like if you're a co, if you're, and I know this is, you, you bought your co-founder out. But, you know, my mentor at the time told me like at that moment of time I got the exits there on a table. He's like, if your co-founders are not going to stick it through, the culture will change. It will have a lot of hard. times and the economics of what was happening in the market played a huge role

Facebook at that exact time was changing algorithms and our traffic was starting to tilt we all know when that Facebook started playing with those algorithms and for media companies every media company took a hit so that was like kind of the different that was the factor that I was like you know what it's too it's a little too risky so rule of them I was like you know what we started together let's finish it together so I went in there I made the vote and there was a there somewhat of a celebration for sure but I was I went through a depression I ended up going into this this complete what-ifs what ifs what if I didn't sell was I you

know it just all this like now you went through depression while the process of selling was going on or after you oh you got okay really yeah both yeah and you know I just was I was down man I was just like again like you mentioned earlier I just felt like you know my my my baby my identity the the that my entire career, you know, working towards having that, you know, and building towards that. I've been a content creator my entire life since I was a kid, you know, sort of finally have the biggest and fastest growing millennial publication in the world at that time. That was, that was like my, that was like my, there was, again, it was bigger than money

for me. Right. Right. So that's why I was depressed and that's why I was like really feeling like it could have been the wrong decision. But, you know, wait when we think, like, you know, that that's, you know, the thing that freaking would have, you know, again, I know, no one's probably like, oh, you know, he's selling his company, he's selling me right now.

No one's crying me right now. I'm not saying, I'm not saying that, but for me personally, I was lacking fulfillment, right? And I know that's what it is, man, is fulfillment and identity. And a good friend of mine took a $300 million company and turned it into a $3.5 billion company. Wow. Now, imagine the level of work and commitment. commitment and love and nurturing that it took to take a $300 million company in five years,

by the way, because the industry he's in cycles every five years. So when he took over that $300 million company, and it was losing money at $300 million a year. Just because, you know, it's just because the company's making $300 million a year. It doesn't mean it's profitable. Yeah. It just means maybe it's, you know, making $300 million, but it's costing $350 million to stay alive. And so he turns into a $3.5 billion company in five years and gets the big payday, sells. And before you know it, he's in that slump, he's in that darkness, he's in that what do I do next,

did I make the right decision, what is my identity now? Because he was so associated and connected with that brand, with that brand. And that's what I'm hearing you say here as well. And there is something to you about, like my identity is very tightly connected to FitBody Bootcamp and what I do. Like I'll travel the world and people like, like yesterday, I was speaking at Ed and Andy's event, right, the Rate mastermind. And four of their 50 mastermind members stood up and, hey, I work out at a Fit Body Boot Camp in

Indiana, Indianapolis, and I work out of Fit Body Booth. That's my identity. Like that's, I'm known as that guy. You're known as that guy. And so when that identity seems like it's torn away from you, even though you get money for it. Yeah. How do you get out of that?

What did you do next? Well, I just started doing a lot of just, you know, soul searching and it ended up being the best thing that ever happened to me. And, you know, basically what had happened was I started really taking a step back and looking at, again, you know, me wanting to be a real mentor and role model for the millennial generation, especially in the entrepreneurial world. And I just started looking at the landscape of what was happening on Instagram and on social media.

And I was seeing a lot of people that were posting a lot of content, you know, and selling people on courses and things that I felt really hadn't ever built a real business. They were just leveraging the access of technology and to do that. And they were, you know, selling people on the get rich and the exact. cars and all that stuff and I was getting and I just started seeing that and saying man like we we need some real authentic entrepreneurs like yourself that are building brands and telling their story and basically I knew that I wanted to start being more of a more of a thought leader I've been building businesses at that time you know I had done many different business but I was

always behind the scene I was always I was never the guy I had social media you know I you know I always had the charisma you know I always was out there networking I'm you know it's funny you say because there's the first time we're meeting in person and we're hitting it off and I get that. But as someone who follows you on social media, like if someone asks me, like, he's born for that. He was born for that. And it's funny to hear you say that, oh, I was the guy behind the scenes. Yeah, it was. Because me, I have to make every effort because I'm an introvert.

I have to make every effort to be the front man. I look at you and I'm like, I want to be more like him. You know, that's funny. Yeah, I mean, believe it or not, I have just started at zero like everyone else. And before my exit, I didn't even, I'd never thought about building a personal brand, you know, And never, even growing up, I'd never had Facebook or MySpace because my first mentor told me that that's not, it's a distraction. He told me that that's where you go to glow and it's like a distraction and it's also going

to be like evil eyes. Like just, you know, work in silence, let your work do the talking and that's the way I was most of my life. Although. You just say you're an old soul. Old, little kid with an old soul. Yeah. I get that vibe off you.

Like you really have this old soul mentality. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I do, and I owe that to my family, for sure. But, yeah, and then I was, so what I ended up causing it was my accountant told me to go on a balcony, I mean, go to Florida and save on state income tax. So I happened to go, I had this penthouse picked out, I was getting ready to sign this contract, I'd go out on the balcony, I see the ocean, and I'm like, I can't believe this.

Like, I sold my company, I'm about to have this beautiful penthouse in Miami, and I was out there, and I just had this. this moment with God, man, where I was just like, do you really, is this really the, what you want to, you know, how you want to move forward after this exit? You want to be the young guy who just goes in Miami and is living that high lifestyle. And you can make such a bigger difference if you went back and showed people what it's like to be a man. Like, they say when you make money is when you see a man's true character.

It's an amplifier. It's an amplifier. And that's when I really had that moment of truth with myself. And how old were you at that point now? You're 34 now. I was, I guess, 30 years old. 30 years old. 30 years ago, you're 30 years old.

Yeah, I just 3034. My exit was just about a little over three years ago. It was right then, 2015. So I just basically had that moment of truth with myself. And I just was like, you know what? No. Just because I had this exit, I don't need to be the guy that's, of course, I still like nice things, right? There's nothing I love better than going on a beautiful 100-foot yacht with my friends, right?

But I knew that what was meaningful to me was going back to Norke where my grandparents immigrated to, where my family was, where I grew up in those streets hustling weed and doing things that I thought was going to end up taking me down to a path where I'd never become successful. And I knew that there's a lot of kids over there that don't have role models. And so I was like, what would it be like if I took that incubator mentality that I've learned from speaking in Silicon Valley, from being in. in New York building my company.

And I brought that back to one of the worst hoods in the US. You know, that at one point that city was unbelievable until the Industrial Revolution and all those jobs and factories got taken and then there was riots and then poverty really set in into Norton. But now New York is on a, you know, on a renaissance and resurging, but a lot of those, the youth there,

they are still in that environment where they don't believe in themselves. They're stuck in an environment that suppresses them. And so then I was like, I'm gonna go there and build. I'm gonna go there and I'm gonna start. If I'm gonna build this personal brand, I wanna document what it's like to be a young guy who made it. And this is the kind of work I wanna do.

You know, I don't need to just go and live the high life. Like I wanna spend my time with bodegas and barbed wire and supporting the minorities that were the Latino community, the Latinas, the African American community, and helping them to understand the principles of entrepreneurship, emotional intelligence, and financial literacy, the things that I felt you don't learn in school at all,

but the things that it made me successful. So that's what I did. And over the past three years, I've dedicated to build that social enterprise called founders while, and I got a lot to learn from you, starting to do more coaching, starting to now work also with leaders that are successful entrepreneurs that want to learn how to build a profitable personal brand,

to help support and bring in the income and work with the people that I want to work with, while I can also still support that community. Wow. Would you say that you've always been this servant-minded of helping, giving back, bringing people along with you, or is it something that you've developed and learned? I definitely think it's something I've developed and learned.

Where from? How? My faith. I think it's because, you know, since I was a little kid, my name has been a tradition in my entire family. My father's middle name is Gerard. And Gerard comes from a saint. that was from a small village in Italy, and that's where my great-grandparents grew up.

I went and took my family there this past summer. It was the best trip of my life. It was the dream of mine to go, my whole family there. And St. Gerard was known as a servant leader, but for mothers and sick children. And when my great-grandparents immigrated, and they ended up being in Norfolk, that's from my churches, they actually brought the statue of St. Gerard with them.

And, you know, Gerard was a real person, right? The pope made him a saint, but he was a human being. It's not a myth. And he actually, his whole life, served mothers and children. And I grew up since I was a baby knowing about St. Gerard.

I pray to him every day. We do a traditional feast every year at my church where we take the saint out of the church and we walk, and the women would walk barefoot all over the city with the saint. And it was a beautiful festival. And it's something that my father became a guard of honor for the church

for this, what's called the National Shrine of St. Girard. And one day, it's, you know, I'm going to earn my father's jacket. It's a maroon jacket that's been every generation since my great-grandparents, the Italy, you know, the Italians that came here, it's been a tradition. So one day I'm going to earn my father's jacket when he passes. And I want to one day pass that jacket down to, God willing, my son one day. And so that tradition, I think tradition is so important, it's been so important in my life,

and that faith that of knowing the story of St. Gerard, knowing the important, of what he had done. And I think that kind of subconsciously did make me feel like, you know, I do feel that I'm a son of God. I do feel that I'm here to be a messenger, you know, and do God's work, you know, and everything that I do, not just in business, but, you know, spiritually, the people, the friends, the community, my family. Like, that's where I really talk about leadership, right?

And I know you do as well. It's way beyond you just being the CEO of your company. It's your actual character. How do you show up in the world, you know, for people who can't even, you, that can't do anything for you. You know, and that's something that I've, you know, I've really learned that is, that's what's given me, that's what's completed me. That's what's giving me balance and alignment, that no matter what happens in business and in life, you're going to get slapped in the face, but if you have the character to stay in gratitude,

to stay, you know, faith and belief, in hope, and know that you are a miracle. You're blessed. You are everything and more. You have the ability as a phenomenon. You are a phenomenon. You can create and manifest any reality that you truly want to in your life. But you have to truly realize that power of the universe that you have within yourself. And it could be a universe.

It could be God. Whatever you believe, that's perfectly fine. But you have to believe that, that that is inside of you. That we all have that. And if you believe that, then in all aspects of life, who you meet on the daily basis, your team, your employees, your clients, even Mother Nature itself, you have to really appreciate everyone. You have to be loved to everyone.

You have to want to see everyone grow around you. And if you live life that way without the expectation of anything in return, you're going to win. You're going to have so much of abundance in your life come to you, you know, financially, spiritually, physically, you know, that, you know, it's amazing. You know, I can't wait to hear what that will be for you, but that's what's given me the true success. So let me ask you, if you have a son, are you going to name him Gerard?

A serious question. I haven't thought of that. It almost feels like if you didn't, you would be doing him for service. I think I would definitely, at least, his middle name is going to definitely be Gerard, but maybe his name would be Gerard. I just... But Gerard's going to be somewhere in his name. Yes, for sure, for sure.

I know it sounds like a funny question going off a very deep moment that you just came off of. But here's what I do. When someone says something, I would say, don't be the chess player, be the chess master. The chess player just goes, superficially, what is he saying? But the chess master says, I'm not just going to do this one move. The chess master says, I'm going to do this one move to force him 20 moves from now to lose. Right? So as you're talking, I'm not just looking at the surface of what you're saying, I realize that what your great-grandfather did is by giving you guys a story of St. Chirard. Yes. And making this a thing, a rich, It's a thing.

It's a ritual. It's a rite of passage. Yes. Yeah. Like I'm getting goose on. That jacket, your father's going to pass on to you and bestopon. Like all you're probably thinking is, I got to earn this thing, man. He can't just give it to me.

No, I got to earn it. I got to earn it. I got to be worthy of it. Yeah. And so to be able to have a child and name him or his middle name Gerard, and then to tell him the story, like where this jacket came from and where the, right? Like you're literally, would be setting that young man up for success. And I think we owe it.

It's a right of passage that young men don't have anymore. Because we go, here's the open world. Go. That's very true. Right? Yes. And I think that the entitlement is real. There it is.

Yeah. There it is. And what you do is you go, look, you live in a world of entitlement and of abundance, because that's the world we live in now. Even when the economy crashes and it's going to, we're right on the brink. I get it. We all talk about that. We still live in the United States.

Like, you want to talk about economic crash. Go to Tijuana. Go to Armenia where I come from. Yeah. Like, it is a forever fucking recession there. Wow. You know, it's not like it's going to turn around any minute now. Yeah.

That's just how it is. And so we're fortunate at where we live. But when someone goes, man, those are the shoes that I got to fill, the dad filled, the granddad filled, the granddad filled, the great granddad. That's huge, man. I love that. You're creating a right of passage. And you know, I never told that story on a show. Really?

You're the first one that I've actually had the opportunity. So, again, you're giving me the space. Of course. Of course. So I'm curious. If someone wants to get a hold of you, they're like, man, I really love what Gerard is doing. And I want to be a part of his mission, his vision. I think I share his values.

How do they even connect with you? How do they find you? No, I appreciate that. You know, I was thinking about it because as I was, you know, just, I've been diving all into you. And I can't wait for our episode that's coming out on Leaders, Create Leaders, because we're going to go deep on that too. But you've helped a lot of people with their masterminds. That's something I definitely want to talk to you more about with myself and my community. Is that the next phase of what you're going to do is actually going to the higher level of coaching?

Yeah. I mean, I thrive at bringing people together. I just did it for my birthday, my 34th. I just threw out an invitation and to some of my closest buddies, people I've worked with, leaders in the space, but also just good friends. And I had about 17 people show up in Tulum at this beautiful house right on the beach. And I just, and I mastermind. But it was just me and all my friends.

And I just was so happy. I just was like glowing, man. Like I fucking loved it, you know. And I want to do more of that. I want to bring my community more together, more intimate, give them more access. So I'm looking forward to that. 2019, especially with the leaders, create leaders movement. I want to really really hone that community in. But right now, you know, my main platform is Gerard Adams on Insta. You know,

definitely just shoot me a DM, say, empire. And I'll know you guys came from here and we'll start a dialogue. And other than that, worldclass leader.com is right now the main program that I'm focused on to help entrepreneurs to build a profitable personal brand. So we're going to finish off by me asking this one question about what you told me. And I want you to just answer it and then we'll wrap it up. Who knows? We might dive deeper into it and go to a phase two like we did with Tom Billy when he came on board. But you get paid.

You get paid as a young man. The accountant is like, dude, you built a company. You exited. You got paid. Not yet. You're about to get big wires. Go to Florida and save on the-off. Right.

Go to Florida. Right. And then you're standing on this balcony, which is going to be your penthouse, to overlook in the ocean. Yeah. That's a pretty tempting. offer for anybody to say, you know what, man, I bled, I suffered, I earned it, I earned it. And your life could have been different had you signed that lease.

I'm guessing what you were saying is you didn't sign it. You went back and you were like coming to- No, I downgraded my life. Right. I completely degraded. Why? Why did you down- I mean, you were at a fork in the road and you might have bended up, coked up in the streets of Miami or somewhere.

I don't know, maybe not, right? But, but I mean, that is a temptation that so many people would choose and then justify by saying I earned it. And you did. But you downgraded. Well, if I didn't have what had happened to me in my mid-20s, remember, that story of my mother, and I had lost millions. So I had already had that scar, and we have to learn from our mistakes.

You know, I always say, like, if you're not making mistakes, you're not moving forward, but it's really important to learn from them. And, you know, after that first incident, I knew now, like, I want to be smart. So I put the money in a trust that I can't even touch. You know, I treated myself like I was broke. I moved all my money into that trust. And I figured I got to start over. I want to, and again, I was like, I want to make a difference.

You know, I know with success, you all of a sudden I got asked to speak all over the world. I was getting flown to from Harvard to Dubai, to Bali, to, you know, all over the world to speak. And I never was this public speaker. But everyone wanted to know how to Girard do the elite daily. And I was like, if I'm going to be given this place. platform, then I want to leverage it to really make a bigger difference. And, you know, I was like, I want to do things different. You know, like, there's enough, there's a successful people that have all the, you know,

the mansion and all that stuff. Like, there's a lot of that. And no, and I think that's awesome. Like, I want to continue to have a beautiful life like that too. But I was, I knew like, by me going back to Norque in the hood, downgrading, being next to barbed wire, documenting these kids that were coming to me like, that literally but a reflection of me saying like all I know how to do is hustle drugs bro like who are you to tell me anything I just saw my uncle get shot on the block you know what I'm saying my school

teacher tells me I'm only gonna work at McDonald's you know what I mean like and then me be able to shift his mindset and shift his mentality to the possibility that if he takes that hustle mentality and because that he's gone through where he's gone through that one day he will be on that stage and be able to tell people how he grew up seeing his his uncle get shot seeing and knowing what's like the hustle drugs and he could be able to be on that stage and be able to tell people how he grew up seeing his uncle get shot seeing and knowing what's like the hustle drugs And he could be like me to be able to make a difference in the world, make millions of dollars and change the life for not only himself, but for his whole legacy of his entire family.

And seeing him believe that, what is that worth? Seeing that kid, you know what happened? That's a true story. His kids in school could be to come back to the income and be like, what the hell is Shaq on? I want to know, I want to be on that. Because Shaq just unconventionally got everybody into the auditorium of his school and gave his own motivational speech because he already was in that mindset.

You know what I'm saying? So like, that, to me, like, that was just, I like... That is fulfillment to the highest level. Highest level. To the highest level. Well, ladies and gentlemen, you heard it here. Gerard Adams. Find them on Instagram.

This has been The Empire Show, an inside look. And as always, if you love this episode and I know you did, please give us a five-star review. Share it with your friends. And as always, tell your mama.