Next Level Pros - #70: Brandon T. Adams: The Shark Tank Journey from Iowa to Industry Leader

Episode Date: January 26, 2024

In this episode of the Founder Podcast, we dive into the journey of Brandon T. Adams, founder and CEO of Accelerant Media Group. Originally hailing from a small town in Iowa, Brandon shares his story of hard work, persistence, and the pivotal moments that led him to success in the business world. From his early entrepreneurial ventures to partnering with Shark Tank's Kevin Harrington. Brandon's tale is one of transformation and triumph. He also opens up about his struggles, including a near bankruptcy, and how these experiences shaped his approach to business and life. His insights on the importance of mentorship, building wealth, and the power of positive thinking make this episode a must-listen for aspiring entrepreneurs and business enthusiasts alike! Highlights: "When you make somebody money, they listen." "Most people overestimate what they can do in one or two years but underestimate what they can do in five to ten years." "Be very careful of who you're surrounding yourself with.” Timestamps: 03:00 Providing Value 08:59 Recovering from Financial Loss 10:23 Lessons from Failure 17:58 Mentors and Influencers 23:17 Creating Fair Deals 29:31 Heal AI-Driven Companies 40:19 Top Habits for Success

Hey, Founder Nation, I'm super excited to bring you Mr. Brandon T. Adams. Brandon is a two-time Emmy Award winner that has all kinds of incredible information to share on how he went to the top, to the bottom, right back to the top again, partnering with incredible people like Kevin Harrington, one of the original sharks from Shark Tank. Jump on in to this incredible episode. Let's go. Yo, yo, yo, yo yo welcome to another episode of the founder podcast today i am joined by mr brandon t adams founder and ceo of accelerant media group based out of nashville is that correct nashville tennessee that's awesome this guy is a two-time Emmy Award winning producer. He's got an incredible backstory. He helps scale nine-figure businesses, has a huge portfolio. He's a partner with Kevin Harrington, one of the former Sharks from Shark Tank. He's got a really cool background. We're

really excited to jump in and learn a little bit more about you, Brandon. Well, thank you for having me, Chris. I'm excited to go on some stories and share some lessons along the way. Sweet, man. Where are you originally from? So I'm originally from Iowa, a small town, Garnavillo, Iowa. It was about 700 people. So give me an example. The closest Starbucks was an hour away. The closest Walmart was 30 minutes away. So I was in the middle of nowhere. I love it, man. That sounds a lot like the place I grew up with.

I grew up in a small town, about 2,500 people. And when you went shopping, you were going to town. It was like 30, 40 minutes away to be able to get to Walmart or Costco or different things. A hundred percent. Yeah. Very good. So what does a small town boy like you end up being on the big stage? Bridge the gap for us. What were some of the defining points along the experience that ended up getting you in front of the big stage? Yeah. I mean, it was for one. Um, but I'll tell you the thing that changed my life. I mean, I grew up as an entrepreneur. I was in the ice business.

I sold packaged ice for a living and ended up going to college. I wasn't the best. I mean, my entrepreneur endeavors in college was selling moonshine. I was selling alcohol and drugs and I got a 1.6 GPA my freshman year. So I was not very book smart, but what changed my life was I was failing speech comp class of all things. And in order to pass the class, I had to go get extra credit. And so I attended a class presentation by this famous inventor named Cactus Jack Berenger. And he showed this reel of him on Shark Tank. He did a deal with Kevin Harrington and Barbara Corkin. And so that was when I first saw the whole Shark Tank thing. But also he led me to this book called Think and Go Rich. I always share it because my life before then and after then was totally different.

I didn't think that from a small town, like, oh, I can go make millions of dollars. I could build wealth and all this. I just thought, okay, I'm going to be the best in the ice business and maybe go make six figures and do that. And so when I read the book, it completely transformed how I thought. I thought bigger. I realized I needed to be around people that are way further ahead than me. And so that was a pivotal moment in my career. And I was 20 years old at the time. So I'm 34 now. That was 14 years ago. And that is where, okay, I can do other things. And then fast forward,

I mean, I just put on hard work and really, I found people that were way ahead of me. And I found ways very bluntly to make them money. Because when you make somebody money, they listen. And so after I made them money with my talents, I found ways to get into business with them, which allowed me to get into bigger opportunities. And then the rest was just putting in the work. So tell us more about that, making other people money. Give us some real world experience and things that you actually did to go and provide value to these people that were well ahead of you. So I'll give you the first example. I got into crowdfunding. So I was,

if you think back in the day, they still have it today. So this is back in 2014, 15, they had Kickstarter and EgoGo. And so I understood through my own failures that that was a way to raise money. And so I launched my own campaign back in the day for a product called Arctic Stick. And we raised like 26 grand. It wasn't a lot of money, but I saw where it was going. I'm like, this crowdfunding thing is going to be something. And so I started building my brand around a crowdfunding expert and getting out there. And I was on a podcast show like this, and I had a guy named John Lee Dumas on my podcast show. And he came on at the end of every show, like I'm sure you probably do too. What I suggest any podcaster is the mic's off. I would say, hey, thank you for coming on

the show. I'm a crowdfunding expert. Anything I can do to support you, John, I'm in. And John said, I'm actually thinking about doing a book launch through Kickstarter with a product called the Freedom Turtle. And so I was young, I was trying to figure things out. And we got off that call. I literally spent the whole next day creating a whole page for him and campaign. And fast forward five months, because I took on the campaign. I said, you don't need to pay me. I'm going to do this for free. I just want a testimonial and I want to get on your podcast show. We launched five months later. We did $453,000 in 33 days and became the fifth largest crowdfunding campaign in history.

And that led to me being the crowdfunding expert. And so that helped me get more clients. He opened up doors. I mean, him and I are good friends now, but like I went on his show four times since then. First time I went on this show four times since then. First time I went on the show, I got a bunch of business. And so that was a way for me to take my specialized knowledge, help him make money. And then I started doing that for other people. And then I found other ways to add value beyond just crowdfunding. I was doing video production and stuff like that.

It's awesome. So, you know, a key aspect of what you just shared for the listeners is like, take something that you find, you know, some moderate success, right? Your first crowdfunding run was good. $26,000, you know, it's nothing to like get crazy at. But you said, you said, hey, I'm decent at this, right? So I'm going to double down. I think too often entrepreneurs, they take something that they're decent at and they don't go deeper, right? They get distracted by something else. They run after the next shiny object rather than saying, hey, I'm going to use this and I'm going to compound. And the thing I'm realizing, obviously, you're only 34 years old. I'm 39, turn 40 next month.

In the world's eyes, we're very young. We're very, but the compound effect is very real when you just double down and triple down and keep digging the same hole until eventually you have these incredible breakthroughs like this one you had with John Lee Dumas. I mean, I look at this. So this was, man, time flies. That campaign was what, eight years ago, nine years ago. And the one thing I did, which I tell other people do is find somebody that's very influential in their industry. If you can find a famous person or an influential person and you help them make money, that makes it easier. You can expose their audience. It makes it easier for you to grow business. And at that time I needed the money, but I said, no, I like, you know how hard it was. I just helped raise them half a million dollars to not get any money from that. But that got me

the next book launch with Kevin Harrington. I got on the thinking to rich movie. I did all these different launches because they knew me for that one thing, but I didn't let that be my, okay, that's, that was my thing. Like I kept doing other things, getting more track record,

more experience. And then as I was doing it and being with all these very wealthy people, I'm like, what are they doing? I was listening, asking the right questions and then bringing deals to them, which I got a part of. And I realized, okay, how can I make more money for myself? So I'm learning along the way, providing value,

making the money, making a little money, but then, okay, how can I start building my own wealth? And so it took a while. I mean, most people overestimate what they can do in one or two years, but they underestimate what they can do in five to 10 years. Looking back now, the 14 year journey, I mean, it gets easier and easier. You get more obstacles in different ways, but it gets easier to make money and it gets easier to get opportunity. You just got to stay on the path, right? It's no overnight success. So speaking of which, at what point did you start to actually accumulate wealth? How long were you sending down roots and adding value to these different people before things started rolling for you financially? So I started making

money in 2016, 17, but I had to completely start over when I was 29. So I had some deals, had some things, companies go public, made some money, but it was in 2018, 19 that I almost had to file bankruptcy. So went to the top, lost everything. And then to be honest, what really helped me was COVID. COVID hit. I just went through a huge crisis and I got more into consulting for equity and really helping grow companies and get a piece of the pie and also get paid along the way. And that was really my partnership with Kevin Harrington. He opened up the opportunity for me. I really added value. I got into deals and then I started to get my way back up. So then it started again in 2021. So it really wasn't that long ago. I made money,

I lost everything and I came back. So when you lost everything, what was going through your mind? Right. Like going through hell and I've been, I've been, I've been exact in your exact same shoes, right? Like I had a lot of success early in my career, ended up filing bankruptcy in 2011, lost everything, less than $1,000 in my bank account, car repoed out of my driveway, all that. Same way, me too. Right, so like going through that,

like walk us through the emotion and the mindset and how you got through that. I'm grateful that it happened. I believe in God and I believe God put it in my way for a reason. Because I probably would have turned into probably not a good person if it didn't happen. I was half a million in the hole. I'll tell you the conversation I had.

I mean, I remember when my wife said, hey, our vehicle's not there. And it's because I was four months beyond our payment and they repossessed it. I remember talking to the bank and he told me, we're taking everything from you. And he told me the other company that had another lien on something, he said, you tell them, they don't let that go, that lien. We're going to bankrupt you, and they won't get a f***ing thing. That's what the banker told me. I lost my land. I lost everything I owned. My father didn't talk to me for a while. And here I am as this guy that's got it all figured out online.

But I had nothing, and I felt like a fraud, especially as I'm speaking on stages. And I was making money still, but I chose not to file bankruptcy, which hindsight I should have. And all the money I was making was going to debt collectors. I was getting 20 calls a day. I had to put my phone in do not disturb. So I couldn't handle the debt collectors anymore. And so I'm in this place, no money, and I'm trying to make it every day I woke up, I knew I had to grind just to get money so I could keep going. And I'm married.

And what's going through your mind at this time? Like, how are you feeling? I'm feeling like a piece of shit. Honestly, like I'm feeling like a piece of shit that failed and made a bunch of mistakes. And it was very difficult. It was like identity crisis. And I went to my mentors. I'm here calling my mentors. I said, I don't want money. I want advice. What would you do? I'm selling my TV off the wall and selling my guitar for 80 bucks just to get some money. And so that's not a fun feeling. And to be humbling enough to go to somebody that saw you as a success, but now I'm kind of starting over. And a lot of them gave me really good advice. They're like, hey, for one, it's not the end of the world with Bob bankruptcy.

Two, just keep on your path. Keep going. You're young. And I did keep going. And then once I got one deal, okay, there's more light at the end of the tunnel. Okay, more opportunity came, there's more light at the end of the tunnel. And then eventually I look back and I'm like, holy, where am I? How did that happen? I kicked back pretty quick within 24 months. And I guess any advice just to give real feedback for people if you're going through right now, I went to the gym every single day. I dealt with my demons in my mind at the gym. I crushed it. I just kept doing the steps, doing the phone calls, doing the emails, going to the events. And I didn't focus on all my life.

I focused on where I wanted to go. And one great mentor, he told me if I was going to tackle the debt, he's like, you need to organize this. You need to lack one thing off at a time. And that's what I did because then it became more feasible versus like everything's here. And it's like, oh, I'm just throwing money in a bucket and it's never going to go anywhere. And so that's what I would say. Be around the right people. Have good people.

Open up and be open to advice and manage your mental health. Because for me, that was going to the gym, talking to people and just keep working. You can't quit. Most people would have gave it up and they would have went to the corporate job and said, okay, this entrepreneur thing isn't for me. That's not my blood. Preston Pyshko Well, I think your mentors were absolutely right. Just take it one bite at a time because frankly, so when I, when I filed bankruptcy was for 2.2 million and even, and that was a significant amount of money at age 27 for me. Uh, and, but had I known what I know now, I would

actually given the same advice that you're meant, like don't file bankruptcy. I actually wish I hadn't because it, it caused a lot of grief for a very long time with, with lenders and the ability to leverage and grow and everything else. You know, to this day, if I fill out an application, the question isn't, have you filed bankruptcy in the last seven years?

It's have you ever filed bankruptcy? And, and I still have to explain it no matter what, even though my credit score is 830 and everything else, like, you know, it still causes me grief to this day. And so I think like you received the right mentor and you look to mentors. For me, I tried handling it on my own. Like it was hard for me of just trying to appear to the world that I had life figured out. Well, meanwhile, I was battling this inner demon. It's hard a conversation too when you're afraid

to talk to certain people about it because they think everything's all right. And by the way, that story, it's very humbling. I went to my friend who did file and he told me, he's like the day I went to court and they like, it was the most humbling experience. And so kudos to you for keep going because there's so many people out there that have filed bankruptcy. Like you think like it's, it's not honestly the end of the world. Um, but anyways, so let's, let's go back actually even further. What, what do you think were the decisions that led you to that position where you were in that deep hole? What are some pitfalls that you would avoid knowing what you know now? Some of those early on in your entrepreneurial days. I honestly don't think I would have done it differently. I was, to be really honest, I was putting all my money into a TV show. I was putting it into my personal brand.

I was filming a show at the time that we were traveling the country, flying in a film crew, filming this content and just pouring everything into it. So I had one business I was working. I was taking money from that, put it into this.

Then this one's failing. And then I had leveraged out different loans. And before I knew it, it all came snowing, bawling at me. And it's like, time to pay out. And actually, when I did kind of hit the big wall is I was planning on selling a business at the time. And it dragged out when I was planning as a sale to be pretty big. Well, it turns out the sale wasn't going to be near what I thought it was. And then at that point, it was too far deep that I was like selling it just to like pay some debt off.

So I guess don't over leverage yourself too much. That's maybe one thing to put. Don't rob Peter to pay Paul too much either. Like, yes, I believe in some businesses can help fuel other businesses, but not to the point where it's taking the other business down too. Don't do that. He's a lot of entrepreneurs. You got this business and that baby's eating everything from the other one. You got to learn to quit when you're deep. Like sometimes I go, I'm almost there. Just one more thing, one more thing.

Well, at that point, you're so deep, you just got to cut your losses and keep walking. And so I think that's one thing as entrepreneurs. When you know when to hold them and know when to fold them. Yeah, for sure. Who would you say is your biggest mentor? Has it been Kevin Harrington? Who has been the biggest influence in your life?

There was three, I will say, and there's reasons for each. My father first. My father always taught me to just really be a good person and go above and beyond and create great customer service. And so that's one. Another one was Jeff Hoffman. He's one of the guys, co-founders of Priceline.com. Jeff helped me understand scalability and customer feedback. Ask, like literally ask, not dumb questions, but the questions that give you data that can help you form a product. And then Kevin, yeah. Do you personally know Jeff Hoffman?

I've done many business endeavors with him. He's actually one of the guys that won an Emmy with us. Yes. So tell us about how that relationship formed because I know a lot of the listeners or whatnot. Yeah. Sure, right? It's great to say I know this guy from Priceline, but how does a 34-year-old go about- I'll tell you the exact story.

So he was 2015. I was speaking at an event, and I was one of the speakers, and he was one of the speakers. And he got off stage, and I said, hey, Jeff, I loved your talk. I got this event coming up next year because I hosted events for a living. It's called Young Entrepreneur Convention. I would love to have you speak. He said, hey, I'd love to have you speak he said hey you know I'd love to give me a card and

I'm sure a lot of people go up to him and say that right and so I emailed afterwards and his team reached out and obviously the first thing the team does because you have the people around the person which now I have that but it's like they said okay he's got a fee

I said I don't have any money to pay a fee, but we can give him great exposure, all this. And it was like constant email follow-up. Like I was here, know everything. Because it wasn't even him anymore. It was Dean. I was persistent. And then so he came to Iowa, middle of nowhere. And he spoke at one of my events.

And that was the first part or time I built a relationship with him. And so he came to Iowa, middle of nowhere, and he spoke at one of my events. And that was the first part or time I built a relationship with him. I've never asked him for money. That's the thing. When you have somebody of wealth and influence, everybody wants something from them. He spoke at my event. I connected with people in my circle. I actually made the connection, him and Kevin Harrington at the same time. And then I helped him.

He became a producer for one of our shows. and I just gave him the opportunity for exposure. So then I started making the money, bringing him deals, all that stuff. But it started with just, hey, would you do this? I asked. He said yes, but I followed up because the whole team kind of tried to make it not happen. And then persistence and eventually fast forward it took three or four years i mean we were speaking on stages together we were doing masterminds together we were closing deals um and he's still a friend of mine like we have a

we're part of a non-profit called world youth horizon so we raise money for charity and so there's different projects we're a part of but yeah that's how the jeff hoffman came into my world and how i actually got the connection. So again, it goes back to add value, make them money, help them. What do they want? Absolutely. And then you were going to share with us your relationship with Kevin. Yeah, Kevin.

So Kevin and I are so alike. It's crazy. Like, he grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, small-town boy, young entrepreneur, stealing driveways to the AC heating and cooling business and then eventually getting the products. I grew up in Iowa working in the ice business and doing all these different things. I connected through him through my mentor, and I'll be very specific with the audience. So I went to that class presentation where I led to this book.

I followed up to that mentor afterwards. Like, oh, I was so amazed. Like, hey, can you mentor me? He said, go read this book, son. And I read it. And then I ended up hiring him as a consultant. I remember when I did it because I was 22 years old and he wanted 10 grand at the time. And I was broke out of college.

I paid him 10 grand cash. My parents thought I was broke out of college. I paid him 10 grand cash. My parents thought it was a scam. They thought he was a bad person, all this. And I'm like, I'm invested in my future. I paid him and I knew I was in proximity with Kevin Harrington. And so eventually when my opportunity came, I reached out to Kevin with a personal video and I asked him to come speak at one of my events. And I got him to speak at one of my events. And then from there, I just started building the relationship up. And so after that first event, we just did more deals together, but I kept showing up because sometimes what happens is people don't, they're not in the

long game. They like, okay, they show up, they get the the connection then they take it for granted they take advantage of it i always showed up and i always planted the seeds with the relationship watered the relationship and eventually we just became really close like i i consider him almost like a father figure to me and his son is close to my age my business partner brian and so we have this like kind of almost like a family structure, even though we had a business together. And it just took years. And why is he a great mentor to me? He taught me, for one, a fair deal. If you don't have a fair deal, it's not a long-term relationship. How can you create a fair deal with everybody? Take care of people. They'll bring you more deals. That's

how he grew the infomercial industry. He took care of these different inventors and like Arnold Morris, who did the Ginsey knife. He took care of Arnold Morris and Arnold Morris brought him Billy Mays and all these other people. So he took care of them. They brought him more opportunity. So I understood that. And the biggest thing is the dream team. When you can bring the dream team together, who all have their expertise and you partake in this participation to help at a company, you all can make money from it. And so that's – Kevin, the opportunities I got from Kevin is what got me out of the hole and has helped me now to build what I have today. And so we have 20-some companies. We're a part of some public, some private.

We have investment in a fund. We have many other things that we're doing. And when that company is a big success, a liquidation event, him and son and I are a team. We partake in that and we go to the next one. And it's fun along the way too. So I can give a lot of my success, I would say to him, because he's always been good to me. And we've traveled the world together. It's been a fun journey. I learned so much. Sounds like a good time. What is something that most of the world doesn't know about Kevin? It's a good one. I got to watch what I'm going to say here. Um, he, he's 14 years sober. He doesn't drink alcohol. Um, and he, I'll tell you a story. I'll tell you a story. Most people don't know that Kevin, I had, and it's a good one.

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And we do it three times a month, one hour. You have a chance to ask all your accountability. We're going to be covering it all. And we do it three times a month, one hour. You have a chance to ask all your questions. You have a chance to actually be on a hot seat and evaluate your current business. We have people in India, the US, South America, literally all over the world that are a part of this group. And it's just $4.97 a month. Down below in the link, you're going to see founderacceleration.com. You can go ahead and apply there and join this incredible, fast-growing group. Let's jump back in the show. But before you do it, join the group. Let's go. We're in Vegas. We just got off stage in front of 6,000 people. We literally go right into a limo that takes us a four-minute drive to the Tarmac, to the private jet way in Vegas.

We get on the jet. And I got pictures of this and everything, videos. We get on the jet. We're going to what we think is Puta Mita. We're flown by a client to go speak to a mastermind group in the jet fly get land get out of the jet we get picked up by it's like a golf cart or mexico take us to the area we get our luggage and we call the people who are supposed to pick us up the private vehicle and they said oh we're here like no you're not here i don't see the vehicle we give the the

phone to the the guy next to us and they're speaking spanish he looks at us and said you guys have serious problems you guys are in los cabos you're not in punta mitad we got flown by a jet to the wrong place in Mexico. No joke. And first thing I'm thinking, I'm like with this famous high net worth individual, I'm like, is somebody going to jump us? Are we going to get ransomed? What's going to happen? I'm thinking all the worst. And it was just a mistake that nobody to this day, the jet, the pilots didn't know.

Nobody knew. So we went and grabbed them. They were trying to go to the hotel. We said, no, you're getting on that plane and you're flying us back. And so we got on the plane. They flew us to Punta Anita. The private vehicle picked us up. We made it in time for dinner. And while I was on the second flight, I had a tequila in the air. So I was like, okay, we're going to be good. But we got flown by a jet to the wrong city in Mexico. No joke. I don't even know how it happened, but it did. And it was a fun journey. That's fun. So I'm a big believer that God has presented us each with different super characteristics, or we have like a, uh, we're,

we're a superhero in one way. What would you say is your gift to the world that, uh, in, in your, your superpower? Yeah, I, I, uh, I connect to people and I really care. Like I just relation old kind of guy. Uh, but I push people to do shit they normally wouldn't do. I get shit done. That's really the value. I know that sounds pretty easy, but I make sure things get done. Somebody can rely on me to get the thing done and I get it done. And so that's one thing. And I really just push people to do beyond what they think they can do. Because we all need somebody to push us. I think it's because we have the similar experiences. When you go through such and you get on the other side, you realize anything's possible. And honestly, nothing's

going to take me out besides a bullet to the head. And so it's like this superpower that you have. And so that's, I would say my, if you call a gift superpower, that would be mine. Yeah. And you mentioned you're married. Do you have any kids? Married? No kids. Nope. No kids. Awesome. How long have you been married? Five years. Awesome. How has your wife been influential to your experience? I wouldn't be here without it.

I mean, are you married? I am married for 18 and a half years. I have five kids. It determines everything. I know. So kudos on the kids. I know kids. I it when you're in this, you need somebody to like inspire you and motivate you and to tell you you can do it and and she did I mean

it's hard when nothing's going right um and when you can have somebody there to say they believe in you honestly that's like the biggest thing and and so that's been a rock for me and also help avoid me from different decisions because she could see things I couldn't see when you're deep into it. Like I, I, I want to trust everybody. I want to believe in everybody's good, but there's a lot of bad people out there that just want to you and take advantage of you. And so, uh, it's good having that other person to see things you can't see and help protect you. Yeah, absolutely. What, uh, what are you most passionate about now? It sounds like you're building a lot of different portfolio type businesses, consulting for equity and those types of things. What is the mission of Brandon T. Adams right now?

I love what I'm doing right now. I love speaking. I love going on a show, having a conversation with you, and speaking on podcast shows and stages. That's fun. But I really love getting a part of these companies and seeing where we're at and then helping it grow. And then obviously when you get to partake in the liquidation where you get cash and money in your bank, that's fun too.

I just like growing things. It's a lot of fun. I mean, think of this, like this past week, we're raising millions of dollars for Endeavor we're working on. And then we get to see that money that we raise and we get to put it into marketing, into video production, into influencers, into growth. And then we get to see the revenue go up. And like that whole process from beginning to end is exhilarating for me. Like I enjoy the process. And, and if you just enjoy the end result, you're going to be unhappy. And so, uh,

that's, that's fun for me. And I never know what I'm going to see. I mean, we had investment in telemedicine companies to consumer products, something like this, energy drink, sunshine, to tech, to AI, to you name it. And so I feel like a little kid in a candy store or at college or in school that's learning by doing real shit. Awesome. Speaking of AI, what do you think the future beholds for us with AI? Well, either we're all going to die in five or 10 years, or it's going to advance. I mean, AI is a, it helps us focus more on what we can do. Like AI makes you smarter, obviously, like we're using AI for our communication messaging. I mean, the things that are kind of fascinating for me is is and it's already here

the technology so think of me like i create videos every day well bernie t adams gets tired sometimes and doesn't want to create videos but what if i can just have a virtual simulation of me that's out there that is get which there is this out there, and it's me creating videos, but it's BTA, like animated BTA or whatever AI BTA that's creating content consistently. And all I do is spit in the algorithm. I want this, this, and this this week. And there's four videos a day that go out

that looks just like me, but it's actually not me. That's the stuff that's exciting for growth, but scary if the wrong person inputs the wrong code into the system where it could ruin my brand overnight. Yeah, for sure. And for the listeners that are paying attention, one of the softwares that he's referring to is called HeyGen. I don't know if that's the one that you guys utilize, but yeah, it's pretty, it's pretty phenomenal. Literally could just take my background, my mannerisms,

my voice, you feed it five minutes of video and all of a sudden it's doing my same gestures. My, it, it's pretty phenomenal doing it in foreign languages. And yeah, it's, it's pretty crazy. Yeah. You know, the uh speaking of you know when when i asked you about ai the first thing you said if we're not all dead in five to ten years there's a there's a video that i actually saw yesterday which was pretty intense i don't know if you've seen this it was like the tiny drone that is that is uh by AI. Have you seen this thing? It's like a handheld drone, and it's built to kill. It really is.

It's the craziest thing. It reacts. It has facial recognition, and you can send it out. And it kills somebody. And it just goes, and it impacts them right here, and it does this brain impact that shoots them right here. And it, and it does like this brain impact that like shoots them like, right. It was,

it was the craziest thing. And it was demonstrated on this stage. I think it might've been from CES, frankly, but, but yeah, man, it is, it is a wild day and age that we live in.

I don't think that's really where we're going to get to. But you know, it's, it'll be interesting to see the level of, you know, productivity that we can get to. Like you're talking about, you know, producing four videos a day where you're not even involved. There's just a script writer and that script writer could even be chat GBT. Learn through a GBT that's trained with your exact writing. I mean, films are being created.

Think about films if you if you ever read the book by uh jim carrey um like i read the whole book and he talks about which is like him thinking of the future think about jim carrey going into this simulation room and they have all these things hook up to him and he does all these kind of smiling, reacting, laughing, everything. And then they take his his A.I., who he is, and they go create a bunch of films without him having to act anymore. And then he's licensing it out and he can do. Think about it. Instead of doing one or two films a year, they can do 30 in a matter of a year. And he's getting paid a licensing fee. And so think about how they can output so much more stuff at such a high level of production. And it's, I don't know, there's good

and bad, I think to it, but it is exciting for a money-making opportunity. Yeah, it's crazy. So you're involved in a bunch of different industries, different companies, products, different things like that. If you have $10 million or even call it a million bucks, where are you putting that in a private equity type investment right now? What sectors do you see as taking off and being highly leveraged? So one of them that we recently invested in is a fund called Cypress Send It. And I share that one because it's a passion of mine and it has already five products within the fund. We will acquire other products, but it's products that are health conscious. I believe in things that are really helping people and making the world a better place. I don't want to do any investments in anything like cigars or cigarettes or anything that's bad for your health. So things that are making humans live happier and healthier lives. Another investment we have is an IV therapy company, The Drip Bar.

We have about 90 locations around the country. We franchise them out. And I love the recurring revenue aspect. So anything that has recurring revenue, subscription-based, people sign up, but they get two drips a month. They pay $300, $400 a month. And so I like that. I really believe in it. I don't know if you do IV therapy, but it helps me.

Yeah, that's great. Everybody thinks of like you're hungover and, okay, hydration. For me, it's for getting better workouts, just feeling more on top of my game. So I really love that. Again, it's making the world a better place. I do like you look at AI. So we have investment in a company called Vakodia. This guy used to have call centers. And so you think all these calls go out every single day. A human can only do so many calls. So this is outbound calls with the

AI system. We take all these scripts from clients, we input it to the system, and then you can't even tell the difference between it being an AI or actual human. And so we can do 20, 30,000 calls a day outbound and it means it gets more people in the door and getting more sales for companies. So that's another company leveraging AI. So anything for me, I think opportunity is, I believe in things that can make you a better person, live a better life and healthier life. Those are things I want to invest in. AI, things that can advance technology, that can really make things easier to allow people to focus their time and energy on things that are not monotonous, things that are more like moving the needle. And also long game.

I think everybody wants to get a quick buck. I mean, I do have money in crypto. I don't look at my portfolio very often right now. Good time to look right now. Yeah, I think everything is what you put in now, 10 years from now. I'm not, I've always been a long game. And then one last thing I think,

and you're doing this right now, Chris, you're doing a podcast show, we're creating content. I still invest a lot of money into my own brand because my brand, you think of eyeballs, acquiring attention. The more people that see my stuff over the years, they like me, they trust me. More, whatever I do down the road, investing, whatever my offer is, if enough people like and trust me, they're more likely to work with me. And so I'm just planting more seeds for the future. So as my brand, people like and trust me, they're more likely to buy from me. And so I'm just planting more seeds for the future. So as my brand, people like and

trust me, they're more likely to buy from me. I'm no The Rock or anybody with a big following like that. But if I can build like and trust with the right people, it can help me make money for the rest of my life. So that's an investment that's kind of non-direct that I do. Awesome. Awesome. Well, man, it sounds like you're very passionate about business investing and you got a lot of the principle centered, uh, you know, characteristics and everything that, uh, that you're working towards. What, what are some things outside of work that you're passionate about that, uh, you know, give us a peek behind the curtain to, you know, Brandon T Adams, uh Brandon T. Adams outside of business.

Yeah, I own a bunch of guns. I love shooting guns. I grew up in Iowa. What's your favorite one? I have a Keller Signature Rifle. It's an assault rifle, and it's very light and 223 and i love that gun you know i feel safe for having it but uh target practicing with that or a glock i've got a glock since i was a 21 22 years old target practicing these are guns like if i ever

the world it's a fan i got two guns that are going to protect me. But I also like shooting shotguns and stuff like that. But I enjoy target shooting. Once a year, I go back with my family. We go hunting. But that was just kind of my childhood. But I enjoy going back to where I'm from, going on the river with my friends. We go knee boarding or skiing and just spending time with them and really being in the middle of nowhere it's uh it's where i'm from and i like going back to it so i will

literally do a 30-hour trip i'll spend a lot of money on a flight to go home to be with some family for a short period of time to go on the river to go in the woods to ride four-wheelers just so i can disconnect and so that and then fitness fitness, it keeps me sane, man. I run or go to the gym. That's my guilty pleasure. I love it. I love it. Before we wrap up here, what are your top three habits that have helped lead you to success?

Discipline in the gym and exercise. Thinking positive, not negative and i want to really enlighten that um no matter what's happened to you if you choose to think negative it does nothing good for you like be careful what you speak and what you say and be careful the people around you what they speak because if you allow that to go to your head, that's your subconscious, and that will be either positive for you or negative. So be very careful of who you're surrounding yourself with. Those are two. And then the third one is just taking a lot of action.

I mean, there's some days I don't want to do shit. I wake up and I don't feel energized. But even if it's a couple things, whether it's making a couple phone calls, a couple emails, every day if you can do a couple of things that move forward that can help you get they build up for bigger successes. And so I guess the discipline, the habit of taking action every single day, even if it's small things. I love that. I love that. Brandon, where is a good spot for the listeners to find you more at? Whether is it social media, YouTube? Where's the good spot for the listeners to find you more at, whether is it social media, YouTube, where's the

good spot there? I am at Brandon T. Adams everywhere. Send me a direct message to my social media platform. I'll respond, but at Brandon T. Adams everywhere, feel free to like, follow and engage. Awesome. And what are some things that you're passionate about right now that maybe some of the listeners can help engage and add value to you for? Yeah, it's, you know, I do an event every year. It's called Rise and Record. It's in Nashville, Tennessee. It's all about helping people share their story with the world through video. And so if somebody wants to make a trip to Nashville in October, come hang out and go to riseandrecord.com. It's something I really enjoy to do.

And it's more of a kind of impact and give back. Love it. Love it. Brandon, thank you so much for your time. It's the most valuable asset that we have. And, you know, spending some of that with me today and sharing this value with the listeners. We appreciate it.

Last but not least, somebody's down and out. They're thinking about giving up. They're going through a tough time like you did just a few years ago, or they're thinking about making the leap and they're not quite ready to make the leap into entrepreneurship. What kind of advice are you giving to that person that isn't quite ready or is struggling a little bit? If you're struggling right now, just know that somebody needs you. Somebody needs your value. Somebody needs your message.

Somebody needs your voice. And if you give up right now, that person isn't going to get that help from you. So it's not even about you. It's about the other people you can help. And another thing that wakes me up, I mean, this is a thought that really drives me every day is I don't want to wake up one day be 90 years old look back and be like what if I would have did that

and so I live on this life with not having what if just do it what's the least that can happen you can lose all your money well we've lost all our money you know what you can get it back there's more money out there don't live in the what if. I love it. Thank you so much, Brandon. Until next time.