THE ED MYLETT SHOW - Gerard Adams - Leaders Create Leaders

Episode Date: September 5, 2018

Gerard Adams, Also known as The Millennial Mentor.  An inspirational leader, serial entrepreneur, angel investor, and philanthropist, Gerard's purpose is simple: to inspire other Millennials to leverage their passions to create the successful lifestyles they dream of. Gerard has a profound ability to help others shift their mindset, towards unlocking their god given abilities.   Gerard was a multi-millionaire at 24, but not without overcoming obstacles, fear, and self-doubt. Gerard followed the path that was risky and non traditional, but he's always been one to aim for living a life outside of the ordinary. Gerard is also the founder of "www.EliteDaily.com” which is a multimedia website that provides exclusive, inspiration content to its 80 million monthly users.   Today, Gerard Adams is committing most of his time by giving back to the community by providing progressive education through the principles of entrepreneurship. He provides the community with the skills, strategies, and mentorship needed to align" their purpose towards a prosperous career and lifestyle. Adams helped develop “FOWDERS” which is an incubator for aspiring inner city entrepreneurs , providing mentorship and a safe haven to pursue their dreams.  

This podcast is for leaders with passion and guts. Nothing less than a championship is acceptable. Welcome back to Maxed Out. I'm Ed Mylett. And I am so fired up about today's program. Because I have one of the most successful human beings on the spinning earth right now that is under 35 years old. This guy to my right right here, you all know who he is. You can tell from looking at him, but let me give him the right introduction, okay?

This young man right here, founded Elite Daily, sold that thing for about $50 million. He's one of the great thought leaders on social media today. He's a serial entrepreneur, Forbes magazine, called you the millennial mentor, right? And above all of that stuff, having getting to know him today,

I'm gonna tell you, my favorite thing about him is a caliber of man that you are, and how generous you are, and your spirit, and your heart, and your character. So today is gonna be amazing. And so this is Gerard Adams. Gerard, thanks for being here, bro. Thank you so much.

I really appreciate it. So inspired right now. Just like, you know, it's one thing when you look through the lens of social media and you look through on the videos, it's another when you're able to actually come and feel the energy and see it. And most importantly, right back at you brother,

like there's a lot of successful people in the world. But for me, it's about character. And not only do you show up for your community, but the way that you are, you know, when I met you and how humble you are and how welcoming you were for me and our team, really appreciate that, man. Thank you. It's my pleasure, man, to have you here. You know, I wanted you to do this for a long time, and so the stars align. So let's do something great here today. I hope my billing of you was accurate, because Gerard has a lot, you know, the very few people

you would meet with the success that Gerard's had. So young who has kept such a humble spirit about them too, and such a generous giving person. So, but I think some of that, having got to know you a little bit, has to do with your upbringing. I always like to think people back just a little bit. So, you grew up a little bit like I did in the middle, right? Yeah, in the middle class. But tell everybody, you know, just a little bit about young Gerard, even though I still think you're young, but young, young Gerard, how'd you grow up? Tell us about your background. Well, you know, I really had an unbelievable upbringing

because I had a really strong, you know, group of parents. Like my mother, you know, she just really showed me a love and compassion and empathy and like the things that, you know, a lot of people, I feel like like don't have that's worth more than anything in the world and my father was just a strong man you know he really instilled the leadership in a very young age what he would used to do is used to write notes and leave them for me hidden and throughout my house really if I went to go get a glass of milk there's a freaking little whipped up note in there if I went to bed there's something under when I pull the blanket up if I wanted to go get a glass of milk, there's a freaking little whipped up note in there. If I went to bed, there's something under when I pulled a blanket up. If I wanted to go to school, he's dropping something in a freaking notebook for me or something.

And there were these, you know, just quotes some, whether it was John F. Kennedy, Marcus Surrelius, you know, just different leaders. And for me, you don't really understand it when you're really young. You're kind of like, oh, this is kind of cool again. But I really started to appreciate it as I started to get older. So I grew up with unbelievable parents, hard working. They really instilled the work ethic for me, but I walked to school, I took the bus, I loved being a Max, I was a skater, and for me, I was just a very creative person.

Even young. Yeah, I had a charisma even when I was young. I used to make my own clothes. I used to, I loved, I begged my parents for one thing only. Put me into art school. Really? Yeah, I wanted to go to art school. Were you the only child?

No, I have two unbelievable sisters. Okay. Did he do the same thing for them? Was he writing them notes too? Was that something he did just with his son? You know what's funny? I've actually never asked them. Yeah, it's interesting to know.

Yeah. Or are you the only one getting these notes? You know, it's funny. I've actually never asked them. Yeah, it's interesting to know. Yeah. What are you doing there? We're getting these notes. You know, it was just, you know, they were, he was very protective of my sisters. Okay. Yeah, that's what I mean. Yeah, that. And he just, you know, they were way more educated than I think.

And of course, he nurtured them. With me, he was a little tough love. You're tough, you're. And your mom, by the way, I just get to see your moms with major influences because I'm a hard jerk. And I watched earlier when you talked about your mom, there's certainly something very special there with you and your mom too, right?

What you learn from mom? Well, you know, on both sides of my family, I'm extremely grateful of my heritage. Which is what, by the way, people, I know you get asked this all the time, right? I'm so Colombian and Italian, but my mother's side, I just, I might as well stay like 30 days ago, I went visit my grandfather, he turned 99 years old.

And I set it to myself, I wrote it down, it's like my grandfather's turned in 1999 this year. I don't care what I'm doing, I don't care what interview I don't care who wants to pay me for anything, business, opportunity there is. I was turning 99 this year. I don't care what I'm doing, I don't care. What interview I don't care what, who wants to pay me for anything, what business, opportunity there is. I am going to see my grandfather to help celebrate his 99 and ask him these questions

about immigrating to this country. And I'm second generation and I just feel like, my mom's parents, my grandparents, they came here with that typical immigrant story with nothing. My grandfather came here first, then he sent back for my grandmother and my mother. My mother was born in Columbia and she came here.

So I think that work ethic and just the appreciation for being here and making and building a life is instilled in my mom. And then, so I really think about that, and that's what really drives me. But it was the moment that I saw my mom working seven days a week in a supermarket. And that was my first job.

I wanted to work. I wanted my parents weren't like, they didn't give me things like I had to earn it. So my first job, I believe, and I was like working at the supermarket where my mom worked, she was an employee there. And I'd never forget getting that first paycheck. And it was like maybe $300.

I look at that paycheck. And I remember just seeing my mom working there. And I'm just like, wow, like, there's no way, like, I gotta get my mom out of this. Like this isn't real money. Like, you know, and at that moment, I started to really feel and think about that. I'm mom out of this. Like this isn't real money. Like, out and, you know, and at that moment, I started to really feel and think about that. I'm so proud of them.

I'm so proud of what they've done. She's gone through. You go away to college, which I'm sure was like a major priority for your dad and your mom, especially for you to go, right? But you didn't last thing college. And so I want people that are listening to this, because a lot of millennials are gonna watch this

because you're here, they're in my audience as well. What happened with you in college? Well, this is a, of millennials are gonna watch this because you're here, they're in my audience as well. What happened with you in college? Well this is a, this is really interesting. I really didn't want to go to college. I was a bad kid right before graduating high school. In fact, I lost touch with a lot of my, you know, my good friends that I had grown up with earlier. I started hustling weed when I was in high school. And I almost had a moment that really set me back. And I'm never forget the day my father caught me

scaling in my bedroom. And typically, I was old, my dad's a little bit more of an old school town, so growing up, if I did something wrong, you kind of like, I got the belt, my dad like pushed me around. It wasn't like, you know what you mean? You know what I mean?

My relate. And I had a moment where I got pulled over and I thought that moment, I was about to get arrested and it was going to completely ruin the respect that my father would have for me and just for my community. And that story I've talked about, but someone was committing grant of thought I went front of me. And when I was doing this drop off, they ended up figuring that out, letting that person go

and saying, hey kid, I'll get out of here. And when I had drove all the day, that was the day I was like, okay, I'm going to college. Whoa! Okay, I gotta take this muscle mentality and I gotta learn about business. I cannot be someone who ends up... Life altering moment.

That was a life altering moment for me. But I ended up crying during graduation because my father wanted me to get into a good college, wanted me to go to Princeton, and I got into a barely a community college. So I remember just completely freaking destroying. Really crying, because you thought you let your dad down? Actually, no.

I was actually really more about the fact that like, the people that I had in Friendship, they were going to these great schools. And I was alone going to this community college and I was like, fuck, I'm such a disappointment to myself. Like, but going to college that first semester, I instantly was like, this just isn't for me. You just knew.

I just knew. I think it was part of me as in my hustled. Like I just always was this creative. I wanted to be outside the box. I didn't want to be, you know, I wanted to break the rules. I was like, that's that art thing in you, huh? That art thing in me, very creative, into this day. And, you know, being in school, I was like,

this isn't for me. Yeah, I went to college and it's one of the things that I, you know, there's more and more people I interviewed that wasn't their thing. And I think the consciousness about this is changing too, because when I went to college and it's one of the things that I, you know, there's more and more people I interviewed that wasn't their thing. And I think the consciousness about that is changing too because when I was in college, one of the things that I observed too is like it just sort of brings out these cookie-cutter people, the business school, you know, and it sort of squashes from people their ambition, their creativity.

I'm not knocking college at all. I have a degree. Me neither. And I'm progies in the back. It's a great debate in my family more. It's like they don't need to go to college and go absolutely they're going to college. Well, they're going to be entrepreneurs anyway. It neither of them. And I'm progies and if I get, I would sell them. It's a great debate in my family more. I was like, they don't need to go to college. They go, absolutely, they're going to college. Well, we're going to be entrepreneurs anyway.

It'll give them experience. And it's an achievement. It shows work and finishing an idea. But you're a product like I am, though, of getting some mentors in your life and having guts. Like, you're where you are. You don't give yourself any credit. You're too humble.

Your actual conditions right now, okay? You're past and you and your present do not equal your future. Gerard's present at that time. I'm going to take you guys, we're going to flash forward. Gerard's present, if you gave you your resume, it's hustled a little bit of weed, mediocre student, community college, now I'm dropping out. If I said where's he going, right? You'd say, well, the trajectories, not real good. Turgectories are BS. There's no such thing as a trajectory. You at any moment can alter the direction of your life.

But one of the reasons you dropped out though, was you did have this burning desire to do something great in business, right? And you met a mentor or something at that time, right? Tell them about that story. Yes, so, you know, for me, I felt at that time, the college wasn't for me, but I asked in my classes, I'm like, does anybody know someone?

Amazing you asked that. Like does anybody know anybody that is like, that's made it, that's become, you know, we talked about this earlier, not so much self-made, but like for me at that moment, it was self-made. It was like, oh, you know, it didn't have to go through the system,

can break beat the system and it figured it out. And this internet thing is like really booming right now. Like, if there's anybody knowing anybody who's doing this, that's building online businesses, that's going out there and like becoming successful, I was really interested in the stock market at the time and there's no, no, it's about the stock market. And one person was like, yeah, I know a guy.

Wow. And they're like, you know, after class, I'll take you over to, take you over to the house. And, you know, it took me over to meet him and I'm there to forget that day. I pull up and three car garage, basketball court, in-ground pool, just phenomenal house.

And I just remember walking in, this kid walks down the stairs, I'm like, what do you do for a lo- Sorry, what are your parents do for a lo- I love that, man. And he's just like, you know, this is actually my house. And in that moment, it was the first time in my life that I finally got to see the success.

I got to see someone who's created it. And for me, I'm an experiential learner. This is the way I am. That's why mentorship is so important to me. It's why traveling is so important to me, embracing new cultures. It's why building these different relationships. It's, you know, for me, it's like,

I need to learn hands-on. And I need to see it to believe it. And for me, it's like, I need to learn hands-on. And I need to see it to believe it. And for me, that was the first moment of like, okay, boom, I'm gonna make this happen. I can see it now. And I was like, whatever it is that you know, and you've learned, I'm willing to bring value to you, show up every day, work for you, you don't have to pay me.

Wow, just, you know, let me be a fly on the wall here. Let me serve for you and learn. And you dropped in a college, you go to work with this dude for you and learn. And you dropped that college you're gonna work with, is dude. Yeah. First thing is everybody, that little story he told you about a graduation when he was crying, there's success leaves clues. Can I give you one little clue in there?

People that win that are successful are incredibly self-aware. Okay, what that was is a moment of self-awareness. Even as a young man, you're like, what did I do? What have I been doing? See, there are millions of other guys at graduation who didn't do great, who were gonna go to community college. They weren't aware enough to go, this isn't who I am. I can't believe I let myself down.

So that's number one. Number two is to have the guts to ask a quality question. The quality of your life is made up by the quality, the questions you ask yourself. Is this guy a trader? Yeah, he was actually an email marketer. He was an extremely great writer and researcher. Okay.

And he would, he would just do research. And he, when I met him, he would teach me how to do research, how to do due diligence. Okay. And even know what that word meant. Yeah. How to actually look up companies, how to discover undervalued companies, and how to actually read their income stamps, how to read their balance sheets, how to understand, you know, what their, you know, what their business plan was, where they were going,

and what the catalysts were, what a key was. So the email marketing was involving, recommending buying or selling a particular stock. Yeah, so the trading aspect was one end, just investing, and then he had another type of business which was actually helping companies tell their stories. Okay, so you're young then. How did you end up doing with him? Did you end up doing well financially? And then he had another type of business which was actually helping companies tell their stories. Okay.

So you're young then. How did you end up doing with him? Did you end up doing well financially? Yeah. So I built up a, I worked with him. I started my first online business. It was called Stock Spot. It was an online community.

And I looked at it. I was like, well, I want to do something unique in this industry. And I want to, I'm now starting to trade. I want to discover other traders. So I decided to launch a forum called Stock Spot. And I looked at eBay and I was like well eBay has a Rating system one to five stars. What if we had a stock form? Well each member has rated from one to five stars and you would rate them based on the on how well they picked stocks

Because I want to find other people like this this mentor right that knows how to pick them and and is recommending that you created a space that didn't exist I created a space for it. How old were you when you did that? 19 that? 19. That's bananas. So you, look, there's something special about you, Gerard. I mean, guys, they'll do that at 19. That's not normal. Now they do.

Yeah, now they do, because they have models. But when you were doing it, there was nobody saying, this is possible. Right, that's what's... You didn't have Instagram, we didn't have that, like, YouTuber, you know, show. We didn't have any of that. Okay, so you, you know, I think the you ain't gonna make it a bunch of money, but then the market crashed too, right? Yeah, so I took that business to about 10 million in revenue.

Come on, that's crazy, Grace. I loved investing. I started going and visiting these companies, interviewing these CEOs, and telling them, hey, listen, so this is a huge win for me. I went into a mine, I went about the mining industry, and I was like, the economy right now, there's so much inflation, and I saw what was happening

within the real estate bubble. And I was like, I wanna play some, I wanna understand gold, so the miners come out, so I went into this mine, I learned about the whole mining industry, and then I sunk, you know, a huge amount of the money that I'd saved, and I would put it into these companies. And I would publicly it into these companies.

And I would publicly disclose, I'm locked up for six months, but I believe in this, this is why I believe in this company. And I've had multi-million dollar trades because of that. And it's similar to like a young little worm buffet at the time. Really, yeah. But I got overly confident. And I started to go all in and I had, finally,

I was up $20 million in the market playing a company that had the patents for TV everywhere, allowing content to stream through our smartphone devices, which is now everything. So I found the company had the patents for that. But sometimes, you can be right, but you can, timing is everything. Everything, and I just timed it wrong. And the stock crashed, you can be right, but you can, you can timing is everything.

And I just timed it wrong and the stock crashed, the economy had crashed at that time. And in that moment, I had gone from being this young Justin Bieber, oh, I got the cars and I'm traveling the world and I'm multi-millionaire to literally having everything stripped from me. And dad's really learned about ego. You know, and I just-'s really learned about ego. You know, and I just- What you learned about ego. So, you know, for me at the time, what I have really learned and this is what happened with my mother and it was really the point where when this happened,

I didn't want to tell anybody. I was like so scared. We go through this, we go through so much, always worrying about what everyone else thinks. You know, and for me, the only person I was able to tell is my mother. And my mom told me the story of when she was, when she immigrated here, that a studio apartment, and they caught on fire and they lost everything. And she's like, when that happened, Gerard, I had to, in high school, drop out and go get a job on Canal Street and New York City in the winter to go make a little money to help your grandparents. And I didn't want to ever tell you this.

Here's my mother, he's been the strongest woman, 70s, weak working, always took care of us, loved this compassion. Here my mom crying to me telling me the story. And she's like, if I was able to get through that, then you can bounce back from this. And they can, money can be stripped away from you, but they will never take this and they will never take this.

So she was like, you have a skill. You know what I'm saying? If you believe in it, like believe in yourself, you were able to do it once, you can go out there and do it again. And in that moment, I was like, you know, I don't have this, you know, I just felt in that moment that like,

I need to figure out maybe that wasn't meant for me. Like maybe that wasn't, you know, maybe that wasn't meant for me. Like maybe that wasn't meant for me. Maybe something bigger is meant for me. And at that time, that's when I started to make content. I said, all right, you know what? I wanna make content that helps to educate people on what's happening with the economy. Because obviously I lost those money,

but a lot of millennials are not paying attention to, and this even is to today, they're not truly paying attention to what's truly happening in our economy. Yeah. You know, they'll paying attention to, and this even is to today, they're not truly paying attention to what's truly happening in our economy. Yeah. You know, they'll pay attention to everything on social media on a daily basis. They'll probably spend, you know, 12 hours

out of the 24 hours a day, checking with everybody else and what everyone else is doing. But they're not paying attention to their own finances, not paying attention to what's happening with the economy. They're not paying attention to planning for themselves, getting down their vision. So for me, I started doing documentaries on the economy. And then that's what led to then saying,

I want to start a publication. And then that was the birth of buying elitedaily.com for $9.99. You bought a daddy. $9.99, by the way, what a magic moment with your mom. And for all of you listening to this, that are in that down cycle of your career, they can't take away what you know.

They can't take away your heart. They can't take away your work ethic. they can't take away your ingenuity, stick with it, chase the next thing, maybe you got to innovate, maybe you need to course correct in the business you're in and change strategy, but so you lead to elite daily, right? And I also learned, at that time, spending money on bottles, I was buying freaking two at two Bentley's, I was just spending and spending on just spending, spending, and spending on things, you know, I've talked about that on your perspective too. So there's all these millennials watching this,

and I have this theory where I say, if you can't save money when you're broke, you can't save money when you're rich. If you're either at the habit of saving or the habit of spending, that's the hardest thing in the world, but if you could even save $10 a month, see habits matter in personal development,

and fitness and in faith, and they matter in money too. You got to find a way, even paycheck to paycheck, save your 10 bucks a month. But to say that all these young pups out there that are, you know, male or female that are out there spending money in these different places, what advice would you give them?

Well, I mean, you hit the nail on the head with having an investor's mindset and creating the habit of saving and investing, you know, you hit the nail on the head But I would also say for me one of the biggest lessons was And this comes from a personal development side when thinking about wealth creation for yourself It's you know talent can help you achieve success, but character will help you sustain success When I first made my millions of dollars where I didn't have the character to sustain it

So why that's why I was taken for me. My ego was big. I thought what made me successful was having all of these materialistic things. And it doesn't. You know, and I love having nice things. Sure, be true. For me, buying this watch out there sold my company,

it has a meaning. A lot of these things have meaning. Like if it has meaning behind it, God bless, going going you know Create that life for yeah, but you have to realize that Ultimately each back your character not that time. I was being very selfish Okay, and I realized that like I needed to you know So thinking about how am I showing up in the world?

How am I actually being a leader? How am I actually helping the people around me, serving the people that my team, that community, and I just, I really, at the time, I just didn't have this character of wealth or, you know, of actually being a leader. I love that. And, you know, by the way, we both want you to have a Lamborghini. We both want you have a Ferrari, both want you have a gem. We just want you to have it in the right time, right, for the right reasons.

But so, you find a lead daily, guys, 80 million unique visitors, right? Yeah, 80 to 100 articles per day. It went from the three of us to 200 employees. It was one of the best journeys of my life. And how old were you when you sold it? I sold. So I was 30 years old. 30 years old, everybody.

Whatever you take from it, but it's about a $50 million sale. So, bam, you're back. Now you're really, really back. What was, what did it take everyone through it? I'm just curious. I asked people this in my private life. I've never had somebody on camera. What was that day like? What was it like to go, oh my gosh. Like, what's that feel like to have a day like that or a moment like that when my life just freaking changed? Yeah, I mean, so it's interesting because the initial feeling was a little uneasy. I actually was a little bit, a lot of what it's clicked in for me in the very beginning.

It wasn't like, oh, I ate it. It was like, you have partners, you have investors. I felt very much like I didn't want to sell the company. This wasn't like something I wanted. You know, we had long board meetings and you know, we saw Facebook changing the algorithms and Elite Daily for me was like this brand that I wanted to really continue to take

to become the biggest millennial media company in the United States. So afterwards, and for real, it was like, man, I feel like my baby just got taken away from me. Yeah. And it was until I called some of my closest friends and told them, and they were like, gee, you always want to jump out without a parachute man.

And you know, listen man, for once in your life, let this soak in what you just did. Let this soak in. And that was the moment, like hearing it from one of my good friends, that was like, oh, wow. And then it was, you know, for me, where it really hit for me was,

when I was able to really go and talk to my father first and tell him, I wanna pay off all the families that I want to pay off all the mortgages. And then I took my mom after I have to pay that off. I took my mom. She wanted this Jaguar. She took my mom and got her her Jaguar. I took my dad, got him a Mercedes-Benz convertible, which he loved and pig, surprised my younger sister with the car of her dreams

and just... And by the way, by the way, you guys, he's still, because I know the story, he still isn't listed anything, he did for himself. And you know, just finally, what is the big thing you did for yourself? Yeah, I mean, the two biggest things, the first was I bought myself this watch.

Yeah. You know, I just wanted to basically have something on my wrist, I just reminded me of it. But the truth is, and this is what comes when it comes to having that character and having that wealth mindset, it's like a billionaire's mindset really. For me, after that, paying the debt, you got to watch. I put it in a trust. I know.

I didn't think about buying the next fancy ex-eye car or anything materialistic. I said, okay, take a step back. Yes. How do you want to forget about the money? How do you now want to leverage this to show up in the world as a better role model? Millennials need role models right now. Of what it really truly means to be successful

more than just money, but actually showing up as a leader in the world and serving your community. So for me, that was when I was like, you know, I want to go back to North, New Jersey where my grandparents immigrated from, you know, immigrated to and really give back to that community because I want to show that that success. You can, when you, when you have all the money, they will, yeah, it's easy for me to go and just, you know, get three Lamborghinis and like leverage just trying to show that lifestyle. I love, of course, I still love a lifestyle.

Of course. But for me, I wanted to show that aspect of, for the past three years, I dedicated myself to go to the hood. Yep. You know, and I built an incubator in the middle of the worst projects in North. Yeah.

And for me, that was, we're gonna talk about that. That was a reward. Yeah, guys, that's character, by the way, showing up. This is why I endorsed this man. Do you millennials out there? You guys that are 80 years old out there, if you're watching this, that's what you do when

you win. That's how you handle yourself. By the way, I want you to have 11 Lamborghinis if you choose to do it as long as you can do those other things. Then you start founders, right? That's basically what you did. You guys are going to love what this guy did with this, and this model is brilliant. What you've accomplished, this is where sitting sitting here in 33 here, bro. It's so amazing. I'm so blown away by you and you deliver it in such

a way like it's really not that big of a deal, but you're talking about a guy who, you know, let's be honest, hawking a little weed, commuting college, drops out, 20 million, loses it, comes back, sells this deal for 50 large, and then takes that and goes, nope, that's just the very beginning. Now I'm gonna contribute. So what's founders, you guys are gonna love this. Tell me why I just started thinking about social impact. And I just, I had this moment where I said, okay,

elite daily was this brand, it was the voice of Generation Y. That's gone, but I am still a voice. And I finally felt like, it's time for me to start coming out and telling a lot of my life lessons, start being, I've seek mentors my entire life, but now it's like, it's time for me

to start being a better mentor, a better role model. And I just had this moment where I was on a balcony Now it's like, it's time for me to start being a better mentor, a better role model. And I just had this moment where I was on the balcony in Miami. I was buying this penthouse. I just, I'm getting to sail. My account's like, you gotta go to Florida because your tax purpose is, and I'm on that balcony. And I just had this moment where I had this moment with God, you know, and I just was like, it's lightning struck my heart of like, this is not where you're supposed to be.

Right now, you got time to do that. Right now, you're like, right now, you have this ability, I such a young age, Jora, like to go back to where your families roots are from and like, and start something and give back to a place that like, never actually, like they don't teach entrepreneurship in schools. Like I looked back at my life and I was like,

man, like God, thank the Lord, thank you God that I've been able to somehow ask that question and find that mentor and like, you know, and slowly take action in my life to create that, to create this, to success. But like, there's so many people out there that lack the belief system, that are, or that live in fear,

and don't even know about truth, like don't even know how to become an entrepreneur, what entrepreneurship really is. And then it was like, there was certain things that got me here. So it's like, my EQ, like I was never the smart kid, but my EQ was something that I really started to master over the years.

You know, the way that I learned how to communicate, the way that I was able to really, truly build relationships, the empathy that I really had to build the team, these are things that like, again, I never learned in school. And then financial literacy. Again, the things we're talking about about financial wellness and saving, again, no one teaches you that when you're in high school. And I was like, I want to go back and just start to be a voice and start to actually work

with the youth and actually teach them these skills within entrepreneurship, EQ, financial literacy. And I just felt that's where my heart was. How do you guys actually do that? I was on a social enterprise. So what I did was I partnered up with a real estate developer and I said, okay, well let's take an area. That's a really bad area at the time,

but we saw the future of Nork. Nork right now has got so many amazing things happening. It's got billions dollars of investment. You have all these unbelievable corporations there. We're right now top 10 for Amazon moving there. So there's a lot there. It's one of the first tech real technology cities. There has fiber optic running right through the ground. There's a lot of infrastructure there. It used to be, you know, one of the wealthiest, it's the biggest and one of the,

was one of the wealthiest cities in all of New Jersey. It just through the industrial revolution, it lost all those jobs, then there was riots, and then it just, you know, it's self-destructed. So I know the infrastructure is there. It just needed, it needed someone to go in there and be part of that revitalization. So, I partnered with a real estate developer. I invested into the building. We built a high rise of about 20 units and I said on the bottom floor, I'm going to create something for the community.

So, I launched an incubator and then I was like, I'm going to build something where I run a program for 12 weeks at a time. I'm going to pick 12 entrepreneurs, I'm sorry, 12 companies that have about two co-founders, typically one to co-founders. And I'm going to bring them in here for 12 weeks, I'm going to coach them. And I'm going to bring in some of the top

and best mentors out there to fly into North New Jersey and work with these young entrepreneurs. So I did that. And then during that, what I'm going to do is I'm going to bring the youth middle school and high school students, we're going to go and teach them in class because you got to go where they are. If you want to really, truly disrupt the education system, the first thing you need to do is, you have to actually go into the education system, understand how it works.

You know, so I was like, I need to study the education system again. So I went, I got some unbelievable, I got an unbelievable team. And we just started going and building relationships with the teachers in the middle school and high school is there. And we started going in there. And then we taught these classes and semesters of entrepreneurship EQ financial literacy. And then after school, we allowed those youth

to come to the incubator and work under the entrepreneurs building companies. And then I would bring people like Eric Thomas, who would come in and host, not only working with entrepreneurs, but then actually speaking to all of these young kids in that community, and then we built an art gallery down the street,

and we just started revitalizing this whole area, and now it's completely transformed. Oh my gosh. You're hearing you? That's amazing, brother. That is brilliant and amazing. Oh my God, I want to know how I can help with that. Oh, thank you, but I would love you to come

and help with some of these kids. I mean, I want to. One of the biggest moments of my life was, wow. You know, I'm starting this thing and I remember when we opened the doors, I was like, OK, how is this going to work now? Right. You know, like, now I'm in this incubator, I'm in this space, and I'm just like, OK, how am I going to work now? Right. Now I'm in this incubator, I'm in this space and I'm just like, okay, how am I going to

find out how much money to move to North New Jersey? I'm going to find local entrepreneurs that want to actually be in this incubator and build a company. Like, how am I going to be able to do this? And I'll never forget I'm outside on the phone, handling one of my other companies. And this young man, this young black man, well, kid, you're welcome, he's like, hey man, what is this place? And I'm like, well, this is an incubator.

Well, what's an incubator? I'm like, okay, well, this is a place where we teach business. We're able to teach you how to create things in the world, how to solve problems. I'm like, business man, I want to know about that. I'm going to want you how to create things in the world, how to solve problems. He's like, oh, I like business, man. I want to know about that. I'm going to want you to come inside for a second. He comes inside and I sit with him and I talk to him.

And when, as I'm guiding him, I start to see he's like, he's like, listen, everyone's lied to me my entire life. I've seen my uncle get killed on the porch steps. You know, like, how am I going to be able to do anything? Like, who are you, man? Like, what's, what's the fine print, man? Like, you know what I mean? He's talking like that.

And he's like, listen, all I know is I got a hustle out here in these streets. You know, and I just started to see that. Now, remember the early part of my story? Yes. I hustled. Yes. So I knew I had the ability to finally have fear of telling anybody on the camera every before that I ever hustled with.

You know, you just don't want to tell that to yourself. You're proud of that. You know, I'm proud of that. But I knew God made me go through that moment for this very moment looking at that kid in the eyes. His name is Shaquoy. And I looked Shaquoy in there and I said, listen man, I've hustled too.

And if I was able to realize that that was not what I was meant for in this world. You're meant for so much more. you're meant for so much bigger bro. And like, I'm here to tell you that you have such a greater gift for this world. And if you come here every day and dedicate, I promise you I will be here right now next to you. And I will guide you and mentor you so that you can find that gift inside you and realize what you're really meant for in this world.

The next day he shows up at a tie-hunt. I'm like, bro, you don't got to wear a tie right here, but what was interesting was, a little about, I would say probably about a month after that, some of Mr. Koi's friends from school come by. And I like, hey, man, whatever's to-koi's on, I want to be on that. And apparently he had unconventionally gotten the school

to go to the auditorium and gave a motivational speech unconventionally to the school to go to the auditorium and gave a motivational speech unconventionally to the students there. And that one moment of shifting his mindset and seeing the change in him, that's when I was like, okay, thank you. Now, I know why we're doing like, I really know why. I'm gonna follow my heart and that there was the reason why we were supposed to do this. And it's still a battle. It's not easy, you know.

It's definitely not easy continuing to be there. I love you brother. I love you. I'm so proud of you. I'm so proud of you. Like that. That's one of my favorite stories I've ever heard. I mean, and I want to be able to help with you. And I did so many. What you're doing is wonderful and is brilliant. And I know you're finding the way too. You know, there's so and the things you talk about your arts like there's these things you do so naturally that are just such a Lessons for people but did you hear what he said he said now I got to figure out how we're gonna do this a lot of people Out there think no but but it's brilliant because a lot of people and you didn't even know all that with elite daily and you didn't know that before You're trying and I didn't know on my business people think well you have to know every single step before you start You will never start now. There's gonna be so many adjustments and course corrections You have to do is know why and find the mentor and just start have a vision

Right for me. I've had a vision. I had a why I had a vision. Then I was like all right Let's let's figure it out. Let's go. I love this. I love what you're doing That's been my model and similar to you faith Yeah, you know like faith is my business model for sure talk about that for a second because it's everything you're out, let's go. I love this. I love what you're doing. That's been my model and similar to you, faith. Yeah. You know, like faith is my business model for sure. Talk about that for a second, because it's everything with you. It sort of comes back to that with you with your faith, doesn't it?

So how important is that to your life and just speak to that a little bit? It's just part of, you know, we talk about habits, we talk about routines, we talk about mental toughness. Like for me, it all starts with that faith. I mean, every single day, every single morning, you know, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we talk about routines, we talk about mental toughness. Like for me it all starts with that faith. I mean every single day, every single morning, you know, we talked about this, you know, on leaders, create leaders, when I, you know, we both take that cold, we both do something with cold water. I don't know if you do the dunking in the cold water. Are you? I do the dunking. I can't, I can't, I can't, I don't get the ocean or dunk here. That's so cool. You know, for me, it's simple. I just, you know, I turn it on ice

cold in the shower and I pray. I say my, our father and the cold or don't hear. That's so cool. You know, for me, it's simple. I just, you know, I turn it on ice cold in the shower and I pray I say my art father and the cold shower. Every day. Every day. Every single today, art father. And then I, and I speak out, I speak out what I'm feeling. Some days I speak out, God please help me. Give me the courage, give me the strength.

Give me the ability to fight through today. You know, maybe because I woke up a little bit depressed. Maybe I woke up a little bit sad. Maybe I woke up a little bit sad. Maybe I went through something. It happens to me a lot. It could be lonely, lonely games sometimes, going out and serving and showing up in the world. So sometimes, I feel that.

I feel lonely. Sometimes I have anxiety. So I'll pray to get me through that and to show up as God's son. And then I'll pray for my family. I'll pray to get me through that and to show up as, you know, as God's son. And, and then I'll pray for my family, I'll pray for my team, I'll pray for my community. And, and then for me when I turn that cool chair off, it's like it hits me, bro. I'm like, let's go. The inner warrior comes out.

33 years old, bunch of money saved. You could just play it cool all the time. You're taking your time to serve, to change the world, and then to admit your frailties and some of the things that you struggle with, I think is just beautiful because there's this thing in the world like masculine men aren't supposed to share things that they're afraid of or that they struggle with, right? And real masculinity is actually sharing those things and then showing people that you can still overcome them, which is what you do. But let's talk about you a little bit.

And you know, I learned that from a Navy SEAL. You know, I never was like that. Again, I hate a lot of that insecurity in my life. Because I always thought a leader had to be that, had to be the one who's like, showing up for the team, has to be the strongest. You know, I always ate last, but I always showed up first. And, you know, for me, that was how I showed up as a leader.

And it was in total, I don't know if you have, it was time you have to. But, you know, I really believe in the universe. And just like when you're putting, I believe in energy. And it's like the energy that you put in to the world and just into just who you are, how you show up. Like, it just, it's unbelievable what comes back to you. And it was Memorial Day weekend,

blown slowly, sure, I'm at this bar, and I see this guy walking, he's got this hat, I'm at the Army flag, and his huge, and this other guy who's jacked, and I'm like, excuse me sir, have you served? He's like, yes, I have actually. And the woman was like, oh yeah, 30 years, he just got out from, you know, relief.

And I was like, but you might not have bought you a beer. He's like, well, thank you. No one ever does that, thank you so much. And by this guy, beers were hanging out. But the other guy, he starts telling me, stores everything to the other guy who looks like Sylvester Stallone from Rambo, I know what you're going.

Oh my man, who is this guy? He finally tells, I'm a Navy SEAL. I can't tell you too many stores. I'm on duty. We're in San't tell you too many stories. I'm Ron Doudy. We're in San Diego. And how did an amazing time? I leave, I feel like I've met the real celebrities. They are the real celebrities.

Okay, not us influencers, not us. You know, these people on TV, all these people we follow, no. They are our heroes. They are the real celebrities. So for me, I was so excited. I finally met this Navy SEAL. I met these people.

I got to show them gratitude two weeks later. I get a, I was so excited. I finally met this Navy seal. I met these people. I got to you know show them gratitude Two weeks later. I get a call Err, okay in the morning from someone from the incubator. He's like, hey, gee There's a guy named Paul here. He looks like he's ready to kill someone. I'm like Paul I Drive over It's it's the Navy seal. He's saying go, I'm like, what are you doing here? He's like, I don't know what it was, Gerard. There was something about you,

and I'm not supposed to be here, but I had to come out here to think I could help you. And I sit in the Navy, and that day, he asked me, so how are you? And anyways, that day, I was like, okay, he made me feel like, isn't that Navy seal? Like I could be insecure at this Navy seal. So I'm like, I'm gonna be honest with you, bro.

I am stressed, I am not myself. Like I just got through a really bad breakup. Four years, I love it at death. And just, I also just was going through things internally and he was like, and I was like, but I gotta show up every day, man. And I'm putting on this, this like, you know, this Superman suit for my team,

because they're struggling. They're coming to me and struggling because we're still, you know, it's Bo Degas, you can't, it's hard to get healthy food, it's hard to live over there. We're changing it all on its own. It's exciting, but it's still a hard way of life. Sure. And, um, so he was the one who expressed to me, Gerard, a real leader, has to show vulnerability as a seal. If I don't let my team know when I'm hurting down, how are they supposed to know when to pick me up? Oh my gosh, that's awesome. What is special

about you? What is unique? What did you do to win? I mean something special happens when you've done this one. You've lived a lot of life in 33 years. Yeah. So why? I mean, I really genuinely believe that it's in within all of us. You know, I really genuinely believe that it's just a matter of just shifting from fear to faith. I used to be someone who was so fearful. Like I cared so much about what people thought of me. I thought I had to prove everything to my father.

You know, I just was, I always felt like I would never, you know, this was a big one for me. One of my first mentors, when I started to break out and become more successful, they said, you'll never be successful without me. I actually had a moment with my mentor, he said that to me. And, you know, so I've had these struggles, you know, when I was younger of feeling I had to prove myself,

being a little bit fearful, and there is a moment in my life where I just recognize that like nobody else is in control. Just nobody else is in control. Just nobody else is in control externally. And I completely can take ownership of my life. I am in control of my destiny. And, you know, I really genuinely believe that one of the biggest things about me is,

I'm just present, bro. I am extremely present. You know, I'm a visionary, but I am everyday present to what the gift is today and what I need to do today to be 1% better that day. And I just show up every day. And I'm every day. For me, it's 24, 7, 365. Of course, I have balance, but for me, it's just who I am. I think when you live as an authentic character, you know, this is who I am. I think when you live as an your authentic character, you know, this is who I am. Whether you're a business partner or mine,

whether you're the doorman opening up the door for me. You know what I'm saying? To my family, to my friends, to my team, you know, whether you're looking at me on Instagram or you're meeting me in person, I am the same kid that I always was growing up. In a sense of like, I'll always, I'm always someone who is full of love.

I think, you know, I, for me, it's like, I just genuinely believe that the number one thing that will end all suffering on him if your humanity is love. It's plain and simple. And I think when you embody that love and you embody that fully for yourself, like, I finally got to a point where like I just love me for who I am and I want to share that energy with the entire world. I want them to love themselves. I want them to want to give love to everybody because of skin color. We're from we can all understand struggle. And I just for me, I've just recognized like listen, we all have, we all have, we all

gone through things, we've all struggled, we all have these moments, we can all, we all have, we all have gone through things, we've all struggled, we've all have these moments, we can all, we all have a story, we're all writing it, and we have such a short period of time, the universe is vast, billions and billions and billions of years, and we're lucky if we make it a hundred of them. Like what are we gonna, you know what I mean? So it's like why worry about what, you know, why live in fear, why worry about trying to prove

yourself to anyone, why not in fear? Why worry about trying to prove yourself to anyone? Why not just step into your greatness, step into who you are, step into fully loving yourself and the fact that you have an opportunity today to be present and to take control and take ownership of your destiny? And for me, that's it. I just, I'm so grateful and every single day, I'm just like, I want to just fully be present. I want to be present to the fact that I'm here. I'm so blessed to be here with you.

I want to take be present in my businesses. I want to be present in my relationships. And I just think that in this, we can all get caught up with the fast pace of technology and doing and going and hustling and grinding. But I think that your real strength in life, if you, you said this as an observer, if you can be poised, I don't care what storm you go through in life, because we're all going to go through storms, more money, more problems, it's life.

You have to be willing to adapt constantly, constantly adapt, constantly shift your mindset. So number one thing is you have to build your character. You have to find that leader within yourself because when you do and you become poised, no matter what happens externally, tornadoes, hurricanes, you're gonna lose, death is part of life. You're gonna lose people that you love.

Your businesses are gonna fail. You're gonna, you know, things are gonna happen and it's just, it's part of it. Who would have thought that, you know,'s part of it. Who would have thought that the President of the United States would have went through bankruptcy, right? But it went through. There's a lot of things he's gone through. You look at everyone out there that we admire. They have gone through struggle, but they take ownership of their life. Nobody else does it for them. They're taking ownership of it.

You know, amazing. Brother, I've done a lot a lot of conversations I've had in my life that affect me like this one has. Our former president, by the way, didn't even really get raised by his own father, right? Didn't come from a perfect family. It wasn't even raised all the time by his mother, and he becomes a leader of the free world, right so when you say things like this man I'm just so moved by that you have a massive spirit. I really think that I'm ready to start sharing a lot more. I've done you know I lost my show leaders great leaders and for me I'm a storyteller I love shining light on others I know because I'm a student just like you I'm a student and I think that's how you grow in life. I'm constantly seeking these relationships and mentors and learning through experience. But I recognize that I don't do enough of opening up myself and I want to start doing

that a lot more and I really appreciate you. I think you've done a lot of that today, brother. Thank you so much. Before I ask you the last question, like I find myself wanting to know more about you. I'm guaranteeing you people that are watching or listening to things like they want more. And so where can they get more of you? So the first social media wise, web wise, whatever, tell them everywhere they can find you. Yeah, sure. I mean, my number one platform is Instagram. I love it creatively. So at Gerard

Adams. And then art, my show leaders create leaders is under Gerard Adams TV you can just search leaders create leaders on YouTube it is on season four I cannot wait for that episode it was definitely by far the greatest episode we've ever done and I wanted to say that you just smashed it so I came with you guys to see that. And other than that, I think that's where, that's typically where you can find me is Instagram, YouTube, and you know, shoot me a DM, you know, comments. I just try to engage with that, engage that. Your content's magnificent. You're so good though, it's hard to continue in a minute.

And your Instagram is awesome, but this is this longer format is better because we get to see the real you. I enjoyed today. I want you to give everybody a gift though because I feel like I don't want to have somebody sit next to me. It's accomplished all that you've accomplished without asking. Everything I could possibly get in the little window. So if someone's watching this,

they got a chance to have lunch with you. You know, you're too young for legacy right now, okay? So they get access to you right now. They get, which would be expensive, but they got access to a lunch with you, right? And they could ask you things about their life or being an entrepreneur, getting their life going. They're at a stage right now where they go, you know what, you've inspired me, Gerard. I do need to change my life.

I do need to make some shifts. I need to be gutsy enough, like you were to maybe make a decision like you did at a college. Gutsy enough to get off the mat when I lose the $20 million. Gutsy enough after I saw my business to go find founders now, right? These are all gutsy calls that took vision, right? And I feel like I'm ready to do that. But now I gotta go. I gotta start.

What would you say to me? What would your advice be to someone who's now ready to go? They're gonna start their business. They're gonna transform their body. They're gonna transform their family or their spiritual gonna transform their body, they're gonna transform their family or their spiritual life? What advice would you give them? Well, I mean, I would tell them they got to inherit

what I call being world class. This has took me a long time to even come to this term of what it means to be world class, similar to max and maxing out. And for me, the definition of world class is being, it's very simple It's being amongst the best. I am right now. No, why we're world class. I'm amongst the best, bro Like I'm like I'm sitting next to Ed my left, you know his unbelievable one of his unbelievable manches on the

Who to be it's like this didn't just happen. I created this reality Mm-hmm, and how did I create this reality? How can you create this reality? It's by becoming world class. It's becoming amongst the best. It's by setting the highest standard for yourself. Being of the highest caliber in all aspects of your life. So what I would tell you is you need to sit back and reflect. Are you really ready to be world class

in all aspects of your life? You know, are you really to step up to become that world class leader? And it starts with having a world class mindset. And that comes from, you know, how do you have that world class mindset? Well, you got to like completely change your habits, your routine, the way that you actually see yourself, the vision that you have for yourself and the way that you see the world.

And you have to really live that way and believe that. And then I would work with them on creating a world-class brand. And for me, I think that there's never been a better time for people to really take ownership of their brand. I think that one of the biggest reasons why I'm successful, and if they want that, is relationships, man. It's the impression that you make on the world, how people see you, the relationships that you get.

Listen, your life can change within one moment, one opportunity, one decision, one impression. I have one when Ed met me today, I had one shot, one, one moment, one impression to make on Ed. For him to feel my spirit, for him to see in my eyes and understand how the humanity I have, the humbleness that I have, you know, the honor and the respect that I had for him, you in life comes down to those one, that one moment. So for me, it's how are you becoming that world-class brand? How are you showing up to create those opportunities, to create those moments, to create these relationships? You want to inspire the world.

You want to impact. We all have that purpose. We all have that gift, but are you living world-class? And last but not least, are you living as a world-class leader, as a father, as a husband, as a leader, as a father, as a husband, as a wife, as a daughter, as a teacher, as a fireman, as a cop, as an entrepreneur, as a CEO? How are you showing up as a leader in the world?

And that comes down to your character. So for me, I would really dive into those three aspects. And that's it. It makes you inherit that living world class. I want you to comment right now that you are I am world class. I want you to write it. I am world class. And that's what it's about.

Gerard, the profound nature of the things you say is just like that clip right there is going to be played millions of times somewhere brother Hey listen one person that's in my hope The brother is millions of people are going to play this that last part back over it over and over again The great thing about this interview is I'm not kidding you when you do an interview like this You know this at the end you okay guys we got a cut of one minute clip for Instagram right it's like I got 90 clips in this interview you too isn't it true Mike's like my gosh like what you can cut one clip from this interview there's too much of it so it is so good it was so wonderful to have you here today I just love you I love you too it's just

magnificent I'm so proud of you and we're just knowing each other no proud of you so I hope you're proud of it my hope you enjoyed today I'm so proud of you. And we're just knowing each other, and I'm proud of you. So I hope you're proud of it. I hope you enjoyed today. I'm just sitting here blowing away. I can't wait. Hey, listen Ed, anytime you want to, you know, just want to let me stay. No problem, bro.

I got the, I got the Gerard. I got the G-sweets. I love it. I love it. Hey everybody, listen, I hope you enjoyed today's program. You have a menu of a couple of things here. I'd love if you would write a review of this on iTunes so we continue with the ranks right now.

We're number one of the United States, number one in Australia and the UK, number four in Canada. Canada, get your act together. Let's get the number one. You do that by writing a review. Give it a like or a comment on YouTube and every day on Instagram. I run the two-minute drill, which means this. When I make a post of my main feed, everybody who makes a comment for the first two minutes with a hashtag max out, we select a daily winner that gets gear from me coaching calls. Every guest does a 15 minute call with you. You get one guest so you get a chance to win that or if you miss the first two minutes, just post every day and we pick a winner from the week too. So hope you do that. Focus on the two minute drill. If you enjoyed today, write

some comments here. God bless you and max out. If you enjoyed today, write some comments here. God bless you and max out.