494: The Bravest You: Show Up on a Daily Basis, Find Your Calling and Persist Through Hard Times with Adam Smith

Robert Plank 0:00 Adam marketer of the day number 494, the bravest. You show up on a daily basis, find your calling and persist through hard times with Adam Smith. Hey, everyone, we're glad you're listening to the marketer of the day podcast. We're talking with Adam Smith. And Adam is an entrepreneur. He's a life coach, a consultant, a public speaker, and he's the author of a book called The bravest you now, he was named one of the most influential people of 2014 by American genius. And Adam has written for Entrepreneur Magazine, Success Magazine, and a bunch of other publications. So we're gonna find out kind of what makes Adam tick, what his motivations are, what you need to know about him. So Adam, glad to be talking to you. Hey,

Adam Smith 0:42 it's great to be here. Thanks for having me.

Robert Plank 0:44 Yeah, no, no problem. So, I mean, yeah, in your own words, I mean, what do you have going on these days? You

Adam Smith 0:50 know, these days I'm working on my second book, and from my first book. You know, when, anytime you write a book, The hope is that other people will will read it. And you know, the feedback has been good from the book, people have read the bravest you, which came out in May of 17. We're doing this interview in January of 18. So it's been, you know, it's been a little bit so people have had time to read, to tell their friends about it, to invite me to come speak to some groups about it. And you know, I think it's important too to maybe mention how I started out, if that's good with you, to kind of give people a brief snapshot of of how I got to where I am. And I think it's useful for people listening, either maybe they are thinking of starting a podcast or have a blog or already have a business. But you know how I started out was 10 years ago, blogging with my passion for writing, I attracted an audience after about four years of doing it and three different blog types. First, it was just my personal thoughts. Second, was kind of a business blog. And then third is, is what it is today. My own thoughts on business and self help, but I would say persistence is the key, showing up every day to write for people in my own interests, but then also asking the question, what do people need? By year 640, 1000 readers a month, we're on the blog, and you know, as you imagine, with your podcast, with things that you do online, you get emails. People were wanting my services, my time. At first, I was doing it for free, but after so many, people start emailing you for help. Not only did they give me my business idea with coaching and consulting, you know, I was able to charge for it and and meet my passions, my own desires, with what people needed, and was able to form a business off of it. And so coaching and consulting it, I wouldn't never, per se, you know, say that, hey, I wanted to be a coaching consultant. I was just filling the need of my audience, and I think that's helpful in a lot of different scenarios, a lot of different people. Maybe wanting to know, what business should they start, how to market whatever that might look like. You gotta not only feel your own desires and passions, which a lot of the book is about, but you also have to say, what do people need from me? What will people pay me for? And I was able to start a business off of that. That's a quick snapshot, you know, of the 10 year journey, but that at least gives people an idea of why I started coaching and consulting and wrote a book. At the heart of it is I truly want to help people succeed. And even the tone of the book is, you know, I didn't want to write a bunch of stories in it to just at the end people say, well, that's cool, that that so and so did it. This book really had to be written because I want to see people take action on their ideas. Well,

Robert Plank 3:56 fantastic. That's a great story. And there's all kinds of wonderful things to unpack in there. And, I mean, it sounds like you made it right. Like all these authors out there, they want to be a blogger, they want to have a book, and a lot of people just have, like, nothing more than an idea, or maybe they've been writing and they're just not making money. And I'm sure a lot of people out there have quit along the way. But what's really great about that story that you told there is that, number one, you actually took some action and you did it. Number two, you were consistent, and you found ways to continuously put out stuff every day so that way you could get traction with your audience, figure out what they want. And then number three, you mark and a way you marketed yourself, right? Instead of just spewing out things that were interesting to you, you looked at what people needed, and then eventually that led to having such a following that you had to maybe turn some business away. And so you're able to make money from your writing, and it sounds like this was from speaking engagements and coaching and things like that. So I mean, you're living the dream, right? A lot of people out there, they. Either started or they're on their way, but, but you actually made it to the finish line, right? I

Adam Smith 5:04 guess people on the outside might think that I made it. The thing about writing a book is it took me probably three and a half. Is probably about three and a half years, and before I sit down to ever you know, I'm thinking right now about my second book. And I need an idea that I want to spend three and a half years on. You know, because at that point you're writing, you're editing, you pour your soul into something, and it has to matter. And there's millions of books out there, and you know, you want to make sure a book not adds to the noise, but adds to the solution, adds to helping people. And you know, at the heart of it too, you know, I told you, I want to help people. It's also fun for me to put ideas out there and just to have conversations with people. But also I'm curious about how things work. And you know that curiosity is probably what helped me get through a lot of those days where, you know, about year one, probably it's like, what am I doing? Because you're showing up every day to write on this thing that's not out into the world yet, and you have a lot of defeating voices and such, and you're wanting to get this book out there. But back to you saying that I've made it, you know? I I just, I remain curious, and I keep putting ideas out there, and thankfully, people keep showing up and and telling me what their thoughts are. But, you know, at the end of the day, I think every listener out there has that curiosity, whatever it is that they're pursuing, and that Curiosity will will keep you in there and then, and then helping people at the end of the day, is what it's all about.

Robert Plank 6:42 Yeah. I mean, that's really interesting. Because, like, like, as you said, some of this writing stuff, like getting a blog following or finishing a book, some of these undertakings take several years. So it's really important for us to be to have that self motivation going. And it sounds like a lot of your motivation came from that feedback loop, so to speak, where you experiment, you're curious. You put some stuff out there, people like it, and then people liking the things you put out there encourages you to put more things out there. And it kind of becomes a cycle, whereas otherwise, if you didn't have the the social aspect of it, maybe you would have quit a long time ago.

Adam Smith 7:18 Yeah, I, you know, I might have the the other thing is, too, I wouldn't take any quote, unquote, failure mistake back, because I think a lot of people are so fearful of making mistakes that they never try what might not work, but then what might not work might turn into your success. So everything I believe, is a is a stepping stone, is a learning point in life. And, you know, no matter how long it takes for a listener, it's all worth it, because you gain a bunch of knowledge along the way, you gain a bunch of experience, and that'll roll into their next, you know, adventure and and it all. It all matters. So when people say, you know, you don't want to make a mistake, or you don't want to put a bunch of time into something or money into something, because it might not work. You know, the possibility of it well, it might work is, dear. I tell a lot of people this. I ask a lot of people this when we're talking about fear, because, of course, my book is all about bravery and fear. And the question is, are your ideas more important than your fears? And when the ideas outweigh the fears, that's when people can become really passionate about something. But again, going back to the passion and the curiosity and getting you through 345, maybe even 10, years of practice of work is are your eye it really boils down to, are your ideas more important than your fears? And when your ideas become bigger than those fears, then you're going to be willing to put in the time, the effort, the energy, and that's why it comes back to being devoted to those ideas. And asking myself, you know, the next idea that I'm working on for three or four years, is that idea going to be more important than my fears, my time, my effort, my energy? And those are all questions that only each individual can answer. And that's kind of the difficult thing about consulting and coaching is you have to sit down one on one, because a bunch of self help out there is kind of one size fits all. And we all know, when we really think about it, that people are coming from all sorts of different backgrounds, different day jobs, different circumstances that I'm not going through. But when you sit down and you take time to have conversations, to really get to know people, to see where they're coming from. It's then and only then that you can offer advice worthwhile. And so sitting down with clients, sitting down with just people, and learning how people operate. A lot from my book, from my coaching, a lot of the advice, a lot of the research, came from about 375 People that I've coached over the last four and a half years now, and it's, you know, asking the same questions over and over again and seeing how people operate and what works and what doesn't, then and then, then and only then. Can you offer valuable advice, in my opinion,

Robert Plank 10:17 well, that is super fantastic, and I love this concept of you interviewing all these people and kind of seeing what, what they all have to fear and what sort of strategies they have to overcome that fear and that whole that advice of you know, the the only mistake you can really make is to not take action and not try. I mean, I agree completely right. Like, like, just sitting around and thinking about it and not taking action, it feels good for a little while, and it's playing it safe, but it's guaranteed failure, right? There's a zero if you, if you have that book that you want to write, or you have that those videos that you want to make, or whatever it is, if you don't do it, it's, it's 0% guaranteed that it'll work. Even if you do something totally ridiculous. At least it has a 1% chance, a 10% chance, of working. But if you just kind of sit on on your butt and don't do anything, I mean, it like it's easy, but it's not going to give you fulfillment. It's not going to give you happiness long term and so, and also, it sounds like so, like, it sounds like you kind of use a little bit of logic there to overcome that fear that you say, Well, if the fear, or if the idea outweighs the fear, then it's time to take action on, on whatever that is. That's kind of holding you back. And, I mean, yeah, you're making me think about, you know, like, that's that whole idea that, you know, all these these fear I mean, most of these fears that we have are just irrational, outdated stuff, right? Like fear of public speaking, fear of talking to people. It's all this kind of caveman stuff. We're back in caveman days, if you talk to the wrong person or said the wrong thing, you might get, you know, cut in half with a sword or something. But nowadays, it's not going to happen. And yet, that kind of irrational fear, uh, there remains. So, you know, I'm really curious. So since we're on this idea of, uh, overcoming fear and stuff. I mean, did you yourself have some sort of fears to overcome that led you to all this wisdom?

Adam Smith 12:06 Yeah, I mean, it first started with the best ideas for me, start in my own life. Looking at my own life would have been able to, I guess, you could say, overcome, but deal with, fight come out on the other side. The thing about fear is, I don't believe necessarily, in the idea that you can become fearless. I believe fighting fear is a, you know, different daily battle that you show up in different fears come, you know, if you're a speaker, you begin speaking to an audience of 10, but you become good, you get an audience of 50, then you get hundreds, and then you get 1000s. And you know, everything kind of progresses like that. And so it's a lot different with speaking in front of 10 people than 1000s of people. The fears are different. The way you have to command the stage is different a small room to a big room. Everything changes as you become better, too. And so, you know, with money, dealing with $10 versus a millions of dollars is a lot different. You have to approach the way you think differently, and so every day is going to present a new possible fear. But I think it's important that we show up on a daily basis. That's what I've learned from my life. Again, talking to many people over the last four years, that's what I've learned from their lives. The top 10 fears that I found through my research that people face are the fear of inadequacy, the fear of uncertainty, the fear of failure, the fear of rejection, of missing out, of change, of losing control, of being judged, of something bad happening, and the fear of getting hurt, those are the top 10 that people face. And what I did in the book is I made what's called the bravery process. It's a it's five stages that everybody walks through in their life. The first one being complacency, the second one being the idea or inspiration stage. The third one being fear. So fear is that stage that comes once we have an idea. But what I found that gets people from stage three of fear to stage five of bravery is this fourth stage of passion. And that's why I asked the question that I think is valuable for listeners, are your ideas more important than your fears, because, I mean, it was something like 80% of people that were able to find bravery in their lives. It was passion was always the connector. And you can go back through history. We look at the greatest companies. We look at the greatest leaders of our time. They had something to be passionate about. They had something to connect to that forced them to find bravery, whether you call it a calling, whether you call it a passion, whatever it is, I almost refrained from using the word passion, because it's become such a buzz word, but it was really the only thing that I that I could really say. Marked people who were able to find bravery in their life. Some people called an obsession. You know, we've come across that word as of late in a lot of readings, whatever it is. That's why it's important to find passion. And people that have maybe referred to passion as a buzz word in the past, the reason that it is important is because you're more likely to find bravery when you do find passion. So I wouldn't just throw it away as another buzzword. That's why it's important. But I think an interesting statistic that listeners will find useful. You know, I found it in my life to be very useful when I was doing research for the book, was that 85% of the things we fear don't even happen. 30% happened in the past, and 90% are considered insignificant. So as you can see, many of our fears don't even need to be worried about. And so getting people to realize this and then able to take action is, is, again, where it's where it's all out.

Robert Plank 16:04 Dang. That's huge, that so 90% of the things we worry about are just insignificant. 30% of things that worried about happened in the past, and 85% of the things don't even happen. So it's like, if we were to think of, you know, the 10 things that we fear the most, we can just throw out eight or nine of those,

Adam Smith 16:21 right? And, yeah. And, I mean, that's just, that's researchers from the University of Cincinnati. That's not even something that that a small group threw together. It was, it was over 1000 people that they research and develop that statistic from, so University of Cincinnati researchers, and it's, you know, valuable research that has come out in the last five years or so. And when I read that, you know, it was, it was very calming. And just another thing that I came across in my own research that that helped add to the the bravery story, and that I think will help people along the way. Yeah,

Robert Plank 17:00 well, that's great. So basically, to recap, so we start with complacency, we get inspiration from an idea, but then we get blocked by the fear. And in order to bridge the gap from fear to bravery is passion. So the fear isn't something that will go away on its own, or something that we can, you know, reduce on our own, but we just have that passion to overcome the fear and get to where we need to go. And so with all your your travels and interviews and things like that, do any, does anyone story really jump out at you, like someone out there who maybe it just was overcome by the fear and then found a way to overcome that? Any interesting stories like that jump out at you?

Adam Smith 17:37 You know, not one in particular you the more people you talk to, the more that's the thing about fear, is fear keeps you in isolation, thinks makes you think that you're the only person that that is dealing with that fear. But the more people you talk to, the more alike you find that you are, the more alike you find that other people are, you know, I've I mentioned in the book there was a plumber that I helped get from not saying that being a plumber is a bad job. It's just not the job that he wanted to be in. And so helping him, I came across a woman that wanted to open a shoe store. And, you know, helped her with, with some things, I came across a woman that wanted to become a beekeeper. And you start talking to all these people, not only do you realize that people are are dealing with the same fears, but then on the other spectrum is we don't all have the same passions, and that's a beautiful thing that makes us all human. We all want to do different things. I just mentioned three different careers that maybe that probably listeners have never even thought about. But you know, whether it pertains to marketing? You know, we look at all the different businesses that we that are marketed, the different ways that we can do marketing, and I think it's important to to realize that we don't have to be in isolation because people fear a lot alike. You know, there are people that are dealing with the same fears that you are dealing with right now. But then too, I mean collaborations. Collaboration is an important thing too, because we are all coming from different perspectives. All want to do different things, and when we can bring that together, it can make a beautiful thing and a different idea, a new idea. And I guess that would be maybe a good challenge point for for listeners, how we can make it applicable, because, again, if we don't take action on things, it's it's useless. It's not only learning to fight our fears, but then learning how we can overcome those fears and then make our ideas better, make our products better and make our marketing better. We can contribute to the world in better ways. We can make the world a better place with the things that we do. Well,

Robert Plank 19:58 super fantastic. Yes. Again, this is all cementing home some of the earlier lessons you were talking about, like, sometimes it's easy to maybe do some reading and, you know, look into some self help stuff, but then it's hard for that to stick, especially because that's not one on one that's not customized for us. Maybe we read some advice that might be applicable to everyone out there, but isn't helpful for solving our specific problem and so and it sounds like with you doing all these interviews and kind of hearing the same problems over and over, it sounds like you're getting like, sort of the the ability to provide an outside perspective, or maybe if people are trapped in their own problems or trapped in their own way of thinking, and they need these new ideas. And what you're making me remember for like, the first time ever was when I was maybe six or seven years old. I had to go and get the mail from the mailbox every day, and, you know, take it home. And I lived in a city where it was just always super windy, and I got, you know, I had to, just like, go out and get the mail, and I had to, like, hold all this junk mail in my arms. And I was always afraid that the mail would blow away, and sometimes it did. And it was like the thing I was the most stressed out for, I remember for a long time, and I kept on, you know, struggling to tap this mail, and some of it would blow away. And then, I think, like, one of one of my mom's co workers, or something like, heard about this, and he was like, why don't you just take a brown, like, a huge, you know, brown grocery bag to the mailbox, and you just use the bag to carry the mail. And sure enough, I mean, solved my problem forever, but for those days leading up to it, I was just like, so stressed out, because all I was thinking about was I after cleaning this mail, I can't let it blow away from me, and I needed someone else's outside calmness to give me one of the most obvious answers ever, but I couldn't even consider that answer because I was too trapped in the fear. So I mean, you're, you're bringing some childhood memories out in me. Yeah. I mean, a

Adam Smith 21:52 lot of the work that I do, I do a lot of help. A lot of people write life plans, which you know is, again, you have to sit down and know where people are coming from to to develop those. But, you know, I realize that a lot of the things that people need when sitting down is making them realize, well, why not? You? You know, people like to come up, which fear is all the reasons that you can't. You know, instead of letting all the reasons that you can speak louder than all those negative reasons, and you know that would be one, but two people, a lot of times, just need motivation or accountability. You know what? A lot of my work comes into into play there, but that you know that's another thing that you can do, find a group of people that are working on things that can that can help you produce better work, that can help you live a better life and and communicate with those people you know, don't be afraid to open up and that trust that happens there can only happen through relationship. But the first step is finding those people. You know, with with writing, you can get trapped a lot of time in your own head. With reading, you can get trapped in, well, I have all this knowledge, but, but I don't want to do anything with it. You know, you can read tons of books, which is great, and can help you change your perspective and give you more knowledge. But with all that knowledge, what are you going to do with it? And you can go down the line with what those things are that we can consume, especially in the social media age, there are all kinds of things to consume, but you know, my question would be, what are you doing with those valuable things that you've consumed, and that's where it becomes important to take action. You know, I'll just, I might sound like a broken record and saying you have to take action. But the thing is, I'll keep coming back to that until, because I wrote a, wrote an article recently that, you know, talking about the critic versus the Creator. And there are so many critics out there, but, but if, if those same critics would, instead of, you know, putting people down for the work they produce, would produce work that would is the ideal work in their in their minds, then they would be making the world a better place. But instead, they're just choosing to tear people down. Rather than being part of the solution, they're being part of the problem, and action is where it comes in. If your first response is to be a critic, my challenge to you would be to take positive action and make the world a better place instead. So, you know, as writing a book, putting a book out there, not everybody has liked it, and that's okay, that's part of it. But I would love for those same people to go write a book. You know, there's no hard feelings here. That's that's just part of it. Putting any idea. Any piece of marketing, any any product out there, you're gonna have people that don't like it, and that's fine. That's another beautiful thing that makes humans human. We all have opinions, but I think it's important to not stop there and to actually go put work into into something that you consider valuable.

Robert Plank 25:20 Oh yeah, that's a great message, especially that it's, it's easy to to tear someone down, but what about being positive about about things, right? And it's like, it takes the same amount of time, same amount of energy. Why not be positive, but then at the same time, like, you're gonna have those critics, like, you know, the a guaranteed way to not have any critics is to not say anything. I mean, who wants to do that and and that stuff right there, about the accountability, the motivation part? I mean, you're so right, and that's a really good reminder for everyone listening, and, you know, for even for me as well, because there, there are times when sometimes I'll meet with my coach, or I'll meet with my business partner, and sometimes nothing will really be said, like I won't really learn anything, but I'll say, Well, last time we met, I said that I do this, and so I can say, Okay, I've done that, or I haven't done that, and it seems almost silly or it seems like a waste of time, but if I didn't have that so called support system in place, then I wouldn't have the momentum that I had. And for sure, when I noticed that my productivity has fallen behind, or I'm missing deadlines, or I'm not doing those things that I say that I I'll do it, then I go and look and see why that isn't because I don't have that accountability, that that socialization, so to speak, that you alluded to, there of just having other people involved. So that way it's not just about you, because, I mean, if it's just about you, then it's easy to backslide, the fear creeps in, and all the other things that come along with being our own worst enemy. So I mean, you said lots of great stuff here. I mean, I agree with all of it. It's a great message, and I want to make sure that those people who listen to your advice today about overcoming fear and doing it anyway and and finding your greatness and all those different things, know about the your old book and your new book, and any of the resources that you want to mention here, I mean, such as, like your blog and all kinds of other things. So can you drop some links here for us so that we know where to find everything that there is related to Mr. Adam Smith,

Adam Smith 27:11 absolutely. Thanks for letting me do that. So the blog is a Smith blog.com as far as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, I'm a Smith blog on all those. Plus, if you're on Pinterest or LinkedIn or any of those others, you can find me by a Smith blog. And then the book, the brand new book that launched in May of 17, which, you know, we're only seven months into that or so, I don't know, eight months. The bravest you you can go find that on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and it got some pretty good reviews. And from some names that people will notice. So if you, if you like people like Seth Godin, or, you know, Marshall Goldsmith, or any, any big leadership names, they they approved it. So, yeah, I'd be, I'd be grateful if you picked up a copy, and you can reach out to me through social media or email me at Adam, at a Smith blog.com, I'll always reply to you. So super

Robert Plank 28:18 great. And, and, I mean, yeah, when you were saying at first, like it was a 10 year journey, or that it takes three and a half years to make a book, I'll be honest, in the back of my head, I was like, well, is that really worth it, but to get those sorts of names to endorse it? Well, I mean, that's definitely worth the effort, so that that's super impressive, that you have guys like Seth Godin and others, uh, with their reviews on that. So I mean, that's gotta be a great book, right? They wouldn't, they wouldn't endorse a piece of garbage. So, I mean, so a Smith blog.com, and then on social media at a Smith blog, and make sure everyone listening go and grab this book. The bravest you, if you've ever come across that those mental blocks, the fear, the doubt, the uncertainty, all those things that we all experience because we're human, then you need to have this tool at your disposal, so that way you can get unstuck. You can get out of the rut, you can get to where you need to go to, and so that you don't become one of those people that dies with your music inside you, so to speak. I mean, tomorrow, or even the rest of today, is not guaranteed, so don't let something silly, like the fear, which just comes from your old caveman programming. Don't let that delay what you want to do a year, 10 years, 20 years, because you're going to look back on might be a little bleak to say, but you might look back on your deathbed and say, Geez, I wish that I had just overcame it, because when you look at it in perspective, you think back years later, a lot of those things that you used to fear, or the things that used to hold you back. I mean, what does it really matter in the grand scheme of things, right? If you were afraid to apply for that job, or you're afraid to talk to that person that you were networking with, or you're afraid to ask that girl out, or whatever it was, you look back 10 years later, and it's like, so silly, I should have taken more. A risk. So if you're that kind of person that you always let fear hold you back or it might hold you back in the future, then grab that book the bravest you. And once again, a Smith blog.com is the place to go to see Adam's great writing very regularly, and to know what you need to know. So we'll see you there at a Smith blog.com and make sure to grab a copy of the brave issue on Amazon, and thanks so much, Adam for stopping by and dispensing all this great stuff about your life story, the lessons you've learned, what we need to know. I know that I got a lot of value from it, and I'm sure everyone else listening did as well. So thanks for

Adam Smith 30:34 that. Thank you, Robert. I appreciate it, and thanks for putting on this great show. Today's

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