 and welcome to Moments with Melinda. Today I am so honored to have as my guest, Adam Hergenrother. Adam, how are you? Is a great day on planet Earth. I'm super excited to be here and I just wanted to thank you for all the hard work and energy that you do to put this show on to help inspire Vermonters. So thank you. I know how much work goes beyond the scenes to do this. So I just want to say thanks. Well, thank you, Adam. And I've always been a big fan of yours for many, many years, but let me tell my viewers a little bit about you. Adam Hergenrother is the founder and CEO of Adam Hergenrother companies. Adam is passionate about using business to transform lives and believes that when you focus on growing and leading yourself first, the business results will follow always. So Adam, I think of you as a serial entrepreneur. You are young and tremendously successful and you have turned to gold so many of your visions. So let us start at the beginning. Tell us a story of your youth and your challenges which put the wind in your sails. Oh, that's a wonderful way of saying it. Thank you. It's always kind of hard to hear people introduce you. It's like a weird thing for it. I don't know. Well, I'll start back when I was, I think it's pivotal when I was 15 years old. So I was a freshman in high school. Up until that point, I was 100 pounds overweight. I was failing classes and I was doing drugs. I was really like that role model student that you wanted your kid to hang out with. And one day, it built up over the years, right? Over six, seventh, eighth grade, right? Going to freshman year. And finally I came home one day, Melinda, and I just said, this is not what my life is gonna be about. And it wasn't me saying it. There was a deeper voice that was back there that was just kind of this intuition, this knowing that this is not what my life is supposed to be about. So I started crying and I stayed up all night. My dad was working nights that time. And he came in at one o'clock. He's like, what are you doing up? And he could tell I was obviously distraught. And of course being like the father he was, he kind of walked in and it was like, well, he said, you can do two things about it. So I was like, I'm upset about everything. He said, you can do two things about it. He's like, you can accept it or you can change it. And he walked away. I was like, great, thanks, right? And so he was right though. That's really what it was. And so in that moment I kind of just stayed up and I use visualization at that point in time to kind of just start imagining what my life could be like. And it was a technique at the time that worked really effective for me. And so I woke up and I stopped hanging out with all the kids that I was hanging out with. They ended up stealing everything from me. Police ended up at the high school that I was at because they threatened to beat me up every day for like two weeks and they moved on. I lost a hundred pounds in a year and fitness became really important to me, which is why we sponsor a lot of things with kids in fitness now because it really helped change my life and provide grounding structure to it. Changed around my grades and ended up going to UVM. So that was kind of the first turning point and I'll be a little brief on this, but in UVM, I'll tell you there's a key point here. I was never academically the smartest person. I think I just worked harder than most people did in order to achieve it, whatever I needed to do that. And so testing like that didn't come to me but I always wanted to push myself. But there was a key moment in UVM where I had a couple of thousand dollars I'd saved up and I was working during college to pay for it along with some student debt. And a friend of mine who was like living in my dorm but wasn't going to school there, right? Was with me and he said, hey, do you want to invest into this car with me? And it takes $500, we can buy it. I think we can make another $500 doing it. So I said, sure, but it was really important for me for business because it was the first time that I took money and gave it to somebody else. Never did anything with it. IE like this whole leverage component and they bought the car, de-flipped it and we each made like $750. So I more than doubled my investment, right? Or not quite doubled it but I'm more than the 125% of my investment, right? And so we started doing that. So I learned as a freshman in college like this whole leverage component. And it was a wonderful way because then it kind of sparked me into, I also learned about contracts because after about a year he realized I don't need your money anymore to do this. I don't want to split this with you anymore. So since we started this business and I took that money and then bought a piece of real estate and that's kind of how it started of me getting into my real estate journey along the way. There's one other key moment here that I'll stop is when I, like some of you who are maybe listening to this at least for me, I had put, I made a change when I was 15 then I started getting really addicted to money. I started thinking that money was going to bring me the happiness, joy, enthusiasm, peace and I was looking for. So I set this financial goal of, hey, when you can make a half million dollars in that income, like somehow this injection or this presence going to be sitting underneath the tree and like you're going to open it and you're going to all of a sudden feel the sustained feeling for the rest of your life. And so when I was about 27 years old, I hit that. And I remember having, and like most entrepreneurs who kind of hit their goals, it was like, I kept kind of wanting to improve it but then something changed with this one. And this was almost 10 years, just a little over 10 years from where I had this other pivotal moment in my life when I was 15. So when I was 27, that I said, you know, this is not what life's about either. It can't be about money. It can't be money is money, joy is joy. And I'm trying to link these two and I at the time I couldn't say it as I could there but I said, this is not what my life is about either. And so I actually, I didn't get depressed. That's not the right word but I got kind of like this path doesn't work, right? It's not working for what I'm looking for. Cause I think most people are waking up wanting to feel good about their lives. They want to wake up and feel good and that's a choice. So I just said, this isn't working thinking that I'm going to find my joy outside with something. So that's when I started this whole inward journey in my life about, let me go fix me and then bring me into whatever I'm doing. It's like, people always say like, I want to go find my passion. I go, well, why don't you just be passionate? And then you're passionate about everything that you're doing. And so you're not limiting yourself to one thing or another. You're just enjoying what's your interaction with life. And so the interesting thing is when I actually started applying that in our business they have exploded to 800 plus people in our world and 30 plus states. And so it's actually you end up getting kind of what you want if you say, if you will but not making it about you fixing yourself from the outside with this need for things or people or other events to occur that are folding the way you want it to. And that was a really pivotal moment that really put me on the journey to where I am today. Woof! Sorry. Awesome. Wow. I am just, you electrify me. So who had the greatest impact on your success and on your life? Who's the person? Yeah. Well, there's my mentor in the business side is Gary Keller. He took me under the wing when I was about in 2009. And he was the first person I was really kind of getting in the business that time really starting to build actual business with other people and leaders and that's a whole other world, right? It's like, you do everything yourself as a writer, you start hiring people and then you get hard managing that and then you get leaders, trying to manage leaders is a whole other thing, right? It's like, you know that. So it just becomes this whole other animal. And so he really, he heard. Who is he? Who is he? Yeah, he's the owner of a company called KWX. It includes Keller Williams. It includes a whole real estate holdings. It's a mortgage company, title company, insurance company. So a lot of things real estate but what really excited me about him was the way he thought, which was, I was told up to that point like the way I was doing business was really the right way to do it because nobody had ever done it really that way necessarily or at least people I had been around. And so he was the first person to say, no, that's exactly how you do it. You lead through people, you support people, you don't need to do it yourself, right? That whole like give people the opportunity, create a financial relationship so that they really succeed. And so you wake up every day, which is my philosophy never having to worry about Melinda in business because if I create a relationship with Melinda that we both win, it's a win-win deal. I wake up every day thinking about how does Melinda succeed? And so you really taught me that which is really freeing. But the other thing with him is that he is very much an understanding in the way that I think that I am and I know you believe a lot of this too is that we're a spiritual being having a minor physical experience. And he really drilled that in early on about 15 years ago in my life and that helps me in my inner journey, right? If like, hey, you're just, we're a spiritual being having this physical experience here and there's all these wonderful things. I mean, as far as we know, we hit the absolute jackpot on planets because you could go on Mars and see some turtleback rocks that look like turtles and you can be in Vermont and see the turtles. It's like, you can actually see them. So Adam, you have a podcast and your podcast is business meets spirituality. And this is such a profound way and lovely way to approach capitalism. And so I wanted to let our folks know that you do have a podcast and share with us a little bit how that merging that for you has inspired you and made you a better person and a better leader. Thank you. You know, it's really started as self of like personal therapy for myself, I think because I struggled in the beginning of this kind of inward journey of me of asking the question like, hey, I don't want to go live in a cave, but I don't want to make my money about, I don't want to make my life about money or getting something in business. I'm like, there's got to be a way they coexist, right? Like there's, and there's just this massive question that was just in the back of my mind at all times. And so I really started teaching that and, you know, about a decade ago, what we call the like limit list, which was really a course that was just about what we're talking about here today about how do you use business as a conduit for your personal growth? Which is because when you're in business there's things that you that you wouldn't sign up for like having everyone quit in one day or trying to figure out how to make payroll or being sued or having majority of the public not knowing who you are, but yet taking shots at you every other moment, right? Like so there's all these things that are going on in business that gives you a chance to get rid of the part of you that it's not okay with that. And that is real personal growth, right? That personal growth is, it's never the event that is bothering you, right? There's an event that happens outside but you bother yourself about the event, right? And so how do you get rid of that part of you? Which is the essence of kind of spirituality or personal growth in my opinion, which is getting rid of that part so you can live untethered. Which means that you can wake up knowing that there's gonna be all these things that happen. You're gonna lose money, make money, rattlesnakes, butterflies, all those things that are gonna go on they're different experiences but you're just interacting with them. And so we started getting a pretty decent following and people asked me to kind of speak all over and I didn't really, I had three kids under 10 so I didn't wanna really wanna travel anymore. And so we created a podcast and it's been a lot of fun and we kind of tackle a lot of these things each week. How do people find your podcast? Yeah, thanks. And pretty much any of your favorite podcast player will be on there and business meets spirituality and. But they have to go to your website, right? Do they go to your website to find it or? They can go to adamhergenrother.com or you can just go to Apple, yeah, whatever it is, yep. And find you. So Adam, talk to me a little bit about the top three, just three. The top three things that you believe make a great leader. The top three. Yeah. Number one is that you approach every situation never wanting to be right but always looking for the solution. In essence, your job here you go, right? Number two, you have a very good job of being able to cast a vision which means that people want to understand where they're going, what that looks like, right? The vision of where the organization's going, how they pull themselves into all of that. And the number three is providing absolute crystal clear clarity which is where everybody's doing the actual mechanics of the how. Which is so like the first thing is, is that I think it could be vision, clarity and then making sure you approach situations never wanting to be right. But if you don't have a vision and you don't know where you're going then really nothing else matters. And the job as a leader is to be the one pointing the organization in the ship, right? And staying in that lane. People right now more than any other time that I've seen in my life time want engagement in community. And there's a loneliness epidemic of entrepreneurship right now because everybody has become an entrepreneur but now they're lonely. So it's actually spiraling this loneliness epidemic because people are now can go work from their house which is wonderful but now they've lost this community kind of touch feel that they used to get which they probably didn't put as much energy into understanding that as they did before. And so it's how as a leader you have to be able to solve that problem of the vision of the clarity which is culture, right? Of how you bring all that together the mechanics of your organization. And remember culture is not ping pong parties and you know pizza, right? A culture is how people act every day. How people feel. How they feel. Exactly, right? One of the things we have here which is you know be the reason why Melinda wants to show up for work today. If everybody showed up that way, you're creating that. Whether you're doing it over a Zoom or you're meeting in person be the reason why that is. So for a leader if you don't know where you're going and you can't provide the clarity it's very difficult to get people to actually join the mission which is what people are engaged to at this point in time. Well you have raised a lot of ships in your day. Can you talk about your book The Founder and the Force Multiplier which focuses on building strategic partnerships between entrepreneurs and their executive assistants. I got my start as an executive assistant. I didn't know that. Back then we were called secretaries. I'm a good girl. And I grew my life in the same way that you're speaking over the years. But I started that way. And I was so thrilled to see this when I was researching you that you're focusing on this because many, many of these human beings are women and they need to be lifted up and given opportunity. And I was so honored and delighted to see that you wrote a book and that you really care about this. You wanna share a little bit about it with us Adam? Love to, love to, yeah. So Hallie my chief of staff now who was my EA for a while she'd been with me for 13 years. So a long part of my journey. And we got into it and we just started creating a relationship. And then what's really interesting is after about five years into this we started building these companies and doing it. And she was really a partner. And we didn't know any different because I just treated her as like she literally was a partner of mine. And then we realized that that's not how most or that's not how people really treated their executive assistants. That's not how the executive system was seeing it. But yet we were seeing that this whole thing. And so our books started kind of what started off as a blog. We wrote a blog together about this. And honestly it was in one day we had like four or 5,000 people read it. And so we were like, huh, that's interesting. Was it the timing? Was it like, what are we right? So we paused and then three months later we wrote another blog about our relationship in the same thing happened. And it went nationwide or international like people from all over. So then we were like, okay. So then we wrote the book as to kind of create this movement of understanding that your right hand force multiplier the person that's next to you is a true strategic business partner with you. And they're just doing, it's like, I always look at this as like Hallie and I or even Kim who's our EA we're all force multipliers. We're all doing the same job, just different parts of it. And it's never, and it's that trusting relationship. So it's like, I'm really good at taking something from like a zero to a one. And then having Hallie take it or Kim take it from like a two to a nine and then giving it back to me at a 10, right? Like that's just where I go. And so you need somebody to be able to work on the same components that you're working on as a true partner. And so we created that relationship and a framework for how people can create this strategic partnership. If you think about the president of the United States, any president, right? They have a chief of staff. The chief of staff actually as in the Oval Office actually has more power than like the vice president, right? Or a lot of other people there. And so that chief of staff in business is such an important person. The EA is such an important person in your world. And I think people need to move, understand that. So moving to that world of giving that opportunity to the people that are the right hand part. Well, Adam, it's also empowering women. I mean, you're empowering women. You have, I believe, do you have three daughters? I have two daughters and a son. You have two daughters and a son, okay. You know, it's funny, Melinda, when you say that over 70% of our work that our employees are women. Well, I know that. And I honor you in that because you've always been a man who looks out for and supports and elevates women in their leadership roles. And I honor you on that. So the book is called The Founder and the Force Multiplier. And for any CEO or entrepreneur, I suggest that you order the book and you learn how to elevate your second, third in command to have leadership roles and to be valued by you because oftentimes that is not the case. So, Adam, can you tell us a bit about your Project U, which is a, and it's Project U with the letter U, which is a training program that you offer to help folks to be great leaders? Yeah, thank you. You know, we were talking about all this stuff, it was great. The, yeah, Project U came about similar to more of the podcast came in as I was being asked to kind of go around the country and I just chose not to want to travel anymore or do one-on-one coaching. And so I created this group called Project U. We limited to 25 leaders across the country. We actually had people from Alaska to France fly in and it's a year-long immersion because what I found when I was training for a day or two, people would be like, wow, this is amazing, Adam, you're the best thing ever. Then I'd see them in six months and they'd be like, I'm so excited to see you again. I'm like, well, did you actually make any change? And they go, well, no, but like I can't wait to be here today and I'm here ready to do this. So I was like, and some people did, I'm gonna be wrong, right? But the majority of it is they just, there wasn't the accountability. So I wanted to create a program where you can't escape from that. So when you sign up, you're with us for a year. You get coaches, you get accountability. There's four in-person meetings a year that are three days long that create this incredible group. And we really focus on four important factors that I think really create a human, right? Which is your health, right? That's the first component. And health isn't just about like running an Ironman, right? Health is about, how do I feel? Kind of physical energy do I have, right? What do I eat? How do I sleep? How do I get that look like we do hair DNA testing to make sure people are eating properly? So all that, we really dive deep into that. Then we get into wealth, which is not, it is a component about how do you extract additional profit from your organization mechanically? But it's more importantly, Melinda, it's about what is money? Like what does actually wealth mean? I don't know if you saw this, this is fascinating because we pay attention a lot to it. There was a stat that came out this year that, which has been there for a while, but it said, there's two components to it is that people's happiness or joy doesn't increase after about $70,000. But what they found out, which I haven't seen before is after $250,000 in that income, it actually goes down because luxury becomes a light, a necessity. And then people feel the pressure of the luxury necessities that they have to support. So they're really interesting that like does that. So we ended up like, what is wealth? What does that look like? The third section of it is all about spirituality, personal growth, right? What does that really mean? What does that look like? We really go in and really go deep into that. And each time we get into these programs, we have to practice something from each one, the entire course. And the last one is leadership and relationships, which is really about, what does a conscious relationship look like? What does it mean to be mindful in your relationship? Like I hear the word, like, but when rubber hits the road, what does it actually mean? How do I do it? How do I practice that? How do I get better at it? So we really teach people the techniques and go deep into that. So at the end of it, Melinda, at the end of it, the person that they really worked on, the project was themselves. Here, here. Here, here. Adam, so can you tell us a little bit about Hallie Warner and her online seminar? And this is, by the way, folks, this is everything that you can find at adamhergenrother.com, right? That's your website. And everything we're talking about today, you can go to Adam's website and find out more about this. But Hallie Warner has an online seminar that helps executive assistants move into leadership and high-demanding positions. You wanna talk to a few minutes about that? Yeah, I'd love to. Again, Hallie's passion is for that movement of creating, because she was an E.A. and was that same pigeonhole thing. And she was like, no, no, I'm a business partner, right? I'm doing the work. And also, by the way, I'm doing the work and you're getting the credit. Exactly. See how it plays out. And by the way, you're getting the money. I'm getting, you know, I mean, when I started out, I was getting, you know, 100th what the executives were getting, but I was literally doing all the work and the reports. So this is really, this is so inspiring to me. So continue on, my friend. And by the way, I mean, you know, and Hallie, it was a great thing about this. Hallie owns equity in almost every business that I own, right? Bravo. She created her. Bravo. Partner. Good for you. Yeah, she's wonderful. She deserves it, right? Well, she should, absolutely. So again, she's just, it's mechanically, like, you know, so when she really kind of walks people through the seminar of like how to actually show up, how to actually insert yourself, how to have the confidence to do it, how to, you know, how to align yourself with the right founder or leader that is actually what you're looking for. And so she was gonna take you through that whole process and, you know, the international people all over the place that come in for these webinars, which we're super excited for. It kind of walks you through step-by-step on what the book is in the publishing. By the way, with the book, we are, we've created a second addition to it because a lot of things have changed with different insights to it. That's actually gonna be coming out later this year. So we're super excited for that. But she does a lot of these webinars in other webinars throughout the year. They're all free, by the way, for the most part. They're all free. Yeah. And the whole thing about empowering oneself, know your value. And oftentimes when women try to do that, they are suppressed. And you have to be able to speak up and know your power, kick the door down. And I'll be talking about this next week, by the way. So I also want to ask you about about what your most important socially responsible business practices are. And I also want to get an idea from you about where you see the future of our world today in the mire of things that we're dealing with as a society and as a planet. Yeah. Let me, I'll talk about that part, because that's a, I think right now, you know, it's funny because there's so many metrics that Americans actually have more money on average than they have any time in their life. Yet people are feeling more depressed, more lonely. There's more attempted suicides between, you know, ages 10 and 18 than any other time in history. Yet, you know, pre teenage sex is down, drinking's down, smoking's down. So it's like, it's almost like a lot of the metrics that we wanted to track are down, but yet the most important metrics are up. So what is it, right? Like what is the cause of all of that? I think a lot of this has to do with, with the lack of engagement with individuals, like actually being conscious with them, meaning that you're actually there with somebody. People are naturally feeling this. So I think one of the socially responsible things that I think you can do as a business owner is number one, be a conscious business. Because if you're a conscious business, you're taking all of that, and we can do the actual mechanical things you can do with that way. But if you are a conscious organization and you treat and you teach people how to be more conscious human beings, they bring that back down into their families. They bring that back down to their colleagues, to your clients, to their vendors that you work with. So the most important thing that we do is we actually train people with the heart of our organization. I always say like, we're actually really a training company that disguises us as a business, right? That we really are just pouring into the personal development of individuals so that they become a better, more conscious human to experience life deeper and give that out there all through what we're doing business. I think that if our world in general doesn't start re-engaging around that, there'll be continue fallout from people feeling isolated yet around everybody. And I think that's where we're kind of at right now. People are on edge of everything, right? So it doesn't even matter what is inflation, they're gonna blame everybody and this happens over here. So it's like there needs to be in business, where we partner with businesses we acquire and then one of the biggest things that we're seeing right now, Melinda, is that people, it's kind of solving the loneliness epidemic of entrepreneurs. I think I said that earlier, people are lonely, even though they're making money, they're around people, they're looking for this engagement. And I think a culture who acts that way, who's allowing people to be authentic, right? Is allowing people to show up and contribute. And here's the other point, one thing you can do as a business is celebrate meaningful wins for every individual. Because meaningful to me is different than meaningful Melinda. And so we have these written down kind of formulas that we use and really, and I don't say to just write them down and put them on a wall, we actually do them, but as a way for new employees to come in and understand that, but celebrate everybody's meaningful win is the smallest thing that somebody does to the largest thing that somebody does, celebrate those things and then allow people to be them. I think people are yearning to be themselves and show up. And authenticity isn't about calling somebody out. Authenticity is about you being able to express the highest point of this physical manifestation that you're in the business. So Adam, why are people not accepting jobs? Why is there so many ads? Seven days has like, you know, 5,000 ads for jobs. Why are people not taking jobs? Why are businesses struggling? I bet you you're not struggling to find employees. Yeah, I think there's two open positions for every unemployed person right now. It's kind of crazy, isn't it? It is, it is. So what does Adam Hergenrother have to say about that? I think it's not that people don't want to work. I think there's a segment of that. I think there's always been a segment of people who don't want to work. I think really what it is, is they don't want to work for you. That's right, because they're not being treated well. And they finally put their foot down and said, look, I'm not going to do this anymore. That's exactly right. And I think as business we have to step it up and start paying people a livable wage and passing laws that give us all the services that human beings need to be able to work and have a family or have joy in their life, which you speak about. So hopefully Vermont is one of those places. Well, Adam Hergenrother, I'm going to go so I can see you here. I want to see you in my view. I want to see both of us right here. There you are. Hello, hello. So we're coming to the end of my show and I have to say goodbye to you, but I want you to know from the bottom of my heart that you're one of the most fascinating people that I've met. I admire you so deeply. And the work that you've done and the lives that you've helped and your role in this state and in this world. So Adam, thank you for your time. And to my viewers, please go to adamhergenrother.com, learn more about Adam's work. And is there any last words you'd like to say to my viewers, Adam? Well, I just want to thank you for all that you do again and I really appreciate being on here. If there's any first step that people can do is just to go out there and ask yourself each morning, how do I want to feel and you want to feel great? And so just go act great. All right, so I'm going to say goodbye to my viewers and thank you for being with us and I will see you shortly. Goodbye.