February 3, 2025 • 36 mins
My favorite word in the dictionary: AUTHENTICITY.
Adam McChesney and I found common ground from the stage this fall, where we both talked about our failed attempts at success - and how those experiences helped us learn, grow, and come back stronger - and more authentic than ever.
While Adam and I would love to help you avoid the "rock bottom" story that so many entrepreneurs experience before finding their flow, we also know something to be said about coming back from the bottom.
We will talk about that and a lot more in this conversation; you don't want to miss it!
What happens when AUTHENTICY and AUTHORITY collide?
Find out on this week's episode of No More Mondays podcast.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Angie (00:01):
Angie, hello, everybody. Good Monday morning. I am Angie
Callen, and this is the No MoreMondays podcast where we believe
you can have a thriving careeror business and an amazing life.
And my job is to bring youpeople who not only prove that
fact, but have amazing resourcesand inspiring stories to help
you live and work moreauthentically. So my question
(00:22):
for you to kick off this weekis, have you found yourself in a
situation where things justaren't going right? They're not
going in the direction youanticipated, something feels off
the alignment that was oncethere just no longer exists, and
you want more, you better besaying yes, because we've all
been there. So the real questionis, do you lean into that voice
(00:44):
and that intuition, or do youignore it and just carry on
frustrated and defeated, holdthat thought while I introduce
you to Adam McChesney. Adam isthe founder of builders of
authority, where he helpsmotivated future thinking
entrepreneurs take action andtap into their full full
potential so they don't feelfrustrated. And he is awesome at
(01:06):
helping build authorityauthentically. He also knows
what it's like to face businesscrossroads and know that there's
more out there, but have to stepout of the comfort zone to find
it, and I'm excited for y'all tohear more and be inspired by his
story today. So Adam, welcome tono more Mondays. Angie,
Adam (01:24):
thanks for having me. I'm super blessed to be here and
excited for this conversation.
Angie (01:29):
Well, and the little back story, there's kind of a theme
here, for those of you that tunein regularly, is Adam and I met
at a little event this fall,Jessica, we can just say it.
It's called the thing, and theseconversations have been some of
my very favorite I've had,because that event just tends to
breed breed amazing people,apparently, and Adam and I
(01:50):
shared the stage, which wasfabulous, and I was really taken
aback and very inspired by howvulnerable Adam was willing to
be as he talks through someTough decisions he's faced as a
business owner and entrepreneurover the year, and also how he
worked through them. So Adam notto start it off on the what went
wrong foot, but we all know it'sgood for people out there to
(02:12):
hear you don't die from failure.So tell us a little bit about
some of the challenges that havebrought you here today and what
you learned from them. Yeah,
Unknown (02:22):
so without, like, boring everybody with all of the
details. Essentially, I was inmedical device sales for five
years. I decided, in 2018 totype into online on on my
computer how to make moneyonline, because I was sick of
working in corporate America,and I came across an ad that
taught me how to build websitesand basically build digital real
(02:44):
estate for myself. So built 200websites as kind of a side
hustle, made no money with it,and thought it'd be a good idea
in July of 2020, in the midst ofthe pandemic, to just go all in
on it, right? So end of ourfiscal year, June 31 or sorry,
June 30, July 1, I put my twoweeks in, and so we can probably
(03:05):
talk about like my whole journeya little bit later, but some
things I learned from that, butI went all in on that. And the
next thing I knew, I started togrow my business through
personal branding, which is alot of what I teach
entrepreneurs. And I grew myagency from zero to seven
figures in 15 months, and inthat process, I became a
(03:26):
franchisee of a digitalmarketing agency because I
realized I was really good atsales in building business, but
if I were going to sell 20 newclients a month, I couldn't
handle the processes and thesystems. I didn't want to, I
didn't handle the hiring and thefiring and all of those things.
So it was a very incredibleopportunity for me to do that.
(03:49):
And so I became a franchisee atthis digital marketing agency,
then grew to about two and ahalf million and I was really
the only. I mean, I'm not goingto say the only, but there was
26 of us, and I was the only onethat grew over a million
dollars, and I was at two and ahalf million. I was the only one
that was like really profiting alot of money. And all of a
(04:09):
sudden people started to leaveand get out of it, and it
started to get a little bitchaotic. So essentially, I
became a partner at the entirebusiness in June of 2023, so I
turned over my agency. I alsoput cash injection into the new
formed business. Brought all myclients, all my team members,
(04:32):
and was kind of sold on thisbigger picture, you know thing.
And so I was getting ready tohave our first born child,
Murphy, in September. And so Ijust said, Hey, my whole goal
with why I went out of my own tobegin with, was I wanted the
freedom to work when I want to,where I want to, with who I want
to and how I want to, and beable to obviously make the money
(04:54):
I want to. But I realized like Ihad just built this business
around my personal brand, whichwas great, but it. Was kind of
this roller coaster that I wason that I didn't have control
of. And so I thought bybasically having partners and
pivoting and doing all thisstuff, that when I was going to
become a father, it was going tobe the right thing. Well, I did
that, and pretty mucheverything, like went downhill
(05:15):
almost immediately. And soagain, won't get into all the
details, but all of a sudden I'msitting there in in January of
2024 like, oh my gosh, this isnot what I was told it was going
to be. And I don't want to dothis anymore, because I was the
business, even though I wasn'tin charge. And so I was a VP of
(05:37):
the company. I had ownership,but I had built this builders of
authority company as kind of aside hustle in November of 2023
where I was now teaching peoplehow I grew my digital marketing
agency with personal branding.So I have the agency that's like
my main thing. And I said, Hey,eventually it would be cool to
go full time and do this on myown again. And then I ended up
(05:59):
just, Hey, I can't do this. Ican't sleep at night. There's a
lot of issues, and people justknow the business is me. So I
said to my partners, I said,Hey, I'm out. Long story short,
like I wanted to do atransition, I ended up getting
fired and dropped like, youknow, a bad habit, and it was
(06:20):
absolute chaos last year. Solawsuit, all the crazy, crazy
stuff, ended up getting out ofit all and coming out on the
other end and restarting anagency alongside with our
coaching program that's kind ofstarted builders of authority,
but the agency is the thingthat's really, really growing
right now. They're both growing,but, yeah, it was 2024. Is a
(06:43):
year that I will never forget,but for a lot of the wrong
reasons. Bye,
Angie (06:46):
bye. So what I think is funny there is to go all the way
to go back to the beginning. Wehave all typed How To Make Money
Online into the internet. You'veall done it, some of us on
multiple occasions, and most ofus who like entrepreneurship
have also had a side hustle thatmakes us no money. But really,
what I think is interesting is,is, is thinking that there was a
(07:10):
way you needed to be in businessfor the stability of like a
growing family, versus the tradeoffs that you sometimes have to
make in order to do that, then,in your world, weren't, wasn't
really going to jive. And so,you know, I want to remind
everybody that, like, everythingwas tied up in that, in that
(07:32):
partnership, right? The the oldportfolio, the the old business,
all went into that. And you, youkind of like, I mean, for lack
of a term, walked away withnothing but a new business to
start, right?
Unknown (07:44):
Yeah, pretty much no help. Drop from health, drop
from health, drop from healthbenefits with with a couple of
days notice as a type onediabetic and a six month old is
not fun.
Angie (08:00):
So this is in the reason I wanted to go here and just be
like, Okay, we're gonna startwith the what went wrong is
because I really struggle withhow failure averse we have
become in in society. And whilewe don't walk into these things
going, Yeah, I'm gonna let thisbe the dumpster fire. I think it
can be, we can still come out ofit. I don't want to say
(08:22):
unscathed, the scades heal and,you know, I talk, I don't go, I
don't go into super detail,either. But you know,
bankruptcy, lawsuit in business,like, been there with you, been
there with you. And it is someof the most mentally
challenging, emotionally rockingstuff you can go through, not
only because of what it does toyour, you know, financial
(08:45):
stability, but just what it doesto your kind of, your ego and
your your sense of autonomy asan entrepreneur. And so where I
want to go next is the factthat, because you don't die from
failure, you typically learnfrom it. And I, you know, in
some of our other conversations,picked up on a little bit of the
of, maybe the that all of thiswas a training ground to help
(09:06):
you get to where you are now,which feels like where it's
supposed to be. So tell me moreabout the transition into
builders of authority and andhow that dumpster fire helped
this become the success that itis so quickly,
Unknown (09:21):
yeah, so I'll go back to even like, when I ended up,
kind of, like, realizing that Ihad, like, made the bad
decision, right? Because I had atwo and a half million dollar
business that the month before ii merged everything in, we
profited $50,000 so, like, itwas a well oiled machine that,
(09:42):
again, on paper, I was proposedsomething that was not well
oiled, but it was well oiled. SoI'm sitting there, you know,
almost three years removed frombeing in medical sales. So in
three years, I built a two and ahalf million dollar business.
Business that's performing very,very well. And it was kind of
(10:03):
that moment where you start togo to these events, and you get
inside of these ecosystems, andeverybody's like, well, you
know, you hear all these peoplespeaking from stage. Well, my
story is, I went to jail andwent through two divorces and
all these other things, and Ihad rock bottom and all this
stuff. And I'm sitting here, I'mlike, do you have to hit rock
bottom in order to, like, havethis great story. And so in my
(10:25):
mind, I was kind of almost like,when is this going to happen?
And so I look back also killingprophecy, yeah. And I was like,
Sure. I was literally not like,I was literally scared of
continuing to run the businesson my own, thinking I needed
other people, because otherpeople were like, oh, Adam,
(10:47):
like, you're only good at thisthing over here. You need us and
all these other things. And so Iwas scared of what ended up
happening, but for all of thewrong reasons, because I self
inflicted that thing. So I hadto, you know, go to my wife and
basically say, like, Hey, I madethis big F up mistake. And
everybody as I they saw itplaying out. We're like, Adam,
(11:08):
we told you not to do that, andI went and did it literally
anyway. So I want to preface itby saying, like, you don't have
to hit rock bottom or go throughwhat I went through in order to
get on the other side. And somany people think that, and that
was a massive lesson that Ilearned. But what it did do, and
where the silver lining is isagain, when I left everybody at
(11:32):
that company was like, oh my godAdam. Like, you can't do this,
and you're gonna, like, regretthis and all those other things.
And I was like, I know what youdon't know, and you're not
willing to admit that, like, Iplayed a big role in this. Isn't
my ego. This is what people areusing with their money to tell a
different story. Because I said,hey, when I leave, employees are
(11:55):
going to start being like, whatthe heck? Like Adam's a pretty
level headed person. He hasintegrity, he has core values.
He has all the things. Becausewe've seen the track record,
clients, referral partners, aregoing to freak out. And they
were like, No, that's not goingto happen. Literally, as people
started, I mean, it was like,and I still get messages this
day, of people finding out that,having no idea, because they
(12:16):
weren't told, right? So, like,it's been almost a year now, so
all of those things set me up toreally go through again what was
essentially rock bottom ofhaving a two and a half million
dollar business to almost havingno money in the bank account, to
then having to, like, continuepaying for all this stuff. So
(12:39):
this office here, I had a threeyear lease that was transferred
over to them, that they thentransferred back to me, freaking
my executive assistant that Iwas paying for. I mean, there
was just crazy amount ofexpenses that got thrown back on
me, and one, some of it was likelegally binding with this office
that I couldn't get out of, eventhough I tried to other things
were more just like deals thatAdam did sign, that I had to
(13:03):
continue, because I would ratherfind a way to make it work than
go back on my work or go back onmy contract like that's what was
most important to me. And so Iwent through a season where it
was struggle after struggleafter struggle which built my
confidence up to say, Adam, whenyou're going to be able to go
(13:25):
and relaunch this thing, you'regoing to have everything that
you that you needed to get toget to that other side. Because
from March, when this happened,to October, as the lawsuit was
going on, and all those thingswe just kept getting, like
struggle on and struggle alongand struggle along. I still had
a non compete so I wasn't evenable to go make money with the
(13:47):
thing that built me all of thatstuff, even though they had my
thing. So I was coaching peoplein a group environment and doing
some stuff and things like thatwith around personal branding.
But when I went and had theability to go start doing again
in October, I knew what I wantedbecause I knew what I didn't
want. I had left, so it kind ofgave me the confidence of being
(14:08):
like, okay, you've made theright move
Angie (14:11):
well. So Hello, fellow rock bottom story. So even
though I agree that you don'tneed to get there somehow, we're
all really good at going therein the entrepreneurial world in
order to then come back better,stronger and more informed. And
so my question around that is,do you think that, let's say,
the rock bottom really helpedyou discover what it meant to do
(14:31):
business authentically and withintegrity and aligned with your
values in a way that you maybewould not have seen without that
experience? Oh, 1,000%
Unknown (14:40):
like and I and I think where the lines got blurry for
me is I had been surroundingmyself, whether it was at that
company or because of all thoserelationships, of a blurred
vision of what that actuallymeant. So you see the people,
those people talk on socialmedia, oh, I have core values.
Or. I believe in my faith andall these different things. And
(15:02):
then you hear from somebodylike, who they really are, or
you see it, or you get burned bythem, and you're like, wow,
okay. Like, a lot ofentrepreneurship is in these
events and things like that. Alot of it is just like, show it
is a smoke screen. It's a smokescreen right to go sell
something that could likely be ascam, if it isn't already a
(15:25):
scam. And so it just maderealize, like, Okay, I don't
need to be tied up in all ofthis stuff to get what I want
out of it. I know how to build agood business, already proven
that, and I don't need partners,or all of these things that I
thought I needed in order to dowhat I want, because I was
(15:46):
lacking self confidence and
Angie (15:50):
those the let's call it the failure stuff. Isn't
failure. It's learning andconditioning. I even think is a
good is a good thing to thinkabout because it it changes the
thres threshold of like, let'ssay pain, and what we think is
hard, right? Your skin actuallygets thicker. And through this,
here's the conclusion, or let'ssay that, I'll pull it all
(16:12):
together. I feel like you reallyfigured out who your personal
brand is in order to help otherswith theirs, which is now where
Adam and my world collides,because we both love the word
authenticity, and what I love isAdam's website literally says
what he does is help people stoptrying to be everyone else and
start taking action so they canseparate themselves. Music to my
(16:33):
ears. So tell me more aboutthat. As we kind of say, your
story roots you in your abilityto do that. Why is it so
important that we operate thatway? And talk to me more about
like, how you're how you'reworking in that space now? Yeah,
Unknown (16:49):
so I go in all the way back to medical device sales.
The first company that I workedat was a very small company here
in St Louis, and they'd only hada sales team for four or five
years, but I had an 18 stateterritory. And so I had 18,
yeah, 18 states. And so withthat, I was literally gone 75%
of the year, traveling by planeon the East Coast, most of the
(17:13):
time,
Angie (17:13):
and like, half the country, yeah,
Unknown (17:15):
yeah, yeah, literally, I mean, insane. Well, on the
east coast, right? A lot ofthose states are so small. So
it's like, I hit, I could hitVermont, New Hampshire, Maine,
Connecticut, and on your way,literally all in there. So it
was like, Yeah, you know,whatever, but, but I went to
Boston, like 75% of those times,because that was kind of the
main hub. So I was sellingchemicals and reagents to life
(17:38):
science labs and institutions onmedical campuses and to
biopharmaceutical companies, butI would literally go and so we
were selling all these differentproduct lines, and I would
literally go to Harvard MedicalSchool, for example. And my
competitors sometimes would havethree or four sales reps on
Harvard Medical School's campus,whereas I was the only person
(18:01):
from my company that hadHarvard, plus all of that
Angie (18:04):
other states, yeah, and all the other I mean, in case
the you don't know, New Englandis a hotbed of medical
advancement and, yeah, andtechnology. I used to live in
Boston, so I'm sitting heregoing, Well, yeah, this was
Unknown (18:19):
a so I had, that's really where I like. I had the
skills, sales scales, salesskill set before that from
college, doing different jobsand internships, but I really
cut my teeth there for about 18months doing that because I had
to maximize my time while I wasthere, and I had to build
relationships at a very, veryhigh level, because, again, they
(18:40):
weren't going to see me foranother month, most likely, and
they were going to see thatother person and that other
company four or five times. So Igrew my territory. I was the
number one sales rep in everycategory of like, the seven or
eight of us that were there andand literally crushed it because
the person before it was allabout like, Hey, I'm just going
to go there and, like, try to,like, pass out flyers and do
(19:03):
some other stuff, whereas I was,like, so focused on, how can I
find this competitive edge?Well, then I get on at a company
called ResMed, who is, like, themanufacturer for CPAP equipment.
So in the in the small companypeople, yes, they were buying
our company's product, but theywere really buying Adam. When I
went to ResMed, it was like,this aha moment that ResMed
(19:23):
already had this massive brandwhere it was like, it didn't
matter, it was Adam. The repbefore me, the rep after me, was
only there for three and a halfyears. They're going to still
buy ResMed.
Angie (19:33):
They're now. They're buying a brand, not from they're
buying a brand and a product,and not from a human at this
scale. Yeah, exactly.
Unknown (19:41):
So while I was successful there, it had to do
with my work ethic, but ithonestly more had to do with how
awesome the product and thecompany and technology was. So I
then go out full time july 2020thinking I'm so good at sales I
know how to build websites. I godo that my first month. I. Zero
digital marketing clients, so Ijust leave this $200,000 a year
(20:04):
plus job, the benefits, thesecurity six weeks before I
bought our forever dream home,like, all the craziest stuff.
Like, I literally,
yeah, it is perfect.
Yeah, perfect. So I'm sittingthere and I'm like, I gotta
figure something out, because indigital marketing, there's
hundreds of 1000s of options toget what it is that I do. So I
(20:28):
went from having basically onecompetitor and being the leader
in the market with CPAP stuff tobeing a, literally a tiny little
fish in the freaking ocean. So Istumbled across this mastermind
group that I'm still into thisday that kind of taught me the
idea of what personal brandingwas, amongst many other things,
basically using your Adam andAngie social media channels to
(20:50):
grow your business. So I kind ofliterally, for the last almost
five years now, just startedconsistently posting on
Facebook, added in LinkedIn,Instagram, Tiktok, YouTube, all
this stuff. About 90% of myleads come from Facebook, and I
started doing it, and it took meabout 90 days of consistency.
But with that, I signed up myfirst client, and my first
(21:13):
client, he stayed with me forthree years. Ended up leaving
because he didn't like theagency that I was previously a
partner at. Well, funny enough,last week he found out that I
was no longer there. He's resigning back up with me now,
after trying to find otheragencies that it just didn't
work out with so that that wasmy first client that ever came
from it, and so what I realizedwas, is that people, I had two
(21:35):
different now, three differentagencies, that I had my own
agency, I had the partneragency, and now have builders of
authority. People been followingAdam. They don't care the agency
name, they don't care all thatstuff. They're with Adam, right?
That's a good and a bad thing,right? Because, again, people
trust Adam. That's a lot to hangyour hat on and all that stuff.
(21:55):
So you gotta provide, and yougotta do what you say you're
going to do. So with that,right? I i started to grow my
agency, and we hit seven figuresin 15 months, when really we hit
it, honestly, in about ninemonths, because the personal
branding is really what it tookoff with, yeah, and so I'm going
to all these marketingconferences right, start getting
inundated in that, and all theseagency owners, like Adam, like
(22:18):
you've been doing this for lessthan a year, or at a year, I've
been doing this for 510, years,I can't sell. How are, how are
you even generating leads foryour own business? And so I
start speaking on stage in 2022just sharing my daily routines.
Minds are like blown becausethey're used to all the smoke
(22:40):
screens. Hey, you gotta use thisautomation with this little
widget over here, and then yougotta bait them with this, and
then really sell them this onall this different stuff, right?
And so they were just like, thatwas real. Adam, that's simple,
that's easy. And I said it'salways simple and easy, but it's
the consistency and thediscipline that is what's going
to either keep this going ornot? Yes. And so that was the
(23:04):
aha moment in March of 2022 thatled to builders of authority
launching in 2023 where I waslike, I don't care if you're a
coach or a consultant, if you'reanother marketing agency or
you're a local contractor who istypically most of the clients we
do. Digital marketing for yourbusiness will grow if you start
posting on social media
Angie (23:23):
and you're authentic about it, which is where, oh, I
get to make two worlds collide.My favorite world is, my
favorite word is authenticity.Adams got authority and they
interact with each other. Oneleads to the other when you're
when you show up in those ways.So talk to me about how that
combination really impacts, andI would say, even indicates, the
(23:48):
future success of a business anda brand.
Unknown (23:51):
Yeah, so when I was looking at like, hey, how do I
start personal branding for adigital marketing agency when
there's hundreds of 1000s of us,so I took all the marketing
agency guru courses of how toget clients and how to build a
personal brand. Well, they'reall like, you just need to
continue showing case studiesand screenshots of like, if you
have a good client, get a lead,or something like, all this
(24:15):
stuff. So I'm testing out allthat stuff. I'm running all the
ads, I'm doing all that stuff.And then I realized, like, the
aha moment, is people dobusiness with people, and at the
end of the day, if all I'm doingis posting about how I'm the
greatest Digital Marketer ever,people will realize that they're
not going to buy from me,because all I'm doing is trying
to sell them. So I started doing80 to 90% of my content having
(24:40):
nothing to do with digitalmarketing. So the entrepreneur
who I am as a husband now afather, what do I do outside of
work? I throw in some jokes andmotivation and all the different
things. And so people started torealize that oh Adam's on to
something different than mostother marketers that just send
me cold. DMS and try to pitch meon all this stuff. So people
(25:03):
started reaching out to me, andthen I started to get clients,
and those clients were referringme, and I just built up this
inbound lead system that today,when I've since, I've gone back
full time, like last week, I had132 leads come in this week.
Right now we're at about 20 aday. So we're probably going to
pass it. And most agencies,right, if they're lucky, get
(25:28):
three leads a month. I literallyprobably haven't looked at my
phone, but I probably will havethat one No no, like no joking
aside, yeah. So those are thetypes of things, though, that
again, as I'm teaching people,they're like Adam, how quick is
this going to work? I said, I'vebeen doing this for almost five
years now, right? Like you lookat me rebuilding this thing,
(25:53):
which I think is a great aspect.So if you do, and when you do
have a failure of a moment, Ilooked at it when I relaunched
is I'm not starting over. I'mstarting from experience, and
because I put and I drew thatline in the sand when I knew I
needed to do it, even though itsucked, and I lost everything. I
still my had my integrity.People still knew was and all
(26:17):
they wanted to do once I was outon the other side was support
me. Yeah, you had
Angie (26:22):
your brand, and it is. It's so funny, because when you
talk to people that are startingout in a knowledge like a
knowledge space, which in theway you approach digital
marketing, it's knowledgeinstead of a service. There is a
hesitance to put yourself outthere. And I'll tell you, I have
stumbled happy accident that Ihave come to the exact same
(26:42):
conclusion you have that humansbe a human. That's like, my I'm
gonna, like, paint it throughthe sky, like, be human, and
people will engage with you as ahuman, because I have found like
as a content creator myself, youknow, trying to post these long
form information based articles,because that's what other people
in my space do. Crickets I pay Ipost a video of me falling down
(27:06):
a hill on a mountain bike. Rave,rave, rave reviews, right? And
so as soon as I was able tofind, and that's part of the key
and I, and we're going to giveeverybody some advice on that
front here, when I was able tofind my own authenticity, right?
And be okay, just being thathuman. And I put it out there,
the connections that came wereabsolutely amazing, not only
(27:30):
from a quantity perspective, buta quality perspective. And you
start attracting the rightpeople, because you're putting
yourself out there in in a waythat it's it's going to do just
that. It's like the magnetism ofjust, just be you, versus
trying, trying, trying so hard.We try so hard at this. So I'm
curious what advice you have forpeople out there who might be
struggling with this, whetherit's vulnerability around
(27:53):
getting out there authentically,whether they don't know what
their own authenticity is ortheir own personal brand is
like, How does somebody go andtap into what's unique about
them? Yeah,
Unknown (28:05):
so I think the first thing you have to go through is
like, you're not gonna get it onthe first try, and you will have
more success doing it the wrongway quicker than doing it the
right way long term. And so whatI mean by that is, if you try to
be somebody that you're not, oryou try to go do what everybody
else is doing, because it's afab or a trend, you're going to
(28:27):
get some traction, but it'sgoing to be false traction,
because it's going to comecrumbling down, which is why you
see people go and do this, andthey go do that, and then
they're in one industry, andthen they're in the next
industry, and now they'reselling crypto, and now they're
doing AI bots, and the nextthing, Who knows what the next
thing is, right? We all knowthose people. For me is I was
again hitting my head againstthe wall. My mentor told me,
(28:49):
Adam, do this personal brandingthing by being yourself and
finding yourself, and do it for90 straight days, and I
guarantee you you will sign aclient at day 89 was when I
signed that first client. 89 I'mnot even getting up, so I
literally he, this guy reachesout to me, and he reached out to
(29:12):
me about day 60 and we went backand forth for almost a month.
And I'm sitting there in thisgroup telling my mentor, I'm
like, hey, it's literally almostthere. And he's like, Dude, it's
gonna happen. It's gonna happen.It's gonna happen. And I didn't
believe him, because I'm like,Man, I think this guy ghosted
me. He reached out to me inliterally the middle of the the
night, and was like, Hey, Adam,I'm ready to go. And the reason
(29:32):
why that ended up happening iswe ended up going to a random
event in St Louis, a networkingevent, and I finally met him
there, like a week before, so itkind of re sparked the
conversation, but he got achance to meet me as well,
versus just going back and forthon Zoom and all that stuff. So I
share that story with my clientsall the time, but they're like,
Adam, like, I need stufftomorrow. I said, if you don't
(29:54):
have 90 days to give anything,whether it's your health and
fitness, whether. It's yourbusiness, whether it's your
relationships. If you don't have90 days to like, fully dive into
this, you might need to go, andthere's nothing wrong with it.
Go get a job. Go Exactly. Go buyyourself 90 days. Go get a loan
(30:16):
from somebody, take out a lineof credit. Like people want
instant gratification, becausethe environment of this world,
whether it's the AI and thetechnology or all these
different things, has pinpointedthat that is possible. And
again, it's not that. It's not
normal. I would even take itthat's normal and it's not.
(30:40):
Yeah, yeah.
Angie (30:42):
I love when somebody like help gets in my little echo
chamber with me, or at leastmakes me feel like half the
stuff that I spew out of mymouth actually might be, I don't
know, validated by another humanbecause I tell I have, you know,
I work with a lot of coaches whoare either building, like,
starting their businesses orready to kind of scale. And I'm
like, good thing for 90 days,and once you've done it for 90
(31:03):
days, go do it for another 90days. And so the fact that you
just reinforced that made mefeel very, very good. But also
the idea that, like, quickresults are just quick results,
and rarely does that build afoundation of a sustainable,
like, healthy, healthy business.Because in this case, and what
we're talking about is it'sprobably built on false
pretenses, and at some pointeverybody's gonna get hip to
(31:26):
that, versus trusting yourselfand what you authentically have
to give to the world, and thatthe right people will be
attracted to it
Unknown (31:35):
absolutely. And I would say is the other thing is, is
like practicing what you preachin your content is a massive,
massive thing. So for example,right? I'm a marketer, and I'm
telling people, Hey, you need toinvest in SEO, and you need to
invest in ads, and you need toget Google business reviews and
(31:56):
all the different things, right?Well, if I'm not also doing
those things in my business, whywould I buy from me? And so like
I my old agency were literallydigital marketing. St Louis, the
number one result. I had 125five star reviews, and most
other agencies that have beenaround for 1015, years, five
reviews, 10 reviews, 20 reviews,maybe. And so with that, I also
(32:21):
started an Auto Glass Companyfrom one of those original 200
websites that I built, and wejust celebrated our fourth year
in business. We did a milliondollars last year. And I don't
know anything about auto glass,but I started a company through
a website and a Google businessprofile that I literally do for
people all day long. And so thatalso helped kind of spark the
(32:42):
growth of like, Adam's notlooking at what he's selling,
just as a digital marketer, healso understands the importance,
and literally started a companyout of thin air with what it is
that he's selling to us. Andthen on the other side, when I'm
selling people into my coachingcommunity, I'm selling people,
hey, you need to go build aYouTube channel and be a guest
on a podcast. They see me livingthis out, right? So it's leading
(33:07):
by example of practicing whatyou preach. If you're going to
tell somebody to go do it andthen charge them for that, you
better be doing it for yourself
Angie (33:14):
well, and even if, if you just drill that down into the
practical of, why would I trustsomebody to guide me in
something that they they don'tdo themselves, because your
information may not be updated.I can't tell coaches. Hey, you
got to go out there and bepresent on LinkedIn, because
that's where most of yourbusiness is going to come from.
If I myself am half assing it.And so I show up every single
(33:35):
day, even when I'm like, this isall the same crap in my news
feed. And you do it and youtotally work through it. And so
I feel like the summary of thisentire conversation is you can
be in business withoutsacrificing who you are. And in
fact, that might just be thesecret to success. Yes, there
(33:56):
you go. That's what happens whenauthority collides with
authenticity. There you go, Adamand Angie. We were meant to be
Adam. How does everybody elseout there continue to learn from
you? Because I will, I will alsoput my stamp of approval on, you
know, the some of the freeresources and what Adams don't
have Facebook. You know, it'sfun. It has like a mix of like,
(34:18):
I get to know who he is. I getsome tips. I get some lists of
like, Hey, you should be onthese websites. So how does
everybody else tune in to you?And what you're doing both as a
human and a marketer?
Unknown (34:28):
Yeah. So you can go to Adam mcchesney.com you'll see
links to all my different socialplatforms that on that are on
there. I spend my most time onFacebook. So you can connect
with me on Facebook. You'll seeAdam McChesney, and you'll see
the am logo. We have a freeFacebook group where I post
daily content in there, tips,strategies, as Angie was
mentioning, so you can just typein builders of authority into
(34:50):
the search bar. And then foryour listeners, I have a free
course that is built on personalbranding that kind of walks
people through the identityprocess of, how do I. Get
Started. How do I scale it? Andthen what should I be focused on
from a KPI metric standpoint, onwhat do I need to do from a
daily basis to reach my goals?So there'll be a link in the
(35:10):
show notes for that as well.Yes,
Angie (35:13):
I love actual practical advice, especially when it comes
from a good story of you didn'thave to be but it was rock
bottom, and now you bounce,bounce back, and you're better
for it. So you don't have to diefrom failure. You don't have to
sacrifice yourself to have asuccessful business. In fact, it
might just be the key to it, andAdam's got fantastic resources
(35:35):
to help you do it. So head onover to no more Mondays. Dot
info, or if you're listeningslash watching on LinkedIn.
We'll make sure everything is inthe comments so you can grab the
goodness build your personalbrand. And I'm even going to
challenge any of you out therewho are employees and job
seekers, this personal brandingstuff is is legit, even for you.
And while some of the like maybemarketing, business, KPI stuff
(35:57):
might not be as relevant ifyou're struggling to kind of
identify your unique valueproposition. I wouldn't, I
wouldn't doubt that there's afew little tools in there for
you. So this has been anotherfabulous episode of no more
Mondays. Adam McChesney, thankyou so much for joining me and a
little, a little shameless plug.I was on Adam's podcast a week
or two ago, so when you go overto his Facebook page, check it
(36:18):
out, because we had a prettyfabulous conversation that I
don't know if it was equal to,but rivals this one. So thanks
for having me there, and thanksfor being here. I appreciate you
and everything you're willing toshare with authenticity and
authority. Thank you. All right,everybody. I will see you next
week for another episode of nomore Mondays podcast. Have a
great week. You.
Angie, hello, everybody. Good Monday morning. I am Angie
Callen, and this is the No MoreMondays podcast where we believe
you can have a thriving careeror business and an amazing life.
And my job is to bring youpeople who not only prove that
fact, but have amazing resourcesand inspiring stories to help
you live and work moreauthentically. So my question
(00:22):
for you to kick off this weekis, have you found yourself in a
situation where things justaren't going right? They're not
going in the direction youanticipated, something feels off
the alignment that was oncethere just no longer exists, and
you want more, you better besaying yes, because we've all
been there. So the real questionis, do you lean into that voice
(00:44):
and that intuition, or do youignore it and just carry on
frustrated and defeated, holdthat thought while I introduce
you to Adam McChesney. Adam isthe founder of builders of
authority, where he helpsmotivated future thinking
entrepreneurs take action andtap into their full full
potential so they don't feelfrustrated. And he is awesome at
(01:06):
helping build authorityauthentically. He also knows
what it's like to face businesscrossroads and know that there's
more out there, but have to stepout of the comfort zone to find
it, and I'm excited for y'all tohear more and be inspired by his
story today. So Adam, welcome tono more Mondays. Angie,
Adam (01:24):
thanks for having me. I'm super blessed to be here and
excited for this conversation.
Angie (01:29):
Well, and the little back story, there's kind of a theme
here, for those of you that tunein regularly, is Adam and I met
at a little event this fall,Jessica, we can just say it.
It's called the thing, and theseconversations have been some of
my very favorite I've had,because that event just tends to
breed breed amazing people,apparently, and Adam and I
(01:50):
shared the stage, which wasfabulous, and I was really taken
aback and very inspired by howvulnerable Adam was willing to
be as he talks through someTough decisions he's faced as a
business owner and entrepreneurover the year, and also how he
worked through them. So Adam notto start it off on the what went
wrong foot, but we all know it'sgood for people out there to
(02:12):
hear you don't die from failure.So tell us a little bit about
some of the challenges that havebrought you here today and what
you learned from them. Yeah,
Unknown (02:22):
so without, like, boring everybody with all of the
details. Essentially, I was inmedical device sales for five
years. I decided, in 2018 totype into online on on my
computer how to make moneyonline, because I was sick of
working in corporate America,and I came across an ad that
taught me how to build websitesand basically build digital real
(02:44):
estate for myself. So built 200websites as kind of a side
hustle, made no money with it,and thought it'd be a good idea
in July of 2020, in the midst ofthe pandemic, to just go all in
on it, right? So end of ourfiscal year, June 31 or sorry,
June 30, July 1, I put my twoweeks in, and so we can probably
(03:05):
talk about like my whole journeya little bit later, but some
things I learned from that, butI went all in on that. And the
next thing I knew, I started togrow my business through
personal branding, which is alot of what I teach
entrepreneurs. And I grew myagency from zero to seven
figures in 15 months, and inthat process, I became a
(03:26):
franchisee of a digitalmarketing agency because I
realized I was really good atsales in building business, but
if I were going to sell 20 newclients a month, I couldn't
handle the processes and thesystems. I didn't want to, I
didn't handle the hiring and thefiring and all of those things.
So it was a very incredibleopportunity for me to do that.
(03:49):
And so I became a franchisee atthis digital marketing agency,
then grew to about two and ahalf million and I was really
the only. I mean, I'm not goingto say the only, but there was
26 of us, and I was the only onethat grew over a million
dollars, and I was at two and ahalf million. I was the only one
that was like really profiting alot of money. And all of a
(04:09):
sudden people started to leaveand get out of it, and it
started to get a little bitchaotic. So essentially, I
became a partner at the entirebusiness in June of 2023, so I
turned over my agency. I alsoput cash injection into the new
formed business. Brought all myclients, all my team members,
(04:32):
and was kind of sold on thisbigger picture, you know thing.
And so I was getting ready tohave our first born child,
Murphy, in September. And so Ijust said, Hey, my whole goal
with why I went out of my own tobegin with, was I wanted the
freedom to work when I want to,where I want to, with who I want
to and how I want to, and beable to obviously make the money
(04:54):
I want to. But I realized like Ihad just built this business
around my personal brand, whichwas great, but it. Was kind of
this roller coaster that I wason that I didn't have control
of. And so I thought bybasically having partners and
pivoting and doing all thisstuff, that when I was going to
become a father, it was going tobe the right thing. Well, I did
that, and pretty mucheverything, like went downhill
(05:15):
almost immediately. And soagain, won't get into all the
details, but all of a sudden I'msitting there in in January of
2024 like, oh my gosh, this isnot what I was told it was going
to be. And I don't want to dothis anymore, because I was the
business, even though I wasn'tin charge. And so I was a VP of
(05:37):
the company. I had ownership,but I had built this builders of
authority company as kind of aside hustle in November of 2023
where I was now teaching peoplehow I grew my digital marketing
agency with personal branding.So I have the agency that's like
my main thing. And I said, Hey,eventually it would be cool to
go full time and do this on myown again. And then I ended up
(05:59):
just, Hey, I can't do this. Ican't sleep at night. There's a
lot of issues, and people justknow the business is me. So I
said to my partners, I said,Hey, I'm out. Long story short,
like I wanted to do atransition, I ended up getting
fired and dropped like, youknow, a bad habit, and it was
(06:20):
absolute chaos last year. Solawsuit, all the crazy, crazy
stuff, ended up getting out ofit all and coming out on the
other end and restarting anagency alongside with our
coaching program that's kind ofstarted builders of authority,
but the agency is the thingthat's really, really growing
right now. They're both growing,but, yeah, it was 2024. Is a
(06:43):
year that I will never forget,but for a lot of the wrong
reasons. Bye,
Angie (06:46):
bye. So what I think is funny there is to go all the way
to go back to the beginning. Wehave all typed How To Make Money
Online into the internet. You'veall done it, some of us on
multiple occasions, and most ofus who like entrepreneurship
have also had a side hustle thatmakes us no money. But really,
what I think is interesting is,is, is thinking that there was a
(07:10):
way you needed to be in businessfor the stability of like a
growing family, versus the tradeoffs that you sometimes have to
make in order to do that, then,in your world, weren't, wasn't
really going to jive. And so,you know, I want to remind
everybody that, like, everythingwas tied up in that, in that
(07:32):
partnership, right? The the oldportfolio, the the old business,
all went into that. And you, youkind of like, I mean, for lack
of a term, walked away withnothing but a new business to
start, right?
Unknown (07:44):
Yeah, pretty much no help. Drop from health, drop
from health, drop from healthbenefits with with a couple of
days notice as a type onediabetic and a six month old is
not fun.
Angie (08:00):
So this is in the reason I wanted to go here and just be
like, Okay, we're gonna startwith the what went wrong is
because I really struggle withhow failure averse we have
become in in society. And whilewe don't walk into these things
going, Yeah, I'm gonna let thisbe the dumpster fire. I think it
can be, we can still come out ofit. I don't want to say
(08:22):
unscathed, the scades heal and,you know, I talk, I don't go, I
don't go into super detail,either. But you know,
bankruptcy, lawsuit in business,like, been there with you, been
there with you. And it is someof the most mentally
challenging, emotionally rockingstuff you can go through, not
only because of what it does toyour, you know, financial
(08:45):
stability, but just what it doesto your kind of, your ego and
your your sense of autonomy asan entrepreneur. And so where I
want to go next is the factthat, because you don't die from
failure, you typically learnfrom it. And I, you know, in
some of our other conversations,picked up on a little bit of the
of, maybe the that all of thiswas a training ground to help
(09:06):
you get to where you are now,which feels like where it's
supposed to be. So tell me moreabout the transition into
builders of authority and andhow that dumpster fire helped
this become the success that itis so quickly,
Unknown (09:21):
yeah, so I'll go back to even like, when I ended up,
kind of, like, realizing that Ihad, like, made the bad
decision, right? Because I had atwo and a half million dollar
business that the month before ii merged everything in, we
profited $50,000 so, like, itwas a well oiled machine that,
(09:42):
again, on paper, I was proposedsomething that was not well
oiled, but it was well oiled. SoI'm sitting there, you know,
almost three years removed frombeing in medical sales. So in
three years, I built a two and ahalf million dollar business.
Business that's performing very,very well. And it was kind of
(10:03):
that moment where you start togo to these events, and you get
inside of these ecosystems, andeverybody's like, well, you
know, you hear all these peoplespeaking from stage. Well, my
story is, I went to jail andwent through two divorces and
all these other things, and Ihad rock bottom and all this
stuff. And I'm sitting here, I'mlike, do you have to hit rock
bottom in order to, like, havethis great story. And so in my
(10:25):
mind, I was kind of almost like,when is this going to happen?
And so I look back also killingprophecy, yeah. And I was like,
Sure. I was literally not like,I was literally scared of
continuing to run the businesson my own, thinking I needed
other people, because otherpeople were like, oh, Adam,
(10:47):
like, you're only good at thisthing over here. You need us and
all these other things. And so Iwas scared of what ended up
happening, but for all of thewrong reasons, because I self
inflicted that thing. So I hadto, you know, go to my wife and
basically say, like, Hey, I madethis big F up mistake. And
everybody as I they saw itplaying out. We're like, Adam,
(11:08):
we told you not to do that, andI went and did it literally
anyway. So I want to preface itby saying, like, you don't have
to hit rock bottom or go throughwhat I went through in order to
get on the other side. And somany people think that, and that
was a massive lesson that Ilearned. But what it did do, and
where the silver lining is isagain, when I left everybody at
(11:32):
that company was like, oh my godAdam. Like, you can't do this,
and you're gonna, like, regretthis and all those other things.
And I was like, I know what youdon't know, and you're not
willing to admit that, like, Iplayed a big role in this. Isn't
my ego. This is what people areusing with their money to tell a
different story. Because I said,hey, when I leave, employees are
(11:55):
going to start being like, whatthe heck? Like Adam's a pretty
level headed person. He hasintegrity, he has core values.
He has all the things. Becausewe've seen the track record,
clients, referral partners, aregoing to freak out. And they
were like, No, that's not goingto happen. Literally, as people
started, I mean, it was like,and I still get messages this
day, of people finding out that,having no idea, because they
(12:16):
weren't told, right? So, like,it's been almost a year now, so
all of those things set me up toreally go through again what was
essentially rock bottom ofhaving a two and a half million
dollar business to almost havingno money in the bank account, to
then having to, like, continuepaying for all this stuff. So
(12:39):
this office here, I had a threeyear lease that was transferred
over to them, that they thentransferred back to me, freaking
my executive assistant that Iwas paying for. I mean, there
was just crazy amount ofexpenses that got thrown back on
me, and one, some of it was likelegally binding with this office
that I couldn't get out of, eventhough I tried to other things
were more just like deals thatAdam did sign, that I had to
(13:03):
continue, because I would ratherfind a way to make it work than
go back on my work or go back onmy contract like that's what was
most important to me. And so Iwent through a season where it
was struggle after struggleafter struggle which built my
confidence up to say, Adam, whenyou're going to be able to go
(13:25):
and relaunch this thing, you'regoing to have everything that
you that you needed to get toget to that other side. Because
from March, when this happened,to October, as the lawsuit was
going on, and all those thingswe just kept getting, like
struggle on and struggle alongand struggle along. I still had
a non compete so I wasn't evenable to go make money with the
(13:47):
thing that built me all of thatstuff, even though they had my
thing. So I was coaching peoplein a group environment and doing
some stuff and things like thatwith around personal branding.
But when I went and had theability to go start doing again
in October, I knew what I wantedbecause I knew what I didn't
want. I had left, so it kind ofgave me the confidence of being
(14:08):
like, okay, you've made theright move
Angie (14:11):
well. So Hello, fellow rock bottom story. So even
though I agree that you don'tneed to get there somehow, we're
all really good at going therein the entrepreneurial world in
order to then come back better,stronger and more informed. And
so my question around that is,do you think that, let's say,
the rock bottom really helpedyou discover what it meant to do
(14:31):
business authentically and withintegrity and aligned with your
values in a way that you maybewould not have seen without that
experience? Oh, 1,000%
Unknown (14:40):
like and I and I think where the lines got blurry for
me is I had been surroundingmyself, whether it was at that
company or because of all thoserelationships, of a blurred
vision of what that actuallymeant. So you see the people,
those people talk on socialmedia, oh, I have core values.
Or. I believe in my faith andall these different things. And
(15:02):
then you hear from somebodylike, who they really are, or
you see it, or you get burned bythem, and you're like, wow,
okay. Like, a lot ofentrepreneurship is in these
events and things like that. Alot of it is just like, show it
is a smoke screen. It's a smokescreen right to go sell
something that could likely be ascam, if it isn't already a
(15:25):
scam. And so it just maderealize, like, Okay, I don't
need to be tied up in all ofthis stuff to get what I want
out of it. I know how to build agood business, already proven
that, and I don't need partners,or all of these things that I
thought I needed in order to dowhat I want, because I was
(15:46):
lacking self confidence and
Angie (15:50):
those the let's call it the failure stuff. Isn't
failure. It's learning andconditioning. I even think is a
good is a good thing to thinkabout because it it changes the
thres threshold of like, let'ssay pain, and what we think is
hard, right? Your skin actuallygets thicker. And through this,
here's the conclusion, or let'ssay that, I'll pull it all
(16:12):
together. I feel like you reallyfigured out who your personal
brand is in order to help otherswith theirs, which is now where
Adam and my world collides,because we both love the word
authenticity, and what I love isAdam's website literally says
what he does is help people stoptrying to be everyone else and
start taking action so they canseparate themselves. Music to my
(16:33):
ears. So tell me more aboutthat. As we kind of say, your
story roots you in your abilityto do that. Why is it so
important that we operate thatway? And talk to me more about
like, how you're how you'reworking in that space now? Yeah,
Unknown (16:49):
so I go in all the way back to medical device sales.
The first company that I workedat was a very small company here
in St Louis, and they'd only hada sales team for four or five
years, but I had an 18 stateterritory. And so I had 18,
yeah, 18 states. And so withthat, I was literally gone 75%
of the year, traveling by planeon the East Coast, most of the
(17:13):
time,
Angie (17:13):
and like, half the country, yeah,
Unknown (17:15):
yeah, yeah, literally, I mean, insane. Well, on the
east coast, right? A lot ofthose states are so small. So
it's like, I hit, I could hitVermont, New Hampshire, Maine,
Connecticut, and on your way,literally all in there. So it
was like, Yeah, you know,whatever, but, but I went to
Boston, like 75% of those times,because that was kind of the
main hub. So I was sellingchemicals and reagents to life
(17:38):
science labs and institutions onmedical campuses and to
biopharmaceutical companies, butI would literally go and so we
were selling all these differentproduct lines, and I would
literally go to Harvard MedicalSchool, for example. And my
competitors sometimes would havethree or four sales reps on
Harvard Medical School's campus,whereas I was the only person
(18:01):
from my company that hadHarvard, plus all of that
Angie (18:04):
other states, yeah, and all the other I mean, in case
the you don't know, New Englandis a hotbed of medical
advancement and, yeah, andtechnology. I used to live in
Boston, so I'm sitting heregoing, Well, yeah, this was
Unknown (18:19):
a so I had, that's really where I like. I had the
skills, sales scales, salesskill set before that from
college, doing different jobsand internships, but I really
cut my teeth there for about 18months doing that because I had
to maximize my time while I wasthere, and I had to build
relationships at a very, veryhigh level, because, again, they
(18:40):
weren't going to see me foranother month, most likely, and
they were going to see thatother person and that other
company four or five times. So Igrew my territory. I was the
number one sales rep in everycategory of like, the seven or
eight of us that were there andand literally crushed it because
the person before it was allabout like, Hey, I'm just going
to go there and, like, try to,like, pass out flyers and do
(19:03):
some other stuff, whereas I was,like, so focused on, how can I
find this competitive edge?Well, then I get on at a company
called ResMed, who is, like, themanufacturer for CPAP equipment.
So in the in the small companypeople, yes, they were buying
our company's product, but theywere really buying Adam. When I
went to ResMed, it was like,this aha moment that ResMed
(19:23):
already had this massive brandwhere it was like, it didn't
matter, it was Adam. The repbefore me, the rep after me, was
only there for three and a halfyears. They're going to still
buy ResMed.
Angie (19:33):
They're now. They're buying a brand, not from they're
buying a brand and a product,and not from a human at this
scale. Yeah, exactly.
Unknown (19:41):
So while I was successful there, it had to do
with my work ethic, but ithonestly more had to do with how
awesome the product and thecompany and technology was. So I
then go out full time july 2020thinking I'm so good at sales I
know how to build websites. I godo that my first month. I. Zero
digital marketing clients, so Ijust leave this $200,000 a year
(20:04):
plus job, the benefits, thesecurity six weeks before I
bought our forever dream home,like, all the craziest stuff.
Like, I literally,
yeah, it is perfect.
Yeah, perfect. So I'm sittingthere and I'm like, I gotta
figure something out, because indigital marketing, there's
hundreds of 1000s of options toget what it is that I do. So I
(20:28):
went from having basically onecompetitor and being the leader
in the market with CPAP stuff tobeing a, literally a tiny little
fish in the freaking ocean. So Istumbled across this mastermind
group that I'm still into thisday that kind of taught me the
idea of what personal brandingwas, amongst many other things,
basically using your Adam andAngie social media channels to
(20:50):
grow your business. So I kind ofliterally, for the last almost
five years now, just startedconsistently posting on
Facebook, added in LinkedIn,Instagram, Tiktok, YouTube, all
this stuff. About 90% of myleads come from Facebook, and I
started doing it, and it took meabout 90 days of consistency.
But with that, I signed up myfirst client, and my first
(21:13):
client, he stayed with me forthree years. Ended up leaving
because he didn't like theagency that I was previously a
partner at. Well, funny enough,last week he found out that I
was no longer there. He's resigning back up with me now,
after trying to find otheragencies that it just didn't
work out with so that that wasmy first client that ever came
from it, and so what I realizedwas, is that people, I had two
(21:35):
different now, three differentagencies, that I had my own
agency, I had the partneragency, and now have builders of
authority. People been followingAdam. They don't care the agency
name, they don't care all thatstuff. They're with Adam, right?
That's a good and a bad thing,right? Because, again, people
trust Adam. That's a lot to hangyour hat on and all that stuff.
(21:55):
So you gotta provide, and yougotta do what you say you're
going to do. So with that,right? I i started to grow my
agency, and we hit seven figuresin 15 months, when really we hit
it, honestly, in about ninemonths, because the personal
branding is really what it tookoff with, yeah, and so I'm going
to all these marketingconferences right, start getting
inundated in that, and all theseagency owners, like Adam, like
(22:18):
you've been doing this for lessthan a year, or at a year, I've
been doing this for 510, years,I can't sell. How are, how are
you even generating leads foryour own business? And so I
start speaking on stage in 2022just sharing my daily routines.
Minds are like blown becausethey're used to all the smoke
(22:40):
screens. Hey, you gotta use thisautomation with this little
widget over here, and then yougotta bait them with this, and
then really sell them this onall this different stuff, right?
And so they were just like, thatwas real. Adam, that's simple,
that's easy. And I said it'salways simple and easy, but it's
the consistency and thediscipline that is what's going
to either keep this going ornot? Yes. And so that was the
(23:04):
aha moment in March of 2022 thatled to builders of authority
launching in 2023 where I waslike, I don't care if you're a
coach or a consultant, if you'reanother marketing agency or
you're a local contractor who istypically most of the clients we
do. Digital marketing for yourbusiness will grow if you start
posting on social media
Angie (23:23):
and you're authentic about it, which is where, oh, I
get to make two worlds collide.My favorite world is, my
favorite word is authenticity.Adams got authority and they
interact with each other. Oneleads to the other when you're
when you show up in those ways.So talk to me about how that
combination really impacts, andI would say, even indicates, the
(23:48):
future success of a business anda brand.
Unknown (23:51):
Yeah, so when I was looking at like, hey, how do I
start personal branding for adigital marketing agency when
there's hundreds of 1000s of us,so I took all the marketing
agency guru courses of how toget clients and how to build a
personal brand. Well, they'reall like, you just need to
continue showing case studiesand screenshots of like, if you
have a good client, get a lead,or something like, all this
(24:15):
stuff. So I'm testing out allthat stuff. I'm running all the
ads, I'm doing all that stuff.And then I realized, like, the
aha moment, is people dobusiness with people, and at the
end of the day, if all I'm doingis posting about how I'm the
greatest Digital Marketer ever,people will realize that they're
not going to buy from me,because all I'm doing is trying
to sell them. So I started doing80 to 90% of my content having
(24:40):
nothing to do with digitalmarketing. So the entrepreneur
who I am as a husband now afather, what do I do outside of
work? I throw in some jokes andmotivation and all the different
things. And so people started torealize that oh Adam's on to
something different than mostother marketers that just send
me cold. DMS and try to pitch meon all this stuff. So people
(25:03):
started reaching out to me, andthen I started to get clients,
and those clients were referringme, and I just built up this
inbound lead system that today,when I've since, I've gone back
full time, like last week, I had132 leads come in this week.
Right now we're at about 20 aday. So we're probably going to
pass it. And most agencies,right, if they're lucky, get
(25:28):
three leads a month. I literallyprobably haven't looked at my
phone, but I probably will havethat one No no, like no joking
aside, yeah. So those are thetypes of things, though, that
again, as I'm teaching people,they're like Adam, how quick is
this going to work? I said, I'vebeen doing this for almost five
years now, right? Like you lookat me rebuilding this thing,
(25:53):
which I think is a great aspect.So if you do, and when you do
have a failure of a moment, Ilooked at it when I relaunched
is I'm not starting over. I'mstarting from experience, and
because I put and I drew thatline in the sand when I knew I
needed to do it, even though itsucked, and I lost everything. I
still my had my integrity.People still knew was and all
(26:17):
they wanted to do once I was outon the other side was support
me. Yeah, you had
Angie (26:22):
your brand, and it is. It's so funny, because when you
talk to people that are startingout in a knowledge like a
knowledge space, which in theway you approach digital
marketing, it's knowledgeinstead of a service. There is a
hesitance to put yourself outthere. And I'll tell you, I have
stumbled happy accident that Ihave come to the exact same
(26:42):
conclusion you have that humansbe a human. That's like, my I'm
gonna, like, paint it throughthe sky, like, be human, and
people will engage with you as ahuman, because I have found like
as a content creator myself, youknow, trying to post these long
form information based articles,because that's what other people
in my space do. Crickets I pay Ipost a video of me falling down
(27:06):
a hill on a mountain bike. Rave,rave, rave reviews, right? And
so as soon as I was able tofind, and that's part of the key
and I, and we're going to giveeverybody some advice on that
front here, when I was able tofind my own authenticity, right?
And be okay, just being thathuman. And I put it out there,
the connections that came wereabsolutely amazing, not only
(27:30):
from a quantity perspective, buta quality perspective. And you
start attracting the rightpeople, because you're putting
yourself out there in in a waythat it's it's going to do just
that. It's like the magnetism ofjust, just be you, versus
trying, trying, trying so hard.We try so hard at this. So I'm
curious what advice you have forpeople out there who might be
struggling with this, whetherit's vulnerability around
(27:53):
getting out there authentically,whether they don't know what
their own authenticity is ortheir own personal brand is
like, How does somebody go andtap into what's unique about
them? Yeah,
Unknown (28:05):
so I think the first thing you have to go through is
like, you're not gonna get it onthe first try, and you will have
more success doing it the wrongway quicker than doing it the
right way long term. And so whatI mean by that is, if you try to
be somebody that you're not, oryou try to go do what everybody
else is doing, because it's afab or a trend, you're going to
(28:27):
get some traction, but it'sgoing to be false traction,
because it's going to comecrumbling down, which is why you
see people go and do this, andthey go do that, and then
they're in one industry, andthen they're in the next
industry, and now they'reselling crypto, and now they're
doing AI bots, and the nextthing, Who knows what the next
thing is, right? We all knowthose people. For me is I was
again hitting my head againstthe wall. My mentor told me,
(28:49):
Adam, do this personal brandingthing by being yourself and
finding yourself, and do it for90 straight days, and I
guarantee you you will sign aclient at day 89 was when I
signed that first client. 89 I'mnot even getting up, so I
literally he, this guy reachesout to me, and he reached out to
(29:12):
me about day 60 and we went backand forth for almost a month.
And I'm sitting there in thisgroup telling my mentor, I'm
like, hey, it's literally almostthere. And he's like, Dude, it's
gonna happen. It's gonna happen.It's gonna happen. And I didn't
believe him, because I'm like,Man, I think this guy ghosted
me. He reached out to me inliterally the middle of the the
night, and was like, Hey, Adam,I'm ready to go. And the reason
(29:32):
why that ended up happening iswe ended up going to a random
event in St Louis, a networkingevent, and I finally met him
there, like a week before, so itkind of re sparked the
conversation, but he got achance to meet me as well,
versus just going back and forthon Zoom and all that stuff. So I
share that story with my clientsall the time, but they're like,
Adam, like, I need stufftomorrow. I said, if you don't
(29:54):
have 90 days to give anything,whether it's your health and
fitness, whether. It's yourbusiness, whether it's your
relationships. If you don't have90 days to like, fully dive into
this, you might need to go, andthere's nothing wrong with it.
Go get a job. Go Exactly. Go buyyourself 90 days. Go get a loan
(30:16):
from somebody, take out a lineof credit. Like people want
instant gratification, becausethe environment of this world,
whether it's the AI and thetechnology or all these
different things, has pinpointedthat that is possible. And
again, it's not that. It's not
normal. I would even take itthat's normal and it's not.
(30:40):
Yeah, yeah.
Angie (30:42):
I love when somebody like help gets in my little echo
chamber with me, or at leastmakes me feel like half the
stuff that I spew out of mymouth actually might be, I don't
know, validated by another humanbecause I tell I have, you know,
I work with a lot of coaches whoare either building, like,
starting their businesses orready to kind of scale. And I'm
like, good thing for 90 days,and once you've done it for 90
(31:03):
days, go do it for another 90days. And so the fact that you
just reinforced that made mefeel very, very good. But also
the idea that, like, quickresults are just quick results,
and rarely does that build afoundation of a sustainable,
like, healthy, healthy business.Because in this case, and what
we're talking about is it'sprobably built on false
pretenses, and at some pointeverybody's gonna get hip to
(31:26):
that, versus trusting yourselfand what you authentically have
to give to the world, and thatthe right people will be
attracted to it
Unknown (31:35):
absolutely. And I would say is the other thing is, is
like practicing what you preachin your content is a massive,
massive thing. So for example,right? I'm a marketer, and I'm
telling people, Hey, you need toinvest in SEO, and you need to
invest in ads, and you need toget Google business reviews and
(31:56):
all the different things, right?Well, if I'm not also doing
those things in my business, whywould I buy from me? And so like
I my old agency were literallydigital marketing. St Louis, the
number one result. I had 125five star reviews, and most
other agencies that have beenaround for 1015, years, five
reviews, 10 reviews, 20 reviews,maybe. And so with that, I also
(32:21):
started an Auto Glass Companyfrom one of those original 200
websites that I built, and wejust celebrated our fourth year
in business. We did a milliondollars last year. And I don't
know anything about auto glass,but I started a company through
a website and a Google businessprofile that I literally do for
people all day long. And so thatalso helped kind of spark the
(32:42):
growth of like, Adam's notlooking at what he's selling,
just as a digital marketer, healso understands the importance,
and literally started a companyout of thin air with what it is
that he's selling to us. Andthen on the other side, when I'm
selling people into my coachingcommunity, I'm selling people,
hey, you need to go build aYouTube channel and be a guest
on a podcast. They see me livingthis out, right? So it's leading
(33:07):
by example of practicing whatyou preach. If you're going to
tell somebody to go do it andthen charge them for that, you
better be doing it for yourself
Angie (33:14):
well, and even if, if you just drill that down into the
practical of, why would I trustsomebody to guide me in
something that they they don'tdo themselves, because your
information may not be updated.I can't tell coaches. Hey, you
got to go out there and bepresent on LinkedIn, because
that's where most of yourbusiness is going to come from.
If I myself am half assing it.And so I show up every single
(33:35):
day, even when I'm like, this isall the same crap in my news
feed. And you do it and youtotally work through it. And so
I feel like the summary of thisentire conversation is you can
be in business withoutsacrificing who you are. And in
fact, that might just be thesecret to success. Yes, there
(33:56):
you go. That's what happens whenauthority collides with
authenticity. There you go, Adamand Angie. We were meant to be
Adam. How does everybody elseout there continue to learn from
you? Because I will, I will alsoput my stamp of approval on, you
know, the some of the freeresources and what Adams don't
have Facebook. You know, it'sfun. It has like a mix of like,
(34:18):
I get to know who he is. I getsome tips. I get some lists of
like, Hey, you should be onthese websites. So how does
everybody else tune in to you?And what you're doing both as a
human and a marketer?
Unknown (34:28):
Yeah. So you can go to Adam mcchesney.com you'll see
links to all my different socialplatforms that on that are on
there. I spend my most time onFacebook. So you can connect
with me on Facebook. You'll seeAdam McChesney, and you'll see
the am logo. We have a freeFacebook group where I post
daily content in there, tips,strategies, as Angie was
mentioning, so you can just typein builders of authority into
(34:50):
the search bar. And then foryour listeners, I have a free
course that is built on personalbranding that kind of walks
people through the identityprocess of, how do I. Get
Started. How do I scale it? Andthen what should I be focused on
from a KPI metric standpoint, onwhat do I need to do from a
daily basis to reach my goals?So there'll be a link in the
(35:10):
show notes for that as well.Yes,
Angie (35:13):
I love actual practical advice, especially when it comes
from a good story of you didn'thave to be but it was rock
bottom, and now you bounce,bounce back, and you're better
for it. So you don't have to diefrom failure. You don't have to
sacrifice yourself to have asuccessful business. In fact, it
might just be the key to it, andAdam's got fantastic resources
(35:35):
to help you do it. So head onover to no more Mondays. Dot
info, or if you're listeningslash watching on LinkedIn.
We'll make sure everything is inthe comments so you can grab the
goodness build your personalbrand. And I'm even going to
challenge any of you out therewho are employees and job
seekers, this personal brandingstuff is is legit, even for you.
And while some of the like maybemarketing, business, KPI stuff
(35:57):
might not be as relevant ifyou're struggling to kind of
identify your unique valueproposition. I wouldn't, I
wouldn't doubt that there's afew little tools in there for
you. So this has been anotherfabulous episode of no more
Mondays. Adam McChesney, thankyou so much for joining me and a
little, a little shameless plug.I was on Adam's podcast a week
or two ago, so when you go overto his Facebook page, check it
(36:18):
out, because we had a prettyfabulous conversation that I
don't know if it was equal to,but rivals this one. So thanks
for having me there, and thanksfor being here. I appreciate you
and everything you're willing toshare with authenticity and
authority. Thank you. All right,everybody. I will see you next
week for another episode of nomore Mondays podcast. Have a
great week. You.
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