March 11, 2025

Discovering Podcast Success: Adam Torres of Mission Matters (Top 2.5% Global Podcast) Reveals Lessons from 6,000+ Interviews

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Podcasting Tech

Are you looking to start your own podcast or take your existing one to the next level? Today’s episode will inspire you to dive headfirst into the world of podcasting, armed with authenticity and perseverance. By simply tuning in, you can become better at your craft.

Adam Torres, co-founder and host at Mission Matters, joins us to share his podcasting journey from being a podcast skeptic to hosting a top-performing media platform, Mission Matters. 

Adam’s story is extraordinary and relatable; from having zero experience to conducting over 6,000 interviews with guests ranging from budding entrepreneurs to top executives like those at the FII Priority event. Adam emphasizes the importance of authenticity and building trust with your audience and guests.

If you are a podcaster and want to discover podcasting success you can’t afford to miss this episode. Adam's tales of perseverance and his belief in continuous improvement, learning, and building genuine relationships are valuable lessons for any podcaster. 

IN THIS EPISODE, WE COVER:

  • Adam's first steps in podcasting: Adam shares how his initial reluctance turned into enthusiasm after starting his first podcast as a book marketing tool. (01:03
  • The secret to early success: Without a website or a formal marketing strategy, authenticity and candidness set Adam apart, allowing for rapid growth and listener engagement. (03:18
  • The power of building relationships: Adam describes how trust and multifaceted relationships enhance the podcasting experience and open doors to unique content opportunities. (07:55
  • Navigating polarizing topics: Adam discusses handling diverse opinions and staying grounded by finding the human element in conversations. (12:07
  • Advice for new podcasters: Why present-day Adam cannot judge future Adam’s work, focusing on consistent improvement and embracing the journey. (18:18)

 

Links and resources mentioned in this episode:

 

Tiktok - @askadamtorres

Facebook - @askadamtorres

X - @askadamtorres

 

Adam’s path from fumbling over his first interview to becoming a respected broadcaster is a testament to the power of persistence and authenticity. Dive in and see how embracing these principles can transform your podcasting journey!

**As an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases of podcasting gear from Amazon.com. We also participate in affiliate programs with many of the software services mentioned on our website. If you purchase something through the links we provide, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. The team at Podcasting Tech only recommends products and services that we would use ourselves and that we believe will provide value to our viewers and readers.**

For additional resources and insights visit podcastingtech.com or follow us on social media:

 

 

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Transcript

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Welcome to Podcasting Tech, a podcast that equips busy

 

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entrepreneurs engaged in podcasting with proven and cost effective

 

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solutions for achieving a professional sound and appearance. I'm

 

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Matthew Passi, your host and a fifteen year veteran in the podcasting

 

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space. We'll help you cut through the noise and offer guidance on software and

 

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hardware that can elevate the quality of your show. Tune in weekly

 

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for insightful interviews with tech creators, behind the scenes studio tours, and

 

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strategies for podcasting success. Head to

 

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podcastingtech.com to subscribe to this show on YouTube or your favorite

 

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podcast platform, and join us on this exciting journey to unlock the full

 

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potential of your podcast. You know, something

 

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we've been trying to focus on here on the show is not just about the

 

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technology, but the strategy. What is it that can make

 

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podcasters successful? And today, we have one such

 

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person. We are chatting with Adam Torres. He is cofounder

 

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and host at Mission Matters. You can learn more about him at

 

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missionmatters.com. It is a top performing podcast, and it's

 

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also a media branding and book publishing agency. So

 

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lots of good stuff there for our listeners today. Adam, thank you for joining me.

 

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Hey, Matthew, man. I've been looking forward to this for a long time. I'm ready

 

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to get started. Let's do it. Sweet. Well, let's go back to the beginning

 

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then. Adam, how did you find yourself in the podcasting

 

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space? Either, you know, working there or producing your own show or hosting your own

 

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show. Well, I don't know about you, Matthew, but when people ask me to

 

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do things a lot of times, the first thing I wanna say is no. I

 

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don't have time. I'm busy. Leave me alone.

 

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I had one such incident very specifically related

 

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to podcasting, myself and the other cofounder here, Chirag Sigar.

 

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He's like, hey, Adam. We need to start a podcast. Now at this time, we

 

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were solely a book publishing company and we were doing these anthology

 

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books where we bring together a series of entrepreneurs and, you know, publish them, get

 

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their stories out there so they could be heard. So Chirag tells me, Adam, you

 

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know, we we need to do a podcast. And I'm like, Chirag, I don't even

 

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know what a what is a pod who cares? Like, what do you mean? And

 

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he's like, well, we need to do one. We're gonna sell more books if we

 

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do this. And I'm like, how what do we do? So my very was this

 

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roughly, by the way? Like, the year been we're going on nine years now. So

 

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that would be what? Two nine years ago or so. 2013, '20 '14

 

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ish? Yep. And, in in November, it will be nine

 

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years exact. So, yeah, about nine years. So,

 

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he tells me, no. I I need to do this. I need to get through

 

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this podcasting. And I'm like, well, if I do it, like, I don't even I'm

 

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not gonna interview people. I don't know how any of this works. So my first

 

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show, it took maybe, like, ten minutes to launch. I just

 

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I just set it up, like, on one of these platforms, really quickly, and I

 

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said, well, Sharad, we don't have anyone to interview, so you're my first victim, man.

 

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Let's do it. So I I that's how it all started. I like to I

 

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like to give people that story because, you may I

 

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want everybody to get out there to start it, but you may not even known

 

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you're gonna be doing it. So this is my forcing you. Get one started because

 

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you won't regret it. Alright. So your your partner said we should do a podcast.

 

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You're like, alright. We'll do it. What were some of the

 

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like, how long did it take until you, one, found yourself

 

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excited about doing it, but then two, when did you start seeing a return on

 

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that investment? I think my

 

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previous career and now mind you, at this time, I still was in

 

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finance, and I think my previous career kinda predisposed me for it.

 

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Like, I think anybody that's on the phone, anybody that's been in sales,

 

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anybody that's been so when I when after doing the first couple,

 

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I was like, wait a minute. When I started in my career in finance, I

 

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mean, when I exited, I managed a little under 200,000,000. So I've been working in

 

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that for maybe fourteen years just for some context. But when I exited

 

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after that, and then I I start this podcast, I'm doing these

 

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interviews. And I think about my early days when I first started in in in

 

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finance. And I was like, this is kinda like being in a call center. I

 

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I said, so this is what a podcaster does. Well, and I'll give you the

 

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reason why, Matthew. For me, I I approach my

 

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calls and my clients are very different. It was very conversational. I really

 

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enjoyed learning about their businesses. I learned, and then learning about

 

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what they did. And if you think about it, my calls were recorded and

 

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somebody was listening to it, but it just wasn't an audience. It was my manager.

 

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Because your manager listens to your calls for call quality. So I already had that

 

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kinda, like, audience thing in my head. And so when I jumped

 

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into the podcasting side, I just I was like, man. Okay. So a

 

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podcaster is an over glorified call center employee in finance.

 

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That that was my initial thought. Obviously, that that's how I approached it

 

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in the beginning. And I think because I did that, there was no, like

 

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it just kinda was natural to me, and people were listening to the conversations.

 

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And, just for context, and I say this again for the newbies out

 

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there, my first three hundred episodes were not edited. I don't

 

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even know if I did an intro. I don't know if I did an outro.

 

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It was just straight content straight and unedited

 

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upload, and we built an audience from that. So we did I did over 300

 

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episodes very quickly. I got better, over time, or maybe I'm still

 

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getting better, of course, but, that was it. So we had an immediate, we

 

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had an immediate uptick in everything. Like, whether it was book sales, whether it was

 

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reach, whether it was social media, whether it was, I everything

 

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had an uptick for us pretty immediately. And those 300 episodes, I probably did those

 

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in maybe two months. So we were we are busy and had demand, like,

 

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really quickly to be on the show. Wow. Yeah.

 

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What would you say was a

 

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a primary driver of the success? Was it

 

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the content, the way you marketed it, the fact that you were talking to so

 

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many people? Like, what do you think it was that made this

 

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product so useful for you in the beginning? I won't say the

 

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marketing because we didn't have a website. We didn't have a website. We didn't have

 

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a newsletter. We didn't have anything. So, like, this is the real. I'm giving you

 

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the real, Matthew, Matthew. Because people look at you, Google me, you go on my

 

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Instagram, ask Adam Torres. You'll see all this polished stuff now that our

 

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marketing team and everybody make sure that's one story. But

 

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we didn't even have a website in the beginning. So we had over 300

 

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episodes. No website. No nothing. No newsletter. Nothing.

 

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What we had is, I think I if I had to say there was one

 

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thing, and I know some of the people listening, like, they're like, what? This is

 

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this is the answer this guy gives me. Authenticity. I

 

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was authentic. I would say on this show, I don't know what I'm

 

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doing, and I can't believe this person's coming on this show, but thank you for

 

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being my guest. You're like the fifth guest in. And I still don't know

 

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how to do this, but I appreciate you. Like, I would just tell the

 

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truth. So if there's one thing that I know that I did, and I still

 

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do, by the way, in my opinion is I have the ability to

 

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tell the my odd to tell the, the person that's being

 

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interviewed where I'm at and also for the audience to feel like

 

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they're on that journey with me. And now fa I'll give you just one quick

 

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thing because it was a huge win this week, Matthew, and I and I now

 

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I'll be quite let you ask another question. But I'm just coming back from,

 

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like, fast forwarding nine years in this business. Politics

 

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aside, whatever. This is not getting into politics. But

 

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starting from as terrible as I was, I just came back from

 

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Miami. We are covering the FII priority event out there. And just to

 

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give you an idea of what that was, the president did the opening

 

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keynote. Elon Musk was there. The CEO of of TikTok,

 

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of, Eric Schmidt from Google. Like, all of the top

 

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CEOs and individuals in in the really in the world were there

 

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for big companies, a bunch of individuals from Saudi Arabia.

 

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Lot of, his excellencies and his majesties were there.

 

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And, that started from the worst podcaster ever, I would

 

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say. So nine years later so if you have a dream of doing something, you

 

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wanna be a podcaster out there, man, or you wanna see how far you could

 

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take it, put in the work. But I just had to give you that. Like,

 

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it's just you can do something with this. It matters.

 

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You know, you were you were talking about, you know, being

 

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brutally honest. And I think what

 

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that translates to for a lot of people is authenticity. Right?

 

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And, like, there's that great scene in in the Howard Stern movie where he goes

 

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from, ugh, why did I just lie about this commercial to now just

 

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being brutally honest with this audience, just talking about what's really going on with his

 

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life and that's what made him so attractive. And it sounds like that

 

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same thing is what makes you so attractive to not just the audience, but

 

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also the guests. You've spoken to 6,000 plus people,

 

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and I imagine you've retained a lot of those relationships, and those have been a

 

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big part of building on your success. And

 

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and what that does too, and when you say relationships, what it does and this

 

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is just another man, it's been a it's been a great week for us just

 

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to and what I mean by that is specifically for, you

 

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know, I'm human. Everybody listening to this ideally is human except for the

 

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AI. But other than that, that's listening to this

 

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to to answer somebody's question. Other than that, we're all human here. It's fine.

 

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Great. My show notes are gonna be all terrible. They're like, why is he insulting

 

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me? Exactly. Other than that, I apologize, mister

 

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AI. Didn't mean to offend.

 

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But other than that, what this word called trust

 

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comes about, and the word and I'll give you an example. So one of the

 

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conferences I cover, the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, it's

 

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one of the most important think tanks in the world just for context. A

 

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ticket to Milken this year for just a regular ticket, not a sponsorship. I think

 

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it's between 25 and $40,000 a ticket. So I cover

 

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that. It's one of the most important conferences in the world, just period, like Davos

 

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and many of the others. I mean, it's top of the top when it comes

 

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to it's a to where to be in the in the type of content that

 

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comes out there. I'm really proud to say that I built enough trust with

 

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the executives there and some of the individuals there to where now they come to

 

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me to break stories. And I've done multiple for them where I'm the first

 

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person. Now remind you, this is one of the most important, you know, organizations

 

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in the world, and they can go to CNBC. They can go to Bloomberg. They

 

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can go to Yahoo. They can go to anybody. But the reason why I get

 

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some of these interviews first is because of the trust and the

 

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person behind the mic does matter. And I'm not saying I'm this great talent. That's

 

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not what I mean by that, but the trust and the relationships you build when

 

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you do interviews with people. And if you make that connection with

 

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It does matter. And even down the line, I've had some people that I've interviewed,

 

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you know, two, three, four times over the course of the last nine years.

 

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And just to give you an idea of, of two of the studies that I

 

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just recently broke for them in terms of doing some interviews, one was on,

 

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was on how to prevent gun violence. So very polarizing issue. So

 

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the person that Emily that would that trusted us with that interview was the

 

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executive over there that was over that headed the study, and she

 

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wanted to be with somebody, you know, on an interview that she knew, and it

 

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was that type of interview. Another one that I just recently did for them was

 

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for another individual named John, and he, it was talking about

 

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philanthropy, the future of philanthropy and how to get involved. And that was and it

 

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and it would related a lot to, like, major issues like climate change and other

 

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issues that can really be polarizing in our country and otherwise.

 

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So, like, trust if you those relationships that you mentioned,

 

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over time, the quality of your platform, and I don't mean the

 

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quality of, like, how good your marketing is, how fancy it is, how good your

 

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social media clips. I mean, the content. What who are you interviewing? What kind of

 

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conversations are you having? Are you doing things that are still authentic

 

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like you were doing in year one and year nine? So how do you

 

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maintain that thread of authenticity through all of your body of work so

 

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that you build the trust, not just with your guests who are important people, but

 

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also your audience who you want to be listening to that can, over time, trust

 

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you and trust your voice. Not because depending on your show,

 

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by the way, I put myself in the broadcaster space. So what I mean by

 

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that, for anybody that's listening that kinda doesn't know the differentiator, I'm more of

 

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a broadcaster. My goal isn't to be an influencer giving my opinion on

 

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every subject. I might come more so from the broadcasting school

 

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where I wanna get the story out. I want people to be able to hear

 

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both sides of the story. I'm not on the and not nothing against

 

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influencers, but I'm not gonna talk for five minutes on my opinion on

 

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x y z before leading into a question. I'm a get to the question. Like,

 

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it's a little bit different of a slant. So interestingly enough, you

 

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you mentioned a couple different topics that, you're right, are very polarizing, and

 

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you mentioned, you know, certain people's names that are very polarizing

 

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and not necessarily one side or the other. Right? A little bit over here, a

 

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little bit over here, a little bit over here. So I imagine that you probably

 

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run into plenty of audience and

 

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commenters and followers who get upset

 

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over taping taking, talking, doing any of these things

 

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that might seem polarizing to one side or the other. How do you

 

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reconcile that? Like, how do you how do you work through that? What do you

 

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do when you, you know, do a topic on global warming

 

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and half your audience says, it's a fake. What are you doing? Stop doing that.

 

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And then you do something on, you know, Elon Musk and and his

 

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stuff, and everyone's like, he's a, you know, an oligarch. He's a tyrant.

 

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Like, why would you even talk about it? Like, how do you, you know, keep

 

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your audience happy or or, you know, what do you think about when you

 

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start to see those kinds of polarized reactions? Well,

 

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the first thing I like to do is I like to bring out the human

 

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element. And I'll I'll tell you what I mean by that. Like, my goal is

 

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when we think about even a word like Elon Musk, which I haven't had the

 

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privilege of interviewing him one day maybe, but let somebody like

 

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that, at when the higher the level the person is and the more known they

 

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are on the media, we don't actually look them at at them as people usually.

 

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They're figureheads. They're figures. There's people. They're cartoon characters. Some people look at

 

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me as a cartoon character. Like, right now, I don't because I'm being interviewed.

 

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I don't have on my normal red tie and my normal suit and my

 

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American flag pin. I go to conferences sometimes and, like, people don't

 

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recognize me and they don't wanna take a picture with me until I put on

 

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that stuff. Like, they don't it's because I'm a character. It's like a cartoon

 

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character. So first thing I wanna do is I wanna bring,

 

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like, most people, I believe in all the 6,000 plus interviews I've

 

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done. They have some they they didn't start from

 

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a a standpoint of they wanna be polarizing or they wanna

 

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hurt. And many of them don't wanna hurt. Even if you think, like, they're not

 

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trying to hurt people, they're they're trying to do the best they can, and they're

 

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they're from their standpoint, they are doing, you know, what they feel is right

 

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many times. Right? There's gonna be the outliers. But I wanna bring out some

 

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type of human element. So I'll give you just one quick example. I'm,

 

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I'm, interviewing specifically for the Milken Institute,

 

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their chief economist, and I'm at their global conference in Beverly Hills.

 

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And and a normal interview and no no

 

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disrespect any of the big companies. The and I say big. We're only a little

 

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over 30, but we punch above our weight. I like to say like that Mike

 

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pice Mike Tyson's punch out from back in the day. I'll try to punch above

 

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my weight, but it's us. It's Yahoo's there. Bloomberg's

 

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there. Right? All the top ones. These these companies have thousands of employees.

 

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And so I'm interviewing the chief economist there, and and they may ask them a

 

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question, okay, which is the obvious. Okay. So what do you think is gonna happen

 

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with inflation? What do you think is gonna happen in the next quarter? What do

 

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you think is gonna happen with corporate earnings? What do you think okay. That's good.

 

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For me, what I the first question I asked him was, so how did you

 

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originally get involved with the Milken Compass? Like, what what what how did that come

 

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about? How'd you meet Michael Milken in the first place? No. I know not no

 

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offense to anybody else there. That's not necessarily their job or the type of content

 

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they're trying to get, but nobody at Bloomberg asked them that. They don't care. It's

 

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a little bit different. So and listen to the response I got. He says and

 

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this is this is gold. This is the gold of it all. He tells me

 

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this story about how when he first learned of slash met Michael

 

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Milken, what he he was he was it was when he was trying to raise

 

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some money for this little old company that nobody thought would ever work. Like,

 

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come on. Twenty four hour news. That's insane. Why would anybody ever

 

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fund CNN? So

 

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so he believed in that as its chief economist, which is what he is now,

 

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by the way, what his title was then back then or where he worked for,

 

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I don't know. But that's when he first learned about his work, and he's like,

 

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man, you know what? I'm behind this guy. Like, I'm an advocate. I understand what

 

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he's doing. He's a visionary. He sees things a little bit differently than others.

 

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And this is one of those who knows how many PhDs, how many whatever. One

 

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of those people, like, smartest people in the world kinda person. Right?

 

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So I brought out the human element of him before

 

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even talking about inflation or anything else like that. I could still do the other

 

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side of it, but I want the human element too because I feel like when

 

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people can connect with each other and understand on some level that we're all

 

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human, it makes people at least a little bit more receptive just even to

 

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listen. Just even to actually listen before their guard is just like,

 

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woah, it's up. You know, I I have said it

 

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before on the show and in other places. I couldn't agree with that more. I

 

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remember when I was working in news and we would be interviewing people all the

 

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time and interviewing people from the left and from the right and people I liked,

 

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people I disliked, people I agree with, whatever it was. But anytime we had somebody

 

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who came into studio and we had a chance to interview them,

 

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I I just remember if they were at all kind,

 

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if they just treated all of us with a a little bit of respect, a

 

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little bit of dignity. Sliver. Right. Just just a hair.

 

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Right? Just to just for them to come in and, you know, introduce themselves and

 

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ask about this. Right? Like, immediately, my

 

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my thoughts on them change to, I could disagree

 

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with you, but I like you. And it's amazing how

 

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easy that is to do. And yet it seems like it is

 

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we, when, when it comes to the, the public persona,

 

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right, we immediately jumped to dehumanizing everybody. And I

 

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think if we all spent a little bit more time humanizing, we could disagree without

 

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getting so vicious and visceral and nasty and and,

 

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you know, maybe we'd be in a better place than we are today, but I

 

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don't think we're gonna solve the world's problems right now. I mean, that's and that's

 

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the process, though. Right? It's the, you know, the the the rub, if you will.

 

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Mhmm. Yeah. So now having done

 

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more than 6,000 interviews, having done, you know, great work, having all these accomplishments,

 

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right, like, going places in your life that you never thought you were gonna go

 

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to as a result of this podcast, what would you say

 

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to someone just starting out, someone maybe, you know, maybe fifteen, twenty

 

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episodes in, not moving the needle? Like, what is your

 

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default advice to someone saying, man, Adam, how do I get

 

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better at my podcast? Or or how do I get my podcast to be more

 

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successful? Yeah. So I'll give you some advice that was when

 

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I I was probably, like, maybe 300, four hundred episodes in, and I was

 

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I was at that place where I'm like, man, is this working? Does it even

 

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matter? Like, my numbers are kinda the same. Is it and I and I met

 

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with this gentleman who he was, he's an old school Hollywood guy.

 

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I'm located in LA, and he's old school. Like, he was a a lead writer

 

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on shows like Hill Street Blues and, like, all these classic shows. Like, he was

 

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a writer for a long, long time. So he's worked with huge stars, huge talent

 

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in his career. And I was like, man, let's go have coffee. Like, I'm just

 

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in my head about this creatively and this and that, all these things. So I

 

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was kinda struggling just mentally. You know, it's all just between my ears. Nobody else

 

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knows that this is going on with me. And I meet with him, and he

 

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says, okay, Adam. What so what's going on? So I tell him how I'm feeling,

 

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everything else, and he's like, alright. He said, how long did you start? It was,

 

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like, whatever the amount of time was. Maybe three, six months before, and I'm already

 

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feeling this, like, this like, oh, what's going on? And he, and

 

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he says, well, are you better now than when you started six months ago

 

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or whatever the amount of time was? And I'm like, yeah. He said, are you

 

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better now than you were, a week ago? I said, yeah. He

 

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said, do you think you're gonna be better, like, next week, than you are

 

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today in your interviews or your process? I said, yeah. And then he said,

 

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what about in a year? Are you gonna be better? And I was like, yeah.

 

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He's like, how about in five years? I said, yeah. I said, what about ten

 

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years? You're gonna be better than? He said, yeah. He says, well, present day Adam

 

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doesn't have the right to judge the work of future

 

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Adam. So just keep recording.

 

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Interesting. Present day Adam doesn't have the right to

 

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judge future Adam. Just keep recording. Just keep

 

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working at your craft. You're gonna be better. So why you don't even know how

 

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good you're gonna be. Just keep recording. Have you ever

 

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have you ever come across a scenario or situation

 

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where you were doing something, you're like, this doesn't work,

 

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and at what point do you make that call? Because

 

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there's, like, there's what you said, believing in yourself and, you

 

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know, not knowing what the future holds and, you know, see where this can take

 

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you. But there's also an investment of time and energy and resources

 

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and, you know, sometimes people are doing something and they're spinning their

 

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wheels and, right, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a

 

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different outcome. Like, is there something there that makes you say to yourself, you know

 

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what? That's not working. Let's focus our energy

 

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somewhere else or try something different, as opposed to just keep

 

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going. Well, I'll I'll I wanna just maybe slightly

 

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paraphrase what you mentioned. I'm not actually coming from the, so my background's

 

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finance. So the way that you position that

 

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question is kind of more like on the inspirational side of things.

 

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For me though, I'm more on the technical side. So what I mean

 

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by that is, I mean, the compound, let's just call it interest or

 

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the compound return of my labor. Like, so when I think about,

 

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like, interviews, I look at quantity. I look at trying to make

 

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each one better, but my belief isn't like from the inspirational side

 

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or, like, what could happen. It's more so that I'm like I'm like,

 

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Michael Jordan doing free throws. If I'm doing a thousand free throws a day, guess

 

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what? My percentage of free throws are gonna I'm gonna be making more shots. Like,

 

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period. It doesn't matter. If I'm doing more interviews, if I'm practicing

 

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my craft, over time, I'm gonna get better because I

 

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can't knock it better as long as I'm there and I'm present during the

 

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interview. So that's one just one slight adjustment

 

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for the way I understood the way you position. I'm actually looking at quantity. I'm

 

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I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm tracking those metrics. I'm looking

 

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at also the response from the guests. I'm also looking at

 

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my numbers in terms of, like, growth over time. So I I do have those

 

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components. But the other part of that is, is to

 

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to continue to answer your question, is, I

 

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study. I take it this is very different for me. So other in when I

 

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when I was in finance, to give you an example, I, you know, I have

 

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my series six, my series seven, my series 63, my CFP.

 

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I probably consume maybe 15,000 pieces of content in my

 

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in my tenure in order to get all those licenses and in order to have

 

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the skills to be able to manage hundreds of millions of dollars. I take this

 

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business that serious. So what I mean by that is I've read over a

 

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hundred books minimum on entertainment. So when I when I started

 

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down this path, I would say it's something that's slightly different from myself. Once I

 

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knew, by the way, the early days when I was just recording those first three

 

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hundred or whatever episodes, that was, you know, a crap show. Whatever. Like, that

 

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was just like, let's record. Let's see what happens. That was not me taking this

 

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as a craft. Once the show like, once I had that little

 

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silver lining up or that silver, like, whatever it was, like,

 

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this thing looks like it's working. People are listening. What the heck's happening? Once I

 

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knew that this was a thing or even a profession, which I didn't know when

 

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I first did it, I just did it because as I mentioned, Shrock said to

 

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do it. Then I started going back and studying the

 

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greats. So the good thing about entertainment and in general

 

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for this business is it's most everybody has a biography. I went back. I

 

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read the Johnny Carson all the Johnny Carson biographies out there. I read the

 

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David Letterman ones. I read the Jay Leno ones. I read the,

 

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the Oprah books. I read the all of Howard Stern's books. I read all of

 

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their like, Howard Stern's has these great books where he has his interviews

 

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transcribed. I learned what they said, and I'll just give you one quick

 

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excerpt from one of them that I'll paraphrase. In one of his books, he talks

 

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about his early days in radio and how amazing it was

 

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and how important that period of time when he was working at those crappy small

 

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stations were because at that point, he was trying to find

 

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a, he was trying to find his voice so that he would be

 

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worth a larger audience listening to. So

 

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I go back and I study the Red Skelton days, the Bob Hope days,

 

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like, all of that, how this entertainment business even came to be. So to

 

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I know that's a long answer to your question, but what it means to me,

 

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though, is, when I say, like, is something not working,

 

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it's like on what time period? How like, again, finance. Am I looking at

 

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the bar chart, like, really close to where I'm saying it didn't work on this

 

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interview? Or but when you when you, like, pull back and you look at

 

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the entire Dow Jones average over the last hundred years or whatever, it's

 

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going up. So for me, I don't really get caught in the

 

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one thing that's doing, because if not, it'll drive me crazy, man. I'm gonna do

 

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40 interviews this week. I do 1,500 to 2,000 interviews this

 

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year. It will literally drive me crazy if I reassess every

 

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interview. But when I pull when I look back at the chart from further away,

 

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it's like, man, we're going up. Just the few the current present day

 

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Adam has no right to judge, based on the work I'm

 

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doing, by the way, not just leaving it up to chance. I'm still reading books.

 

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I'm still studying my craft. I'm I'm considering and maybe I should say this here.

 

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Actually, I'm a say this here. First time I've ever ever said it.

 

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I'm enrolling in a comedy class in Las Vegas because I wanna put

 

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together five minutes of comedy. I've never done comedy in my life. I

 

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am absolutely terrified, Matthew. Even saying this, this

 

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is the first time I've said it publicly. My my my hands are getting

 

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palmy and sweaty just thinking about it. I got a comedy coach, and I'm already

 

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freaking out. But I push myself, and I just know that's another

 

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skill set. It's another skill set to to obtain.

 

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So, that's my process overall to take it.

 

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Love that. I mean, best of luck on the comedy stuff. You know Man, I

 

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don't wanna and I don't think I'm gonna be a stand up comedian. Like, that's

 

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not the goal, but it's I wanna be a better host. I wanna

 

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be a better host. I know that there's things I can learn about comedy, about

 

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delivery, about timing that I don't know, that aren't intuitive,

 

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that that information's out there, and it's learnable. It's there. I would

 

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also encourage then you check out an improv class. Improv is obviously in

 

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the same realm as comedy, but it's a different skill set, and I've heard lots

 

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of people say that improv classes or lessons have really

 

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helped them when it comes to interviewing media and things like that. This

 

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is I will take your advice. That sounds amazing. And, that'll

 

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be this the next one. And, we might have to do a re a repeat

 

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episode in the future. When these are done, I'm a be like, Matthew, I did

 

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that shit you bring me back in the show. We're talking about this. What did

 

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you sign me up for, man? Well, when you come out to the Helium Comedy

 

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Club in Philly, I'll be, sitting in the first row checking it out. As a

 

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reminder, we are chatting with Adam Torres, cofounder and host at mission

 

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matters dot com. Great podcast with

 

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thousands and thousands of interviews and lots of other resources that you can check

 

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out. Adam, before we let you go, few questions we always like to

 

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ask everybody. So since you've been putting out so much content, my question is,

 

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is there anything in podcasting that you would like to see improved,

 

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whether it's from producing distribution or even from the

 

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consumption side? Like, is there just something you're like, god, I wish podcasting did this

 

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or did this better? I I think one

 

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of the good things that is coming out, and I wanna see more and more

 

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of it. I do wanna give a shout out to PodMatch that they're the ones

 

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that, united us together. I'm really hopeful that

 

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there's more communities like PodMatch that come together because, ultimately,

 

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the more guests and hosts that can get United, like as many

 

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interviews as I've done, I'm a drop in the bucket, man. It does not matter.

 

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There's such demand. My, my mission and my goal and my, my hope is

 

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to inspire others to get out there and, and to share their story.

 

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Like, I don't listen to my show. Don't do anything. It's okay. Go create your

 

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own show. Like, go do your own interviews. Go on your own

 

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journey because, you know, you're part of other people's legacy. Like,

 

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it's a beautiful thing. Love it.

 

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Any tech on your wish list, whether hardware, software, something

 

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that is out there that you're just having purchased or something you're like, man, I

 

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need somebody to make this for me. Yeah. I'll say the AI has been

 

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killing it lately, like social media clips and some of the things that are happening.

 

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I would like I'm excited for it whenever this happens, by the way.

 

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On my wish list is the next version of, like, social

 

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media clips. They're getting really good. They're getting really good at, like, picking

 

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out the potential virality of, of, like, a episode

 

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or a clip or the high moments. I'm I'm excited to see, like, the next

 

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version of whenever those clips get even better. Like, I wanna see, like, the

 

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social media AI and all the things that are out there. You can see them

 

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getting better and better, but as they learn and they get better, I'm excited to

 

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see the the next version of whatever social media software out

 

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there is gonna be able to pull and pick. They're they're maybe, like,

 

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85% correct and good at this point. I can't wait till they're at, like,

 

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95 or a hundred, and you're like, man, that was amazing. I think you're

 

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just saying that to make up for what you said earlier about AI in the

 

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interview. You know I am, man. I'm like, I know they're listening. And by the

 

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way, I love Facebook too. Just in case

 

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Mark's listening, I love some Facebook. Go on that platform and

 

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Oh, look at that. I just got a Facebook ad for Adam Torres online Look

 

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at it. On my phone. Lastly, do you have

 

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a favorite podcast or two that you must listen to? You will not let

 

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an episode go by or, you know, you'll you'll stop what you're

 

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doing to check out when they drop a new episode. You mean other than yours?

 

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Of course. Other than mine. Wait. That's goes without saying. Other than

 

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yours? Oh, come on, man. I think one of them that I've been

 

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listening to quite a bit right now is, which is funny. It's more of a

 

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sports thing, but the one with, with Cameron and Mace, like, I like

 

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their podcast, They Crack Me Up. What is it? It is what it is. I

 

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think that's the name of it. It just comes up. The clips come up. It's

 

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again, that's not business. It's not anything else. They talk about sports and hip hop

 

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culture and other things like that. So it's a little bit different, but they crack

 

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me up, man. And half of the thing what what I get inspiration from that

 

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show from is they laugh a

 

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lot. I don't those two laugh, and they laugh and

 

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they laugh and it makes me laugh more on my show and to remember just

 

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to be loose even with other, like, harder, like, let's just say issues

 

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and things like even some of those, like, really serious topics that we've

 

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covered. I still try to and find a way

 

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to make sure that we laugh and that we can make light. And that's because

 

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we're all going through this thing called the human condition together. And

 

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I feel like laugh can laughter can help you get through, you know, pain. It

 

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can help you get through a lot of other emotions. So I love their show

 

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because even when they're dealing with, like, some not so fun stuff,

 

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they're cracking up. And that's what my family that's how I was raised.

 

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It's like, man, there's a lot of painless laugh at it. It's okay.

 

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Laughter is the best medicine as they say. Once again, we are chatting with we

 

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have been chatting with Adam Torres, cofounder and host

 

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at Mission Matters. You can learn more about them at missionmatters.com.

 

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Follow Adam on all the social media networks. Ask Adam Torres, and we'll have links

 

Speaker:

to all those places as well so you could easily find it. Adam, it's been

 

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a pleasure. Can't wait to chat with you again and, see where this life takes

 

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you next. Can't wait to do this improv class, man. You put it on my

 

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list now. Thank thank you for more work coming on the show, Matthew. Thank you.

 

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Thanks for joining us today on Podcasting Tech. There are links to all

 

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the hardware and software that help power our guest content and

 

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Podcasting Tech available in the show notes and on our website at

 

Speaker:

PodcastingTech.com. You can also subscribe to the show on your

 

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favorite platform, connect with us on social media, and even leave a rating and review

 

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while you're there. Thanks, and we'll see you next time on Podcasting

 

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Tech.