From Michael Jordan’s Locker Room to Media CEO

It's legit and it's amazing. And it was because I made that final decision to go all in.

You're 17 years old in the locker room with Michael Jordan. Yep. I made it.

I always wanted to do cool stuff. I always knew I wanted to do this.

What was the itch that pulled you like we've been stable? I want to take some more risk.

From South Bin to Evansville and everywhere in between. This is Get In, the show focused on the Hoosier State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation. Before we get into the show, I need to remind you that today's episode is brought to you by my friends at NCW. You might remember when I had Dan Nadley on the show, talking about how they built a national staffing and recruiting company over the past 25 years, specializing in skilled trades. They are looking for new members to join their team.

If you're looking for work in recruiting, sales, or general business operations, you need to check out teamnc. com. Not only have they been voted a top workplace by Indie Star, listed on the IBJ Fast 25, and featured on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest private growing companies in America, but I also have a personal laundry list of friends that work at NCW and absolutely love it. To learn more and check out their open roles, check out teamncw. com and tell them you heard about it on Get Inur.

Today, I'm joined by Adam Grub, the founder of Adam Grub Media, a full-ervice media production studio based in Noblesville, Indiana. He's also the founder and partner of Stick andHack Entertainment and founder and partner of Build Experience. Now, Adam and his team create stunning content that includes everything from animated marketing videos to comprehensive social media strategies. His company offers solutions to help businesses grow through video production, digital marketing, killer merch, and more. Now, today we're going to be covering Adam's journey from radio superstar to media entrepreneur. We're going to be talking about the who's your entrepreneurs's dream and how you can make that happen and how to take care of your people even when you're moving fast.

Uh Adam, welcome to Get In.

Thank you, Nate. It's great to see you. Uh first of all, congratulations on your success. Amazing show. Love watching your rise and and and growth here. It's been been awesome. And this studio is exactly what I thought it would be. It's uh it's awesome. So, congrats.

I think that's good. I think that's a that's a compliment that we'll take. Uh it's fun and we've had some again I was telling them before we started, Sweetwater's been an amazing partner. We have uh yeah, a real studio. It's always cool when you can bring someone in and they appreciate like, "Oh, this is a real thing, you know, like it's not just like

Well, there was there was no doubt. We've all known it's a real thing. So, you're you're killing it."

There we go, dude. I appreciate it. U and I mean that means a lot coming from someone who has some serious media chops, right? You've been doing this for how long now?

Um I've been in the media space since I was 15. Uh so that would be 30 years or so.

Or so. We're not going to totally pinpoint an age, but or so. 31 years to be exact. So, um, so I'm 46 and so since the age of 15, I have been in media and radio and broadcasting and journalism and all of those things all kind of wrapped up into one. Um, and and it doesn't feel like it was that long ago that that I was starting my career, but it apparently it's been that long.

Well, and you had the internship of doing your talk show to your cassette tapes in your bedroom when you're eight years old, right?

Right. So, at at the age of eight is when I started getting into uh into media and uh and I wanted to have my own radio show. So, I just I just did it. And uh back then we had the cassette tapes and you'd hit record and record play at the same time and and I recorded myself into into the tape recorder doing doing radio shows.

What did you talk about? What was the talk?

It was it was always news and weather that was in sports. It was just it was a talk I there was no guests. There was no there was just me blathering uh for hours at end

uh about what's going on in Converse Indiana.

Yeah. Yeah. So, it was a short show.

Yeah.

And today it snowed, right? Welcome to Miami County.

Yeah.

What high school? What high school is Converse?

Oak Hill.

Oak Hill. The Golden Eagles.

Look at you. Come on. My god.

Oh, that's that's the shtick, right? U Okay. So, grew up there and then in 15 you kind of dove head first into all things radio. Like, you know, a lot of people's first jobs are like fry cook at McDonald's or whatever there. Like, your first job was working in radio.

My first job. My first job was working overnights at a radio station playing oldies uh at an AM radio station 1400 WBAT and

overnight like what time

was completely illegal. I couldn't shouldn't have been doing it.

How'd you sleep?

I was midnight to 6:00 a. m. So that that's when the entrepreneur journey kind of started for me. Understanding what had to happen in order to get what you wanted and and it wasn't just a grind. It was it was about understanding how to maneuver everything and get everything into your day. So I was still in high school.

I ran cross country uh and then I was on the radio. So on the weekends, oh, also I was a a sports writer for the Marian Chronicle Tribune. So at the same time that I got the job with the radio, I went to the newspaper and I said, "Hey, I I want a job here." And the story about me getting a job on the radio is is famous in in my circles. Um and that uh for three days in a row, I went I went back to the station because day one I had my mom take me. I'm like, "Hey," I walked in, introduced myself, the program director, and I said, "I like to work here on the radio."

And he said, "You're you're too young." And I said, 'Well, that why does that matter? And he's like, 'Well, you're too young. You can't work at a radio station. You're 15 years old. Like, what?

Your mom brought you here. Like, what the hell are we talking about? And so, uh, day two I go back and because I told mom, I said, "You're going to take me back because that's where I want to work." And, um, so she took me back and I went back in. I said, "Hey, I'm older. Can I work here?

I'm older."

And he said, "Dude, come on. No, get out of here. Beat it." Uh, so you know the end of the story. Day three, I went back. I said, "My man." And uh he said, "All right, geez, come in this weekend. We'll see what you can do." So,

what was your first gig? Like, what what that weekend? What was a try out?

It wasn't a try out. I was on the air. They like, "Okay." I mean, it was AM station at midnight. Like, who who cares? They put me on the air.

I started that weekend. I played oldies and and I mean like legit 60s, 50s and 60s oldies at the time. I didn't even know the music. I didn't know the songs. I didn't know the artists. I didn't know anything.

So, so that was my that was my start in radio. And then at the same time I I got a job with the Chronicle Tribune as a sports writer. So on the weekends while some of the kids were out uh playing and and going to the games and and sitting in parking lots drinking Bud Light, I was at the newspaper uh working with adults. Um and I was covering local sports and uh I would be a writer. I covered the in 1996 or 97 when the Bulls won like 72 games and they ended up getting beat um like they had some big streak and they got beat by the Pacers. I was at Market Square.

I was in the locker room. I interviewed Michael Jordan. I interviewed Dennis Robin. I interviewed Deny Simpkins. Uh Steve Kerr. I interviewed I covered the Pacers, covered the Colts.

I was 16, 17 years old at the time. I had a little media pass and I was kicked out of more locker rooms because they thought that I had snuck in. I'm like, "No, I'm a legit writer. Like, what are we doing here?" So that was my start uh back in the day.

I mean there's like we could do a whole podcast just about those stories, right? Like that's incredible. Where did that like where did that drive come from?

I can give you some piffy answer. Um but honestly it's just I always wanted to do cool stuff. I always knew I always knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to do this. I I wanted to have a a a big career. I wanted to wear a suit. I wanted to work in some office downtown. Like I always visualized everything that I that I wanted.

You're 17 years old. You're in the locker room with Michael Jordan. Do you just think to yourself, "Yep, I made it."

Um,

peaked at 17.

No, I because I was too busy trying to figure out that I didn't screw it up because I was given this golden opportunity there, right? The last thing I wanted to do was to to make a fool of myself. The cool thing about that and I remember this this moment in the locker room of the Bulls Pacers. I was again 17 years old and every reporter, every major sports reporter and newspaper, TV were all talking to Jordan and the nobody was talking to Dennis Rodman. So, I went over and I sat next to Dennis Rodman and it was just me and him and I'm interviewing

him, talking to him and he was complaining to me about the NBA and how the league is so filtered and watered down and and he's just just going off and just me and him and I'm 17 years old and I bet he looks back and he probably doesn't remember this but he probably look back like why was I talking to that kid at all let alone about break some exclusive story.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, and and and I went back and I it was I was a reporter. I was a journalist. And so that's how I had act. I couldn't get autographs.

I couldn't get photos. I couldn't I couldn't do anything. Uh and as a kid, that was insane that I couldn't I had no record of meeting celebrities except for the stories that I would write about them. And then in the in the radio, um after a couple years of WBAT, uh my senior year of high school, I then uh said, "I need to go up. I want to go up to the next station. I'm tired of of uh being on the AM.

So I went to WLBC in my um I said hey this is I I want to work here and Steve Lindell who's still there at LBC um gave me an opportunity and I was there for 5 years and I worked nights and then I worked afternoons. I was promotion director. I I was very I loved it. It was the best. It was the greatest life. Um I was 19 years old making $24,000 a year on the radio.

Uh, it was the richest richest 19-year-old in Delaware County and it it was awesome. Um, I got to interview Adam Durz and Ed Qualch from live and uh and all that

because you end up going to Ball State

for nine days.

Oh yeah,

for nine days.

And then you just like

I didn't go again. Yeah. So the nine days then I didn't go again. But I lived in Muny, lived on the college campus, had the job. Nobody even knew I didn't go to school. They everyone thought I went to school. I didn't. Um,

you're just on the radio. You're like your friends are like, "Oh yeah, they go to class and then maybe they go work at the student radio station and you go work on one day you'll graduate to the big leagues, buddy."

Accurate. And it was uh it was the best. It was just I I would wake up at 10:00. I'd go into work at 11:00. I'd work the, you know, do radio cuts and commercial cuts and promotion stuff till 2 o'clock. And I'd do the afternoon show from 2:00 to 7:00. Uh, and I'd finish up, you know, by 8:00. And I go and I go out with my buddies or I'd go and play Bond. Like it was

I mean

the greatest life. Yeah. And so

and you and you're making 24 grand a year. Like you're not doing too bad.

No. And my rent was 100 bucks because I live like 12 guys, you know.

And so at that point at that point, did you have that moment like yep, I've made it. This is what success looks like.

100%. 100% I did. And and I knew that that's I just wanted to keep going. The right side of my brain, the creative side didn't win that battle because the left side said, "Hold on a second. 24 grand isn't going to get you anywhere in life. So you need to figure out a way to make more money.

So at some point uh I decided to get into sales and uh media sales still but then I got into sales and you know then the story becomes boring. I had I had like this this you know like a Pacino early 90s run of great moments right and then uh when I got into sales then that's when my life kind of kind of settled down a little bit and I realized that I needed to I needed to think about things a little bit different. So then that's when I got into the entrepreneurship and and building companies and all that. Yeah, I was going to say you was it like 12 15 years of like the sales part there in the middle, right? Where you know and like that's a piece of like stability, you know, like there's a time

I started to have kids, you know, I got married, started to have kids and and and the whole thing and and um and it was great. Um and I

So you go meet your in-laws and you're like, "Yeah, I'm the number one radio DJ in my make 24 grand a year." And they're like, "Yeah, but like you're going to have kids." Yeah. You know,

good for you, chief.

Yeah.

What's What are you going to do next? like you want to take my you want to take my daughter's hand in marriage like come on. So get into sales you have her run there and then what was the itch

or like the moment that pulled you like you know what it's time like we've been stable I want to take some more risk again.

I never see those things as risk. Um I see them as opportunities. I see them as excitement. I see them as things I want to do. I visualize it. I see it.

I haven't missed much. I've missed right and there's some ideas that have come up that some things I've started or things I've wanted to do that just couldn't never came to fruition. I have been very lucky to find incredible people around me. And if you know, if you leave this podcast with any lesson, it is the same business lesson that everyone's heard a thousand times, which is surround yourself with smarter people than you and you will be successful. And that's what I've been able to do um with with Adam Grub Media specifically and then with the other ventures that that I'm involved in. Finding people that understand your passion, understand your drive, understand your vision, and want to support that is everything.

They will never feel the same you do, the same way you do about your thing. Um, as much as you think they they do and as much as you think they get up in the morning and go, "Oh my god, how how can I help Adam today?" That isn't what they do. They they are there to work. They are there to to do what makes them happy. Finding those people that understand your vision as a leader, as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, and having them say, "Hey, what are we doing tomorrow?"

Uh, that's that is success. You know, that's the I made it. Um, and you've and you've seen these these videos of of rappers and and music musicians when the when the crowd is singing their song back to them for the very first time, you know, and they're faced and they're like, "Oh, the I made it moment." There's there's a lot of I made it moments for me throughout my career, but at each stage of the career, it's an I made it moment. And uh, right now the I made it moment that we have 22 people that have dedicated their days and their lives and their careers to AGM and to all the other uh, things that we have going on. That's an I made it moment that these people would trust me.

When you talk about identifying people that are smarter than you and getting the right people on board, are there markers or indicators? Like what are you looking for when you're recruiting new talent?

Humor.

All right. They walk in the job. They walk in the door for the interview, they drop a joke on you like hired.

They just got to laugh. They got to smile. It's it's they got to be able to to not take it so seriously because it's I mean it's not that serious, right? I mean, we own an ad marketing agency. Um, but I want them to have fun. I want them to be fun people.

Um, and I and I want them to to have confidence. They can be led, but they can't be told and and just like drugged through the process. They got to be on their own a little bit, and they got to be making able to make decisions on their own. U, but confidence is what I look for. I look for confidence. I look for passion.

I look for excitement. I look for um, hey, what what what else can we do? Because that's how that's how every day at AGM is. What else can we do? Uh, what if we did this? What if we did that?

and and that and that's always been my my mantra. Um, some would say that I'm never satisfied. Some would say that I'm that I don't have the ability to just sit in the moment, but I don't look at it that way.

H I I I can't. It's really hard.

It's impossible.

Like I don't know. I think about the pinnacle. Uh, okay. Like last year, I'll use like a p personal anecdote here. Last year, I got I made a bet with Randy Lwendowski of the Indianapolis Indians. If I got 100,000 views, I get to throw out a first pitch.

Okay. So, we host this festival. It's like a ton of my friends, everyone. Like, I'm getting ready to go throw out a in an Indian like the first in an Indians game and I'm already thinking about like how are we going to top this one? Like, what do I got to do next? Like, you got to 500.

Yeah. Hey, Doug, come on buddy. Um, but it's like what what's going to be next, right? I'm all and it's it is like this battle between like is that Yeah. you're never satisfied and you're always thinking of how to improve, but also being I hate to say content, but like happy with, you know, and like celebrate, especially when you have a team. It's like if you're just the guy that's always like, "What's next? What's next? What's and you're never like stopping and congratulating or giving out kudos to the people around you that are working their butts off, like you're not going to be someone that's going to have a very good team."

That's great. Great point.

All right. Second question before we dive into all things AGM, like you talked about, right? you were hitting all these winners. Like you're 15, you get on the radio, you're 19, you're at the number one station. Like you're a radio DJ, you're making 24 grand a year, you're killing it. Go run a

got into sales a decade sales

sales. Like was that hard for you? Like I think when when you experience wins and celebration and like some fanfare at an early age, like, man, this guy's just a winner. And then you kind of like go the corporate path.

Yeah. like emotionally, like internally, was that like a hard uh reality to face?

Looking back on it, yeah, I'm sure it was. In the moment, I it it never really hit me. Um I miss it. I could do I want to do it today. Like I could do it today.

Like sales?

No, I know I can do sales. The radio, I could do that today. I loved it so much. I loved that. I loved everything about it.

Did you have like a late night radio DJ voice?

No, it's the exact same voice you hear. And the exact same name, too. That's how that's how self-absorbed I was. I'm like, I I got to make sure that everyone knows my name. Uh and and that has continued on my entire career because I think your own personal brand, if you have that, uh I don't know why you wouldn't attach yourself to to your companies and to your stuff.

That was my biggest thing right when I started putting out content all about the state of Indiana. Like that's like current like I put out, you know, tons of Indiana. I didn't want to be like Indiana Nate or something, you know, like I didn't want to be Indiana guy. I was just like, I'm Nate. Like, and right now, like, I love Indiana. I am on a mission to uncover all these great stories. But in five years, if I change to wanting to be like a chemist, and I just want to put out chemistry content, like I hope that people maybe follow along for the journey because they love Nate, not that they just love like Yes, Nate.

Yeah, but you should workshop that idea though. I don't know.

Yeah, maybe not chemistry, right? But like

you might want to ask somebody else another topic to do it. Yeah, I I think that your personality and your brand uh kind of came up with your your content. Um and I I reversed it. Um everything that I did was attached to the to to my brand and to into my name. For right or wrong, I have no idea. But um that's just how I felt.

You know, you're doing the sales thing

and AGM starts like you get this I the itch, the entrepreneurship itch that you got to go out and do something. What did you do to get AGM off the ground? I

remember when you asked me before, you said, "Is there anything you want to talk about? Is there anything that I have to talk about?" Um, and as we've been talking about radio, I have to tell you my world famous radio story of a massive mess up. Oh, yes. So, you talked about me being on top of the world, and I was, and it was the best, but I had one of the most embarrassing, awful, uh, I'm going to get fired moments that happened at August 30th of 1999. The reason I know that is because that was the day Princess Diana died. So I was on it was the night time so I was 5 hours behind and and all that had had already happened in late night in over in London. So I'm on the radio and we're we're doing the the the news because this was world breaking news. Right. Do you remember I don't know how old you are. Do you remember this moment at all? Is this even hit your

No, not in my not in my memory. No.

So for anybody 40 and over, you'll know that that was a world stopping moment. Right. And so on the radio uh you you it's what's called a cold news break where you don't play any music. There's no bumper underneath there. It is, hey, here's the news. This is serious. World needs to hear this. So, we did that for several hours. Every time we we before we go to break, we would continue to break the news. This was well before the internet and all the other things that we had.

How did you guys get the news? Someone fax this to you?

So, this um so we a pony came up and some old guy handed me the letter.

Wells Fargo guy.

No. Uh through through the newswires. So, we were tied into all newswires at the time. Um and so you get an alert. you get a literal bulletin on a computer that says, "Hey, this just happened." I'm going through and by by three, four hours later, it was no longer breaking news. Um, it was just continued news coverage. So, at that point, then we were allowed to talk about it over the over songs. So, I remember to this day the exact moment of what I said. So, the music starts and uh you don't know what a ramp is.

So, ramp is when the music starts until they hit the post where where the words start of the song. Yeah. Okay. So, I had 19 seconds on this ramp. So I say um and and in the time radio you had music was pretty much picked for you. You didn't get to much to what people think. You didn't get to pick your own songs. So I say uh 104.1 WBC today's best music. It's Adam Adam Grub. Uh in case you're just joining us, some sad news out of London today. Uh Princess Diana dead at the age of 34 in apparent car crash. Details are sketchy, but we will have them more for you as we get them here at the station. Here's Dave Matthews band Crash into Me. Oh, okay. Wow. Not good.

So then I take my headphones down like this and I'm like, "That's it. I'm done. My career is over in radio. I'm fired." What a nightmare. Awful. Um, hotline rings, boss calls. What the hell just happened? I'm like, "Dude, I there was the next song." Like I in my head I'm just I'm just trying to hit the post. I'm trying to bop hit the song WBC.

That's That's brutal.

That's brutal. That's really

I was white as a ghost and I'm You're by yourself in radio and you're in a studio by yourself. No one else is there. It was 8:30, 9:00 at night and like on Tuesday.

I thought it was going to be this one.

Hold on. Just

Oh, Dirty Diana. Michael Jackson.

I thought that's who was I thought that's what you were building up to.

That is really good.

I thought that's what you were building up. I was like, "No, don't say it. Don't say it."

Dirty Diana, Michael Jackson might have been easier to to get through than Crash Into Me. D Matthews B. And in 99 I mean that song was massive. So yeah, I was on top of the world. Fine.

So how did you

But in 19 seconds it could go bad.

Yeah, that would be else like did any And did you feel like you had a tighter watch on you after that? Like it's like

I always had a tighter watch on me for sure. But yeah, right after that and I I was I was as locked in as I've ever been for the next several weeks of of everything I said.

Man, that's that's

And the lady ladies people called. They're like, "Hey."

Yeah, that's pretty insensitive.

Yeah, just tasteless. I'm like, "Hey, Bruce, I apologize." You know, and I got back on the air then and I'm like, "Hey, obviously that was poor timing. I'm very sorry. It was not on purpose." Now, luckily back then it was a moment in time. No one ever It never replayed a thousand times like it would today.

I would Yeah, that would get clip. You would end up on TikTok

two in two seconds. Luckily, it was 1999 and no one knew what

and it was a mistake. Like you you're in the zone, you you're going and it's like you've done that a thousand times where you like this like custom

I just I can do it in my sleep that talk that speak that timing all of that and it was just autopilot and because I wanted to get that news out and then when you hear the song so about 17 seconds right you got two seconds to say the title of the song and and the station call letters and you just say it because everything was on a list of these are the songs I need to play. Yeah, that's a that's a tough one. That's a tough one.

I guess now, ironically, this will be clipped out. So, I still

So, it's still gonna end up out there when an idiot,

but is as big as mistakes where mistakes can be made. People make mistakes. It happens. I want to take a minute to tell you about my friends at JC Hart and the opportunity that they are giving to get in listeners. They are offering summer savings and up to two months off of rent at these brand new communities. East Bank in Noblesville, The Edge on the north side of Indie, and Wheelhouse in Westfield.

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They just made the list of best places to work in Indiana for the 13th time. Check out their open positions at homejart. com. Now, let's get back into the episode. We have the radio story. That's wild.

Oh man. But then you get into, you know, 10 15 years down the road getting back into media, getting out of sales and and getting more in the media.

I worked for a publisher. So, I'm still kind of in the media uh realm. I worked for a publisher, sales director and and and sales and traveled all over the country and uh for manufacturers was a trade publication across the the country uh construction and and manufacturing. It was cool. It was great. I had great team, great boss, great mentor.

Uh all of that was was amazing and I wouldn't change it for the for the world. Um but then there was a time where I wanted to get back on in front of the camera. I wanted to get back uh doing the things that I love doing. And so I invented this TV show for the company I worked for called Inside Series where we'd go behind the scenes kind of like how it's made uh to for manufacturers. So I went back and I said, "Hey, I'm going to sell this. I'm going to produce it.

I'm going to host it. I found my production team and we're going to we're going to create all this stuff." And then I realized quickly that I was doing all the work. Everyone else was making all the money. And I'm like, "Well, this isn't I this is fun. I'm enjoying this, but I'm not making any money and it looks like I can do this for a living."

So that's when I I literally 10 years ago um this month or last month made AG Productions LLC which I had no idea how easy it was to to start a company. It takes about 15 minutes.

Dude, everyone always says like a one day I want to start a company. It's like you could do that tomorrow. You could do it today.

Right now

before the end of this episode, you could start a company. I have so many LLC's because it's so easy um to to do.

That's too easy.

Um and so I started the LLC uh AG Productions at the time and I was going to be just video video production for corporate America. I started that and at the same time continued working uh because I wasn't going to put all my eggs in that basket. I I had a family. I had I had bills. I had I I had a life. I couldn't just I couldn't just take that huge leap. I It's not like I was independently wealthy. Again, $24,000 a year. Uh and I saved zero of that. I assure you. Um,

spent that all the chug.

I did. And on DVDs every Tuesday night at midnight at Walmart, we'd go and we'd buy all the new DVDs.

Look at Look at your face. Look at your face. That's what happened. That's what I would do.

DVD release on Tuesday nights.

Yeah. You would go to Walmart at midnight and you'd get all the new movies. I had I had thousands of movies. I That's what I bought. Hey, man.

Better than drugs, I guess.

Yeah. The DVD guy. We just We're worried about you, Adam. you're spending all your money on DVDs.

That that is that was a real conversation with my parents. So, uh so then I I started my own company

and then it's like every story like little by little you get $6,000 your first year. Uh you get $40,000 the second year and then all of a sudden it's $150,000 in revenue the third year and then you're like, "Oh my, this is something now. I got now I got

When did you leave your job?"

Uh I left my job only three years ago.

You did it for seven years on the side.

Mhm. All right.

I I left. Um

I mean you got Yeah. when you have when you have a family, it's tough to just like pick like

I was a seventh seventh employee of my own company. I paid myself zero dollars, very little a pittance here and there. I put everything back into the company because I I could um I was the literal seventh employee of my own company. I got a a note from my COO that said, "Welcome to Adam Grow Media." Adam,

that's kind of sick.

Yeah.

Okay. That's I mean that's non-traditional route. It was non-traditional. And if you can do it, that's how you should do it because it I didn't have the stress, the daily stress and grind of this thing working. It just worked. I didn't have to wake up and go, "Oh my god, I've got this payroll.

I've got this. I've got that." You know, and then then you then you press uh just like in poker when you're when you're starting to to lose and and and you're behind or when you're in any type of gambling, which entrepreneurship is gambling in every sense of the word. Um, anytime you're behind, you start to press. You start to double down. You start to do make decisions that you wouldn't normally make because you're trying to get everything back.

I didn't have that. I didn't have to do that. Um, because I had this other this other job. And and luckily, my other job was really understanding and cool and my boss was amazing. And he's like, "Yeah, 100%. Do whatever you need to do.

Just don't let it affect your work." And it didn't. And then when I got to the point where I'm like, I can't I got to focus on on my company now because now we're you know less than probably we were probably a million dollars in revenue at the time. Um and I'm like all right now I've got

that's not a side hustle.

That's not a side hustle. This is something that I gota I gota I got to maintain

and six people count on you for their paychecks while you're counting on someone else for your payche. But did it also so the stress and the piece of that like it runs smooth? Yes. but also like the commitment level like how it would be interesting to recruit people on a team that you're not even willing to go in on full-time.

One of my first employees, Shane, who's still with me today, um he came to me, he's like, "Hey, if we're going to do this, you got to be all in." Like, that's that's our next move here. If this is really going to work, you got to work. And and at the time, I'm like, "Why don't you pump the brakes,

but you're still getting your

Let me just remind you who the hell you're talking to." And then I went back. I'm like, "Oh, okay. He's he's probably right. And and and to his credit, he was right. I made that move. And since then, we've tripled in size. We've got 22 people. We're multi-million dollars in in Rev and and we've got awesome clients. We've got five different divisions. It it we've got an office. We've got, you know, people all over the country. We got people in other countries. Like, it's legit and it's amazing. And it was because you made that I made that final decision to to go allin. Um because it it it just changed the the whole the whole ball game there.

Yeah. I mean, you talk about, you know, rallying the troops and, you know, and a big thing you talk about now is, you know, core values, building teams.

It's like the number one thing is like

it's tough to Yeah. lead that team when you're not on the team fully now. Then you're on the team and how did you learn about, you know, you've tripled in size, I believe, in the last three years. Is that what you said? Uh, so triple

in revenue and in in team size.

That's I mean, so you talk about moving pretty fast, grown pretty quickly. Did you have management experience before?

Yeah. I mean, as as anybody does because I was a sales director and I manage teams and leading comes naturally uh to some, others really have to work at it and and I'm kind of in between, you know, like I I I think my passion and my excitement and my ability to to rally people is is there my empathy and some of my other uh traits that are over here have hindered my management in in the past and and even still to this day. Um, but it's really humbling and exciting to to look at at my beginning and then look over those last several years and see where we are today. Again, another I've made it moment. Um, and then, you know, I've I've got uh several platforms underneath the Adam GR media umbrella. Uh, we own Edible Indie, which we purchased last year, which is a a celebration of food and drink magazine and platform here locally.

Uh, we own Haven, which is a celebration of home and design and and and building here in the in the local area as well. So we have these kind of like micro niche publications and platforms that are around Indianapolis. Uh then we have our marketing and advertising agency and then from there I started adding other uh entities and other uh businesses around it that are all focused around that same type of platform and and stuff.

What did you cut your teeth in? Like what was the first thing you're like oh AGM we're going to be really good at X

video. Video was number one. So, like what kind of video first? What kind of like all corporate? It was all um I would go in and I would tell companies, hey, here are the the videos that you don't know that you need from testimonials to case studies to informational to uh FAQs, all this kind of blocking and tackling videos as well as the big brand films, big brand, you know, everyone had a video for their website, but they didn't have anything else after that. So, uh that's where we cut our teeth and we went in and we said, "This is the strategy that you need.

This is the production. Uh then we would produce it and then we would tell people this is where it needs to go and that's how we started and then they would say hey do you guys do websites and I'd say yeah we do websites we didn't and then I'd go back and like hey guys uh anybody do websites because I just told Brian that we do websites and so we literally would add things as companies would ask for them u because I didn't want them to go somewhere else

and sometimes that's a little bit like you build while you fly right it's like we're figuring this thing out obviously there are some people that are experts in whatever their thing is right and I think there's a a real value in surrounding yourself with experts and having just like 100% we can figure it out

like you get my brain power like what I do it's figure outable

I say sounds great we'll we'll get it done and and not everyone loves that right not everyone loves that

people want like experts like that have been doing this for a lot a lot of years and

now we're there like I now every division every every person uh with the exception of three have been doing what they're doing for 15 20 years and the three that I have are younger and they're amazing. They they came out of college and just like at 30 years old, you know, and they're just like ready to take on the world and I love those people. Um we have we have a great great incredible team.

Yeah, that's been a big like year one of our business. Uh R as in yeah, you know, we have a few people that touch this. Nate Spangle making this stuff happen. It's been a lot of well I don't know like partners like can you do this? I'm like probably like we'll figure it out, you know, like can we make this kind of video? Oh yeah, sure. We can make that happen.

I promise you that's the best way to do it. It sounds it sounds so um just flippant. Um and and it isn't. It is it's the way that you build anything is to say yes more than you say no.

Well, and and it's like they're they're especially early on. They're not buying this like big overarching brand or guidelines or they're buying like a piece of Nate. Like I like they trust me that I'll make this right. if you become a partner, if you want to work together, I will make it right by you. And early on, you're buying that until you have a big enough team where it's like, no, we have this collective wealth of knowledge and all that fun stuff.

Yeah.

So, I mean, I know you you do like a whole keynote around building teams and core values. Like, give us like if you have some spark notes about what you talk about there and the way that entrepreneurs that listen to the show can think about building their teams.

Yeah. So, the core values have got to be not just on the wall and talked about at the annual meeting. um and or on your website as, hey, here are our core values. And I think that's typically what most companies have. They have core values that they're supposed to to abide by and live by and work by, but they're not talked about daily. We talk about our core values daily. Yes, they're on the wall, but we also uh hire by our core values. We fire by our core core values. We uh do our reviews and judge people by the core values are on a literal scale of one to five. One being you have you are not even near that core value all the way to five which is you exhibit that every single day of every single moment. Every single moment of every single day. That's how we we give our reviews.

How many core values do you have?

We have five.

Five.

Yeah. And uh they are as follows. Number one is think next. Always think about the next idea, the next person, the next deal, the next thing that you're going to do to be awesome. Think next. Number two is adjust and adapt.

This is a very quick fastmoving uh paced environment that we're in. And as an entrepreneurial company, things are going to change. You have to adjust and adapt to those things with a smile and with an attitude that is like, "All right, great. Let's do it." Number three is embrace the journey. What are we doing?

Embrace it. Love it. Understand it that this is where you are and you need to understand that things are going to suck or they're going to be awesome or they're going to be whatever they are. You have to embrace that. Number four is get it done without any hesitation. Get your job done.

Get your work done. Get whatever it is that you want to accomplish. Get it done. And number five is never afraid to be honest. Be honest with yourself. Be honest with your teammates.

Be honest with your clients. Am I working as hard as I can work? Hey, you are holding me up from getting my job done. I really need you to step up. Hey client, I'm not going to hit that deadline. I missed this.

I missed that. I'm sorry that that we didn't hit the mark here. Here's what we're going to do moving forward. Those are our five core values.

Those uh and you grade them on a scale one to five

for all your reviews. That's I think that a lot of companies

for each value.

For each value. Yeah. Some might a perfect score would be 25.

Correct. So, some might Good job. Some might Let me check your math on that. Yep, I got the same thing. Um, there's there's some that are going to be and everybody at AGM has no problem saying, I like to invoke core value number five and be honest and then they tell you whatever they want to tell you, right? Um, that is the number one thing that I hear often. Uh, and most of it is is not negative. It's just like, hey, here's how I'm feeling and in the theory of being honest, I want to tell you X. And it it does give them the the the runway to to say things that they might not say otherwise.

Like no offense, but

Right. And that's that's literally

something offensive. Absolutely.

It's hey in theory of being honest. Uh I don't want to work Fridays anymore.

Yeah.

So, but then we we'll look at some people and say, "Hey, you are doing great at adjusting, adapting. We keep giving you more responsibilities or more jobs or we're maneuvering this or we bought this or whatever the case may be. You're doing great at a bracelet journey. You're four or five." We want everybody to be in that four or five category. three needs a little bit of work. One and two, uh, we're going to have to seek excellence elsewhere.

I don't know if I've ever had a business owner or talked to any leader that said, "Yep, we just put those core values up on the wall." Like like they everyone believes they really live their core values and it's like this 12 pillar success to or steps to excellence or whatever. I think that identifying the right core values is like half the bit and it starts with like your leadership team or whoever the CEO is. Like what advice do you have for selecting core values that won't just become words on the wall?

They got to be specific core values. They can't just be like be a leader. They have to have a second part that somebody can can attach themselves to. Like I there has to be a second part to those values, right? Everyone's going to be integrity, trust, um friendship, teamwork. Those are just family,

right? Those are are just words. What do they mean to you? What do they mean to the company? What do they mean to the client? what do they mean to the end result of the thing that you're building?

That's the the key to the core values and to instill them on a daily basis, remind them why they're important. And if the if the leader, the CEO, sales director, whoever is not continually saying, "Guys, these are the core values, are we doing X, Y, and Z uh around those values or not?" And to go back to someone and say, "Hey, look, I need you to embrace the journey here. I know that you don't understand this, but this is what we're doing." So, I'm asking you to, in the theory of being honest, I'm asking you to embrace this journey to adjust and adapt and let's just see what happens. It gives you an ability to work your company, move your company uh with those values in mind.

And uh in the middle of a sales meeting, in the middle of of an all hands or whatever, I'll just point to someone and go, "What are the core values?" And most of the time they will get there. They they most of them kind of freak out for a second because they're put on the spot and they they got to remember how how they say it. I say it in my sleep. So, and they're mine. I Right.

Um, but I will do that. Then they'll say, "Oh my god." And then

Do you have an exercise that leaders could do to identify what their core value should be?

Um, yeah. You sit in a room for hours on end and you take your your senior leadership team, you take somebody that's brand new that's been there a day and you put this little group together and you go, "Okay, what's important to us? What is going to make us win? What is going to give us satisfaction? What's going to drive revenue? what's going to drive uh somebody to be how are we going to be a destination employer?

How are we going to be some someplace that people want to work, want to stay, want to grow, and want to do big things? How do we get there? And then you just start to to say words and and almost like when we brand a brand a company or rebrand a company, you just throw a bunch of words out there, a bunch of names and and titles and different things and then you just kind of work them out and uh just like any idea, anything you flesh out, that's you you just have to have the conversation discussion.

Yeah. But I think like being ultra real with those, you know, like what your culture is, like what your team, what your company really is, like if you are a high performance company that moves fast and is not very friendly and polite and maybe you work overtime, like

the more that you say that so that the right people that want to be on that journey can identify as and opt into that,

like boom. or if you're a very like slow paced like some people like work life balance matters to a lot of people as someone who's probably on the opposite side that like my work and my life are just intertwined. Robert, who's awesome, he's going to start full-time in June. And like nowhere in the conversation was I like, "Yeah, this is a really balanced work." Like no, like some weekends we're like shooting like we but our work is fun and like it's moves fast and there's no balance too because life

it's not might not be fun for everybody and those people we themselves out pretty quickly. Um and

especially if you have your core values right.

Right. And that's what how when we hire we we look for those things and we even you know we think okay and we tell them these are our core values. This is what it means to work here. This is what it means to be a part of this. And um like in theory of the adjust and adapt about every six months to 12 months, we will purchase something. We'll acquire something. We will add something. We'll I'll go start something new over here that AGM is going to support or whatever that may be. And everyone's like, "Oh my god, another thing." I'm like, "Yeah, another thing. How lucky are you?

How lucky?

How lucky are you that we get to do more things, right?"

I love it. Robert's probably going to hear this video be like, "What the hell did I sign up for?" Like what? And so you talk about spinning up new things though, right? And one of the latest endeavors is um Stick and Hack.

Yeah.

Right. Talk to me about what you're doing there.

So Stick and Hack is the world's greatest indoor golf club perhaps in Fisers. We just opened up our first location uh 9003 Technology Lane just north of Target there in the right across from Launch Fisers. It uh we opened it in December. three bays, simulator golf, uh golf bar, club, rich guys basement, uh approachable, a a very unique space for for golfers and for non- golfers, those that want corporate events, those that want to come in and learn the game, those that want topline uh simulator technology. Uh they want to they want to get better and better. That's what it is.

I had to think through that. I was like, wait, I don't think it's a line of golf clubs. When you said perhaps the world's greatest

the world's greatest golf club golf club perhaps. Yeah,

perhaps. I was thinking, what the hell is an indoor golf?

So, a golf club just like a private golf club, just like any

not a not a club that you hit with, a club that you attend.

Correct.

Yeah. Yeah. All right. Just to throw the list out there that thought he was making like physical golf clubs.

Okay. Well, I might need to rework my entire tagline if that's what you thought.

I mean, I won't lie, my head didn't I was like, wait, I I thought this was like Yeah. a place that you

It's the world's greatest indoor golf club, perhaps. So, uh Stick and Hack started in 2019 as a media brand. Um, so we started I was a founder of that of that specific brand. I had a podcast. I had a bunch of of media stuff. I had some partners.

I had investors. I had this whole thing. Uh, couldn't monetize it properly the way that that we wanted to. So, I put it on the shelf for a little bit. Uh, and then a a guy, a client of mine, Ryan Gueltz, who owns Procurity and Automation, came to me and said, "Hey, I want to I build these golf sims. I want to put put one up in somewhere around here.

Uh, can you help me brand a company and do a website and do all this stuff?" And I'm like, "No, we've already done all that. So, let's just merge these together and let's let's get after it. And so, then he brought in one of his buddies um to to help from some financial backing. We went and got some other investors and now we have our first location um which is a local brand. It is not a franchise.

It's it's not something that was built in Jersey and had found its way to Fisers. This was built in Indiana by Indiana dudes and it's starting in Fisers and and uh we're we're looking at expansion obviously um in the central Indiana area. There might be some other national brands that are around here that maybe aren't as as who's your homegrown. Correct. See, this is what I love too. Like she's talking about like similar to this like it's like a back nine versus Top Golf.

Like back n locally owned you know like golf bays downtown the whole field. They're putting one up in Fort Wayne and it's like people think like oh this is a franchise. Like I could look at this and be like cuz the branding is pretty good. Really good. Sorry not pretty good. Really good.

You could be like oh cool they franchise somewhere here in Fisers. And it's like no this is a hoop home. We just happen to market. The logo was made by a dude that works in my office and and the website is made by people that work in my office. And yeah, the uh and the tech and and all the stuff that that is done uh is is again a local entrepreneur, Ryan. Uh a local real estate uh Doug Doug Fredbeck is is one of our other partners.

Um so it's all local and we're super proud of where we where it's at today. Um and and are looking forward to to stick becoming more and more popular around the area.

Like this isn't media. This is, you know, this is a golf facility.

Perhaps the best indoor golf club.

World's greatest indoor golf club. Perhaps

world's greatest indoor golf club.

Yeah. But it's supported by media. You can't have a brand without media, without web, without marketing, without social media, without a team behind you. Um, so my team handles that. Ryan's team handles the tech and the and the uh the actual simulators themselves. So, it's a great relationship and it's a great partnership, but the media side of things is still there because we have to support it underneath that.

Well, when you say media, I think that that's a perfect segue because I did want to, you know, there are a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of business owners, leaders that listen to the show and they hear media, it's like it's almost it's table stakes now, right? Whether you're doing personal brand content for LinkedIn or putting out Instagram reels or whatever it might be. when you think about media to aid business objectives like how are you guys thinking that? How are you helping your clients? What tips, strategies, advice? Give us uh some help to people that that want to get into media.

I think first of all to hit your first point, yeah, media is is all-encompassing today. Um it is internet, it is PR, it is content creation, it is influencer, it is uh experiential marketing, you know, events. It's it's all of that all wrapped up into the word media. Uh which is why Adam Grow Media is is what it is. We have all of these things and it's it's a type of of vehicle. I think that if you're getting into media either as an individual um or as a uh you're going to start working for a company, an agency or or a media firm, media is changing constantly, right?

And so what media is today might be different tomorrow. Right now today, I think media encompasses anything that has a that gets your message into the public space. Um that is how I would look at it. And I still have print magazines. I own print magazines. We print them on paper, Nate.

and then they're mailed like it's the 40s and it works because this is a this is a type of media and medium that people still want to and are attached to. They like to pick up something. They like to see it. They like to be a part of it. Now this is just one part of a sixprong media attack around food and drink right without a blindy. The same with Haven, the same with any of the other things that we do.

It it's just a part of it. Um and then you have all these other things that that surround it. I think that's I I am intrigued because I do see I kind of play not in the edible space but in just like local media like you know statewide media is kind of like the thing that I'm studying and always looking at and it is interesting to see the different finally good for them a lot of more of the traditional mediums are starting to diversify maybe or expand upon their traditional print offering right where it's you know for a long time let's say you send a monthly how how often you guys send edible indie four times a year.

Four time. Okay. So, quarterly. Let's say you were a monthly one though. Um, and it's like interesting to see. It's like, okay, we know that we'll make 60 grand per edition of this magazine that we sell based on the advertiser we can sell and distribution list, etc., etc., etc. And it's like, cool, we know that we're forever going to like we get to spend

30 29 to 30 days making this and then one day we send it and then we cash our checks. Uh, and now it's it's interesting to see like, well, we could have more ongoing. We could grow this bigger. We could have partners with influencers. We could do events and popups and this and that and like talk about this sixprong media attack for food and beverage within Indiana within Indianapolis.

That's what we're doing.

I mean, it's super interesting.

Exactly what we're doing. And and you already I mean you're saying all the things that we said in a marketing meeting and and when we started talking about purchasing this this platform is how big could this go? How can it how can everything that we do as a media and marketing an ad agency, how can we do that and utilize that to support uh a print magazine, but more specifically a topic food and drink in Indianapolis and the Indianapolis area needs to be celebrated. There's so many cool stories. You know that you've been out and around. Uh Tommy Barrett's out and around.

There's a lot of people that are out and around doing this. We've got uh several big key influencers that we partner with that are already hitting the worldwide stage as as food influencers with Traveling Foodie Guide. Uh, and and Marcus, if you've never met with him or talked with him, like there's there's people out there um, Keeping Up Local uh, with Chelsea. There's so many really cool people that are here that are that have made a name for themselves that we're tapping into, partnering with, working with to say, "Look, you guys have already done some great stuff. We're doing great stuff. Let's do it together."

You know, you know who you need to tap in is Justin Holmes down in Greensburg. Okay?

He might be the biggest Indiana food creator. He has 5 million followers across platforms. He was a previous guest. Not bad.

He is.

Justin, call me immediately.

Justin Justin, when you see this, dude, he's awesome. He

Somebody search him up and get him on the phone.

It is not like boutique meals. It is like, who's your homegrown

That's the whole point. That's what we want. We are a We're local. We're Indiana. We're going to tell the stories of Indiana food and the people behind it. Your your uh show with Scott Weise was was fantastic.

And I've known Scott for a long time because I was I in fact I did a radio show at one of his openings of of his restaurant Lucy's in Muny. I uh I did a whole promotion there for two days where I was on the air for like 24 48 hours for his opening. I've known him for a long time. Uh those type of stories are all over the place and and that restaurant business is is I'm learning cutthroat and and razor thin margins and all this stuff. And these guys are and and girls are on a wire every single day and it's so fascinating to me. Um and I love telling these stories and showcasing this stuff.

and also bringing a different feel uh to to Indiana to this this area around celebrating the food and drink and all the people behind it.

Yeah. Why? I mean video production that is people want to make videos produce like you could have you could go out and find a thousand customers to do video production to expand into what you're doing with Edible Indie and Haven. What about that opportunity intrigues you so much?

It's just more things. It's just more opportunities. It's more conversation. In sales, you always want to have another place to go. Um, if they say no, you got to say, "Okay, well, what about this? Hey, I heard you say this, and I know this might not fit, but what about this?" It it allows us to be more uh worldly. It allows us to be uh more driven for a different experience for our our partners and our customers because we need all of these things to be connected. I can just do video, sure. But what happens when video changes? I like to diversify. I like to always have have an opportunity for for what's next. And that goes right back to think next core value number one. What is the next thing that we can do? What is the next thing we can we can offer?

Where do you see the biggest opportunity for local creators?

Anything that that they're passionate about, anything they get excited about, you're excited about Indiana, you're making an entire career out of it. You're making an entire media platform out of it because you want to. people are going to follow you because you're genuine, because you're authentic, because you honest to God care about this state and everything in it. So that's what you should do. I don't know why anybody, speaking of your chemistry podcast, unless there is a chemist out there that is passionate about that, nobody should ever start that podcast in their life.

Neil Neil Tyson Degrassi, is that

sure any media, any influencer and there's micro influencers, there's influ Anybody can influence anything. I think the term influencer is already overplayed and and misused in so many different ways. You've got people that are covering a topic and you've got people that are going to listen to those people. We're Edible India's an influencer. Haven's an influencer. AGM's an influencer because we have followers. You're an influencer. You can you can

I prefer content creator.

Content creator, media personality,hostproucer. You're all of those things. When you're when you are in the content creation space, you have to be all those things. You have to be uh well read, you have to be well-rounded, and you have to be wellversed in in the art and the craft of of what you're doing. Um, and I'm watching all the cameras and everything that you have set up. And I remember when I started, I don't know anything about about photography.

I don't know anything about about uh shooting, cinematography, uh, light, f-stops, cameras. I know nothing. I know nothing about it. And yet, I was able to build this because, again, I found people that did. I did all this stuff. It It was terrible.

It's terrible. And why anybody would spend a dollar with me back in the day, I have no idea. But they did. And I'm thankful for that because it it led us to where we are today. Anytime you're a content creator, a media person that's just wanting to get out there, you know, Gary Vanderchuk, all these guys, they all say the same thing. Just do it.

Just get to it. Start it tomorrow. Just like I said, and you and I were talking about bu starting a business in 15 minutes. Anybody can film something right now, put it up online in 5 seconds, and that's the end of that. in a world of immediate gratification. You know, people want the likes now, they want the viral out, they want a million views, they want this, that, the other thing.

Having patience and persistence to just keep going. Like it took, I don't know, 150 videos, maybe, no, probably a 100 videos, 100 Instagram reels to get one to bust 10,000. Like, everyone sees it's like, oh, you know, like like whoever it is. I'm sure if you talked to Marcus similar sen like he probably filmed 50 dinners or whatever and like you know did the whole dog and pony show made it all like like go had to go try had to go buy 50 dinners on his own film it all up to then get you know 10,000 20,000 views I don't know whatever it was I don't know his story exactly yet he's going to come on the show and I'm super excited for that one but it's like persistence you know like so many podcasts I did this for three years and no one listened just like my grandma whoever

Nate I did a radio show in my room on a tape recorder. Nobody knows the pain of nobody listening.

I don't know what's worth the the tape recorder at 8 years old or the overnight AM radio show.

That's a great question. I don't know either.

Playing the oldies from the 50s and 60s.

CCR and the Beatles.

Oh, I kind of would I would vibe with How would you stay awake?

It's impossible.

I would be like one eye open.

Midnight to 6 a.m., baby.

Heck yeah. The graveyard shift. Come on. Well, man, we've come to uh the wrapping up the show here where we talk about some fun segments. The first one's our younger years segment. It's brought to you by our friends at OR Fellowship. They're a great organization here in Indiana helping develop young business leaders across the state. So, Adam, what advice would you give to your 22year-old self?

Don't change anything about your personality. Personality is what's gotten me through a lot of things and and stay active. Stay vigilant in in in your passion for for growth. Everything is going to be fine. Everything's going to work out. And that's how I live and almost too too optimistic. My wife will tell you, "Yeah, everything will be fine." She's like, "Yeah, but it really is not going to be."

Well, it's never it's never not worked out up to this point.

Exactly. So, we're we're good. So, yeah, that would be just keep keep my 22-year-old self, keep your positive outlook, keep your humor, keep your keep your passion and your drive.

I love that. We get into the lightning round now. Uh clearly, you're a golf guy, right? Sticking hack. What's your favorite golf course in Indiana?

I'm belong to Harbor Trees, so I I think I I have to say that legally. Um but then, uh the next one, I love Purgatory. Purgatory is so cool. It doesn't feel like you're in Indiana at all. I love purgatory. It's it's public. It's it's it's a it's a really cool cool uh cool golf course. And then of course I played all the ones down French lick and all that stuff. And those those that entire resort's awesome. Um but a course I could play over and over again probably be purgatory.

It's just about to be golf. It is golf season now. So

it's always golf season for me because of the you know the winter stick and hack. Come on.

Wait. We're going to nail it. Perhaps

ah the

the world's greatest

the world's greatest indoor golf club. Perhaps, perhaps. This is where it was feeding me wrong.

That's a good point. It says it I It says that on the site. You know, someone's gonna get fired. Don't you worry.

Someone Someone's gonna get hacked. Just kidding.

Good one.

That was not That was not That was not brought to you by Adam Grub Media or

Please don't clip that. Please don't.

Yeah. All right. Next. Um you're I mean, you're on media, you're online, you're watching a lot of trends. What's your favorite brand that's just marketing themselves really well on social media right now? Who's doing it great?

The only brand I ever talk about in any speech, in any breakout, and anything I ever talk about um in front of anybody is Nike. There is just nobody in the world that I want to be more like than the advertising agency that does Nike's uh ads and their creative. Nike is one of those brands that that is just a case study in and of itself. So remarkable to to watch what they do on a consistent basis online experiential uh and and then within the sporting space. Um Nikey's everything for me.

I mean they do some some really cool stuff.

That answer surprises you.

It does. Well, they're just they're just big in corporate, you know. I mean

they're big in corporate but they are big in corporate. they still stand for something bigger than their product.

And that's really all that I care about. If you see Nike, you think determination, you think grit, you think sports, you think sweat, you think these things,

victory,

you think victory, you think uh defeat, you think of all that. And and really, when you watch commercials and Nike commercials, it the storytelling is unbelievable. That's why I love it, you know. And yeah, they might be corporate, they might be greed, they might be all the things that that that they're not local. I get all that. But at one point they were they were a small company making tennis shoes for cross country runners.

Blue Ribbon. Blue Ribbon Sports.

If you've never read Shoe Dog, do fans of this show, stop listening the second the show's over and then go read Shoe Dog.

It's a It's a great read.

It's a great read.

That's a good question. Is there any like books that have changed your life or are you reading anything right now?

Um, anything from Seth Goden, anything from Malcolm Gladwell? I I read business books all the time. I love them. Um, I just read a book this week called How to Buy Back Your Time. M it's fantastic for entrepreneurs and CEOs that feel the grind of being in their business and not on their business. Uh it's it's fantastic. Um th those types of books. Anything that um that kind of tells the case studies and the stories behind I I love. Um so yeah, changed my life. No, no book has changed my life. But the books that I really enjoy are those that kind of kind of walk you down a path of of a showcase of someone else did it.

Do you read them physically or do you listen to them?

Physically read them.

Wow. Good for you. Uh I uh I'm 100% an audio book guy, but I can just

churn through those books and I I love it. I'm currently reading um Unreasonable Hospitality.

Oh, okay.

Have you heard of this?

Oh, his name is William something. He's a guy who took 11 Madison Park, which is a restaurant in New York, and ran it all the way up to like the number one restaurant in the world through unreasonable hospitality. like to the point where if someone was at the table and talked about having to get up to go like feed the meter for like their car someone go do it for them like cra they one person said oh we left a bottle of champagne in our apartment in the freezer will it blow up and they're like oh my gosh they sent a person over there a

family this is crazy so he's not on the food side he's on the like the general manager of the hospitality side he this family was visiting New York and it snowed for the first time and they this is first time their kids had ever seen snow. They paid for a chauffeer, bought four sleds, took them to Central Park, and like took them like those people will forever talk about 11 Madison Park as like, yep,

holy smoke, this is the greatest restaurant ever. Like, so just like uh unreasonable hospitality, is the name. I'm like, you know, halfway through. It's pretty good.

Uh, finally, we round out the same three questions we ask everyone who comes on the show. First one,

what's something the world needs to know about Indiana? the small town Indiana is still alive and well even as small towns grow. Uh I live in a small town. I live in Noblesville which is no longer a small town, right? But it's a small town mentality. Um and that's what I love that a lot of these towns uh Zansville, some of the north, but then you go up in into the northern part of Indiana um that there's a lot of small cool towns that are still kicking and doing well and some great great people. There's just great history, great stories,

and that I mean that small town charm is is alive and well. Uh I love I live in Noblesville. I mean, it's a it's growing like a weed. I feel like

it is, but it's still it doesn't feel that way. I mean, I'm I'm six I live in Noblesville. I work in Nolesville. I'm six minutes there. I It's It is not what you think of as big town. Um it just

That's fair. I do feel like a lot of those suburbs can get a a worse rap for being bigger than what they are.

I mean, I would even say Caramel. Caramel's big. It's sprawling, but it it's still there's still that feeling.

Okay. All right. Next question. You get to uh you get to share a a spot with someone or or anything about Indiana. What is a hidden gem in Indiana?

Logan Mall. It's in Noblesville. It's like this. It's a It's a like a bizaar. It's a bunch of little stop shops and stores.

The Logan Village Mall.

Yeah, there we go. Logan Village Mall. That's the hidden gem. I know this again it's Noblesville, but it's on the square and it's it's it's shopping. It's people selling local local products, local people selling uh their their things inside this place. It is you it's it looks like the smallest building in America and then you walk in and it's just this neverending sprawling Costco of of uh local merch. It's awesome.

The Logan Village Mall. That's a hidden gem. No one has ever said that one before. I love that.

Good. Finally, this is where you get to share the love. Point us in the right direction for a new guest. Uh, who is a Hoosier that we need to keep on our radar? Someone who's doing big things.

Chelsea from Keeping Up Local. Have you already talked to her? Have you on her?

We haven't scheduled though.

You do have it scheduled. Well, then you're already a step ahead of the game because she's she's doing this content and but she's building as a business and she's seeing the much bigger picture. She's she's bringing new people in circling Indianapolis and then some other cities. She's got a really cool program. Um, so that would be who I would have said, but you already have her on here. Outside of that, anybody who owns a a business that is uh 10 people or less, um, and has owned it for like 50 years, those are the people I would I'd talk to.

How have you stayed true to your to your company and not grown, but also grown, um, and and stayed in business for 50 years or 60 years? There's a lot of those stories of just like the small town business where you walk, you drive by, you're like, "How the hell is that business? That place still in business." and they're like, "Hey, here's how because I do the same thing every single day. I I charge what I need to charge and my team's awesome and this is my life." Those stories are cool to me.

I love it. I think uh yeah, you you've just brought so many good points and the way you think about business and the community and content. I got to I mean, this could easily be a Joe Rogan three-hour episode.

Well, thank you, man. I appreciate you coming on. How can people support you, what you're doing, AGM?

Very simple. Um first of all, go to Stickanack and go to stickack.com. Make a tea time and go go see that area. uh go see if you're a golfer, if you you know somebody who who loves to golf, it's an incredible space. We'd love to have you there. Uh as AGM, if you are somebody who who's needing uh stories, you're needing content, you're needing marketing, you're needing a team that can be an extension of your team, uh AGM is here for you in all different ways, and we just love to to learn more about your business, see if we can help you.

Amazing. Well, hey man, thanks for coming on. It was fun. I'm excited. I cannot wait to go up and try out sticking hack

in visual. Is it in the district?

Yeah. No, it's uh in the technology lane right across from Launch Fishers.

I got you. Just in that area right on the trail.

Well, we'll make a we'll make it a point to make it up there. Uh and then I got to go hit up Purgatory. I've never played there. So,

okay. Well, maybe we'll make a whole day of it. You and me.

Just nothing but golf.

The Adam show.

Now, we're maybe round it out with like a late night radio spot. Maybe we can find out. Yeah. There we go. Bring back to the roots. Well, hey man, I appreciate you. Thanks for stopping by and we'll talk soon.

All right. See you.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Get In. If you like what you heard, make sure you leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts. This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater. Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all my gear recommendations at sweetwater.com. If you want a behind-the-scenes look at everything we're doing across the state, make sure you follow me on Instagram and Tik Tok, Nate Spangle. Thank you so much for listening and being part of what makes the Who's Your State great. We'll see you next time here on Get