How To Win At Business And Grow A Massive YouTube Channel By Thinking Like An Athlete with Adam Linkenauger - 092

In this episode, I'm joined by Adam Linkenauger.  Adam owns and helped create or build world-leading YouTube channels and brands across numerous industries with the business model he personally developed that helps turn true experts into world-leading authorities in their expertise. His first YouTube channel that he started named I Love Basketball now has over 2.2 million subscribers.

He is currently involved in a number of exciting projects including Athletic Motion Golf and Urban Valor all while building his personal brand Sport of Business.

Adam was also a 7x ACC Champion high jumper at Clemson U and ACC Champion Coach with Virginia Tech.

If you want to grow a killer brand, adopt a winning mentality, and learn how to get inside the heads of your competitors, this is the episode for you.

Inside The Episode:

• How to build a wildly successful YouTube channel
• Why being an underdog can often be an advantage
• How having the mindset of an athlete can help you crush it in business
• The power of anchoring and the placebo effect on mental and physical performance
• How Adam pivoted after his athletic dreams abruptly ended

Connect with Adam

• Facebook
• I Love Basketball YouTube
• Sport of Business

Connect With Bradley

• Bradley's Instagram

Transcript

Bradley Roth: 0:28

Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Not Most People podcast. This is your host, Bradley, and this is the show for those allergic to mediocrity group think and following the status quo. And in today's episode, I have Adam Lincoln Auger joining me. And real quickly, before we get into his introduction, I would just like to remind you guys listening, whether it is your first time tuning in or you are a repeat listener, I always have my one ask of you guys. And that is if I provide value to you that you just help return the favor by helping me grow the show. And that could mean just sharing it with one person, you know, who you think will get episode or get value out of either the show in general or that specific episode. Because chances are, if you got something out of it, if you learn something, if you're entertained, if it helped you think a new way, then someone you know, We'll probably get value out of it as well. So that's all I ask guys. If you don't get value outta the show, don't share it. But just would ask that you do me a solid one if you do. And then beyond that, a rating or review on Apple Podcast or Spotify is always greatly appreciated. That helps people who might not find the show, find it. And then for not most people beyond the podcast, we got a lot of cool stuff going on. We have our community, the Not Most People Alliance. We got some live events coming up, social media, all kinds of stuff. And for all of that, the links are gonna be in the show notes. So that's it. We're gonna get right into it today. Adam, I would like to welcome you to Not Most People. Thank you so

Adam Linkenauger: 2:01

much, Bradley. It's a pleasure to be here. And thank you for having.

Bradley Roth: 2:04

Of course. So I think I got the last name right. It's Adam Lincoln Audio. Nailed it. Yep. Yep. We had to, we rehearsed that a little bit before hitting the record button But a a little bit about him. He is a seven time a ACC C champion high jumper at Clemson University in a ACC C champion coach for Virginia Tech. And he also owns and helps create or build world-leading YouTube channels and brands across numerous industries with the business model that he personally developed that has helped turn true experts into world-leading authorities in their expertise. His first YouTube channel that he started named I Love Basketball now has over 2.2 million subscribers and he's currently involved in a number of exciting projects, including athletic motion golf and urban Valor, all while building his personal brand sport of business. So this one's gonna be fun because. First off, this is the first high jumper I've ever had on the show. I was a high jumper. There's not a lot of us, so I wanna talk a little bit about that. I'm sure people who heard that are like, wow. Millions of subscribers. And so we're definitely gonna get into a little bit of YouTube and, and personal branding and that kind of stuff, which I know a lot of people listening wanna build and grow YouTube channels and personal brands right now. But I wanna start with that athletic part because I know that's a big piece of your identity and you even tied it into what you do now. And so what was, what was your focus or identity growing up? Was it purely athletics? Was that your whole life? Cuz that, I know for me it kind of was and then I found these other things later on. Or was that just kind of something you did?

Adam Linkenauger: 3:48

You know, I. It was interesting. I was very much a, grew up on a dairy farm, so worked before school, work after school often didn't go to school and opted to stay home and milk the cows and, help on the farm when, when either needed or, you know, I just wanted to play hooky. So for, as I grew up really farming was my identity. My older brother, he's two years older than me, was, he was a phenomenal athlete. He had the growth spurt early where I had it late. You know, he was kind of the star athlete going into high school and then through high school where I was kind of the little, I was a freshman, I was five foot two, 120 pounds. You know, barely able to touch the net. He went and played varsity basketball early, was a, Allstate triple jumper was a really incredible athlete. Meanwhile, there were, there was me when all the coaches thought, oh, Adam's gonna be next in line. He's gonna, kind of keep the, the, the family Lincoln auger tradition with the, the jumping and basketball going. But then come freshman year, I hadn't grown, and I was just, I wasn't a great, I was a JB bench warmer, didn't even think I was gonna play sports. But you know, it, it all came down to a time when a kid on varsity told me I wasn't ever gonna be able to dunk a basketball. So I needed to quit trying to jump, and for whatever reason, that just fueled me and made me so angry. I was told what I couldn't do by someone who couldn't do it either. That call it kind of the, I love the Michael Jordan ex, you know, story of he grew to six, six out of will. Unfortunately, I didn't, I only grew to about 5 11, 6 foot. I didn't have as much will as Michael Jordan. I think everyone you can can see that But I did hit a gross spurt, came back the next year and that really transitioned. Everything started dunking and then junior year a coach came out from track and said, Hey, why don't you try this high jump thing? And I said, Hey, it'll keep me in check for basketball, might as well. And mm-hmm. you know, very, a few weeks later I was state champion a few weeks after starting, yep. A few weeks after I had jumped once the year before. Didn't really like it. He taught me to come back out and within about four, four or five weeks I went from, not jumping really anything at all to jumping six. Wow.

Bradley Roth: 6:01

And for those of you who don't know, six 10 is like in high school. That's pretty crazy. I was, I was Allstate like four or five times. I mean, it was a small, I was in Connecticut, small state, but I was jumping like six four and so six 10, like, I think I saw that maybe once in high school. So that's very impressive. And what year did you say you started?

Adam Linkenauger: 6:23

It was my junior year, so junior Of my junior year. Yep. And then I did indoor and then outdoor my senior year and ended up jumping seven foot indoors and seven foot and a quarter outdoors in high school. Wow,

Bradley Roth: 6:36

that's incredible. So the, the drive though, the motivation came from that guy telling you that you wouldn't be able to dunk and so you trained, you did, I'm guessing a ton of plyometrics, lifting all kinds of stuff to be able to jump higher.

Adam Linkenauger: 6:52

Yeah, I, I didn't have a direct, I didn't have a weightlifting coach or anything. I had an incredible track coach, a motivator, but he, he was a throws coach. He had no idea what high jump, really anything about it. Still remember he printed out Yahoo, went to Yahoo, how to high jump and printed out documents. We sat there on, on the, the HighJump mat reading about the fosbury flop trying to, you know, make sure I was doing it right. And, you know, it was really interesting though. But, but yet it came back to whatever reason that one moment triggered me and I went into the weight room and I didn't have a freaking clue what I was doing, but in my mind, everything I was doing was perfect. I didn't try to learn how to do it. I just went in there and just did, and this isn't, this isn't advice for those who were, want to get the weight wrong, but I think it speaks to the mindset of, because I didn't know whether what I was doing was right or wrong. and I convinced myself it was right. It played a huge momentum for me and pushed me forward to kind of that the next goal. And then of course, luck and, you know, things fall into place, weirdly enough especially if you kind of are so focused. I was weirdly focused on the goal of dunking to where it, it almost kind of had to happen, so, mm-hmm. it kind of started there and then it just kind of kept snowballing and snowballing with high jump.

Bradley Roth: 8:10

Hmm. So at what point did you get, do your first.

Adam Linkenauger: 8:13

Sophomore year I was able to, I had that growth spur. I probably went from about five two to about five 10, was able to, you know, get it over and do a little one hand, two hand dunk. But, you know, come, come junior year and senior year, that's when I was able to do a lot of really, really cool stuff. And, I had a really, really fun senior year. Like I was telling you before we hit record. I learned that I did not have a jump shot. Shooting was not my strong suit So, and at that point, especially senior year, we weren't a good team. So my, you know, in my mind, or my, my teammates didn't take it very seriously. I wanted to mm-hmm. but at the same time, I had a scholarship laid on me. I didn't wanna get hurt, so I kind of used it as, to be honest, like a highlight reel. I wanted to see like what dunks I could do and, see if I could dunk on people. And I had a lot of fun. Yeah. And, you know, but yeah, it was, it was really, it was a good time. It was really cool. Ascension from basketball and becoming that high jumper.

Bradley Roth: 9:07

It's very cool. Yeah, I remember I started high jump, I think it was my freshman year and same thing, I had a really late growth spurt. I was like 5 1, 5 2 end of freshman year of high school. I was tiny. And then like, I think I got up to like five, six, maybe five seven sophomore year. And things kind of took off from there. And I ended up transitioning from basketball, which was, you know, my first love growing up still is really, but to high jump to an indoor and outdoor and that sort of thing. And it was funny cuz when people think a high jumper, they don't think of like, you know, you're short white dude like that's not the prototypical high jumper. So it's always kind of fun. I, I kind of thought of myself as not most people in a sense there, right. And absolutely competing and like going into meets and people underestimate you and then you, you know, you jump through the roof, you beat'em and that, so that was always something that was kind of fun. I was always a silent competitor. I don't know how you were, where

Adam Linkenauger: 10:06

you I was, I was as nice as I could be until someone challenged me. And it's kind of a similar story to the dunk story. Going into my freshman year at Clemson, we had two other seven footers on the team. I had literally the week before I lost to, you know, the girls have their competition, then the guys had theirs. Chauncey Howard from Georgia Tech, who went on to be like a multiple Olympian, jumped like six, seven that week. And then I jumped like 6 4, 6 5, redoing my steps trying to figure out mm-hmm. you know, in high school it was run and jump. I didn't really have steps or didn't have, yeah. Didn't even know what a penultimate step was and mm-hmm. you know, I had to learn all this stuff and it, you had to break me down to kind of rebuild me. So I had lost that, you know, week before to not only the god's competition, but the girls competition as well. And then we're getting ready. We're in, we're at Clemson freshman year. Indoor accs, my first ever ACC championship, so I'm already nervous. You know, my family comes down anyway, we're warming up the Georgia Tech high jumper, who was, I believe he had won the ACC the year before, or he was more or less kind of next in line. He was the guy, right? Mass Massey was his last name. Nice guy after this, but he probably doesn't even realize this, but during that, the warmups, he came up and he said, Hey, where's Terrence? Which Terrence was the, the good high jumper at Clemson at the time? He was a junior, a senior. And I said, oh, Terrence is hurt. He is not gonna be able to jump. And he just kind of turned, and he didn't mean it like rudely towards me. He was like, oh man, I was hoping I was gonna have some competition and that just, it, it just unlocked something in me. And yeah, you know, ended up jumping seven two and a quarter qualifying. Wow. Miss Jump. And during my approach I was literally sa saying to him, this is the competition. This is the competition as I was running my curve. And it, you know, that again was just another example of it. Spring loaded me forward to where, my, my mouth slash my ego was, you know, casting, casting the checks. Mm-hmm. and my body was gonna have to, you know, have to keep up. Yeah.

Bradley Roth: 12:15

And what did he jump that day? I wanna say

Adam Linkenauger: 12:18

you probably went about six 10 maybe seven foot. I'd have to look, but I, it wasn't a jump off. Wasn't anything overly right. You know, I'd beat'em by at least one or two bars.

Bradley Roth: 12:29

I love those stories because I feel like it's, there's like any, any sport, there's the people that you, you always know they're there cuz they're always talking, they're always, you know Right. Making a scene and sometimes, and usually, you know, they're pretty good. They got an ego and then there's always kind of the silent killers too, right. Like the people who you don't really notice until they go and jump seven two or until they drain a shot in your face. You know what I mean? And so,

Adam Linkenauger: 12:53

a hundred percent yeah. And I was very much that the silent and don't get me wrong mm-hmm especially at that level, there were still head games, like, oh yeah, because I, cuz of basketball really, and, layups and. I had the unique ability that a lot of the high jumpers I was competing against didn't to where they would put down a mark and they'd measure their steps and everything would have to be perfect. Mm-hmm. I would do that to find my, my best mark. But what I would do in warmups is I would just say, Hey, is this your mark? Yeah. Oh, cool. I'm just going to, I'm gonna go from here and see how I like it. And then I would either try to sizzle what they just jumped or try to just bomb the bar that they missed. and Uhhuh you know, that was one of the strategies outdoors. I'd tell them, Hey, you know, it was one of the I forget it. Oh, it was Jerome. Jerome from Georgia Tech, I forget his last name, but Virginia Guy jumped with him at, at, in my senior year of high high school as well. Jumped against them. I would tell him that, Hey, watch your step at, you know, the track. It's, it's. and that would just, oh, it would just mess him up so much. His he had one of those like 12 step approaches where he was springing. Yeah. Like nonstop. Oh. I would always tell him, Hey man, you gotta be careful. You're gonna fall And it would just so bad.

Bradley Roth: 14:02

That's funny. I, I feel like that's kind of a, an analogy for life. There's the people who you always know what they're doing. You always like, because they love to talk about it. And then there's the people who, you know, are underestimated, who kind of keep things to themselves. And it can really be an advantage because people can't read you, they don't know what you're thinking as much. Right. And that's especially important when you translate that into, sports. It's one thing, but to something like business where it's, you know, the competition is not, one day or 40 minutes, it's years. And people who. Kind of keep things close to the chest, keep people guessing. They drive the loud people, the craziest. Right. Because the loud people absolutely. They want, they want you to return it. They want you to like play along into their game. And when you don't, it's, it's like a lot of power through silence in a way, if that makes sense.

Adam Linkenauger: 14:57

A hundred percent. And it's, you know, it's funny you said again, freshman year, sophomore year at Clemson, no one really knew who I was. But come junior year, senior year, I hadn't really lost any of the championships. I was kind of known as the guy who would win. Mm-hmm. They started to figure that out. So they'd stopped the trash talk and people would be quiet and, wouldn't cheer for me. And it was really interesting watching the transition of them starting to realize, hey, us getting in his ear is only firing him up more. And he's right. You know, when I did, I actually competed better. Mm-hmm. when they would make me up, angry or mad or, you know, I just, they would, they would boost the ego to a point I had to back it up. and they realize like, Ooh, okay, maybe I, we, we should be friendly with them. And it's just, it's interesting you say that cause I completely agree. It's the same way in business as well. That mentality translates.

Bradley Roth: 15:46

Yeah. And I think it's important to hear, because a lot of people who wanna do big things, but they're like, oh, you know, I'm, we're, and we're gonna get into building brands and that kind of thing. But Sure. They're like, oh, I'm, I'm introverted, I'm quiet. I'm not the kind of person who can do this or that. I'm not a natural salesperson. Whatever it might be. Just know that there's still a huge advantage and playing to your strengths and, you know, not trying to be that loud person. when it's not you. You know what I mean? So, absolutely. Yeah. That's something

Adam Linkenauger: 16:19

I had to learn. You described me perfectly. I mean, they, you described me in a nutshell. I don't want to be loud or, you know, obnoxious and, I don't put myself out there and, you know, try to get it be a spectacle. That's not my style. And I've definitely found ways to, still build, build brands and build audience and be successful without the need of, you know, mistakenly thinking. Because so many people do that. That's how you have to do.

Bradley Roth: 16:44

Exactly. Galley for me in this podcast, like growing up, my biggest fear by far was public speaking, talking in front of the class, anything. And so for years I didn't put out any sort of content or anything, and then I found podcasting and, you know, I don't like, love to hear myself talk like a lot of people do who start podcasts, but I bring on awesome guests and then I can be the kind of the listener, the question asker. I don't have to be. Like, I, I can bring a ton of value through a podcast, but it doesn't have to be just me the whole time. So it's kind of almost a hack, like a, a content hack, if that makes sense.

Adam Linkenauger: 17:21

And and, and, you know, just, we'll talk more about it, I'm sure, but even from mm-hmm. from my experience, I have had more success working with that type versus the person who thinks that they're the, the entertainment the show. Mm-hmm. they're the reason that people are showing up versus their content, you know? Yeah. The, the introverted, you know, I'm doing this cuz I wanna push the brand forward. I wanna help people. If I don't, I'm not helping people that, you know, very passion-based person is going to be very successful if they keep it up compared to the person that I want a podcast because I'm so awesome and everyone's gonna see how awesome I am. So don't get me wrong, we've seen both sides succeed, but personally I enjoy working with them. Have had more success with the, the, the quiet the quiet and passion.

Bradley Roth: 18:07

Yeah. When it's the passion and value driven versus the ego-driven, like the ego-driven, driven people are always the least coachable,

Adam Linkenauger: 18:16

right? Mm-hmm. and they drop off quit too. Oh. And they, yeah. I've seen'em drop off after one video. It didn't, didn't explode. Like they assumed everyone's gonna love them, so they were done. YouTube doesn't work. YouTube's broken it couldn't be anything. It couldn't be me. It couldn't be, you know, I love the analogy of they're the type of people that would say a plane's broken just because they don't know how to fly. Yeah. It's just, you know, it's kind of a, a goofy way of looking at it, but that's the way it seems to me. Yeah.

Bradley Roth: 18:44

So what was it like when, cuz like you said your brother was kind of, you know, this megastar sports athlete, and then you didn't seem like you were gonna be, but then you had your growth spurt, you got good at high jumping and all this stuff. How did that dynamic or your identity shift when that happened?

Adam Linkenauger: 19:01

You know, it was surreal because it happened so quickly. Um mm-hmm. you know, I was going into junior year, I had no plans of college or, you know, heck, my goal is, hey, I'm gonna finish high school and I'm gonna help on the farm. I'm gonna be happy as can be. That sounds like an incredible life to me. That's what I wanna do. So when this happened, and again, in a matter of weeks, all of a sudden all these college opportunities started coming and, I was getting courted and, making all the all American lists and all this stuff just kind of came outta the woodwork. You know, it was, it was hard not to go to your head when you're 16 years old. Yeah, in a way it really drove me to be better and kind of continued to prove myself. It was motivation in a lot of ways, but also because it happened so quickly, one of my biggest fears was I was gonna wake up one day or show up at the meet, and it's almost like, one of, I forget the movie where. you know, the kid was weird. Is Michael Jordan's sneakers or whatever it was, and all of a sudden game, it starts working. Yeah. I think, was it like Mike or the better, you know, a really good example was the baseball movie where the kids, you know, he's got the gun, he breaks his arm and he has the gun. Yeah. He's just firing it. But come, you know, the, the ninth inning of a big game, it, it goes away. In my brain, that was my biggest fear because it came so quickly, maybe it's just gonna stop, you know, and maybe it's just gonna disappear one day. And I think we all can relate to that with business as well. We think, Hey, maybe this is gonna stop. So my thought there was, that's why I went from, Hey, I get it. I had the talent here, but I need to learn foundationally how to be successful at the sport. Mm-hmm. So that's when I became a student of high jumping versus just letting my talent, you know, kind of keep me going. And I did the same thing in business. Had a, you know, really good start, really had great growth over the first four or five years. Then it's like, okay, instead of going out and becoming a consultant or a coach or this, I put another five or six years in mastering everything that I did internally for the business and my other businesses. Then it, okay, now I feel like, hey, I'm in a foundational spot where I can go help more people and I can teach people kind of how I did it, cuz the foundation's finally there. Yeah,

Bradley Roth: 21:07

for sure. But it's interesting because I think that growth spurt is another, like, I'm just seeing all these parallels, right? Between sports, business. Mm-hmm. and I think you were working hard. Even though you, you hadn't had your growth spurt, you were working hard. You're like, I'm gonna dunk. This is my goal. And then your growth spurt came like, I think in business too, like you work hard enough at something, like eventually you're gonna have that growth spurt. You don't know when it's gonna happen or, or how or whatever. But then all of a sudden things are gonna happen and then you know, it, it is, like you said, it's easy to get kind of caught up in that sometimes and like, oh, this is gonna be easy and. You know, last forever or whatever. But I think that's an important lesson too. Like you just stay in like completely, you know, I'm, I'm still, it hasn't really happened for me yet with what I'm currently working on, but I know that growth spurt is coming Percent.

Adam Linkenauger: 21:58

Yeah. And I think, I love that, that you mentioned that because had I not been in the gym and building up my confidence and working hard and working towards that goal, that growth spurt very well was gonna come. You, you, you could argue maybe I drove mentally, just pushed myself to grow, you know? Mm-hmm. I have to think uh, science wouldn't back that up, but let's just assume that that growth spurt was gonna come regardless. Would I have mentally been in the same place to accomplish the goal had I not kept driving and working and pushing and, you know, right. Even if I was just slowly chipping away at it I wouldn't have mentally been in this space to be to, to, to, conquer that, that accomplishment. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that you bring up a good point is, hey, a lot of times, and I love the, the analogy of. you know, if you could, if a football team simply can average two and a half yards a carry, they're unbeatable. They don't have to throw bombs every play. If they can average two and a half cart yards a carry, they'll never be stopped. And that's my mentality when it comes to anything I do, is I don't have to, throw a touchdown or help Mary every, every day. If I can just go two and a half yards a day, I will be unbeatable. I will accomplish every goal. I will score every touchdown. And you know what, to your point, eventually you keep running up the middle, the defense adapts, someone slips, something occurs. You do play action and you throw it over the top and you have a 40 yard play. And I think that that's what we're, what we, if we continue to drive, we all will have our 40 yard

Bradley Roth: 23:22

place. Yeah, exactly. And yeah, if you were not putting in the work, then an opportunity comes along and you're not able to capitalize on that opportunity. Right. So, yeah, it's, it's amazing all the parallels. But I want to get into, you know, We talked a bit about the kind of athletic background. You did that through college. You were kind of at the top of the game there. And then really, unless you're gonna be an Olympian after that, your career is essentially over. There's nowhere to like, you know, you can go play basketball, pick up into your sixties if you want high jump. It's like there, you don't really do that after college unless you're an Olympian. You know what I mean? So, correct. What, what was it like after that trying to, I don't know, transition, reinvent yourself? Cuz that had probably been such a strong part of your whole life and identity. That whole time.

Adam Linkenauger: 24:17

Yeah. I mean, to your point, I was I jumped a standard going into the Beijing Olympic trials. So I was one, I think Jesse Williams, who's a multi multi-time Olympian, he had jumped a standard and then maybe one or two others had jumped a standard. And in order to go to the Olympics, you have to hit a standard and you have to, you know, in your trials you have to compete and, you know, come in. I believe it was top, top two or top three. Mm-hmm. Anyway, I was, I had signed a deal with Brooks, had an AIDS and everything was looking good. Jumping the best I'd ever jumped. It was unbelievable how good I was jumping, going into, you know, the months prior to this trial occurring. And one day I was warming up and I ended up just popping a hamstring, just in a normal day here in Mor, Roanoke at Roanoke College. Out on the track ended up just tweaking, popping a hamstring. It wasn't a bad injury in the sense that it put me, it wasn't like a career ending injury, but it kind of was because mm-hmm. I was no time for me to actually recover. Mm. Get back to my elite level to be the best I can be. Cuz if I don't show up and I'm not my absolute best, I'm you shot, I have no chance, no shot, no shot. So, and I remember, I, it happened and literally sitting in the, on the track, I ended up calling my agent and letting him know what happened and he was like, okay man, you know, I thought he was going to, Hey, we're gonna get you some medical attention. We're gonna get you some support. We're gonna get you fixed up. We've got a way to, you know, still make this happen. No. He said, Hey, I, I need to concentrate on my other athletes. You know, if you're still around in four years, let's talk. If you're still competing at a high level, he knew as well as I did. There's no chance I'm not gonna be there in four years. So he ended up dropping me, obviously, Brooks, which again, it, it was high jump. It was just a, like a cl a gear deal. It's not like they were paying me a bunch of money. And they ended up, you know, both, everyone kind of went their separate ways at that point. There was a huge identity loss in crisis because I, not only in my mind was the high jumper, I was going to be the Olympian, I really thought I had you know, I had it in my head that that was going to be kind of the icing on the cake. The cherry on top. Yeah. And then when it didn't happen, especially I'd, I'd had a run where, you know, a lot of crap just happened. It worked out. My brain and my body just kind of made things occur. So when this did, and I, I went into the what a lot of athletes deal with the depression, the struggle alcoholism partying. I didn't go back to Clemson. I ended up going home saying, Hey, I'm done with all of. And weirdly enough for about a year I ended up playing online poker and well, probably about two years before the ban of online poker. That was kind of where I, you know, 12 hours a day I was making money. And that's where I could focus without having to leave the house get in front of everyone. To me, everyone in my mind, everyone was just look at me like, I'm just an absolute failure. Now, the truth was everyone looked at me just as successfully as, you know, maybe not as had I gone to the Olympics, but they looked at me as this, elite athlete that was an ACC C champion, did incredible thanks. So it took me roughly two or three years I want to say. Slowly getting this online poker was making the money, starting the online business, getting the, you know, I developed social anxiety, didn't want to go out. I would drive to like a grocery store, sit in a parking lot and then turn around and drive back. Cuz I didn't want to go inside cuz I was afraid. Literally I would, someone would see me and say, Hey, what happened to the Olympics? I just did not wanna deal with them. So it took me a while to get over that. But really what helped me was YouTube. Cause I could shoot my own videos privately, I would put them on, and then I realized the support, the credibility that I was being given from, athletes all over the world who looked at my credentials and said, this guy's good. He knows what he's doing. He can help me. And that's really what kind of started to work me out of the, you know, kind of that, that identity loss and finding out who I was as I transitioned to the coach and business person and not the

Bradley Roth: 28:23

app athlete. Hmm. Wow. So, The first channel that you started was the, I Love basketball. Right around that time, 2008, 2009. What kind of, it was uh,

Adam Linkenauger: 28:35

freak athletics that transitioned and became, I love basketball. Yep.

Bradley Roth: 28:39

Gotcha. Huh. So what, what was that first early content like? What kind of stuff were you putting out there?

Adam Linkenauger: 28:46

It was just me and a basketball. Jim started off doing a lot of dunking and I put out a lot of content that was supposed to be for athletes, but it wasn't, it was for me, it was for me to impress the other coaches and trainers that I was good at what I was doing. So, you know, I was creating content like you know, Dorsey Flex and, and penultimate technique for, increased explosion. Right. And at the end of the day, it's, you could, you know, that's a really neat headline. Sounds really fancy. Or you could just say how to jump high rinse on Yeah. You know, I know which one, if I'm a 14 year old, 13 year old, I know which one I'm clicking. So, I had to learn how to do a couple things, get better at YouTube and understand what my audience is actually looking for, but also drop the ego and stop creating content to try to impress people, but instead create content to help the people are actually looking for it.

Bradley Roth: 29:41

Yeah. So you started that and did it just start kind of almost unexpectedly growing?

Adam Linkenauger: 29:47

Not really. It was about a three year period where I was losing money. I was not, not having a lot of the success. I had launched a, a program, it was called the Become a Freak Program. Again, going back to kind of the freak athletics brand name. Yeah. And it didn't do very well. I thought I was just gonna, you know, put it out there and I was just gonna go berserk and it didn't. So I had to kind of go back to the drawing board did another launch and started continuing to grow the audience and build, build relationships in, in the spares. It did a joint venture launch and had a few other people help me launch become a freak version too. And it did better, but it still didn't do good. Mm-hmm. So about three years after I started, I had the concept of, you know, the best way I learned high jumping. I had already had strength and foundation, I need to learn technique. But in basketball there was no jump technique in mm-hmm. jumping in regards to basketball, no one was talking about jump technique at all. So that's what I did, is I started talking about hair here's, you know, this thing called jump technique and how I learned it as a ACC C champion high jumper, and how I took it into the gym and what it did for me and what it can do for you. And it was really interesting because the audience really connected to it. But when I went to do another joint venture launch for a program on Jump, jump technique, the joint, the joint, the jbs were like, no, like, no one can increase their vertical instantly. Like, this isn't real, this doesn't work. That I'm like, you know, like, I've been doing this a while. I think I, I know what I'm talking about here, right? Like, I can go to a gym, grab athletes and prove it. And, you know, long story short, they didn't promote it. I did just exactly that as I went to the gym, grabbed random athletes, had them go through it in real time and we would just pause frame to show how much, they would grow, increase their vertical, two inches, three inches, four inches. And I ended up launching that program. About halfway through the lunch, every one of these JVs hit me up saying, I want a lunch, I want a lunch, I want a lunch. And it was actually, I'm sure it's been beaten, but it was one of the biggest sports specific click bank launches ever. I think it did like 115, 117 grand in four days, which wow. You know, when you're staring at zeros in the bank, that's a pretty significant, it's life changing, know for anyone, right? Absolutely. It was, yeah. You know, it had that not happened, I don't know what I would've done cuz I was kind of at that point where this, this, I'm in year three, still not really taking off. Yeah. But that momentum really pushed everything. Talking about the 40 yard play that changed everything. And it seemed like for, from that point on for years, everything really started to gain momentum. Wow.

Bradley Roth: 32:26

And so from there, you just continued to focus on that, that material, but refining it, maybe learning the ins and outs of YouTube a little bit better.

Adam Linkenauger: 32:36

Yep. You got it. I learned a lot, I learned about copywriting and, you know, back then I had to create my own pages. I couldn't go. The optimized press finally came out, which is awesome, but back then you had to kind of HTML code where I'd have ugly, very image based pages that I made Right. And, build, building a product using, you know, it was literally a software product that was like a dot exc file, so it wouldn't work on Mac. It was, it was hard. It was, yeah. It's so much more challenging now from a competitive standpoint today, but from an effort and output standpoint. I mean even uploading a six minute YouTube video on dial up internet, I mean, you were looking at hours to get a six minute video up. Yeah. You know, and hopefully grandma doesn't call, you know, like it would kill, kill that internet and you'd have to start over. So, I just, I always think about kind of now verse then it, when I would've rather started and I still think then, cuz I was willing to put in the work, but now with the tools and the ability, like it's so much easier.

Bradley Roth: 33:42

Wow. That's crazy. It's those things you don't even think of today, but it can you still buy that program? Do you still have it available?

Adam Linkenauger: 33:50

N no, the it was called ebook Pro was the the, the software tool and they ended up going out of business like, I mean it's probably been 10, 10 years or so at this point. But yeah, I ended up having to pull everything. It was such a good program. But we've recreated it and do, done newer versions, but I still keep a lot of the old you know, one, one and a half by one and a half inch videos of me doing a four second, you know, pixelated jump drill or something. It's, yeah. So interesting to look back at to see how things have changed.

Bradley Roth: 34:21

For sure. Yeah. It's amazing. So people listening are like, okay, I wanna start a YouTube or grow my YouTube. So what are one or two things that, you know, is super important, but most people don't really know about or think the wrong way about or something like that?

Adam Linkenauger: 34:40

I would say number one, it, it sounds cliche, it sounds, you know, obvious, but it really doesn't happen that often is those who pick something that they would actually wanna put content out. If they never made a penny out of it, it would be a, a. they're, they have such a passion for it. Like for me, the high jumping and the jump training and stuff, I love putting out content and helping people. Yeah. You know, all of the brands I've worked with, and I've worked with some, don't get me wrong, that are more business minded. They're just, they, they put systems in place and they grind and they're still putting out great content. So I'm fine with it. They're very few and far between. And I'd say the majority of those types of channels fail. The majority of the, you know, the money centric. I wanna make money with this. Mm-hmm. I want this to be a career. It's hard to make that work if that's kind of the central motivation. Yeah. But if you can parallel passion and enjoyment with, Hey, I'm gonna build systems to make money, that's the winning formula 100%. Mm-hmm. Secondarily, it's, it's differentiation. It's standing out like your podcast for example, it has a very clear theme that differentiates itself from what else is out there. And, you know, there can be other competitors. There's nothing wrong with that, but, you know, if someone wanted to create a a basketball training channel, it would be, it would be a tough game for sure. But if they wanted to very niche in and find a, a gap that they can really specialize in, whether it's shooting or ball handling, you build that foundation around, an entry point that you can work with and you can make work that's not overly competitive or overly kind of, you know, hundreds of videos you're competing with. You start there, you build foundation, and then you can spread, then you can wide mm-hmm. and then you can make connections and you can really, you know that the first 2000, 3000 subscribers is, if you do that, you're gonna make it. Yeah. You just have to keep going.

Bradley Roth: 36:30

Yeah. I know. I tell people that with you, with podcasting as well. Like when you start, it's really important that you keep your content really dialed in on topic in your niche, and then eventually once you kind of build that base, then you can kind. you know, still stay within your realm, but branch out and get a little bit more general. And so, absolutely. My next question would be someone's like, okay, well I wanna start a channel, or maybe I just started a channel. What do you think about people starting like a theme or a brand type channel versus like a personal, like the channel is their name?

Adam Linkenauger: 37:07

Yeah. To me it's very much, it can go either way. Mm-hmm. and I am the type, you know, if I love basketball two, you know, still number one in the space today, it's grown to 2.3 million subscribers. Heck before a million subscribers, I was done. Like I physically was in such bad shape with my knee, I couldn't go on the channel anymore. Mm-hmm. So I look back at that and I think, Hey, had this channel been called Adam and Lincoln Auger Jumping. One, it would've just been a jumping channel. I never could have realized that, hey, 95% of the people who are watching my jump training content are basketball players wanting to dunk, right? Hey, let's expand this to my favorite sport basketball, bring in basketball trainers and grow this into a business. So I think that, and what I wanted to say, I kind of wanted to back up here too. I think bulk creation is something that's so incredibly overlooked. I just wanna make sure I mention this because I should have said that earlier. I, when I ever, I, we work with someone or I partner with someone, we don't start the YouTube channel until they have a month of content. And when I say a month of content, not shot, but it is shot edited, it is ready to be put out. Gotcha. The reason why is life gets in the way you're most exci. You've got two of the most exciting points when it comes to growing a YouTube channel. It is starting. and it is a, the, the, maybe the, the 3%, 4%, I don't know the exact percentage that when you hit a hundred K and then when you hit a million mm-hmm. those are probably the three most exciting points. Mm-hmm. one of those we all get, and then from there it's a very slick and very quick downhill drop. Right. Until we, we start to build that momentum. So get ahead and get yourself in a sequence with bulk creation. We would go to the gym, rent a gym out one day a month, and shoot eight to 12 videos. Mm-hmm. boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Just take one day a month and shoot your content, and then eventually, as soon as possible, higher editing, higher thumbnail creation. Mm-hmm. I mean, I think anyone should start with the hiring, thumbnail creation even off of fiber. You can get great thumbnail creation for, you know, literally five, five to 10 bucks a hop and that will speed up your growth probably one or two years. by having quality thumbnails versus creating your own on Canva that look like crap, but you didn't have to pay for'em. You know what I mean? Like there is a little investment there. Not saying go out and pay a thousand dollars a month to an editor. I don't mind people starting editing their own videos. But unless you're a great designer, those thumbnails definitely something that that should be outsourced.

Bradley Roth: 39:44

Gotcha. And so when you say like a month of content and you said eight to 12 videos, so do you think kind of a sweet spot for most channels would be two to three videos a week?

Adam Linkenauger: 39:56

What I recommend starting with one long form video a week, so four a month, getting at least four videos ahead, getting that system in place and YouTube's gonna be fine if you ramp up, if you go from one to two videos and then even from two to three videos a week. But what YouTube doesn't like is if you start off with four videos. Then, a week later your two videos, then it's one videos, then you take three weeks off, then all of a sudden you upload one. YouTube's not gonna like that, and we have to look at it through their eyes as a platform. Their goal is to bring people back to, to YouTube so they can monetize content, get people coming back, number one, and then watch some content consistently so they can monetize. YouTube has to put trust in the creator to continue creation. And YouTube is not a fan. If you, if they put a lot of trust in you give you these subscribers and then you, you, you know, disappear. Mm-hmm. I'm a big component about how mentally, you know, a big, big, big believer about the mental drain that content creation can be in. You can lose passion and enjoyment, I think everyone does. Mm-hmm. So you gotta get that month ahead so you can have that one week break or even a two week break. Right. You can do that and I think that's where bulk creation is so valuable. And, you know, another fun little internal step. I have never seen a channel succeed that only creates a video at a time. Mm-hmm. in the how to space. I haven't seen it. Someone that's, Hey, I'm just gonna shoot a YouTube video today and put it out tonight, or put it out tomorrow, then next week do it again. They, they follow off. But the bulk creation, I mean, I've, well, we've got guys that have 30 or 40 videos. I mean, urban Valor right now probably has 35 videos in the tank. You know, 35 weeks almost a, you know, two thirds of a year of content already. Just because hey, we're, we're bulk creation Hmm. Gives you time to, for the business

Bradley Roth: 41:48

as well. Yeah. Yeah. So my podcast, I mean, this, this episode I think will be episode like 91, 92, something like that. And you, for YouTube, I. Couple videos on there, but I'm just now getting the YouTube going and I'm like, I got this backlog of 90 episodes. And so once we can get that system going and get'em scheduled out or whatever, that could do two or three a week for the next year or two. So I think it's, if I had tried to do it when I started the podcast, it just, it wouldn't have worked. I had aspirations to, but I also knew, it's kind of the same thing, like YouTube, like consistency. I don't wanna, like, you know, throwing up here, throwing up there, maybe I'll get to it, maybe it'll stress me out extra, who, you know what I mean? So, absolutely. So it's an interesting way to look at it for like a podcaster, right? Mm-hmm. It's like, okay, if you're gonna focus and, and nail the audio and it, it really depends, right? Because there's podcasters who have the full teams, everything's outsourced. you know, maybe they cut your YouTube and everything for you, but for the kind of like grassroots podcaster, right? Like I was starting from scratch. Not a huge following one-man team, or maybe two-man team, like maybe focus on getting your audio dialed in and then later on you don't have to stress about YouTube. You're like, all right, I got all these videos, I just gotta kind of format'em, get'em up, whatever. And yeah. So

Adam Linkenauger: 43:18

yeah, I mean we, we've got, we've got the team, we've got the system, and we still do exactly what you just said. You know, urban Valor, six months, just focus YouTube, then we add Instagram and we add TikTok, then we add the podcast. We did it, you know, really because of focus. And even if we have the capability to. Going deep and really focusing on one or two areas really drives things, to a new level. To your point, getting the audio right likely wouldn't have happened. It would've just gotten good enough had you had five other things on your plate. Right. At least that's how it is for us. So it's really important to, for me, whenever we do anything is, hey, be patient. Tell everyone I work with, hey, it's probably gonna be a year before we really, you know, see, see the fruits of the labor. It's probably gonna take a year. Yeah, yeah. And they must know that. But then come that year, everything's in a place where, hey, we, we know what we're doing foundation's in place. We've got content in the tank. Everyone's life that feels like a part-time job versus a, you know, two full-time jobs.

Bradley Roth: 44:22

Exactly. Yeah. And I want to, I want to get into that cause that's a really interesting thing you brought up. But first, when you mentioned long form content, like what, what length are you kind of implying with that?

Adam Linkenauger: 44:35

Yeah. It it's channel to channel, market to market. If I put out 45 minute basketball training clips, it would be an absolute bomb for a 13 year old. They would've been on fortnight videos and, highlight tapes and whatnot. Way before they even got through the intro. Probably would kill the clip. The rate when they saw in the corner, it was 45 minutes, wouldn't happen. Right. Something like Urban Valor, I mean, we do full 45 minute to an hour. I mean, we put out an hour and 20 minute podcast, the other video podcast the other day, and it's one of our better vid videos. Cuz you know, it's an entirely different genre audience. There's, you got it. 60% of that audience is watching on their tv, so they're literally sitting down and watching this like a TV show. So you have to keep that in mind when the average, you know, and everything from the, the emails you write to the social content you put out to, you know, the, the, the products you make. who is it for? You know, with, I love basketball. When we started, everyone was using 10 fingers and had this gigantic screen in front of, on a desktop computer. Now we're back, we're down to two thumbs and two and a half inches. Right. So we have to adapt what we're doing to make that work and, you know, meet the audience where they're at because they are not going to meet us where we're at. We have to go to them. Yeah,

Bradley Roth: 45:52

yeah, for sure. And for a podcast, I mean, Joe Rogan is kind of the quintessential example, right? And he has his full length, he's got the Spotify deal and all that. So everything's on there, but then he has the clips on YouTube. So for a podcast, do you recommend having the full episodes and the clips, a mix of both? Just the clips, like what do you think for that? If it's like a longer podcast, let's say.

Adam Linkenauger: 46:22

Right. Yeah. So I, I'd recommend taking, taking the, the vertical clips and creating native sorts that can be mm-hmm. kind of, kind of the way that we do it is we'll put out some before the long form video drops, maybe have a little call to action at the end. We'll use it for stories. We'll use it for TikTok. Mm-hmm. we'll put it on YouTube shorts, especially with YouTube shorts. YouTube's obviously where, where we, we put our long form content, so we wanna leverage YouTube shorts because it's running under the same algorithm of, Hey, if you're enjoying my short content, you're more likely gonna see the long form. Right? So, you know, 6, 7, 8 little clips from each interview. Is what we litter out, maybe four or five before the full drop. And then the week after we launched the full episode, we'll have clips to send people back to, you know, we'll have a little out now, or with YouTube, you can literally, cut, do a clip and they can clip the clip and go directly to the full lane video. Gotcha.

Bradley Roth: 47:21

Yeah, that's, that's super helpful advice. I think going back to what you just said prior to that, and this is something I've, I've tried to tell people and found out for myself, is that it's really easy to look at like the ed mys of the world and these people who have, like, they're everywhere, right? They're on every single channel and they're all this stuff. Like the average person tries to do that, and you just can't, like, you need to, like you said, whether it's like, okay, the next three to six months we're focused on getting this dialed in. Once that's figured out, then we can go on to the next platform. Get that figured out. And I think that's also a valuable kind of principle when it comes to business and prioritizing. Because I talk to all these people and I, I talk to people and I hear like myself in the pa cause I'm one of those people who I'm like, I have 20 different ideas that I wanna execute on at once. Right? We've all been there and absolutely, it's not trying to figure out how to do them all, which is, I think where we most people start. It's how can I do them all? But like, you know, in what order do I want to do them all right? So it's like, okay, I have this great idea, but let's sit down, let's look at the big picture. All these things we got going on, what are we focusing on for the next 1, 3, 6 months? Whatever your, your block is. This other thing, I still really wanna do it, but now I know that's, that's six months out, that's a year out, you know? And then, Same thing, you can be, because like you talked about it earlier, you can't focus on 20 different things, right? You gotta pick, you know, a couple, maybe a few things if they're related to each other that you focus on. And so when you're, when you're doing it with content, what does that, you kind of touched on it a little bit, but so you spend like time on the YouTube and then you spend time on like TikTok s next, you said, and does that totally depend on the brand?

Adam Linkenauger: 49:21

Completely depends on the brand. It's almost like you develop like an i, if you're familiar with like the Eisenhower quad blocks, where you've got, urgency and importance. Yeah. It's almost doing the same thing, but it's, you know, ideas and platform and you know, where the, the, where they mesh and you know, on that, that that scale. For example, Instagram a year ago or two years ago, you know, TikTok, I may maybe wouldn't even think about. but Instagram, I would've thought, you know, now it's like, Hey, TikTok is number two, because the urgency is there. There's, you know, people are filling it up very quickly, don't get me wrong. But every platform you've got the opportunity, even YouTube sorts right now is probably a, a really cool opportunity for a lot of people who don't have audience, because Right. Still it's hard for these short form platforms, especially these swipe up video, that it takes so many millions and millions and millions of videos to fulfill that news sphere or that that feed, so to speak, for every person, that there's opportunity there to get eyeballs, which is why TikTok became so successful so quickly. Right? So it, it depends on, on the, the, the business, the brand, the platform, and going back to the, you know, where is your audience at? Go meet them where they're at. So that would be number one. And then number two. Still, I recommend focusing on one. If you don't have one right now, I would go to the, what you feel is the lowest hanging fruit. Mm-hmm. Whether it's short form, whether it's long form, it doesn't, doesn't matter to me. As long as we can start developing audience. For example urban Bower, we started with YouTube, but we started doing our clips, tossing them on TikTok and in what felt like a blink of an eye in a few months, we had 200,000 followers. Mm-hmm. So from there, once you build any, any audience on any platform, you need to really do two things. One, get'em on a list, you know, me list. Yep. That's so, so it's some something that you can continue to talk to and control, of course. But number two, you've gotta bounce, you've gotta bounce traffic. Ed Mullet, for example, if Ed Mullet or I love basketball, wants to be on, you know, xyz.com, the newest and coolest social media. I can send one email and have 10,000 subscribers, 20,000 followers, whatever it may be. Yeah. And now we're f our foundation is in place. Mm-hmm. So if you start with one, you know, the, you're competing. If you use every platform and you're on every platform, you're con you're competing with people who only use that platform. And maybe they don't even have a business or brand. They are 100% a content creator who's 40, 40 plus hour a week. Core job is to put out the best content as your competitor. Yeah. So that's what we have to compete with. So that's why I really recommend starting with one silo. You know, again, urban Valor started with one silo, not, it took months with us having the system before we were willing to move on to the next one mm-hmm. because we felt like, Hey, we've got this, we've got our foundation.

Bradley Roth: 52:18

Yeah. Yeah. I, I feel like there's a lot of A lot of gold in there. I'm sure people are taking notes who are listening, who wanna start or build a brand or channel, which is I think, the majority of people these days in in some regard. So is there one, one last kind of thought or piece of advice related to building a brand content, all that kind of stuff that we've been talking about? Yeah, no,

Adam Linkenauger: 52:40

I'll take it back to, to high jumping. One of the high jump will probably be my most you know, not because I just did it, but to me it connects better to business and life more so than anything. The reason I say that is I won a ton of competitions, had a lot of fun, but I walked away a loser. Every competition. But as you know, after you, after you win, you raise the bar two and a half inches or an inch higher, whatever you want. Yeah. You try again and you keep trying until you fail. Hmm. And I learned in doing that, that the only way I was gonna continue to, to excel is through failure, not through success, cuz I could win. and stop jumping. And I would, I could have every competition, I could have just stopped, but I chose to continue to go until failure cuz that's the only way we're gonna, you know, find out what that next level is. Yeah. So a big, you know, big thing that I've been thinking a lot about over the last year or so is we need to kind of change the, we need to change how people view failure. Mm-hmm. failure is looked at as this end all be all of, you know, not succeeding. Where really all it is, it is a, it's an absolute tool. It is an opportunity. It is the only way you're gonna find out. It's like a video game. You find out how you get killed by the monster, you realize what they're doing to kill you and you adjust. Yeah. And that's all we have to do with content creation. You put out videos, this video didn't do well. Why? Okay, this video did do well. Why? And you start to figure out, as you get better, you, you learn to adapt, you get experience, you see what others are doing and you fail. and all of that combines to con continuing to drive yourself vertically and be, you know, finding success and finding skill.

Bradley Roth: 54:25

Yeah. I think, yeah, when you think about it, you really have nothing to lose, unless you're putting out something super harmful or offensive, obviously Sure. You know, don't be an idiot. But otherwise, like, putting out content people like think like, and, and I'm guilty of this for sure, is like, oh man, well what if people don't like it? What if, you know, it's not up to my standard, blah, blah, blah, but at the end of the day, you know, that is how you get better. And it's, I never thought of it that way. Like you said it with the high jump, like, but it's, it's such a true analogy because you know every competition that you win and like, you know, you were, you were winning probably on a little bit of a higher level than me, but, you know, I, I won probably 80, 90% of the meets that I went to, and it was the same thing that, you know, okay. I, I matched my best. I. you know, no one's even close to me, but you know, I'm gonna, I'm still gonna go for that next height that I've never hit or I haven't hit in a while. I'm not gonna just walk away because I'm gonna see, you know, what if, what if, right? And, and so what if that's the

Adam Linkenauger: 55:32

beauty of all of it is that's the way I think we have to look at everything as what if mm-hmm. Yeah. You know, the moment we start just going through the motions or you know, we, we, we don't look for that next, what if, that's when things start to go the other way. And that's when I think men, mentally we, we stop growth, we stop development. I think the key is I love that what if, and that's what we need to look at is what,

Bradley Roth: 55:55

what if. Yeah. Yeah. And it's, you know, I never even thought of it that way because even every meet like in high. You. I, I never really saw people walk away, ever. Like, you always end like in high jump for those of you listening, if you're not sure, if you don't know, like when you, you get three tries at each height and they go up about two inches at a time usually. And so on your final one, you hit it three times. You're out, like whatever that height is. And so like you go and you fail that thing three times, but still you, like, you like, I always still felt like I walked away a winner in that sense.

Adam Linkenauger: 56:36

Hundred percent, right? Yeah, a hundred percent. And that's that feeling right there is the way we need to approach everything. If you walk mm-hmm. you walk into the failure, a winner and you walk out a winner. Right. You know, all the only thing we filled out is literally just that one bar and that one moment, everything before that was a win. Everything after That's a. And in doing that, and you know, it comes back to content creation or business or putting out a product that bombs or a service that doesn't do well is you just, what's the worst part of that? What's the worst thing that happens if you walk away with information? You walk away with experience, you walk away with knowledge, you figure out why it didn't work, you figure out what you did wrong and you improve it. And that's high jump 1 0 1. Hey, what happened? All right, let's go back to the drawing board. Let's get in the way room, let's get better.

Bradley Roth: 57:24

That's it. A hundred percent. Yeah. That's a great kind of final thought, but I also need to ask you before we wrap up, there's one question that I ask everyone who comes on the show, and that is, what is your definition of not most people or what do you think of when you hear that?

Adam Linkenauger: 57:40

I think not most people, when I, the first thing that comes to mind is when we're. that kid that doesn't care what you know, and you're a toddler and you're in your youth and you don't care what anyone thinks about you. You know what you like, you know what you enjoy. Mm-hmm. you know what you wanna be when you grow up. Staying true to that kid to me is what that definition is because I, I, you know, really, really quickly I found this a few years ago, would've been probably about 20 17, 20 18. My mom actually found it. It was a first grade, second grade little note that said the five things I wanna be when I grow up. And it was write a book. I, I didn't, I didn't write a book, but I created programs I wanted to play in the N B A. I didn't play in the N B A, but I work with N B A players and have gotten people to the N B A. One of them was be a musician. I, I air balled that one, I'm not gonna lie, The other one was being an Olympian. Wasn't Olympian, but I, again, I got really close. Yeah. And it just, it dawned on me that that five year old knew more about my future than I did. Mm-hmm. And because I stayed true to that, even subconsciously, I never allowed myself to just say I can't do something. And even now at 38, you know, probably it probably would get me in more physical trouble than anything. I still have it in my head. I can do things. Yeah. And I can do incredible things with my mind and body and that's something that I wanna make sure I really cherish that. And I never let that get away from me. And I think going back to being willing to fail and push myself is the way to do that. So that five year old, six year old being true to them,

Bradley Roth: 59:20

I love that because I think that's truly an, I've asked that question, I don't know, 80 something times so far. And that's truly a unique answer going back to your childhood, because I think. everyone kind of starts out as not most people as their own person, as this like really unique individual. And then we kind of tend to get pushed by society or friends, family, whatever, into that status quo. Most people exactly that status quo, quo that most, most people. And so just keep that kind of like magic, that optimism, imagination that you had as a kid.

Adam Linkenauger: 59:54

Love it. And the last thing I'll say is, you know, being normal is a learned skill. It is a learned and developed way of fitting in. Like we learn how to fit in and not be that, you know, that outsider for typically, you know, some form of subconscious reasoning for it. Whether it's embarrassment or not wanting to, you know, you wanna be friends, you wanna make friends, you don't wanna be different or weird, whatever it may be, but Right. That, I love that when you're that kid, you truly, truly can connect with the person you are, in some cases better than you can when you're an adult. You know, promise this will be the last thing that I'll say is a lot of times when people say, Hey, I wanna do a YouTube channel. I'm passionate about a lot of things, I just don't know what to do a channel about. I will ask them, well, what, what were you most passionate about as a kid? Hmm. Do you still enjoy it? Do you still care about it? Nine times out of 10, there will be some that say no, but nine times out of 10, it's a yes. And typically that's the direction I push them.

Bradley Roth: 1:00:56

Yeah, man, I love that. Normal is a learned skill. Like that might be one of my favorite quotes all time on this show. I love that. I love that. That's awesome. Yeah, so thank you for that. And yeah, it's, it's true. I mean, like, I don't do it a lot anymore, but my first love as a kid was playing basketball and games and stuff, and it still is, you know, even though it's same here. Yeah. So, but yeah. I, I also wanna give you, before we hop off a chance to, you know, you kind of shared a little bit about Urban Valor and some of these other projects you got going on, but, you know, if people want to learn more about what you do or some of these projects, what's the best place to find that? You know,

Adam Linkenauger: 1:01:38

the place that I am probably most active is, is actually Facebook. If you look up Adam Lincoln a on Facebook, find me friend me, happy to connect. And then from there, sport of business.com is, is kind of the, you know, the, the hub so to speak. It's mm-hmm. still in, and we're getting it built out here now kind of stepped away from it for a year, concentrate on golf, but that's what we're building out over the next two weeks. So it should be up and live and yeah, that's just a place I put my thoughts and, you know, what I'm working on and, you know, opportunities still to work together and stuff like that.

Bradley Roth: 1:02:14

Awesome. Yeah, I'll definitely have all of those links in the show notes for you guys. And man, Adam, thank you so much for coming on today. This was, really fun. I haven't got a chance to talk about some of these, you know, I quote unquote glory days and, and I jump at basketball a lot on this podcast. So, so thank you for that.

Adam Linkenauger: 1:02:33

Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Brad, it's been absolute joy and, you know, having done a podcast in a while and I'm so, so thrilled. It was with you. This is awesome.

Bradley Roth: 1:02:44

Awesome. Yeah, me too. I appreciate that, man. Well, that does it for today, guys. Thank you for tuning in. I hope you enjoyed this one as much as I did and learned a lot. And hopefully you'll go out and, you know, either do something athletic again or start a YouTube channel and grow it. Who knows? But again, think of that one person who would relate to this episode, who would get something out of it, and I just ask that you, share it with them, however that might be. And really that's all I can ask. But thanks again for tuning in. We'll see you in the next one. And always remember, don't be most people.