IAM167- Podcaster and Real Estate Entrepreneur Creates Platform for Stories and Interviews for the Future

Adam J. Carswell is an entrepreneur, real estate professional and content creator. He is the host of Dream Chasers, a podcast that interviews individuals based on early success in their careers. After graduating from Westminster College, Carswell played and coached collegiate and professional basketball in Belize where he won two national championships. He currently lives in Silicon Valley and has transferred his winning mindset on the court into his entrepreneurial career.

• CEO Hack: (1)Audible- Amazon's platform for books (2) Book- Signs of Getting Rich
• CEO Nugget: Don't let the pride of being an entrepreneur get over you. (2) Work with a team and get some guidance if you can
• CEO Defined: Sense of ownership and understanding of your business operations

Website: https://www.carswell.io/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carswellusa/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarswellUSA

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:27

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Adam Carswell of the Dream Chasers Podcast. Adam, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Adam J. Carswell 0:36

Thanks for having me here, Gresh. There's a lot that you've taught me since we've known each other about podcasting. And so it's an honor to be on the show with you now.

Gresham Harkless 0:38

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I was honored to be on your show. So I'm happy to have you on the show and put you on the hot seat this time. So I'm looking forward to kind of hear more about Adam, but before I introduce Adam, I wanted to read a little bit more about his background so you hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. And Adam J. Carswell is an entrepreneur, real estate professional, and content creator.

He is the host of the Dream Chasers,, a podcast that interviews individuals based on early success in their careers. After graduating from Westminster College, Carswell played and coached collegiate and professional basketball in Belize, where he won two national championships. He currently lives in Silicon Valley and has transferred his winning mindset on the court into his entrepreneurial career. Adam, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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Adam J. Carswell 1:27

I'm ready, let's go.

Gresham Harkless 1:29

Alright, let's do it. So the first question I had was to hear a little bit more about your background and what led you to start your business.

Adam J. Carswell 1:35

Definitely. So I think as you just mentioned, a lot of that feeds into who I am and where I am today. But to really focus on Dream Chasers, it was actually about just over a year ago when a really good friend of mine I went to college with took a deep dive into creating electronic music. And he used the familiar software called FL Studio and Ableton. If you know anything about making music on a computer, those are the two big ones.

And so he was doing a great job. I personally love electronic music. And so I'm like, wow, how is this kid who's working a 9 to 5 like somewhere else making this incredible music? He's chasing his dreams in his spare time. And I love it. And I want to highlight this somehow, to hopefully propel him into the future as well. And so I did an interview like this, I was only doing a video at the beginning.

And then what I started to realize is I could turn things around a lot quicker if I started interviewing individuals with audio only. I applaud you for doing the video and the audio thing. But anyways, so that was a year ago, I interviewed Ron and I was like, I'm just gonna call this thing Dream Chasers. And I'm just gonna start interviewing people that I think like have a ton of potential for their future.

And now we're fast-forwarding a year later. And right now, I've 26 episodes, I'm thinking by the time this goes live, who knows, hopefully, I'm into the 30s or 40s. But that's how Dream Chasers, started was my passion for music and my passion for helping my friends get to where they need to go.

Gresham Harkless 2:59

That's awesome. And I love the idea obviously of Dream Chasers. I love being a guest on the show and getting an opportunity. Sometimes when you're hustling and you're doing all this work. Sometimes you never hear anything you don't hear any kudos from anybody. So the fact that you're actually taking time out of your schedule and putting your talents to help other people out. I truly appreciate that.

Adam J. Carswell 3:16

Thank you.

Gresham Harkless 3:17

And could you drill a little bit deeper about Dream Chasers, and tell us a little bit more about the podcast? What it is that you do, how do you support the people that you're working with?

Adam J. Carswell 3:23

Yeah, so what I'll do is normally through conversation, I'll get kind of like hot leads or people will just come to mind who I think would be a good fit. Normally, I'm looking for someone to be on my show who has been doing whatever they're doing professionally for less than five years. That's because within that first five years is normally when you can tell if someone's really going to take off to the races with whatever they're doing, or if they're just going to kind of flatline. So I'm always looking for the people that are truly rockstars from the beginning. Again, I had you on my show you fit that mold, you just barely kind of made a five-year mark.

And then every now and then I'll like for example, I had someone on there who had been doing what they're doing for like 30 years, but the project or whatever it was that they were working on, was a newer project. And so for example, I just had Danny Vargas on my show. And he's willing to, I think 50s Danny, sorry if you're listening or watching. Yeah, but he's been doing what he's doing for a while. But he's working on the American Latino National Museum, which is coming to the National Mall in Washington, DC eventually.

So it's things like that sometimes I'll kind of create a story to make it still an interview with the future. That's the main focus. Dream Chasers, interviews with the future. And I want anyone who's ever been on my show to be able to go back again 5-10 years from now and be like, wow, like they look where I was back then. And look where I'm at now that's awesome.

Gresham Harkless 4:41

Yeah. And I love that idea. Because a lot of people are doing a lot more documenting of their journeys and where they were before. And I think that's probably one of the most exciting things are you can take a look at where you were a year ago or like you said 5-10 years and say, Hey, I was there. I did that interview. And now I'm here and just kind of see a little bit from that journey and see all the work you've kind of been putting in.

Adam J. Carswell 5:03

Absolutely. And I've even noticed with a few of my friends now that have been on the show, just having them as a guest on the show has given them the confidence with whatever they're doing to all of a sudden they have an immediate presence and they're just running with it. So I love it.

Gresham Harkless 5:15

Yeah, yeah, definitely love it as well. And now when it asks you for what I call your secret sauce, so this is kind of what you feel kind of distinguishes you or your organization. Um, you can separate them or put them all both together, whatever you feel works best. But what do you feel is kind of your secret sauce?

Adam J. Carswell 5:29

I'd say my secret sauce will keep it within Dream Chasers. What I've noticed that I like is normally the last three questions that I will ask someone they're very quirky, random, nothing to do with business normally questions. I think with you, it was like, What's your I think I asked you actually, what's your favorite podcast, which you could say it's kind of like business related. I just had someone on the show the other day, ask them what their favorite cereal was, their favorite color, and things like that.

And then also similar to yourself, I like to keep my interviews, definitely less than a half hour. Because it's 2018 and our attention spans are getting shorter and shorter, I might have to even shorten my show just to keep everyone's attention. But so those are the two things I would say within the podcasting realm that I've really zoned in on keeping it short, doing something weird asking three funnies, and random get-to-know-your questions.

And then I guess another thing that's added to the secret sauce is, as far as I know, I don't know anyone else that has a podcast similar to mine. And I really liked that because, for example, I am in real estate.

And there are so many real estates podcasts out there right now. It's so hard to distinguish yourself. And you know, you the list goes on we were talking about this again on my call with you, or when you were on my show, it's just you got to find a way to be not just different, but like remarkable. Have people give people a reason to really listen.

Gresham Harkless 6:44

Yeah. And that makes perfect sense. And it's funny because we talked about it and I can't remember the principal that you said that you said your girlfriend brought it up. And I thought it was really good. And I just literally posted about it cuz I was like, I'm looking forward to interviewing you and talking a little bit more about this principle. Can you talk a little bit more about that?

Adam J. Carswell 6:59

Yes. Thank you for reminding me. Because that is such a powerful principle. And that's the advice that I know we both would give to anyone getting started in podcasting really in the social media space name of it I believe prices law. Is that right? Okay, so prices law, just a background on how I even remembered that I told my girlfriend about prices law like six months ago, and then I completely forgot.

And then thanks to her intuition, she reminded me what it was called because I was trying to reference it at one time, so don't forget. So prices law basically states that no matter how big a group that's working on a project. So for example, no matter how big the podcasting industry gets the square root of whatever the podcast industry is, so I'm trying to think, do my math off the top of my head now, which is pretty crappy, to be honest. But let's say out of 100,000 podcasters, the square root of that is, can you help me out here?

Gresham Harkless 7:58

Would you go with 10

Adam J. Carswell 8:00

That's right, yeah. So 10,000 out of 100,000. Sorry, for all you math people out there that I'm driving you crazy, right? That's, that's who's gonna do 50% of the business in podcasting. So if you can keep that in mind and know that as long as you're the one who's in it, as long as you're in that square root percentage, then you can be successful in whatever it is that you're doing. That's just the nature of life.

Gresham Harkless 8:22

Yeah. And that makes perfect sense. And I love the fact that you touched on that. And the reason I brought that up, too, is because how you talked about you had people that were doing real estate podcasts, but it sounds like you decided to do something that was authentic to you and in alignment with yourself. And sometimes when you do that, you can be yourself better than anybody else. So when you are in alignment, you do fall in line, it sounds like what price is law

Adam J. Carswell 8:44

Completely and you're right. And I think it just really just makes it more fun. I love real estate. It's totally my industry. But this is like a hobby, I don't want to get paid to do this, you know, this is fun.

Gresham Harkless 8:56

Yeah. And I found that sometimes you're able to build connections and relationships. So sometimes you're building those personal relationships. And sometimes business comes about as a result of that anyways. And now I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an app or book is a habit that you have, but it's something you feel makes you more effective and efficient.

Adam J. Carswell 9:15

Audible for if for anyone out there listening to that's not familiar with Audible, which is Amazon's platform for books on tape audiobooks. I mean, I guess no one really uses books on tape anymore. Audible has totally been my life hack. I'm actually meeting up with a friend of mine, and I think tomorrow actually, and he works at Facebook along with his girlfriend, and I want to say like, three or four years ago, I was really inspired by him on social media.

He did a great job of kind of putting his brand out there and I was just finishing up with school and I'm messaging him like, man, like kinda like what's your secret? Like how you do all these things? I see. He's getting a certification for this and he's like, well, the first start is I'm always on Audible. I'm always listening to books on tape, and I was like, really what's that? Tell me more.

And once you start getting into books on tape and audible, you also start to meet more people that are doing the same thing. And all of a sudden you kind of have this secret community of knowledge that's just being shared. And that's my hack.

My favorite book that I've probably read on Audible, I think probably read it like 15 times now, but it's a quick read is The Signs of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles. And that book is referenced and cross-referenced in a lot of other similar books such as the secret Bob Proctor has some books where he taps into that as well. So audible Signs of Getting Rich and the rest of my library, which I won't bore you with right now.

Gresham Harkless 10:35

Yeah, yeah, we'll definitely have to hear more of that I've actually heard of that book, but have not picked it up myself, or picked up the audio version, either the audiobook on tape, I should say, either, so I definitely have to check that out as well. And now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or piece of advice. Or if you can happen to be a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Adam J. Carswell 10:56

Don't let the pride of being an entrepreneur get the best of you. I think that starting off early, I worked for a Fortune 500 company for a few years and kind of got a feel for the business world and realized that I wanted to take a leap into doing more things on my own, which was great. And I think I was a little bit over-inspired by certain success stories that I had heard. And I wasn't listening to the people right in front of me that were saying, for example, in real estate, getting started, you should join a team.

So that way you learn how it works. That was one thing that I got a little too cocky about and I didn't join a team. And even more to my detriment, I did pretty well to start. So I was like, I don't need any help. And then I got to a point where I needed some help. And I hit a wall hard and thankfully bounced back. But my advice to my younger self and to any entrepreneurs out there any type of guidance or anyone that could potentially hold your hand or anyone that you can kind of work with until you really have your land legs, take it. Work with the team.

Gresham Harkless 11:55

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. It's always funny because whenever you have the guts, I should say, to start a business venture or whatever it is, yeah, there's a fine line between arrogance and being kind of humble and doing it and being able to balance both of those because you need that to be able to think that I can build this. But at the same time, you have to be able to balance and say I can learn from these other people too.

Adam J. Carswell 12:15

Yep, join a team, if whatever your situation allows for, you know, maybe you're doing something where you're literally the first person ever to do it. I don't know, you might have to actually do it on your own in that case.

Gresham Harkless 12:28

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. Awesome. And I now wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of being a CEO, and we're hoping to have different, quote-unquote, CEOs on the show. So, Adam, I wanted to ask you what being CEO means to you.

Adam J. Carswell 12:39

I think being a CEO is so much bigger than the title. Honestly, I think sometimes people misuse the word CEO. And again, I even have some friends that I can think of where they're so excited to get whatever it is that they've started going, that they skip all the hard work just so they can get CEO on their LinkedIn title. And that can really throw you off as well.

Thankfully, one of my in a T-Shirt Company startup that I did with a friend of mine, and we actually did pretty well. But we decided to kind of shut the operation down but we finished well. When we were getting started. One thing that we promised each other is that we are not putting like CEO on our Instagram or whatever until we make a million dollars.

And we didn't make a million dollars, we did well. And we protected ourselves from potentially looking a little bit like what the heck are these guys doing? To me, CEO is an abbreviated acronym to not be lightly tossed around. It is I think nowadays but like, are you actually running your business?

If you can sit down and look yourself in the mirror every day and be like, I'm dedicated I'm 100% this is me, this is it. And you can really feel like that sense of ownership from top to bottom, then that's my definition of the CEO, someone that literally understands every single aspect of whatever operation it is that they're doing.

Gresham Harkless 14:01

Yeah, that makes perfect sense and is a kind of carrot to make sure that we're always striving for it so that we can always be better. And I'm sure any CEO would definitely think that there's always another level to where they can be so they're always striving to be better and do better. So I appreciate that definition.

Adam J. Carswell 14:17

Absolutely. I mean, on top of all that I guess that was kind of a picture-perfect description, but also no one is perfect. So if anyone does misuse the CEO give just forgive them.

Gresham Harkless 14:30

Exactly give him a hug and that everything will make everything okay. But Adam, I truly appreciate you for taking some time out. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic just to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and our listeners know how best they can get a hold of you and of course subscribe to your podcast.

Adam J. Carswell 14:46

Sure, you can I'm gonna see if I can remember all that. You can subscribe to my podcast. Well, YouTube and Facebook, primarily Spotify and iTunes are where I am advertising now and I have to thank you for that because you kind of showed me a little trick on how to get on there. And anyone who's interested in getting your podcasts on major platforms, can ask me a question or just go check it out for yourself on Anchor. To get in touch with me the best way is to email us. Very simple, adam@carswell.io. And what was the other question?

Gresham Harkless 15:20

Any parting words or anything else additional, you want to let our readers and listeners know?

Adam J. Carswell 15:24

Yeah, I would say probably my biggest thing in life is that God is real. And it's up to us to decide whether or not we want to accept that reality or not. I think the more you resist something, the more of something persists again. And also God is my definition. Some people like the universe, and some people like the cosmos. It is what it is. All I know is that there is a creative force, there is a source out there that has given us everything that we have.

And the sooner you can connect your life to that source, the sooner you can get to where you really want to go and truly create your life. And so that is my life motto right there. Besides, taking it to the next level. I say take it to the next level a lot as well.

Gresham Harkless 16:06

Yeah, I remember that question for some reason, but yeah, that's an incredible kind of parting words of wisdom and great pain to remember. And I would expect nothing less from somebody who has something called the Dream Chasers, podcast. So Adam, I truly appreciate you for taking some time out. I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Adam J. Carswell 16:21

Thanks, Gresh. Thank you for having me.

Outro 16:24

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co

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