- CEO Hack: The art and power of delegation
- CEO Nugget: Publish some form of content every day for at least 30 days in a row
- CEO Defined: Being in control and taking it to the next level
Website: https://carswell.io/
raisemasters.com
cfcmentorshipprogram.com
Hunter Thompson: https://iamceo.co/2019/10/09/iam422-real-estate-investor-helps-other-investors-allocate-capital-to-properties/
Adam Carswell: https://iamceo.co/2019/01/27/iam167-podcaster-and-real-estate-entrepreneur-creates-platform-for-stories-and-interviews-for-the-future/
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Transcription
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00:31 – Intro
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 precisely the information you're searching for. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.
00:59 – Gresham Harkles
Hello, Hello, Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Adam Carr as well. Adam, it's great to have you on the show.
01:07 – Adam J. Carswell
Gresh, great to be here. Great to be back. I mean, man, how many episodes now? 1100 plus or something like that?
01:13 – Gresham Harkless
Yeah, absolutely. I've been cranking away. If you want to check out Adams, he's been on episode 167 of our podcast. So he's doing so many awesome things. And what I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about some of those awesome things. Just so you can hear a little bit more about that the man the myth and legend named Adam. So Adam is a real estate entrepreneur, LinkedIn power networker, new media marketing maverick and known as the voice of Liberty for his working work hosting the Labor, Liberland, Liberland show, Liberland's fifth anniversary, and the Chicago blockchain real estate collective.
His expertise in social marketing and network management set him apart from the crowd. So he's also a member of raise masters, the number 1 mastermind for elite capital raisers, and a co-founder of the next level mastermind. Adam is, to say the least, a connector, somebody who has loads and loads of information, always willing to try things out. And I truly appreciate that and get an opportunity to kind of co-collaborate with him. So, Adam, it's great to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?
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02:10 – Adam J. Carswell
I am ready, Gresh. Let's dig in.
02:12 – Gresham Harkless
All right, let's do it. So I know we had you on the show, So I wanted to just rewind the clock a little bit for people that maybe get a chance to listen to this. Tell us what led you here and all the awesome things that led you to kind of do what you're doing now.
02:23 – Adam J. Carswell
Man, I got to check out that episode because I'm sure it was close to at least 3 years ago. And sometimes I'll even, you know, I'm sure by the time this episode goes out, I'll look back on this moment today when we're recording and go, wow, I've come so far since then. So, and anyone who's ever been on a podcast before, I think you can relate. And if you've never been on a show before, you know, look no further than, I guess we should say applying, right? I don't wanna promise anyone they're gonna be able to get on the show here, Gresh, but I know you have a great application and interview process to qualify people for your show.
And yeah, I mean, I've known Gresham since about 2016, and we've been able to watch each other grow over the past few years in the world of media, creation, and podcasting. I'm in the real estate sector. And so I know I've slowly been trying to recruit Gresham over here as well. We'll see if we can get him. But yeah, that's in a nutshell, how I guess I'd like to break the ice and, you know, happy to tell a little bit more of my story and whatever else you got for me.
03:19 – Gresham Harkless
Yeah, I would love to hear more of your story. And I definitely, you know, will say that it's so funny that kind of, you know, think about like, how far, you know, our relationship has gone where, you know, being and presenting it at a, at a rotary group meeting, and then hearing like, okay, you have a podcast, I have a podcast, this will be on each other's podcasts. And just seeing the growth that we both have had from that time is definitely remarkable. So I would love to hear more about your growth and what led you to do all the awesome real estate stuff you're doing too.
03:45 – Adam J. Carswell
Yeah, yeah. Connecting the dots is always like, just 1 of the most fun parts of life. When you look back, you're like, man, if I didn't do that here, then this would have never happened. And that would have never happened. Like, I'm sure you can relate, man. There are so many things that just led to where we're at today. And I think for me, I've got a couple epiphany moments, you know, 1 for me. And actually, I guess I didn't have the epiphany until again, I went back to life and connected the dots. But in a nutshell, you know, we all really do and I'm not trying to be cliche guys, this is true. We all really do have the power to create our own futures. And a lot of it begins by reaching out to people who are in a space or at a level at which you want to be 1 day.
And I just think back to from even in high school applying to universities and colleges, I knew I wanted to play college basketball. And so I wasn't as heavily recruited as I would have liked to have been in high school. And so I reached out to schools and I applied and then like some schools saw, oh, hey, Adam plays basketball. Next thing you know, then they did start recruiting me and going to Westminster College where I went, I had a fantastic career, basketball, and track, and actually just got inducted into the hall of fame. We haven't had the ceremony yet, but man, like, see, like, I, you could say that I inducted myself into the Hall of Fame, right? Like if I didn't reach out to them, it would never happen.
So fast forward, you know, I was in the, in the traditional workforce, I guess you could say I was managing stores for Sherwin-Williams, a paint company. And I had a fantastic time there. Anyone who knows me could tell them that if you slipped my wrist back into Sherwin-Williams days, the paint would probably come out because I was like so passionate about the company. But I read Rich Dad Poor Dad twice, like many of us here in the real estate business, and I realized, wow, there's a lot more to life in this 9 to 5 salary world. And there's nothing wrong with that. I mean, I know a lot of happy people with jobs that punch clocks and they do whatever they want. But for me, I was like, man, I want something with no limits.
So I knew it was either gonna be tech or real estate. I chose real estate. And then fast forward, you know, that was about 2016 when I made that jump and here we are in 2015. I've gone down this real estate rabbit hole like you wouldn't believe. And now I play a huge role. I don't know if I want to go as far as saying a co-founder, maybe 1 day Hunter who really founded the whole thing will give me the green light on that. But I play a huge role in the growth and development of Raise Masters, the number 1 mastermind for elite capital raisers. And so, our group of, this is where I say it's going to be funny. If I listen to this 1, this comes out as of right now, we've got about 75 members and it continues to grow.
And it's been amazing to be a part of this, this side of the business the mastermind side of real estate with Hunter Hunter Thompson guys you can go to raising capital for real estate.com. If you've never heard of him, the dude is absolutely savage, to say the least. And I think for me, so I just went through a series of epiphanies, but my most recent epiphany is being in this role with raised masters. I am more or less the gatekeeper of who gets into this mastermind. And for the first time in my life, you know, I feel like I've had callings and whatnot to help other people level up around me.
This is the first time where I feel like, you know, if I get on the phone with someone who's really serious about joining us, simply by saying, Hey, welcome to the team. Here are the tools. Here's the plan. This is what we're going to do for you. You know, I have the power to change their life over a 90 day period or less. And I've never had this opportunity before until now it's electrifying. And I hope if you're interested in getting into the world of real estate and capital raising in particular that hopefully I hit a few nerves with you here and you want to learn more. So yeah, that's, that's where I'm at now. And raise masters raise masters.com has been just absolutely amazing.
07:14 – Gresham Harkless
Yeah. I love it. Kind of hear that journey and all the awesome you and Hunter and his team have been able to do and check out episode 422 with Hunter. And I will say Adam is a super-connector. I feel like most of all I know about real estate is a result of who Adam has introduced me to and what we've had on the show. So he's a wealth of knowledge and information. And so I know you're doing a lot of tremendous and remarkable things with the Raze Masters. Could you take us through a little bit more on what we can find there, what you're doing, and kind of like what you feel like kind of sets you all apart and makes you unique?
07:43 – Adam J. Carswell
Sure. I mean, Again, as of right now, we are very confident that we're the only ones in our space doing specifically what we are doing, which is creating an environment of, as we like to say, elite capital raisers. There are a lot of different niches within the real estate sector, But the cool thing about the raising capital piece is it's not just limited to real estate. And so we have people in other industries, whether it's just simply building out businesses, or the crypto and blockchain space. Of course, now that I'm saying it, I can't think of it, but the ability to snap your fingers and make capital appear goes a long way in many different industries. And we just happen to have picked real estate is where we built our foundation.
And so to be as transparent as possible, I mean, we again, I'm going to keep saying as of right now, we are running a webinar on Wednesdays that basically runs you through 3 of the most sought-after capital raising strategies because we want to add value first. Then we teach you about our capital raising strategies and really what sets us sets us apart because the parent company of raised masters is a sim Capital. If you want to learn more, you go to asimcapital.com. But, you know, over the past decade, we've raised over 50 million from hundreds of accreditors all across accredited investors all over the US. And, you know, so the webinar that Hunter and I are doing basically teaches you like, hey, here are 3 strategies that we've used that for the most part, no 1 else in the space is really doing it.
And we're happy to say that we're kind of setting trends here. And then, you know, we say, thank you for allowing us to teach you now, if you don't mind, can we tell you a little bit about our mastermind? And so the second half of the webinar is, I guess if you want to call it a pitch on Raze Masters, that's what it is. And yeah, you know, next thing you know, you might end up on the phone with me, as I mentioned, the gatekeeper, seeing if we can get you in. So you can learn more, as I mentioned, go to razemasters.com, and then there's a button right there that says register for our next webinar and I'll see you there.
09:35 – Gresham Harkless
Absolutely appreciate that. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple book or a habit that you have but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?
09:46 – Adam J. Carswell
I think it's gonna go with the second most lucrative skill in the world that I just referred to, which is the art and power of delegation. And I can't stress this enough to so many CEOs and entrepreneurs and just business professionals, professionals really out there. The sooner you're able to start delegating and outsourcing tasks that you know you shouldn't be doing, like checking email, and scheduling. For me, I have a Facebook group, which I guess we can drop here too. I didn't think about that, but you know, facebook.com slash groups slash I X Carswell. Come join my Facebook group, come check it out. But like, I'll be honest, my team runs that.
And I've been able to hire some amazing people along the way my executive assistant, you know, she's introduced me to other fantastic talent. She's based out of the Philippines and I've got you know, some and it's hard everyone knows kind of hard to find good talent internationally as well. So we've got a nice database of just interns and assistants and just, there's so much more than that. Right. But I guess my point is The ultimate CEO hack is just delegating that first task, even if it's like email list management because that's actually where it all started for me in 2018.
Rena, who I just referenced our EA. In 2018, I was like, man, I got to get an email list. I just know I do. And I need to make a monthly newsletter. How am I going to do this? Reached out to her because we had a previous relationship from a business venture that actually didn't work out, but now it did. And I was like, hey, can you do this for me every month? And then you, as an entrepreneur, start thinking differently and you kind of start getting this craving like, oh, I can delegate this, and I can delegate this, and I can delegate this. So just do it if you haven't. That's the hack right there, hire someone.
11:22 – Gresham Harkless
Nice, so would you consider that to be what I like to call a CEO nugget? So this might be kind of a word of wisdom or a piece of advice, something you would tell your younger business self, or something you might even tell a client.
11:31 – Adam J. Carswell
Yeah, similar. I'll build on that, which is, you know, bees are good. They create momentum. They can be consistent. The next piece to the consistency is, you don't have to do this your whole career as an entrepreneur or again, whatever walk of business you're in. But if you've never attempted publishing some form of content or email or whatever, every day for at least 30 to 90 days in a row, or a year if you can publish every day for a year, I think that's a huge secret sauce that no one's paying attention to. There's a case study that I heard recently where there was this band.
And if you message me, maybe I'll send you the resource in which I found it. But basically there's this band that showed up every day at the same spot in the town that they lived in and played a concert every day, 365 days. And they have the video of them the first day they showed up, which is like just them. And then a year later, there are thousands of people there watching them play. And so the universe just wants to know, like, are you serious? Because if you're serious, then you will post consistently and ideally daily. And that's what we strive for with everything that I'm doing, not necessarily with Raise Masters, but I'll show you my brand, the IX brand if you guys again join my Facebook group to see what I'm talking about. So Yeah, publish daily, my friends.
12:47 – Gresham Harkless
Yeah, absolutely. And I think that speaks to what we've kind of been talking about as well. So we kind of like those transferable skills and that ability to understand that even if it's something else that you want to do, just having that consistency is sometimes what separates people. Like I think we even talked a little bit about podcasting and how a lot of times people don't get past, you know, 15, whatever the number is 15, 16 episodes, whatever it is, but consistently do it. May not make you the number 1 podcast of all time, but you might be at some connections that completely change your life.
13:15 – Adam J. Carswell
And someone, man, I wish I could remember who said this, but the long story short is like, okay, if you have an email list, if you can publish to your list once per week for 1 to 3 years and you become a local legend, 5 to 7 years, you become a regional legend. And if you can publish consistently to your email list once per week for 7 years, you're international at that point. I was like, okay, that sounds right to me. I'm gonna keep doing it.
13:39 – Gresham Harkless
Yeah, absolutely. I think I think, you know, Darren, I think I forgot. I think it's Darren Harder or something has a book called The Compound Effect. And it starts to you start to realize that it's not just the 1 thing that you're doing, it's not the grand slams that you hit, it's hitting those base hits over and over, striking out, then hitting some base hits, and you start to look at that 07:10 years down the line, and next thing you know, you're overnight success.
13:58 – Adam J. Carswell
Next thing you know, Exactly.
14:01 – Gresham Harkless
Absolutely. Well, Adam, truly appreciate that. And I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on this show. So Adam, what does being a CEO mean to you?
14:12 – Adam J. Carswell
Yeah, to me, being a CEO, plain and simple, is taking a step back from everything, even from the business perspective, taking a look at your whole life, viewing it as 1 entity instead of life, business, you know, et cetera. We have all these different categories, viewing it as 1. And then from that point, realizing, oh, I am the CEO of this. Like everything that I'm doing here in front of me, I'm in control of. You are. Whether you realize it or not, you are in control of all of these things you have going on in front of you. Maybe you can't control certain people, but you can always control how you respond to them. So to me, being a CEO is realizing that you've been a CEO since the day you were born. It's your life, do what you want with it. And as I like to say, take it to the next level.
14:53 – Gresham Harkless
Absolutely. And I know you cover that on your podcast as well too. And I absolutely love that because I think so many times we silo things and we don't realize for 1, as you said, how interconnected they are, but also the impact that sometimes if you can have a great relationship, how that can sometimes affect your business or vice versa. And when we start to realize that we are the CEO of all aspects of what it is that we're doing, then we really can take it to the next level.
15:16 – Adam J. Carswell
That's right, man. That's right.
15:18 – Gresham Harkless
Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, Adam, truly appreciate that. And for people that are listening to this, I wanted to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know and of course how best they can get a hold of you and find out about all the awesome things you're working on.
15:29 – Adam J. Carswell
Yeah best way to get in touch with me guys is my last name, carswell.io. That's my website and you'll see there I mean links to pretty much everything that we just discussed. And then I have to you know give 1 final nudge I mean for anyone out there who's looking to get more serious about what they're doing in the real estate sector, or if you're looking to learn, as I mentioned, to basically snap your fingers and make capital appear, or as we like to say, never scramble for capital again, go to razemasters.com and click on the link to join us at our next webinar.
16:01 – Gresham Harkless
Yeah, absolutely. And we'll definitely have the links and information in the show notes. I love always having you on the show collaborating with you and creating content. We never realized that sometimes, as we talked about the dots and how they align themselves after the fact, by just having a conversation, we don't realize that maybe when we have this idea or have this real estate investment idea, and we need to have done the work prior to that time to make sure that happens how important that is.
So I appreciate you for reminding us of that, of course, doing that and of course, being on the show. So have a great rest of the day, Adam.
16:45 – Outro
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. I am CEO is not just a phrase, it’s a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and everywhere you listen to podcasts. Subscribe and leave us a five-star rating. Grab CEO gear a www.CEOgear.co This has been the I AM CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.
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