088: Million Pound Mission with Adam Schaeuble

Hi, I'm Natalie Jill, fat loss expert turned high performance coach. When odds are stacked against us, how do we shift and create everything from nothing? How do we level up when we aren't feeling it yet or we've had a big setback? On this podcast, I'll be talking to some of the most inspiring and courageous men and women on this planet who at their worst, learned how to achieve success greater than they ever dreamed possible. Leveling up and creating everything from nothing. Adam shively once weighed 320 pounds. He was $40,000 in credit card debt, depressed and hopeless. When a friend decided to be an interruption and gave him a copy of the DVD the Secret, everything started to change for Adam. And from his own transformation journey, he created a program that produced over 30,000 pounds of results in his hometown. Today, Adam is the host of a top ranked fitness podcast, the Million Pound Mission. And he has his sights on inspiring over £1,000,000 of healthy results through his podcast, coaching programs and the Million Pound Mission boot camp. Join in today and learn exactly how Adam Shively leveled up and created everything from nothing. Today I'm here with Adam Shively. I am so excited to talk to you, Adam. Adam is the founder of the Million Pound Mission movement. Gonna get into what that means, but this is what's so cool as I'm talking and you guys can't see him, but I can see him right now. He's a super fit, good looking guy. Okay? But let me just tell you, that's not who Adam always was. He started this. I'm gonna let him tell the story. But when he started his journey, he was 320 pounds. Let me say that again. 320 pounds. He was $40,000 in credit card debt. He was 26 years old. He was depressed. He felt hopeless. Oh, my gosh, Adam, dying to talk to you today. Thank you so much for being here.

Today with me, Natalie. This is such an honor. I'm a fan of yours. You're somebody that I look up to in the health space and now you're just, you know, branching out, broadening your scope, helping so many people with their career, with their inspiration, with their motivation. So I am here to level up. I'm here to bring that energy and loan a little bit, that mojo out to your audience.

I can't wait. I can't wait. So, Adam, I have so many questions for you. I mean, first and foremost, like, you were 320 pounds. I mean, that's just not like a little weight. That's a lot of weight. And you are so in debt. You have a whole different life now. Like, who was that guy? Like, how did that guy become that guy that he was then? And then I want to talk through, like, how you changed into that. Like, were you always overweight? Like, who were you?

Yeah. Well, it's funny. I grew up in Bloomington, Indiana, and basketball is huge in Indiana. That's the thing that we do. So I grew up playing basketball. I was very, very active. I graduated high school as an all conference basketball player at maybe 180 pounds. And then in college, I stopped playing sports, started drinking beer, started, you know, going out and doing social things, felt that freedom. And I gained 20 to 30 pounds every year in college, so that every.

Year, not just every year, kept going.

Yes, I gained the college hundred, as they say. And I also started getting loose with, like, financial practices, you know, at colleges. I don't know how it is now, but back then they would have these credit card people at the cafeteria going, oh, yeah, start your credit card. Get it. Get a free flight. I'm like, free flights?

Oh, I totally remember that. Yeah.

So I started doing all of them. I'm like, oh, I can, you know, do this much before I have to pay anything. And it's great. I started just racking up debt, making dumb decision after dumb, dumb decision, getting free vacations and racking up a thousand dollars on each card to the point where I had $40,000 of debt. Then I finally graduate college, and I fell in love with a girl. And I started, okay, things are starting to turn around. Even though I was a big dude, I was a heavy dude. Now I call myself the PhD. The previously heavy dude.

I love that PhD.

Okay, the PhD. That's how they know me in podcast land. But it's, you know, I fell in love. And then one of the last things that was just about to break my back was this woman I fell in love with. She decided to further her education, and to do that, she had to move out of town. She had moved only an hour north. But still, that distance wasn't something I was super excited about. So that relationship was kind of going south. So I'm obese. I'm struggling with food addiction at this point because I just couldn't stop eating now because the whole thing just kind of unearthed itself from my DNA. And I've got all this debt, relationships, unhappy with my career, and everything changed in one moment when I had my first ever dose of personal development. Now, Natalie, I guess I grew up kind of a jock, an athlete, yeah. The only personal development, the only reading I really did was Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition. So one of my buddies slid across a DVD called the Secret the Lava Track.

Oh, yeah, I know that.

And I didn't watch it for two weeks because I didn't need that kind of stuff. I didn't need that mess in my life. But after the whole thing happened with my relationship with my girlfriend, I was like, you know what? I need to do something. And so I watched that dvd, and everything changed from there. And so. And I know we can dive a little bit further.

Yeah. Okay.

So that's how I got there.

No, no. I have a million questions, but here's what I want to know, too. When you were obese, like, you said you were 320 pounds. Like, you knew you had gained all this weight, but, like, did you know how bad it was? I think sometimes are people in denial sometimes. Like, did you know it? Was it, Like, I don't want to believe it. Like, what was going through your head? Did you think, like, the dryer shrunk your clothes? Like, what was the conversation in your head? Did you. What were you telling yourself?

Natalie, that's a great question. Because I was working out. I was getting a degree. Wait for it. In exercise science.

Oh, my God. Okay.

So I justified everything by being strong.

Okay.

I went from being an active athlete and doing lots of conditioning and eating to fuel my body to eating whatever I want, drinking whatever I want, and lifting heavy weights. And I justified my. You know, I think a lot of people do this that are on a health journey is they are like, I'm trying really hard. I'm putting in a lot of work, so I'm doing good. I'm satisfying that. That pressure that my doctor is putting on me or that spouse is putting. I'm trying really hard. And I was. I was working out, but I wasn't eating clean. I know I was.

You were strong. Like, you had muscle, but you had lots of fat on top of it. Is that what I'm hearing? Okay.

Exactly. So I would justify, you know, my efforts and say, I'm, you know, I'm very strong, so I'm making progress there. And I would just let the food get pretty loose.

So did you still think of yourself as an athlete, like, in a way where you. Like, I'm still an athlete. I'm just kind of a beefy one. Was.

That was the conversation I did. I started competing in powerlifting. I started competing in the Scottish Highland Games. I still own two kilts, which I wear on St. Patrick's Day, I alternate every other year, throwing the trees and the big stones and all that stuff, but not healthy at all. And I remember there was one Highland Games event. I was ranked in the top 10 in the nation as an amateur Highland Games athlete. And it was in Estes Park, Colorado, at that elevation. And I could barely move. Like, I couldn't walk upstairs without getting tired, like, carrying my equipment bag tired. And I was like, that was one of the things that. That happened a couple of weeks before my big moment with the law of attraction happened that led me in that direction. Like, I got to change some stuff.

Yeah. Okay. Did anyone interrupt you? And when I asked this question? Because I feel like so many people walk on eggshells around what's really going on with our health, and they don't want to tell us or hurt our feelings. And I do find sometimes with transformation, somebody interrupted them. Did anybody interrupt you, or was it that friend that gave you that dvd?

Another great question, because it's like you're reading my thoughts here. Someone had. Had let me borrow that dvd, that dvd, like, two months prior. I pretended to watch it, and I gave it back to him, and then someone else let me borrow it. I'm like, okay, this is a sign. Yeah, this is a sign. So.

But no one said, hey, Adam, you're really. You look unhealthy. See, why don't we tell people. What's your take on that? Because I'm always wondering, like, why. What is it that we are so concerned with hurting someone's feelings that we're not going to stand for them? Like, you were unhealthy. It was dangerous.

Yeah, it's interesting, and that's an interesting concept, because I struggle with this. You know, I still own a fitness facility, and people are scared to refer other people in because they don't want to offend their friend by going, hey, you need to come and do my workout with me. And they're like, why? You think I'm fat? You think I'm healthy? And then the argument ensues, especially if it's a spouse or a relative. Like, that's never an easy conversation to have. So it's a hard thing to do. People are afraid of people and losing their friends. What they don't realize is that you may be losing your friends or you may be losing a family member via. They're not going to be around.

So, Adam, I remember, I don't want to get checked off your story, but my dad died of a heart attack at age 49. And he didn't look like obese, but he had overweight. He had a stomach. He had a big stomach, and he didn't look healthy. And I used to say, I was a teenager before he died, and I would say, dad, come to the gym with me. And I remember my mom, she meant well, but she'd say, leave him alone. Like, you don't. Don't tell him that. It's mean. Like. And I look back now, I'm like, no, I should have taken a bigger stand because he died.

Yeah.

So I, you know, I always. That's the question I always am asking people, like, why. What are we so afraid of hurting somebody's, you know, feelings, but at the cost of losing them, you know?

Yeah.

Okay. So you get this dvd, and I'm familiar with some people that are not. Some people listening are not. But what stood out with you about this dvd? Because for those of you that don't know, the secret is really that first place where we started learning mainstream about Law of Attraction, about what you think about, comes about what stood out for you in that DVD that helped you change your thinking?

Well, just the whole magnetism of it. And they talk a lot about what. Again, what you think about is what you bring into your life. And I'm just like, I'm always stressed. I'm thinking about how much debt I have. I'm thinking about how sad I am with my relationship. I'm thinking about how much I hate my career. I'm thinking about how unhealthy I feel. And that's what I'm focused on all the time. And that's what's happening in my life. So there's a statement in the dvd, something along the lines of, for things to change, you have to change. For things to get better, you have to get better. And I'm like, I have to change. I have to get better, and I have to start thinking differently. So the best way for me to describe it, it was like, if we're standing in a long hallway with lots of doors, lots of opportunities, but the lights are off, and that is when we're not using the Law of Attraction correctly. We don't know what opportunities are in front of us. They're there, but. But they. But we can't see them. So the Law of Attraction allowed me to flip the light switch to on so I can see what opportunities were in front of me to connect. And I'm a big implementation. I tenaciously implement. I've been called that before, and I'm big On action. So I like to remind people that get real wrapped up in the law of attraction that you can't spell attraction without action. So you can't just.

Oh, my gosh. So good. Thank you.

You know what I'm saying? You just can't sit thinking back. I'm getting skinny work.

You got to take the action. But I'm with you. Like when you start thinking about it, because we're going to find evidence for whatever we're thinking about, right? Like if you find. If you want to think that everyone gains weight and gets in debt and is overweight and becomes whatever you decide, you're going to keep finding more and more evidence supporting that. But if you decide to look for the opposite, you're going to find evidence that supports that.

Yep. Yep. And so the next step with the law of attraction was to create the action. Right. And the secret has a little bit of a roadmap. It taught me how to do affirmations.

Okay, so what did that mean? Were you like, I am sexy. I am hot.

What is your I am sexy.

You are a sexy beast.

I would. I wrote everything out that I wanted to achieve over the next five years. I took. I watched the DVD like three times in a row, got all fired up. All right, I'm not going to bed. I'm going to map out what I want to happen, what I want to attract in my life for five years. I'm not 100% sure exactly why I chose five years, but it felt like it was long enough that I could actually achieve something, but not so short that I felt like a ton of pressure to do it all at once right now. So that was a good timeframe for me. And, you know, you guys can make this fit, whatever makes sense for you. But I wrote down what I would like to achieve, what I want my life to look like, what I want to attract into my life with my weight, my relationships, my career, my finances. You know, how I'm able to make an impact, How? I remember one of the things that I put down as a goal was I want to feel like my work is like recess. Like, I don't want it to stop. I don't want the bell to ring. I want to feel. I just want to love it. Well, I thought I wrote all of it down. I gave myself a five year deadline. So I did this on July 7th of 2012. Of 2000. No, July 12th, 2007. July 12th, 2007. My deadline was July 12th, 2012. I'm getting the sevens and twelves. But it was five years, all right? And so I have a deadline. And then the action step was I have to get up in the morning, read this out loud and feel it every morning and do the same at night. The morning is to set the tone. That's the flip on the light switch and see which doors are open, keep my eyes open throughout the day. What am I looking for? What connections can I make? And then at the end of the day, it was accountability. Did I do something that I open one door? Did I take a 1% action step to move the needle just a little bit in one of those areas? And I did that every day without fail, morning and night with feeling out loud, no matter who was around. And in that five years, lost 100 pounds.

Wow.

Helped, you know, people started asking me for help. I started a bootcamp, which led to starting a gym, which started a whole new career, which I helped my hometown lose 35,000 pounds. Helped 15 people lose over 100 pounds in five years. The woman that was moving away, her mortgage fell through. So she decided to commute. She moved in with me. And now we just celebrate. We're getting ready to celebrate our 11 year anniversary wedding anniversary. So a lot of attraction there.

That was pretty cool.

You know, no debt wiped all that out. Thriving business and I enjoy every day and it's just.

Okay, so I've got questions here. It's like awesome. Like I put this out there in the universe, five years later, boom, it happened. And I know that you took actions in between, but talk to me about the, I call it self imposed stops or the false assume truths that we. That voice in our head, that voice in the back of your head. Because I know. And I know because I've lived this too, and I continue to live it. That there's days and you've had them where it wasn't going the way that you thought. You had a setback. The weight, the scale didn't move, the debt wasn't moving along. And how did you change that voice that was like, you were wrong. This is who you're meant to be. That, that voice that tells you no, you're overweight, no, you're broke. How did you shut that voice up when that was coming? Because that is heavy and real for people. So we can practice law of attraction, but when that voice is popping up, what did you do?

So that's a great question, Natalie. One of the things I always focus on, it's almost like a bank account balance. I look at the balance between my why versus all the why nots. And I always say that the why, the big why we have behind any goal, it has to be bigger than the sum of all the why nots combined. We're not going to achieve the goal. So if we're $40,000 in debt and our big why is just that relief of stress, that financial freedom. But all the why nots of. But I want to go on vacations, but I don't want to stop, you know, getting credit cards, but I don't want to, you know, deny myself of these fancy pleasures. If there's. If that stack is higher, the why nots win, all right? So we have to be aware of that, whether it's weight loss, career, finances. So that's what got me through. And Dean Graziosi does a really great exercise called find your why seven levels deep. That's what I did. Without knowing it is. I had to find.

I didn't even know that. And I do. Driving core motivator, 10 levels deep. So good. I like it.

So you got to go until you find the emotional route, until you feel like, you know, you're going to cry. Like, what is that thing? That's just that game changer. And it starts off with, you know, I want to lose 100 pounds. Okay. Why? Well, my doctor said lose 100 pounds. Well, why? Because he's gonna put me on blood pressure medicine. Well, what's the why behind that? Well, it's, you know, extra debt for me, plus, I don't want my health. And then you get it down to. Down to, I want somebody to love me, then I got it down. This is before I'm married and before I have kids. And so my biggest why for me is growing up, I was very, very close to my grandmother. Very close. She helped raise me. I was over there all the time. I lost her when I was a freshman in high school, and that was the first person very close to me that died. That. It really devastated me. And to this day, I wish that I could have an adult conversation with her. And I'm like, I want to be around for my family in that capacity. So that was what got me out of bed. That's what got me sweating every day. That's what got me eating my broccoli. And that's what got me, you know, that's what beat all the why nots, Natalie.

So when that voice popped up, you just had that conversation, like, what's my why? What's my reason? And I'm just doing it anyway, because I'm imagining you had days you didn't feel like eating broccoli, you didn't feel like going to the gym, but you just did it anyway. You went through emotions anyway. Yeah, I love that.

Some days I hate my feelings. You know, we have. We all have bad days, but it's how we. Those moments of adversity.

I think it's really significant what you're saying here too. And it's, you know, I love hearing this. I teach driving, core motivator. And I still love hearing other people's take on it because, you know, as you're talking, it's making a lot of sense for me too. Like if someone's listening and they're. And their deep rooted thing is they want to be. Let's maybe if they want to be connected and more social or they want to feel loved, but now they're wondering why that's not connecting to their weight loss. Well, maybe they're sitting down eating ice cream with their. The guy that they like is that. That's overtaking the why. You know, the why versus the why not. So it's really about looking at it like, is your goal in line with what you truly do. You really want this and why and really making sure there's a line. And I think that's the part of the work so many people skip and then they're wondering why they're not getting results. And that applies to finances, too. Like, somebody might say, I want my business to do all of this revenue, make all this money. But when they really go down to their why, they're saying because they don't want to work very hard. But that doesn't line up. Right?

Yeah. And let me blow your mind on something. This stacking method of why versus why not. You and I both know that so many people struggle with. They lose weight, they gain it back, and then they try to do the same program and it's way harder. Way harder. And they quit early. And the reason that is is when we lose weight and gain it back, the why not stack adds a couple blocks of weight gain, guilt, and perceived failure. So you can't come to the game with the same level of why. You have to level up your why even bigger. Even though it's the same goal and the same program. And that hopefully just blew a few minds out there.

No, And I think that applies to everything, Adam. Like you look at business, okay, so somebody makes millions of dollars in business, they lose it all, right? And now they're trying to get it back, but they're starting from a different place. Now, because now they're feeling like a failure on top of where they started from scratch before. That's really important to notice. What do you do about that? Like, help. Help everyone listening. What do you do about that? Because now you are comparing to yourself and what you achieved before.

Yeah. Well, you got to realize from a weight loss perspective, each attempt, each journey is a new journey. Like, you have to hit the reset button in your mind of, I am not re losing weight, I am on a path to getting healthy. Any like, re losing, regaining, reclaiming my finances. It is like, we can't put that pressure on ourselves. We can't measure from where we currently are to where we want to be. That's going to drive us forward. We have to measure the progress that we have made. So if you have lost weight or made a million dollars and then reverse that trend, you've got two really key advantages because one, you did something that got a result, we did something that produced a result. So that's a feather in our cap that we can pull out later. And we discovered one of our danger zones. So you discovered something that messed it all up. And we can be better prepared for that next time. So that's how we level up our why as we come to the table with, I know this has worked before, and I know what messed it up, and I'm ready for it this time.

Gosh, I hope everyone really heard that. I heard that on a lot of different levels. And it's closing a gap for me on the conversation of people that are really stuck. Because I think sometimes it's easier when you're starting from nothing to, like, build and create or do. But, like, if you've done it before and then you failed, like, that's that mindset piece that really messes with you because you're like, now you're like, was it a mistake? Was it just a fluke? And now you're comparing to something that's not necessarily something you should be comparing to.

Yep, yep. 100%. 100%.

So good. So. So you practice this, this, this, and you started seeing things working for you. You shut that voice up by remembering your why, sticking to it, doing it even when you didn't feel like it. And then you also mentioned something else that I want people to hear. You taught it to others. And I think that's an important piece because when you teach what you're learning, you're also relearning it yourself. Can you speak a little bit into that? That's your whole calling right now, is Telling others.

Yeah, I mean, that's another thing that just leveled up. My why, in a big way is becoming somebody that teaches and inspires other people to do what I've done. And once you feel that responsibility of helping somebody else, once you feel the joy, that spark of that connection of, okay, I did this for myself. But look, Lisa, she's lost 100 pounds. And that look in her eye and, oh, my God, that. That feels way better for me being able to impact somebody at that level. So, you know that accountability is huge because now we're a leader, right? Where somebody. And I see this with people that are out there losing weight, getting fit all the time. I've got one of my clients, Paula, out in California. She really. She moved away from her family. She's doing a job, kind of a temporary job situation. I'm like, you got to find your tribe and you got to become a leader, and when you do that, you're going to take off. And because I knew she had that in her, yeah, 100%. She found a tribe of people that created a little bit of an accountability, what I call accountability anchor points. And then all of a sudden, she's taken off and she's showing them and she feels that leadership role. And now that why is leveled up and she's crushing it.

I love that. I love that. Gosh. Okay, so somebody you meet now, they are where you were, they are overweight, 100 plus pounds overweight, like you said, they've got that debt and they're feeling like, you know, they're doomed. How you were. What's the first thing you tell them?

The first thing I tell people is that the next decision that we make, whether it's a financial game plan, a relationship game plan, a business game plan, a weight loss game plan, that next decision doesn't have to fix everything forever. We put that kind of pressure on ourselves. I see it in weight loss. You know, it's easy to use examples there where people are like, okay, I've tried Weight Watchers. I've tried Adam's program, Natalie's program. I've tried CrossFit. I've tried yoga. This next thing that I have to do, keto, it has to be the thing that fits the lifestyle, and it's got to be forever. And I'm like, why would you put that kind of pressure on yourself? Like, it's. I look at a transformation or any sort of goal system as like a toolbox. You got to use the right tool, the right job. And sometimes, you know, if a Hammer is working for you for a while. That's good. Every once in a while, you might need to use a screwdriver. You might just switch. Okay, with that pressure of releasing that pressure of that next decision. Doesn't have to fix everything forever. Just focus in the moment. I love using, like, 28 day cycles with my fitness, with my business, and just reassessing and be like, all right, am I doing the things that are moving the needle in the right direction? And if not, what little tweak can I make? Which tool can I pull out of the toolbox and improve my results? And I'm never ashamed to switch from, like, keto to Paleo to high carb to low carb, or from, you know, doing live casting every day in my business to, you know, doing podcasts, you know, switching modalities. A lot of people feel shame in that. Like, they're failing over and over again. I'm like, no, this isn't a failure. This is adjustment improvement.

I like that. I have some questions about that. How do we decide? How do we make sure we're not just trying and not committing? Because I get what you're saying. Like, we can't put all our eggs in one basket and be like, okay, this is the thing, but where do we draw that line? Because I do feel sometimes people just try a lot and they don't actually commit to a lot. So where do you draw that line?

Yeah, well, there's movement and then there's direction. Right? So if we're driving. If we're driving in a car, we can drive around and we're moving, you know, but that doesn't mean that we're driving from California to Indiana. Like, people put in effort, and it's kind of random. So we got to turn on the gps. We have to have a set game plan that we are committed to. And I tell people, like, you got. You have to put a ring on the dang finger for 28 days, whether you're trying something for business, for weight loss, for whatever. Like, you can't dabble and you can't program hop. And we get very excited, especially with amazing podcasters like you and I. People listen to our stuff, and they're like, okay, I listened to Adam's podcast on Monday, and he said that Paleo is the jam. And then I heard this other podcast on Wednesday, and that's Weight Watchers guy. So I'm going to shift to Weight Watchers now and then bouncing around, and we never know what works.

Yeah.

So you have to have that Full. I like a four week commitment just because it'll let you know if something's actually working or not. But you have to be fully committed, whether it's your fitness, your nutrition, your mindset, your business plan. Give it a full 28 days to let it run the course and see like, all right, what worked, what didn't work, how can we improve, how do we move forward and do the next 28 day cycle? So that's something that's worked really well for me. And you know, there are those rebels out there that don't like to commit to anything. And like 28 days is bite size. I'm like, if you can commit 28 days to, you know, like your new book, that's what I love about that is that it's simple and people can commit to that. People could do that for two weeks, three weeks, 28 days and then see a result. But you got to let it run its course a little bit. And you know that as well as I do.

Yeah, yeah. Okay. So the weight loss makes sense. Everything happened there. The finances talk a little. Can you just touch on that a little bit? Because there's a lot of people listening. They have that debt situation and whether it's 40,000 or 400,000 or 4 million, um, I believe it's the same process. And I'm curious how you tackled that.

So I love talking about this too. I'm glad you brought it up because I don't get to talk finances as much as I would like to. As you know, we're. I'm in the fitness world, so. But finances are a giant stressor. So the why for me was I felt that pressure. Like I tried to think back to like when I was growing up and when we were growing up, we don't care about money, you know, and it's more about experiences, it's more about relationships, it's more about what we're doing, who we're interacting with and who we're doing things with. So I thought back, like, when was the last time I felt like that? And it was just before I started working in college. And like, I remember I started making money, I started like setting goals with money and I started tracking it. I would get paid in cash, I'd lay all my stacks out and I'm like, oh, look at this, I have $1,000 now. This is awesome. And so I went back and I shifted. I'm like, alright, I need to take monetary goals out of the equation for a little bit and just chill and get back to Experiences get back to interactions and things that are high value. I put up an Instagram post a few weeks back and it was my most reacted to Instagram post where I said, what if money wasn't a thing? What if our bank accounts were filled by experiences and connections and impact? How rich would you be? Most people will be dead ass broke, you know, and we're just out there working to work. So with debt, I realized that setting myself free of that stress and that pressure was a giant why. So I put in work and I realized, first step, I got to quit digging the hole. And we've all heard this. So I cut up all the credit cards. I had several. I had all those bonus.

I'm going to interrupt right there once again because I know everybody listening is a podcast junkie like me and you. And we all are on Instagram all the time. I know that. And so when we see lots of posts about stop the scarcity mindset, think abundance. And I love that you just brought that. We have to stop the hole. Because I think there's too many gurus saying, don't even think about the hole. Like, you got to just, you know, you're having scarcity mindset. Please speak into that because there is a hole. We got to address it.

Yeah. And the hole is causing all the stress. I'm like, that is the stress point. So I have to start figuring things out and I can think abundantly in growth, but I have to stop the tumor. I mean, if the tumor is growing, then that's it's growing at the same pace as the abundance, then that isn't helping anything. So I had to extract the tumor by cutting up my credit cards and just shifting my game plan being like, okay, if I have to use a credit card to pay for this bill or this thing, I need to reduce that. So I got to get rid of my cable, I got to change up my Internet situation, my clothes, you know.

Ladies, stop getting your nails done for.

A little while, all that stuff. And then I basically took the snowball approach of, all right, what is my lowest credit card? I'm going to do the. I figured out like, okay, if I cut back on my cable, I can say 50 bucks. I'm take that 50 bucks, put it into that lowest credit card, pay that off. So Maybe I'm paying $150 a month there. That one gets paid off. I take that 150 and I put it to the next credit card. So I'm already used to paying 100. Now I'm paying 250 on that one, and I get that one paid off. So I'm used to paying 250. I put that 250 in the next one, and then I get that one paid off. And then what I did, once I get all the credit cards paid off, I had this almost $2,000 worth of payments that I was already. My lifestyle had adjusted to that. So then what I did was I took that $2,000. Instead of just being like, I'm gonna start blowing $2,000 a month now or whatever, I started applying it to my mortgage. And today, one of my goals was to be mortgage free in my 30s. And I paid off my mortgage last year as I turned 38, so good. So that now I now have no debt. I own my gym, I own my building, I own my house. But it was all that, that initial tumor that just stress of realizing debt is causing all this. So I'm getting rid of all the damn debt.

I love that. And I want everyone to hear, too, that you made a choice to stop the cable. Stop that. Like, I want people to really think about that, because I understand on Instagram and the gurus and a lot of the podcasts, they're like, just focus on creating more, which we should. And we get to stop spending on things that we really don't need, that aren't helping us, that are just creating more of a problem. Because I promise, not getting your nails done for a little while or turning off the cable is not going to kill you, and it will get rid of that stress. So you can work from a space of free and clear. So thank you for saying that. I think that we're not talking enough about paying off the debt. And I love the balance of. We're creating a vision and we're looking into the future, but we're also going to stop the bleeding.

Yep. Yeah, it's. It's. It's like you just said, it's balance. And you have to work from both sides of the equation there, or we're going to end up in the same spot, just down. Down the road as time passes. But I haven't had my nails done in over 12 years, so they look great.

They look beautiful. Okay, talk to me about. There's a question I ask everybody. I'm going to ask you this, and then I want to ask you more about your movement and what you're working on next and your podcast and all the things. There's a question I ask everybody. If someone's listening to this right now, and they are in their own personal rock bottom, whatever that is. Maybe it's the weight, maybe it's the finances. Maybe it's a failing business, whatever it is to them, maybe it's a combination relationship, whatever. They are in their own personal, horrible rock bottom, and they are in that loop in their brain of, I'm a failure, Nothing's working. Life sucks because we've all been there. I've been there. You've been there. Most a lot of people listening either there or have been there. If you were to give them three things that they can start doing right now, to start shifting their mindset and creating everything from nothing, what would you tell them?

Well, I think mapping out what you want to create in your life, like I did, like you've done. That's. That's. You have to have a target. We can't just be throwing darts into the abyss. Like, we got to know what we're aiming for. And then I use this analogy of swinging the axe. So the goal is like a giant redwood tree in your front yard. All right? And what I did for five years was I got up out of bed every day, picked up the ax, and took a swing every day. I swung the axe every day. Some days you take a big chunk out of the tree. Some days you swing and you miss. That happens, but it's not whether you chop the tree down that day or not. It's whether you swing. So action. All right? And like I said earlier, you can't spell attraction without action. So another way to think about that is we can do all the personal development that we want. We can put in so much effort and meditating and affirmations and attracting things and thinking about goals and reading our goals and setting our goals. But without that action, it's like, you know, a sharp ax is no good if we never swing it. Right.

Right.

So that would be. Those would be the three steps. We've got to know the target, what's the tree, we got to find the tree, we got to sharpen the ax, but then we have to swing it every single day and do that without fail and with no expectations. You know, like I said, some days you swing that axe a little stronger than the other. But the key is the action of taking action, and we chip away at our goals. And if we do that consistently and show up and implement tenaciously like that, anything is possible. Anything. And you know that.

So good. Okay, tell us about Million Pound Mission and your podcast and all the things.

Yeah. So Million Pound Mission just basically spawned from I lost my hundred pounds. I helped the hometown do 35,000 in podcast launches. We do Million Pound Mission. And every week I bring on amazing people like Natalie, Jill, and I do some solo episodes. I do little, like war room sessions with my clients. And the goal is to produce a million pounds of healthy results or tracking that. So I have accountability for myself. That's important. People can go on the website millionpoundmission.com they can donate their weight loss. There's no email barrier. There's no opt in. So if you hear this, you implement something, you start swinging the ax, you drop five pounds. Donate, please. Those. Those £5. Million pound mission. And I'm not gonna ask for email or anything. And you're a part of that. And the podcast has really taken off. I love it. And it's something that. And you know this Natalie, like, just being able to impact people at a higher level and getting those emails of Adam, I did this thing and it really helped. And that mindset shift. I'm swinging the axe. I get a lot of swinging the axe emails or DMs on Instagram and I just thrive off that connection. It's just. That's the true compensation in what I do.

Where can people find you and tell us why you started the podcast?

Yeah. So millionpoundmission.com is the hub. I'm very active on Instagram as well. I love Instagram. That's Million Pound Mission on Instagram. But I started the podcast just because I wanted to leverage the programs that I put out there. I knew that this could work on scale, but I knew that people were missing that mindset piece that you and I have talked about quite a bit. And like, this needs to be out there. This is the missing link for so many people talking mindset. It's not just about a fancy nutrition program. It's not just about, you know, you probably don't need a new nutrition program. You probably don't need a new fitness program. You just need to shift the way you approach your transformation from a strategic level. And that's what the podcast is all about.

Before we started interviewing today and before we started recording, Adam and I were chatting and we shared a little bit of our own frustration. And we get it because we've both been there, but we were frustrated because we thought, we said everyone always wants the quick fix from us. Like, what do we eat? What do we do? Like, they just want that. What do we eat? What do we do? And if we put a picture of abs or just how to lose 20 pounds fast, like everyone bites when we teach the stuff that's so critical and so important. No one wants that, but that's what everyone needs. So we were sharing that we had that in common, that we know the key is this mindset piece. And it's hard for us because we realize that people want to not believe that, and that in itself is a mindset piece, that they don't want to believe it.

Yeah. We were talking that we almost have to, like, Trojan Horse the mindset into the equation. And I learned that early on, like, the first program I made, I'm like, this is the mindset thing. Everyone needs this. They're going to love it. And no one bought it. It was only $9. Natalie and my mom didn't even buy it. Right. So it was. I'm like, okay.

Oh, she cannot be your mom and not buy that.

She didn't buy it. She didn't buy it. I don't need this. So I started wrapping them up into. Here's a nutrition program. Yeah, but there's weekly homework or there's daily homework. With the mindset and everybody coming out the other side, it's like, totally. That's what I needed. Adam, thank you.

So good.

That's what I needed. So it is frustrating.

I have that same experience. They finished the program like that. That was the part that changed me. I'm like, really? I could have told you that, but. But you wanted the six pack, so that's what I marketed to you with.

Yeah, it's. It's frustrating, but the overall goal is to impact people. And sometimes, yeah, you're out there fishing, and you just have to change the lure to, you know, depending on what the fish is hungry for. And. But then once we. You know, you and I are. Both. One of the things I like that you do a lot is you really nurture the relationship, whether it's with podcasting, whether it's with business, or whether it's with, you know, your clients, I'm sure, like, they feel taken care of, and then they. That trust is built, and then you can really make an impact on people, and that's something you do really well.

And you do, too. Thank you. Well, gosh, if you guys liked this episode, please, you know, give it a review, comment back, tag post, share with Adam and me. Million Pound Mission on Instagram and also me on Instagram. So we can see that you're listening and that you liked it. And make sure you subscribe also to Adam's podcast. If you like mine, you'll definitely love his. Thanks everyone.

Thanks everybody.

Thanks for leveling up with us today. Please share this episode if you found it helpful so others can join in. And don't forget to to hit that subscribe so you don't miss out on future shows. And if you would leave me a five star review. I appreciate those so much. I read all of them and it's how I know that I'm giving you information that you find valuable. And come interact with me over on Instagram @nataliejofit. I read all the direct messages and comments over there. Make it a great day. Creating everything from nothing Sam.