Speaking and Communicating Podcast

Everybody's great in their own way.

Everybody has their own story that they can tell.

And if it's told the right way, they can really achieve whatever they need to or whatever their goal is.

But it has to be done told the right way, delivered to the correct audience, and packaged correctly as well.

Welcome back to The Speaking and Communicating Podcast.

I am your host, Roberta Ndlela.

If you are looking to improve your communication skills, both professionally and personally, this is the podcast you should be tuning in to.

Communication and soft skills are crucial for your career growth and leadership development.

And by the end of this episode, please log on to Apple and Spotify and leave us a rating and a review.

Now, let's get communicating.

Now, let's get communicating with a special guest today hailing from Los Angeles.

Adam Torres is an international speaker.

He's an author, co-founder of Mission Matters Media, who used to be a finance professional, and he'll tell us why he made the switch.

He is here to help us tell our stories and use media in order to grow up businesses as well.

And before I go any further, please help me welcome him to the show.

Hi, Adam.

Oh my gosh, Roberta.

I'm ready to get communicating.

Let's have some fun today.

This is going to be fun.

We're going to have lots of fun communicating for sure.

Welcome to the show.

Your show is in the top 2.5 percent globally.

How did you accomplish that?

Well, I will say, Roberta, it wasn't through talent, it was true.

I know you weren't expecting that.

It was really through a lot of consistency, a lot of hard work, a lot of episodes.

So to date, I've recorded over 6,000 episodes.

I have a running joke with all my friends.

It's either I'm the world's worst podcaster because I've done over 6,000 episodes, but I'm not a household name or, you know, I'm just a slow learner.

It's OK.

But, you know, it was just a lot of work, a lot of work.

I now currently host nine different shows, and I've been doing this now going on nine years total.

So quite a catalog, completely self-taught.

I didn't go to school for this or anything else like that.

It was a lot of trial and error in the early days.

Well, good job making the rest of us feel like you for sure.

I think it's the complete opposite.

Let me explain to you the fact that you can get in front of a camera like this and have a conversation right now.

I didn't start there.

I started way behind.

That's why I like to use my story and the reason why I come on other people's shows and I guest is because I want to inspire others to know that if I could do this, they can do it too.

Because just to put for some perspective what you're doing right now, I was too much of a chicken to be in front of a camera like you're doing right this moment.

I didn't do a video interview until after like 3000 episodes.

You turn on a camera and my mind would go blank.

I forgot my name.

I didn't do the intro.

I just wasn't ready for it.

My very, very first show, I was so scared to do a show for people to know that I was doing a show and to judge me.

I was so scared.

I didn't use my real name.

Roberta had a fake like stage name.

It was I used a nickname that people used to call me.

I did that for over 300 episodes before I was willing even use my real name.

I was so scared.

So I think it's the complete opposite Roberta.

I'm trying to tell people that if this guy could do it, you could do it too.

If you could do a Zoom call right now and you've never done one episode, you can do it.

You can do it.

I love the message, Adam.

But here's the thing.

And you are so professional.

I saw some of your clips on YouTube, on Instagram.

You are the pro at this, which is as I said.

Oh, but that's now, though.

That's nine years later.

That's nine years and 6000 episodes later.

We want to talk about the early days.

No, don't believe that.

You are proof that you know how they say do it messy.

Just fail forward.

Just do it and make a disaster out of it.

That's how you learn.

Because I mean, I wasn't this confident on my first episode.

Yeah.

And the funny part is even if you were this confident, I'll tell you what one of my mentors told me very early on.

I was kind of in my head and I'm like, am I doing this right?

Or what am I doing?

Or I always felt like inadequate, like something was missing.

And my mentor told me he was an old school writer.

He wrote on old TV shows and things like that.

So he was my senior in age for sure.

And he was in the entertainment business for a long time.

And he's like, Adam, are you better now than you were a month or two ago?

And I'm like, yeah.

Then he's like, are you going to be better in another month or two?

I'm like, yeah.

I said, what about a year?

What about in two years?

I'm like, yeah, of course.

What about in five years?

I said, oh, for sure.

And then we started doing the math.

And he's like, well, tell me this.

Present day Adam doesn't have the right to judge the potential of future Adam's success because you're evolving as a host, as an entertainer, even just as a human being that's having different experiences that you're going to be able to share on your show that are going to bring out light and color and that are going to hit people in different areas because you're going through life, even just through different years and phases of your life.

So now you have more relatability with different audiences over time.

So there's so many different layers to the profession and to the craft that, as far as right now, what you need to be doing is just keep recording.

Just keep recording, just keep trying to get better.

I love what you're meant to say.

Do you know why?

Because you are the very person, you live by that and you're the very person who's teaching us to use our stories to impact other people.

So that's exactly how you live.

Yeah.

I'd say I've evolved into that person.

I didn't start that way.

I've evolved into that person and it was through the process of what we're doing right now, communicating and having these conversations and touching each other's lives.

Also, as I've gone further and further through my life, just an understanding of the importance of what we're doing has evolved.

I'll give you an example.

Right now, when we create this audio together, we are now part of each other's legacy.

That's special.

My family, one day, they Google it, they're going to be like, Wow, Roberta had them on the show.

Or your family might be like, Oh, that guy from LA, Adam.

And we created something unique and special and different that will never be done again.

Even if we record another episode together one day, this moment in time is special.

And this is a marker in history for us right this moment in the present.

And that's special.

That's something different we're bringing to the universe.

I have never thought of that before.

So starting today, that's a new perspective I have with each episode.

Thank you for that, Adam.

It's different.

And when you do it brings a different complexity to when you're having a conversation, especially as a host.

I won't speak for you, but I'll speak for myself.

When you started getting into doing many episodes, you think about it and you're like, for you, it may be another episode.

For that other person, that may be their first episode.

That may be like they came to it with something special in their heart.

And the connection with you allows them to share it.

Or even if they've done a thousand episodes before, for whatever reason, that connection with you brought it out of them.

Different, special, unique.

I love that first perspective.

Now, why did you move from the finance industry to media?

Because those are completely different industries.

I'll say it was God for sure.

It was partially my choice, but partially not.

I'll just preface by saying that myself and God, you'll hear when I tell this story, we talk a little bit differently.

It's a different communication.

I'm a little bit hard at it.

So when I'm doing things, I'm like, all right, God, give me some signs.

I need to know, like teach me.

Because I don't always know which way to go, but you made me.

So just make sure I know what to do.

That's how I talk to God.

So I started two different companies.

One was my core profession as a financial advisor.

And on the side, I had a small little marketing company.

At marketing company, we eventually launched a bookend.

We eventually launched many books and became a publisher as well.

And that began to grow.

During that same time period, and to date, we've published this for some context, over 400 authors in that publishing company.

And then we also started this podcast, and the podcast started to grow.

And maybe that I had a certain little knack, and people wanted to come on the show.

And before you know it, that part was growing too.

And I'm like, I was blessed with a lot of things, but I wasn't blessed with the concept or the, let's just say, that skill to be able to run a lot of different businesses at one time.

Some people can, whatever, like you're Elon Musk of the world, they can do it.

I don't have that skill set, like I can do one thing pretty good, and if I focus on that one thing long enough, I can get excellent at it, but that's it.

As a financial advisor, I was really good, and I've been in that business almost 14 years, so I had a good book of business, good clientele, a growing business.

Now, all of a sudden, almost by accident, I have this media side that's growing, and as that's growing, I'm thinking to myself, you know, I gotta make a decision, because I'm not going to short my clients who are depending on me to help them either retire, send their kids to college, all those things.

But then on the media side, I have people that are sharing something completely different with me through the form of their stories and their aspirations and their brand.

And so just as equally as important, just from different angles.

So I just moved into a new place, put everything away, and I had some certificates and things on the floor, like my Series 7, 6, 63, CFP, all my awards, all my certificates.

And I'm like, I'm gonna hang these up in the morning.

And during that time, it was on my heart for a solid month.

I'd just been asking for guidance.

I've been praying to God and saying, what should I do?

I don't know which way.

I know I can't do both of these, but I was really hesitant on which choice to go and which route to go, because both had their pros and cons.

So, I remember very distinctly before I went to bed, I'm kind of, you know, again, I talked to God a little different.

So, I'm like, all right, God, I'm a little sarcastic.

You don't have to part the Red Sea or anything, all right?

Like, I'm not asking for a miracle, but just tell me what to do.

I'm tired of this.

So, then I wake up the next day in the morning, or at least can I put my feet on the floor in water?

I'm standing in water thinking to myself, it's just like a flash, like a light bulb in my head.

I could hear my own voice saying, okay, God, you don't have to part the Red Sea.

I'm like, okay, this is funny, ha ha, God, whatever.

I'm going back to sleep.

I thought I was sleeping.

Like, I thought it was a dream that I woke up and I'm standing in water.

So, then I put my feet back under the sheets feeling it.

I'm trying to go back to sleep and I'm like feeling that I'm wet still.

All right, this isn't a dream.

I get up, I'm like, all right, there's water in the room for some reason.

I turn on the light and I look down and the first thing I see is all of my certificates and all my things from being a financial advisor are ruined.

They're all in water.

There was no flooding in LA.

There was no...

I'll get to that in a moment.

By the way, God controls floods.

If there was, I wouldn't have been surprised, but the bottom line is all of those certificates were ruined.

Instantly, it was like a flash in my head.

I said, all right, God, you're a little dramatic.

I told you not to park the Red Sea, but you sure did ruin my floor.

It's fine.

I took all of the certificates up.

I just threw them in the dumpster.

I took a picture of it so I would always remember.

That day and that moment, because I knew it was clear.

If I was ever second guessing myself, pull it up and I could look at the picture.

That's what I needed to see.

I go back in and I'm like, all right, so where's all this water coming from?

Overnight, the water heater gave out, and it flooded through and all of the water everywhere.

Now, some people watching who maybe aren't believers, they might be like, oh, well, the water heater, that's just a coincidence.

God controls water heaters.

What are the odds?

Oh, yeah.

So when you get these signs or these blessings or these other things, like you can either take them and run with it and understand it, take it that way, or you can say, oh, that's a coincidence.

The water heater just happened to flood and ruin all your certificates.

You just happen to say, you know, God, you don't have to part the Red Sea, hence the symbolism in water.

You just happen to leave all the certificates on the floor when that's not in your character.

You would have hung them up normally, but you were so tired.

You left them there and that's what was ruined.

So I knew at that moment, it wasn't even a question.

I was like, all right, I don't think this is gonna be a smooth ride, but this is the direction I'm supposed to be going, like period.

And that's the exact moment that I made the decision to go full time into media.

So the confidence came from the fact that what happened was the sign you were looking for.

Because I think a lot of the time when we are afraid to step forward, the unknown scares us because we're thinking, what if something goes wrong?

But I think for you, because you knew that that's the direction, even if things had gone haywire or whatever.

They did go haywire.

They were going to.

No, I knew they would.

What Bible story?

Don't they go haywire?

Like, I don't know one Bible story that was just like, oh, you did what I said and it all worked out peacefully.

No, that's not how that works.

Life has pain, but it has purpose, too, right?

Like, it has purpose, too, and it has meaning.

It has different seasons.

Some we harvest, some we plant.

So I already knew I was in for the ride of a lifetime for sure.

But I also knew that I was walking in my calling and in my faith.

So that I knew.

I'm not saying anybody needs to have that exact epiphany or thought process, but for me, that was my story.

And there was just no doubt after that.

No matter what, that was the route until God showed me otherwise.

Maybe I wasn't supposed to be this media personality.

Maybe I was just a part of somebody else's story that was going to help them in his God's work.

I don't know, like, and maybe I still am doing that.

I don't know.

Maybe it's our collaboration today.

But I do know that I was walking on the path I was supposed to be on at that moment.

I love that.

What about stories makes us so impacted?

Like, we are so touched.

We remember the story.

We don't even remember the speech, the keynote.

But the story is what we take home.

Yeah.

Why is that?

Yeah.

I ask myself this question often.

And I like to think about what stories do I remember the most and how do they affect me?

I think it has multiple layers.

But I think the emotion of the story, when it can actually reach us like past just left brain and logic and when it can hit us in the heart, I think that's the part where we can physically touch somebody.

And especially through podcasting, like if you really think about it, and I think about this often, and I think why podcasting is one of the most interesting and intimate forms of communication ever, is specifically if you think about where people listen to their podcast.

So first thing, think about it this way.

Most people are going to listen to their podcast through something like earbuds or headphones like you're wearing right now.

You're sitting in an orifice of somebody's body.

Because they're listening to it and that communication, you're literally touching them through the vibration through the headset.

So you're literally touching and making contact and really inside their body.

From the standpoint of the headphones is in the ear canal a little bit.

So number one, it's that close.

The next piece of this is the vibrational content.

It's hitting your voice unlike anything else.

It's closer.

It's actually closer than if you're standing in front of somebody hearing something.

Because the proximity of how far the sound has to travel is different.

The next thing is, where do a lot of people listen to podcasts?

They normally listen to podcasts in some of their most private or cherished times of the day.

It could be when they're driving their kids to school.

It could be when they're winding down at the end of the night.

When they're winding down at the end of the night and they're beside their spouse or loved one or solo, whatever their situation is, and they're winding down and they're listening to one last podcast while they're laying in bed falling asleep.

Literally, they're inviting podcasters into their bedroom.

They could be when they're taking a shower, when they're at their most bare of bare and they're getting ready for work in the morning is when they're listening to podcasts.

If you think about it, the way that communication hits us, because those are such intimate moments, unlike any other form of communication.

Then if you add to that whole mix that I just mentioned, the fact that it's a passive listening experience versus an active, and for everybody listening that doesn't know what that is, active and active consumption of content is something like when you're watching a video on YouTube or Netflix or something else.

It's when you are looking directly ahead and it has your full attention, and so now your eyes are literally taking in the video.

That's active.

That takes a certain level of recognition and of focus.

Now, sure, that's good on one point, but what happens when you have an active thing is your brain is so smart.

It's also judging.

It's also saying, hey, is that person wearing the right clothes?

Is it doing this?

Is it doing that?

Or is the lighting better?

Why that matters is because you're less likely to take whatever you're watching as fact because your brain and your eyes are another filter versus podcasting is passive.

You're doing other things while you're listening.

So there's a certain level to where whatever the podcaster is saying or communicating, or in this case, Roberta, the story that they're telling, that's seeping directly into your subconscious on a certain level because you're not thinking about is every single word or is every single frame that they're talking about correct or not because you're not using your eyes as a filter.

So when it comes to communication and what we do, the level of impact is just so much higher.

Now you combine everything that I just mentioned with the fact of if you can craft and tell a well-homed story, oh my gosh, it's magic.

It certainly is.

And speaking of stories, since you help business be more visible and reach their potential clients, do you help them with the storytelling part as well?

We do on the day to day.

So when we think about back end of mission matters as a media outlet, one of the things we do is we produce shows and we help individuals launch podcasts.

So on that end, we've launched over 250 podcasts to date.

And that's just another blessing.

You think I would have thought that would happen?

No way, no how.

That was one of those things where I'll tell that story briefly.

I wasn't going to be in the help you launch your podcast business.

We had our own staff that were busy promoting my show and distributing that.

Then COVID happened and all of the events that would book me to come and do live podcasting in front of either a live audience or do appearances or a lot of the in-person stuff that I do now at conferences, there were no more conferences.

So people started asking us, hey, can you help us start a podcast?

At first, I said no, then I was like, well, wait a minute, we have bench time, we got editors, we didn't lay off a single person during COVID, we didn't have to because then it was a blessing that we had clients and people that wanted to start shows.

So we readjusted that focus and we helped them help clients do it.

And so through that process, I like to think as an organization, it helped us hone our stories telling skills.

It also helped us expand, of course, new business and to hire more people and to create more opportunities.

But then it also took our level as an organization of storytelling and helping people craft that story just to a whole other level.

And over time, the way it works is you see what works, you see what doesn't, you get better, you get better.

And over time, the team gets better and the craft gets better and the ability to touch and reach different audiences, it just improves with experience and with more productions.

And with AI now, and I was wondering, I would like your thoughts on this, because you've published so many books.

When it comes to publishing, now there are these ads that say, use AI to publish a book in five minutes.

Is that going to diminish the value of actually publishing a book if everybody can do it in five minutes?

I mean, there's going to be waves of people that maybe misuse tools and put out a bunch of things that nobody's going to ever see, because it's not going to be anything special or new.

Then there will be some people that maybe are really good marketers, so they're going to be able to repurpose content, publish a book in five minutes.

Because they're such great marketers and they have lists, they're going to be able to distribute that.

But what I think it's going to do really is, it's not a should you do it or should you not do it.

What's going to happen and what is happening is, the pie is just getting bigger for everyone.

It's not an either or or a limitation.

So I'll give an example of a conversation I had recently.

I'm talking to someone and they say, well, now Adam, you can have an AI host and you don't even have to do interviews.

They sound just like you.

You feed the voice and do this, this, this.

I'm aware.

I said, that's amazing.

They're like, aren't you scared?

Isn't that going to be like part?

I said, absolutely not.

What I'm going to do, and this is a fact, is I'm going to create an AI Adam to have his own show.

And why wouldn't I?

I've done over 6,000 interviews.

We're going to train that model based on all of the interviews I've done.

Here's the funny part, Roberta.

Some people are going to prefer AI Adam versus human Adam.

I'm okay with that.

They're both Adam.

I'm okay.

And what's interesting, and this is a little tip that I don't know that I'm right on this.

So when I say this, it's a tip, but I don't know that I'm right.

But this is the route that I'm going, and I'm okay with saying it publicly.

I am purposely in my regular show, Roberta.

In the past, when I first started, I used to try to take out all the ums, the ahs.

I was a toast master person way back when, right?

But now, because AI, I already know can do that better than me.

It can be more articulate.

It can say not one filler word.

It can do all of that.

Now, I, as a host, I'm purposely adding them in.

I'm purposely adding imperfection to my show.

The reason why I'm doing it though is because I want the audience to be able to distinguish which one it is, because there's going to be a show that's hosted by AI Adam.

There'll be two different shows.

And all that happened here is my market got bigger.

That's all that's happening.

Yeah, because I'm about to ask at first when I had an editing tool to remove all of that, and I thought to myself, does it even sound human when there's not a single filler word?

I mean, come on, nobody's that perfect in speaking.

So that stress of, oh, no, I want my episode to be perfect, to move all the umbs and the likes and the end.

I don't judge.

I don't have an opinion on that one, to be honest.

I personally prefer to hear imperfection.

Some people are the opposite, just like audio.

Some people, the audio has to be absolutely perfect in their ears.

If there's any mistake, they're going to feel like, oh, my gosh, this is the worst show ever.

Guess what?

They're not going to listen to my show because I record on the go.

Sometimes I'm doing a conference.

Sometimes I'm doing something else.

Sometimes my audio isn't perfect, but I like to bring my audience on the journey with me.

I like to be able to say on a show, I like to be able to say today, I'm not in the studio today, I'm in Singapore and I'm at the Milk and Global Conference of Singapore, and this is what we're in, this is our guest.

I like to take my audience with me on these journeys around the world that I go on and all of these conferences that I have access to based on the coverage that I'm doing to some of the conferences that, $30,000 a ticket which I didn't come from money or anything like that.

The reason I'm able to go there is because I'm covering the conference, and they bring me out there and they hire me to create content for the conference.

But I am also at the same time giving access to my entire audience to be able to hear the knowledge and the stories of the people that are in those conferences that if I wasn't a podcaster, I wouldn't be invited to in a million years.

So that's what I like to do, but that's a style choice.

That's a style choice.

Not everybody likes that.

Some people are like, oh, they might not prefer that.

Yes, you being authentically Adam is also connecting you with the audience that is resonating with whatever you are delivering.

So that's okay.

I'm happy for that.

And thank you, Roberta, because if that didn't work, then I'd be stuck because that's all I got.

That's all I got.

I don't know.

That's what God gave me.

And I'm making the most of it.

So whatever.

And that's all you've got.

And that's enough.

That's right.

There we go.

I was waiting for it.

And so you've been featured on Forbes, CBS.

Do you first of all get invited to those huge media outlets?

And what is it that you talk about?

I'm known as a podcast futurist.

I like commentating on and speculating about the growth and what's going on in the industry for podcasting.

So anything related to podcasting, that would be my main thing.

Also publishing, book publishing, things like that, branding, trends, anything like that that's going on.

Those are the big ones that people come to me for.

I guess that's what most of my keynotes and most of my speaking things would be about.

I don't hold myself out as a business expert too much.

That's not my thing.

I'm not going to teach you how to scale your business and exit for a billion dollars.

I haven't done that, but I can comment and talk to you about media trends and what's happening because I have, with the other co-founder here, Shirog Segar, bootstrapped and grown a media company from scratch to now where we again have launched over 250 shows, published over 400 authors and PR side, we reach and work with some of the largest tier one publications in the world.

So I can speak from that because that's my level of expertise.

And then also from the host standpoint, I mentioned I've done over 6000 interviews.

I'll do over 1500 interviews this year.

So this year alone.

So I put out about 40 years of content every year for some context.

So if somebody wants to talk about content creation or being a host, I'm not saying I'm the best, but I'm just saying I'm working real hard.

That's all.

I'm just in the game, at least I'm working.

Nobody can deny that.

Absolutely no one can.

And speaking of personal branding, what you've just described, especially when you were talking about how you sometimes record on the go and that's what your audience connects with, that is your brand.

That is who they know Adam to be.

And so when you advise your clients, what do you usually say to them in crafting their personal brand?

First, I like to tell them to be realistic on what their goals for their personal brand are.

So that's the main thing.

Whether they're launching a show, whether they're building a personal brand, like what's their goal?

Like really, are they looking to attract more business?

Do they want to be more searchable online?

Do they want to just not get left behind and undigital?

Because right now they're ghosts online.

They really got to define what their goals are.

So meaning, are they looking to build a big brand?

Are they looking to monetize?

Are they looking for bigger media exposure?

Like what is the real goal that they're looking to accomplish?

Design a plan and work backwards to accomplish that goal.

Because what I found is with the power of story and really just being honest, like I always tell people when they come to us for this type of work, I say, look, we're not gonna make up something.

It's because you don't have to.

Everybody's great in their own way.

Everybody has their own story that they can tell.

And if it's told the right way, they can really achieve whatever they need to or whatever their goal is.

But it has to be done told the right way, delivered to the correct audience, and packaged correctly as well.

If you think about some of the greats, if you think about your Oprah's of the world, your Tony Robbins of the world, your Les Brown of the world, they told the same stories for like 34 years, exact same story told a bunch of different ways.

And here's the key, people think they have to be creative and unique and do all these different things.

That is really the myth of it all.

What you have to do is be able to tell the same story in enough different variations so people don't get bored, but the same story authentically and entertaining enough to where over time other people are remembering and regurgitating your story.

I tell people when they're coming on my show, I'm like, I want you to share whatever story you've shared a thousand times.

Don't bring me any new content.

And they're kind of thrown by that.

And they're like, why?

Because you'd be so lucky if somebody would remember your story, start watching a video and be like, oh, I like when they say this story.

Look, they're going to say this.

Do you know how lucky you would be for that to happen?

Then you would be a great, like a Tony Robbins or an Oprah or a Les Brown.

Then you would be a great, because everybody would know your story.

And we know those stories so much, I can almost write a biography on Les Brown.

He tells the same story.

That's my point.

Come on.

Mamie Brown, come on.

Les Brown, come on.

World renowned.

Come on.

His mom's house getting repossessed because he messed up on the paperwork.

How do we know that information, Roberta?

I met him once.

I got a picture on my Instagram.

Shout out Les Brown.

But you know, I had to.

He's a legend.

I absolutely love Les Brown.

He was very inspirational in my life.

But how do we know that story?

How is his mother's legacy still alive through you and I talking about him right now?

Come on.

That's the power of story right there in action.

I'm still really blown away by how you make all these connections back to the power of podcasting.

Or maybe it's because you've done it for so long.

You've done over 6,000 episodes because I think sometimes we just think, oh, my little podcast is just me and Adam.

That's it.

And you have this global bird's eye view of the impact.

And a lot of us are still catching up to that.

It's an evolving understanding and it's through a lot of prayer and it's through a lot of reflection.

I'll give you an example of something that I just learned last year.

So remember, I'm nine years in this business.

So unfortunately, I lost my mom last year in October and it was very, very unexpected or excuse me, November.

Very unexpected.

It was through a tornado of all things.

Like six people died in Florida.

She was one of them.

So literally like a direct hit from like the tornado that picked up the house she was in and threw it across the street.

Insane.

Like there was a person that was in the driveway and sitting in their car and they were fine, completely fine.

And so it was literally a direct hit.

So act of God, I don't understand how there could be any more of a direct act of God than that.

Right?

And so it was her time.

That's what it was.

And, you know, I'm still healing.

I'm still learning from that.

But one layer and level of introspection and understanding of the importance of what we do that God revealed to me during that time was, well, number one, there was all these miracles that happened after.

And I did my very first monologue ever on the show because as I was out there and digging through the rubbage and all the other things like that, it was just on my heart.

There were so many miracles that were coming fast to me that God was letting me know, my mom was letting me know that it's OK.

So I did a monologue and it ended up being like an hour and a half.

I've never done a monologue in my life by over $6,000 interviews.

I've never done one.

And all I did was I was documenting all the miracles.

I did release that on the show and on YouTube.

My mom had a lot of sisters, big family.

That ended up being something that gave my entire family piece, all of our sisters, all these other things.

The level of miracles started, let's say, pretty basic.

I'll just give one of them just because it was kind of insane.

But it went all the way up to like the highest level of a miracle that you'd be like, how is that even possible?

And I documented all of these.

But one of them was I get there and all of a sudden, I go and I'm going to check in to the rental car place and getting a car.

Now, I've rented a couple hundred rental cars in my life easily because I travel a lot.

I was at a new place, never been there, never seen it, never nothing.

They don't know me, I'm not part of any rewards program.

They didn't know I was coming into town, nothing else.

They don't know anything about me.

I go, I'm in line, I come up next, the guy's like, oh, hi.

And then he's like, what's your name?

He goes to check in, whatever, whatever.

And he's like, oh yeah, I upgraded you.

And I'm like, what?

And now, mind you, this is random guy.

We had no words together.

They upgraded me to the amazing, beautiful, drop top Mustang, like the nicest car they had in the entire fleet.

Like period, period, brand new.

Now, some people would take that and be like, okay, another coincidence.

It ain't no coincidence.

Insane.

There's no way.

Like my mom knew, like God knew, they knew this was going to be tough for me.

And so they're like, let me give you a good ride because you got a lot of driving to do.

That was just one.

And let me give you one quick thing that's funny about that.

I did a review for them.

Every three to six months, I get an email about that review that I did on Google.

It went viral.

So that review that I did, I took a picture of it and you could see my luggage in there.

And I think to date, it has something like 40,000 views or something stupid for the Google review.

A review on the website?

I did a review of the rental car place and I just said, what a great experience I had.

Wow.

So again, it's just a constant reminder, like coming back to me, like it's okay.

It's a message.

Like that's insane.

So that was one level of things is that power of podcasting.

I did that monologue.

It gave my family closure on what happened to her.

We even got down to when I think about the final moments, but something like what actually happened from an on-site individual in that, because we got to meet them.

Insane the way all this happened.

It was just unbelievable.

So all these miracles.

And so that would have been something that could help my family directly.

Then looking one layer deeper.

And again, this is all stuff that was unveiled to me later.

I didn't know that my mom was going to be taken by a tornado.

I had the privilege of bringing her on the show one last time before that happened.

So the last time I went to visit her, I surprised her, brought my podcasting equipment, and did a long interview with her.

So now what happened is I've had her on the show two to three times.

And now in retrospect, when you talk about the importance of what we do, like those recordings, I value more than anything else in the world.

I don't have kids yet.

I don't have anything like that.

But if I ever do, they're going to be able to hear their mom's story directly from their grandmother.

So that's the special thing of what we're doing, Roberta.

Like somebody that you brought on the show, maybe they don't even have their own show, but they got to tell their story through your show.

One day, their grandkids are going to be watching that.

I've already had that.

I've been doing this long enough to work.

I get a comment on YouTube like, that's my grandpa.

So we made their grandpa YouTube famous, right?

That's what it is.

So when we talk about the connection, the ability to advance humanity and civilization as a whole, through that interconnectedness, it's not like lip service.

It's deeper than we understand.

I am speechless and I shouldn't be because I'm going to connect to your podcast interview.

But thank you so much for sharing your story, Adam.

And I'm really sorry about your mom.

But the perspective that you have, obviously, as you continue to heal is really, really deep.

Now, before you go, would you like our listeners to reach out to you?

Yeah, if anybody wants to connect, if you got a show idea, book idea, you just want to talk like Instagram.

Instagram is the easiest way.

Ask Adam Torres on Instagram.

If you're interested in any of our content, there's a link in my Instagram account that has a link tree that leads to websites, free newsletter, free ebooks.

We give away more free content and more free things than I would argue any other company of our side on the planet.

So ask Adam Torres on Instagram.

Love for you to check it out.

Ask Adam Torres on Instagram.

I'll put that on the show notes.

I know if we could, we would go on and on with this discussion and never end it, but we have to go.

I am so grateful that you were here today.

Thank you so much, Adam, for your very generous spirit more than anything.

Well, thank you Roberta for having me on and keep up the work.

We need more people just like you helping others get their story out there.

So thank you for all of your hard work.

My absolute pleasure.

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