325 Adam Carroll

Jeffrey Feldberg: [00:00:00] Adam Carroll has spent the past decade studying human behavior, particularly as it relates to personal leadership and finance. He's an internationally recognized finance literacy expert and leadership workshop facilitator. Adam is the author of four Amazon bestsellers, a two time TED Talk speaker with nearly 6 million views on YouTube, and the creator of Broke, Busted and Disgusted, a documentary that aired on CNBC.

He's the founder of the Shred Method, a cash flow management tool that is creating financial freedom for families everywhere. Adam is passionate about helping people create financial freedom through unconventional financial strategies and modified habit patterns.

And before we start the episode, a quick word from our sponsor, Deep Wealth and the Deep Wealth Mastery Program. Here's Sanjay, a graduate of Deep Wealth Mastery, and he says, the investment I made in the Deep Wealth Mastery Program, it's a rounding error compared to the value created today and the future value I'll receive.

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Now speaking of growth and adding value, check out what Leon says. He says that the Deep Wealth Mastery Program changed how and who we hire. We've now begun to hire talent today that we never would have hired if it weren't for the program. The talent we're hiring today is helping both increase our growth and profits and our future enterprise value. 

Man, I love that kind of feedback because it's that kind of feedback that's what gets me out of bed every day.

Deep Wealth Mastery System, it's the only system based on a nine figure deal. That was my deal. And as you know, I said, no to a seven figure offer, created a system that we now call Deep Wealth Mastery, and that's what helped myself and my business partners all welcome from a different buyer, a different offer, a nine figure deal.

So if you're interested in growing your profits, preparing for a future liquidity event, whether that's two years away or 22 years away, and if you want to optimize your post exit life, Deep Wealth Mastery is for [00:02:00] you. Please email success at deepwealth. com. Again, that's success, S U C C E S S at deepwealth. com. We'll send you all the information about Deep Wealth Mastery, otherwise known as the Scale for Ultimate Sales System. 

That's where you want to be. You want to be with other successful business owners, entrepreneurs, and founders, just like you, who are looking to create market disruptions. Whether you're a startup, whether you've been in business for three or four decades, whether you're manufacturing, whether you're high tech, SaaS, low tech, whatever the case may Come in and network with other business owners, with other businesses, just like you, because they all want to lock in their financial freedom and enjoy both success and fulfillment.

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Welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast. Well, you heard it in the official introduction. We have a rock star in the house, a fellow business owner, entrepreneur, thought leader, an incredible [00:03:00] individual. And for all you listeners out there, here's what I'm going to share with you. You are richer than you think.

And you're going to come out of this episode now understanding why. I know you may be saying, wait a minute, Jeffrey, Adam, what do you mean I'm richer than I think? Where is this hidden treasure? Well, it's there and that's exactly what we're going to explore today of what you can do and how Adam and team is going to help you with that.

But I'm going to put a plug in it right there. Adam, welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast. An absolute pleasure to have you with us. Adam, I'm curious. There's always a story behind the story. What's your story? What got you from where you were to where you are today?

Adam Carroll: I love this question, Jeffrey. First of all, thank you for having me on the show. This is an honor to be with you. I think my story started the way a lot of people's stories start in the United States, especially. And that is that I was a rich college kid and I quickly became a broke professional.

I graduated with a significant amount of student loan debt. A lot of credit card debt. I was upside down in my car. I joke about it now, but my dog had just died at home. My girl had left me at school. I sounded like every Dierks Bentley song ever written. And I realized that the [00:04:00] debt that I had taken on was a result of me not understanding core financial philosophies.

And so I went about this study for about two or three years, where I just consumed every book that I could on money. And it completely turned around my world so that by the time I was 25, almost 26, I had no debt, no student loans, no car loans, no credit card, no consumer debt. And I started teaching. These principles of money all across the country.

And so from presenting, speaking led me to a documentary and a TED talk and podcasts. And today a software product that helps people achieve record freedom in their lives in a short order, months instead of decades.

Jeffrey Feldberg: What an incredible story and we're going to talk about what you're doing with the shred method and your books and everything else. But let's go back for just a moment because I'm curious, Adam. So many people find themselves at a school in a mountain of debt. You didn't [00:05:00] accept that though.

You became curious. Whereas most people take it at face value. Well, this is just how it is. I'll have to figure this out and life's going to be challenging for the next while I'll get through it and we'll see kind of how it goes, but you're, Hey, no way, something's not right here. Where did that come from within you of, okay, let me look into this.

Something doesn't seem right here.

Adam Carroll: Yeah, think the answer to that question lies in a conversation I had with my then girlfriend, now wife, who she and I met our senior year in college, and at one point we had maybe been dating for four months, five months, and she said, you need to get rid of your debt or I'm going to get rid of you.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Wow. Talk about an ultimatum.

Adam Carroll: at the time I was offended and, I was well, this is what I do. This is how I live my life. And why are you challenging me in it? And then Jeffrey candidly, I took a hard look at her situation versus mine. She had 4, 000 in savings, had a paid off car was on scholarship largely for school.

And she was making decisions that were actually [00:06:00] benefiting her in the long run, where mine were. Digging a deeper hole. And so after graduation, I realized, I think I have something to learn here. And believe it or not, it was a book that I found online and this goes, this is in the way back machine.

Do you remember John Commuta? Does that name ring a bell?

Jeffrey Feldberg: Oh my goodness. Wow. We are way back. But for our listeners who are saying, John, who? Please bring them up to speed with that.

Adam Carroll: John Commuta is a gentleman who probably was a pioneer in the self publishing days and he wrote a book called Debt Free and Prosperous Living. I remember seeing an ad for his book, which I'm sure either it was on the radio or it was it may have been a TV ad even, but I saw this ad for Debt Free and Prosperous Living and it was like a 49 book, which at the time was kind of obscene to pay 50 bucks for a, printed softback book.

But I get it in a manila envelope. So clearly somebody self publishing this and I start flipping through and Jeffrey the [00:07:00] nuggets that he was sharing about debt and what debt cost people when you're relying on debt to fund your lifestyle, as opposed to relying on debt to fund a business or revenue generation.

He basically said in the book that, that the two greatest expenses we have in life are taxes. And the interest expense on debt for me, that unlocked this desire to know more and to put all that into practice.

Jeffrey Feldberg: As you're talking about that, I may be off on the reference. What I'm about to say though is true. I believe it was Warren Buffett who said compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. Now he was talking about compound interest. Savings for us. It cuts both ways, though. If you have debt, credit card debt, bank debt, wow, that compound interest can just be staggering.

So it cuts both ways, depending on which side you land on. But let me ask you this, Adam. Let's lay the foundation here for our community. So debt, credit card debt, bank debt, other kinds of debt, that wasn't always the [00:08:00] norm. That was not the societal norm. Now it seems to be, where is that coming from? I mean, obviously, The banking and finance industry, they have a vested interest for us to go into debt.

They want that. It just seems that it's gotten a whole lot worse, not better. Where's that coming from?

Adam Carroll: Well, I think again, going back in time, it was the late seventies, early eighties when the advent of credit card debt kind of sprung upon society and people were realizing that they could keep up with the Joneses. I mean, if you go back and look at the 1950s and you see a neighborhood. Pretty much everyone had same size house, same kind of car.

There wasn't a lot of differentiation among those neighborhoods. With the advent of credit card debt, it was like, Oh, I can get the hot tub out back and a little bit nicer car. And I can spend more on clothes and vacations and all of that. And I think today, how that's. been impacted is what we see on Facebook and Instagram is the rich lifestyle.

I mean, [00:09:00] no one's posting them making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch to save a little bit of money. And I'm not saying that's the way to do it necessarily, but what we celebrate is the fancy steak dinners and the nice bottle of wine and the vacation shots. And so by the very nature of social media, I think people are like, I want to live that lifestyle.

And so they do, and they do it. by hyperinflating their income with the use of a credit card or other debt vehicles while it's entirely possible to do that and be successful some people have also taken it too far and then don't realize that the majority of the money they're making going to pay the interest on the debt they've acquired to live that lifestyle

Jeffrey Feldberg: And it's a pay me now, pay me later, you're always going to pay kind of scenario here. And what's really interesting with that, particularly with social media, to your point, and I don't want to get on my soapbox here for social media. You were not seeing the thousands and thousands of pictures or frames that were [00:10:00] ignored or deleted because it wasn't quite right.

We're seeing just that one precious moment that they're putting out there for the world to see. And then the algorithm picks up on that. And now that's all that we're seeing. And lo and behold, really, we're being brainwashed. Well, this is how everyone lives. This is how you should be living. This is what you should be doing.

And I'm sure the retailers just love it. And the people in those spaces are just saying, yes. Believe that, come to me, you know, we'll sell you whatever you want and off you go with that. So it's really crazy, but let's now dial this in, Adam, for business owners. We're saying, okay, yeah, Adam, I've got my business.

Sure, I have some debt. It's for the business though. It's not so crazy. Yeah, every now and again, maybe a little bit of credit card debt for the business to get things going, but life goes on and I need to do that. How are we doing with that? Is there something wrong with that narrative? Is that okay? Where are we on that?

Adam Carroll: I think the narrative is okay I think the debt that is taken on for business purposes benefits. The way that I like to look at that, Jeffrey, is there is a difference between calculated risk and risky. I think that there are some [00:11:00] business owners that are very risky in how they take on debt.

And then I think there's this other subset, and it's probably the group that's listening to your direction and guidance, who are the ones that are like, I'm taking out debt, but it's on a very calculated risk. I know that if I apply this much. in investing into, and I'm going to just use this as a hypothetical, into online ads for whatever product I'm selling, I know that over the past X number of months, if I invest this, I'll get a 1.

multiple on whatever that investment is. That makes sense. That's calculated risk for me. It's the business owners that I find are being risky with their debt load that are going to find themselves in a hole. When the market turns or they lose their biggest customer and, to be quite honest that's the avatar that I tend to like to help are the ones who are like, Hey I'm feeling like the ship might be sinking, [00:12:00] or I noticed some holes in the boat.

Can you help me patch those before it gets worse? Cause we can turn a situation around 180 degrees in short order. When we teach people the principles and the philosophies that they're using to make decisions around money.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And it's a perfect segue into what you're doing with the Shred Method. And in preparing for today, when I was reading what's going on with this, I love the analogy that you gave, and I believe it's on your website and for our listeners, we'll have all the links, all the books that you've written, your website, everything else.

So when you're talking about the Shred Method, you mentioned one of my favorite movies, The Matrix, where Morpheus offers Neo, he says, okay, Neo, it's the red pill or the blue pill. But if you take one of them Don't blame me of what's going to happen next. It's just going to blow your world. My words, I'm putting in there, or you just go back to your regular life and wake up as though this was a dream and just keep on going down that way.

And you're saying, Hey, be warned. Once you start the shred method, once you go down this path, your life will never be the same. So for our listeners, why don't we start with a [00:13:00] clean slate? What is the shred method exactly? And why should they care?

Adam Carroll: The shred method is a unique cashflow tool. That partners with a piece of software used to help keep you accountable that takes your income, which is the single greatest source of wealth building that we have. And it creates the highest level of efficiency with that income. So it assumes one thing, Jeffrey, and that is that most of us use our income in a very inefficient manner.

And what I mean by that is money sits, it sits in savings, checking, money market account. It just sits there. And and I would ask you point blank, feel free to, decline this ask if you want, but is, are there times where you have money sitting in account, checking account, savings account for days or weeks or months on end?

Jeffrey Feldberg: Hey, Adam, I've been on both sides. I continue to be on both sides. I'm making so many mistakes. I joke with myself. If I had a dollar for every mistake I made, who needed that nine figure deal? I would have had enough just with that. Of [00:14:00] course there is. And when I put myself under the microscope, I just become at times, I'll use the polite word complacent.

If we're honest about it, it's lazy. I'm not spending the time or I don't think I have the time when I really do, because it's my future and hey, why not have my money work for me instead of the other way around? So I have been there and I continue to be there from time to time, catch myself and make course corrections along the way.

So absolutely relate to what you're saying for sure. 

Adam Carroll: Is where I say, Hey, do you want to take the red pill or the blue pill? Because the red pill, when we go down this matrix. Basically, what I'll reveal here to your audience is something that they probably know at some level is happening, but don't really understand to what extent it's happening.

you know, I know that you're in Toronto sometime and in Florida sometimes, but if you were to drive a mile or two in any direction from where you sit, would you run into a number of banks or credit unions?

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. More than I can count.

Adam Carroll: Yeah. More than you can count. where I sit right now, two mile radius around me, I've counted this. [00:15:00] There are well over 28 financial institutions. Many of them have built a 10 or 15 million building in the last two years. So when you see banks and credit unions popping up all over, no, and I'm not vilifying them at all because it's a great business model.

I wish I'd started a bank when I was. You know, I, you and I would be having a much different conversation, but they are selling debt. we are their compound interest vehicle. And so when I drive by lots of banks, what I'm thinking is, wow, they've done a really effective job of brainwashing people into believing.

That debt is normal, natural, and good. Pay the minimum payments every single month. Squirrel away whatever you can on a monthly basis. And hopefully, in air quotes, you'll have enough money set aside by the time you retire, that you can live comfortably for the rest of your days. And this is how the majority of people living in the matrix exist, is that there's a hope and a prayer that at some point in their future lives, there will be enough money [00:16:00] there.

to live comfortably, but how much is enough? And what happens to our expense profile and inflation and all of the things that we can't really foresee 20 or 30 years from now.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Adam, as you're sharing that, I'm thinking of a client who's in the Deep Wealth community, this is a short while back, and that's exactly what was going on, we were learning about the situation, the language that these financial institutions use, and I'll use institution, not necessarily in a respectful way, in quote unquote, I mean, it's crazy, we know what's there because they have to legally disclose that to us, but I think the financial literacy of most people, we just don't really understand, so if we hear, well, we're going to charge you 5 percent a month.

It doesn't sound like a lot, 5 percent a month, until you start doing the math on that of 5 percent a month. And I'm being conservative. Some of this was much more, it was just crazy. I thought it was illegal, some of these rates and found out, no, it's not illegal. It's actually within what the norms are for that.

So, okay. So we have this whole [00:17:00] industry who is brainwashing us into thinking you need debt and don't worry about it. You'll be okay at one point in time, but they don't specify what. Okay, really means meanwhile, they're fueling our ego, I suppose for today, as opposed to a better tomorrow.

Adam Carroll: That's right. That's right. And I think there's a misnomer around, Oh, well, I'll continually make more and more throughout my life. And at retirement, there is this, I think since been proven false, I believe, but there's this belief that you can live on 80 percent or 70 percent of whatever you were living on in retirement.

So when you were working, it's a hundred percent. When you're in retirement, you only need 60, 70, 80%. My parents are living proof. That is not true. They want to travel. They want to go see things that they haven't seen before. They want to go out to eat. In fact, they're going out to eat more, in retirement than they were when they were working because their friends are all calling them.

Hey, let's go to lunch. Hey, let's go have drinks. Hey, let's go to the show. And so one of the things that we do with the shred method is show, listen, we can actually [00:18:00] shrink your expense profile while you're working and then explode your wealth building potential in short order, like literally in three to five years, seven years, 10 years.

Have enough money coming in and passive income that it covers all of your monthly expenses. And for business owners, this is where it gets really good, Jeffrey, is, if you're counting on your business selling in order to fund your retirement, and we're showing you, you could build wealth outside your business all the while you're building your business.

When you do go to sell it, it's just it's icing on top of icing. And now life is really good.

Jeffrey Feldberg: It's interesting, Adam, we are talking off the same page and those in the community, I promise Adam and I ahead of time did not team up for him to be saying this because Adam, you're absolutely right. In the nine step roadmap, one of the things that we advocate is actually step four, due diligence and step six, your advisory team before you have your exit.

Bring on board a wealth advisor, a tax advisor, and it doesn't matter if you [00:19:00] don't have a lot to be investing, but at least to your point, start that process, because I suspect where you're going to go with this is you need to know post sale, post exit, how much do I need to live? It's usually a lot more, and we're living longer these days than previous generations.

So how do you doing that, Adam, as a business owner, I'm listening to you saying, okay, wait a minute, Adam, are you saying that I can be wealthy before I even have to sell the business? That is just, as you say, icing on top of that. So what's going on with that?

Adam Carroll: Yeah. The, again, part of the secret here is that the income that you are taking home is one of the greatest wealth building tools that you could ever have. But really it needs to be doing four things. And this would be something that, that listeners should really take note of. Your income should do four things every single bi 26 times a year or 24, 12 or whatever it may be, number one, it needs to pay your expenses.

Most people are pretty good about doing that. Number two, it needs to [00:20:00] eliminate debt. Number three, it needs to build wealth. And number four, you need to be able to either do good and or have fun with it. So, four is do good, have fun. And what most people do of those four, they do two of them. Any guess on which two they do really well?

Jeffrey Feldberg: I suppose having the fund probably top of the list

Adam Carroll: That's one. Yep.

Jeffrey Feldberg: with our hard earned money and perhaps paying the expenses.

Adam Carroll: expenses. That's it. Pay expenses and have fun. And what most business owners don't do is they don't focus on debt elimination and they don't focus on building wealth for a couple of reasons. Number one, they'll believe, well, it's the cheapest money I'll ever have, so I'm not going to pay it off.

Number one. the building wealth, that's going to happen when I sell my company. So I don't have to worry about building wealth. And what I've found in my world as a business owner is that as I use the Shred method and I minimize my debt and expense profile on a monthly basis. I became more and more free to take risk in the [00:21:00] business, which allowed my business to And I think that some business owners that live a really big lifestyle and their business funds that lifestyle, they have a hard time trying to figure out how do I level up the business? Cause I got to make sure I'm making enough to foot the bill over here. So more debt just feels like more risk. And I'm already.

Risk up to my eyeballs.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And let me ask you this, because I really like what I'm hearing. You've taken, I'm gonna call it a lifestyle mindset, a philosophy. You've also put technology behind it. That's really coaching and helping and saving time because as an entrepreneur, as I'm hearing us talk, and I'm thinking of someone in the community, really most people in the community, I imagine they're saying, this sounds really good.

Who has time to do all four of those things where I'm paying my expenses, eliminating debt, building my wealth. Yeah, sure. Having fun. Okay, great. I don't have the time for those other two or three things. So, how does a shred method, how does your system, the software, the coaching, the mindset, how does it all interplay that I [00:22:00] can do this all, perhaps even in less time, less effort than I could just on my own?

Adam Carroll: Let me answer that question first and foremost this system will take people after about the first 60 days, it'll take somewhere between 10 and 20 minutes a week extra. That's it. So it's not, hours and having to do all sorts of manipulation of the money one way or the other.

Candidly, what we do, the software itself is a behavior modification tool. And so the way we like to describe it, Jeffrey, is the Shred Method is part coaching, and that's really education on the front end to help people understand programmatically what are they doing with their money. As an example we heard things growing up and that has influenced what we do with money when we're an adult, whether we know it or not.

And so we start to dig into that at the beginning and go, okay, tell us how you interplay with money. What's your relationship to it? How do you view risk? How much do you need in savings at a given point in time to feel safe and secure? And then we start to reorient, [00:23:00] okay, you've told me this number.

Here's what I'm seeing. Here's how much is extra. Let me show you what's possible in the next 36 months. If you just invest 10 to 20 minutes a week in this thing. Technically what we're doing is we're reorienting the cashflow through a different vehicle, not just a checking account. Technically it could, we call it a shred account, but it could be a line of credit.

It could be a savings account that you just don't use. It's got money sitting there and has been for a while, or it could be another vehicle. Some folks have cash value in a life insurance policy as an example, and we can use that as a liquidity tool and then the software. Literally looks at how much income is coming in, how much do you have in expenses going out, how much is extra, and then what are all the debts that you're paying right now and how much interest is being charged on them to go after the most efficient ones first, second, third, fourth, and so on.

And the end result is you'll have increased discretionary income every month. You'll begin to have [00:24:00] decreased bills every month, which means less stress. And it will feel like you have more and more liquidity at your disposal all the time, because as you pay down some of that debt and create equity in your property, it's always available to you through that line of credit tool that we, use.

Jeffrey Feldberg: So, it sounds like you're leveraging the power of technology with your mindset. The two are really intertwined into one and a little bit of time, 20 minutes, you're saying once everything's set up, which is nothing, that's a blink of an eye, that's nothing at all. Particularly as I think forward, not for just weeks or years, this could be for decades, for the rest of my life, what I'm doing.

So two categories I'm going to throw your way. One category are business owners who are in debt, and this is a real issue, particularly at least at the recording of this podcast, things can always change. We are in high interest rates. Inflation has been going like crazy. The interest rates have gone up.

They're going to be coming back down. I don't see them coming back down to where, to your point earlier, it was like free money. And perhaps that's why people got into debt [00:25:00] and the allure of debt. Hey, this is free money. Look at what I can do with this. Big mistake. So we're in higher interest rates. And so for that particular person, this is a game changer from what you're sharing, that you're going to save them time, give them insights.

It's a system that works, that they can pay down the debt, take that extra money from what would have been interest payments and compound interest. Put that towards other things. For the business owner who's saying, Adam, really, I have a line of credit. Don't really have a lot of debt. We go in and out of the line of credit as needed, but I still have those golden handcuffs.

I am not realizing the wealth that I built up in the business. How can you help someone like that?

Adam Carroll: It's a great question. the business owner that has a line of credit that they only dip into from time to time, they're missing one key distinction of that line of credit. And that is that they're looking at it as a tool for emergencies. Let's dip into this when we need to what they are failing to see is it is also a liquidity Pond, if you will, that you can dip into and [00:26:00] leverage into the future into something else.

So we might recommend for some business owners, if you have a really good cashflow on a monthly basis, and maybe there are some months where they're better than others, or the expenses are less than others, the software will see those particular months and say, it looks like you're going to have a couple of surplus months here in a month or two.

Why don't we take some amount out of this line of credit? And apply it either to debt, if we're paying that down and that's an interest, or we're applying it to a vehicle that would create massive passive permanent streams of income in the future. But we're not doing it in like to use round numbers, it's not a thousand or two thousand or five thousand dollars.

Maybe we're putting 20 grand at a time in there and knowing that our income over the next two or three months brings that line of credit back down to zero. So the effective carrying cost of the debt is minimal, negligible. Cause we're only borrowing it for maybe, 90 days, 120 days max. And when you understand that concept and you apply that [00:27:00] at home, you'll realize that your mortgage and I don't say this lightly, Jeffrey, nearly everyone that we talk to, we see their entire debt load being paid off mortgage included between three and five years.

4. 2 years is the average amount of time our shredders will stay in a mortgage.

Jeffrey Feldberg: that's incredible. So you're mortgage free, debt free. And let me ask you this because it's human nature and it's a crazy narrative because the narrative is, Hey, as my business does better, I have more disposable income, but to your point, we're keeping up with the neighbors. We're looking at social media.

I don't really need that bigger car, but geez, everyone else on the street has it. Or I want to impress my friends. I'm not really impressing them. They probably couldn't care less, but we think that, and so as we become quote unquote richer. We're really not because now we've increased our expenses that we don't need.

We're just as happy as we were before, but we seem to think, well, no, I need more. And even though we have that incremental increase, we're [00:28:00] going backwards, not forwards because our expenses are going up along the way. So how do you deal with that? Because it's the human condition. It's how we're wired. It's a narrative out there.

Adam Carroll: It is. And I think it goes back to that program that we have from when we were a kid. And I'll take you again, back to a case study example of this. If a young child is told walking through Target and they're saying, I want that Nerf gun or that. Lego set or that doll or that whatever. And they're told you don't need it.

You don't need it. You don't need it. What I've seen happen over and over again is that young person will grow to be an adult. And they, at some point they had a saying in their mind of when I start making money, I'm going to buy whatever I want,

Because I was told I didn't need it when I was a kid.

And it's true. Maybe they didn't need it because they had enough toys, but they wanted it and they had no way to get it. So when they're adults and they have a way to get it. They'll get every single thing they ever have an impulse to get. So as a business owner, if you're making really good money and you've got a lot of [00:29:00] money sitting inside funds.

One of the things that you'll do is you'll walk into a store or a car dealership or a boat dealership or Costco for me, my wife will say, I'm the only person who can walk into Costco with a shopping list and walk out with a kayak, because it happened once. But the reason it does for all of us is we have some idle.

Extra money sitting there on the sidelines and we're like, well, I have it. I might as well buy it. And not that we should ever deny ourselves the finer things by any means, but if we are really focused on the efficient use of that money, the long term ramification of it is a seven or eight figure difference in your net worth.

So, I know you're all about doing good, let's create to the wealth we're creating in the world. Imagine by just making a few small but significant changes, 10, years down the road. I mean, we're talking about generational wealth [00:30:00] creation by doing a few small things today. And with discipline.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Adam, I couldn't agree more. And to put myself under the microscope, I shared earlier, I made mistakes. Boy, did I make mistakes. And it really became post exit mistakes because I was so focused on crossing the finish line. I never thought of the day after. Now in the Deep Wealth Mastery Program, the Scale for Ultimate Sale, our 90 day system, post accident is actually the first thing that we do because we reverse engineer my failures.

But I'll tell you all those zeros in the bank that I had and had too much time on my hands. I didn't have a purpose in life. I was, to your point, going into the stores. I was buying things I didn't need. I was looking at my bank account thinking it was bottomless and yeah, not a big deal. And I'll be able to get this and sure between investments and interest that's coming in, I'm earning some things, I can.

Never really get to the bottom. It's a bottomless pit and buying all this quote unquote crap as I look back at it now, and just being caught up in that material world, I'll tell you, I learned a few things. One, money doesn't make you [00:31:00] happy. Money cannot buy happiness. I saw that firsthand. And I also saw, which never ceases to amaze me.

I'm just going to pick a number. If it's a value of a hundred, it's an index. So a hundred, it could be a hundred dollars. It could be a hundred thousand dollars. It could be 10, 000, whatever it's going to be. Soon as you buy it, as soon as you walk out that store and you want to sell it, that hundred might be worth 20 or 10 or 15.

And thankfully I. Came out of that. And looking back, it's embarrassing for me. And I own that and not a great time in my life, but I've come to realize one of my goals with my family and my loved ones is, Hey, take whatever you can take, take your savings, take your profits, put it to work for you. Let that begin to create this recurring revenue for you that you're not working for it.

It's working for you and live off of that. And to your point, everything else is really then a bonus. And the business can be a bonus when you get there and all those other things. So how does a shred method, how does a system, the technology [00:32:00] behind the scenes, how would that have helped the young, naive, Jeffrey, making these really silly mistakes along the way, how could that have helped me back in the day?

Adam Carroll: The software itself would and why we call it a behavior modification tool is it gives you these prompts on a day by day, week by week basis. And so what it would have shown you, Jeffrey, is the income coming in and you'd have expenses and other things that you were putting money against, but it would say, it looks like you're going to have a surplus.

We're going to send this big lump sum payment to go knock this thing out. And what you described is very interesting. I think some people have it when they have a lot of credit card debt and in addition to that, some amount of money sitting in a side fund that's like, oh, well I'll just go spend it.

I have it. When someone has a lot of credit card debt, they tend to look at purchases relative to how much debt they have. So if I'm carrying $10,000 in credit card debt, or 20 or a hundred or whatever the number is, and I'm like, well, it's only a thousand bucks. what's 1, 000 on 10, not a big deal.

It's [00:33:00] 10%. It's going to change my payment a little bit, but I can afford the payment. That's kind of the traditional thought process. And what happens with Shred is you start realizing that the revenue, the income that you have coming in actually very powerful in the moment to knock that debt out and can save you tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.

We've had people who will say, well, I have this 700, 000 mortgage, but it's only a 3. 5 percent and it's the cheapest money I'll ever get. And they've got all this extra income coming in. And then we run their numbers in the shred method and we say, Hey, you know, you could be either completely mortgage free within three and a half, four years, or in the next two years, you could get to a point where the majority of your payment is going towards principal.

That's , it's called recasting, but it's a strategy we use where we go, if you started with 700, 000 and now you're at 250, well, you had a 5, 000 house payment. What would it feel like to have a [00:34:00] 1, 500 house payment? And the majority of it going to principle, would that make you feel better?

Jeffrey Feldberg: And Adam, as you're talking about this, some of our listeners, they are wizards on the financial side, and they're following you step by step. Others, and I put myself in this category, that was never one of my strong points. So for our listeners out there, can you walk them through the difference between paying interest only?

And principal, because a lot of these institutions, quote unquote, these financial places are saying, yeah, you know, Jeffrey, just pay the interest. Life is good. And this way, you'll just keep on going along and don't worry about the principal. What's wrong with that narrative? What's really going on?

Adam Carroll: The best way to describe this is to use kind of an image that we like to help identify what people are doing unbeknownst to them, right? This is why they're in the matrix. If you look at an amortization table, which looks like a waterfall. When you look at it visually, so imagine 30 years, the debt to pay off, it looks like a big waterfall going down and you were to put a traffic light over the top of that, the first 10 years of [00:35:00] payments is red light, meaning the majority of that money is going to interest, not to principal.

The second 10 years is yellow light, meaning some's going to principal, some going to interest. It's not half and half, but it's getting there. And by the time the last 10 years of payments get started, the majority of your money is going to principal. Not to interest, but what most people do is they pay the minimum payment for an extended period of time.

Cause maybe they've bought, as much house as they could afford. So all they can afford really is the minimum payment. And they go, I know I'm building equity and I'm only going to be here five or seven years anyway so what's the point? Well, when you look at what's possible with Shred, someone could own that home free and clear in five years time.

And if you wanted to turn around and rent it out, do a short term, midterm rental keep it for family purposes, you want to tap a little bit of the equity to go buy the next place you could do that. What it does is it gives you all sorts of options. [00:36:00] And choices, and I think what most people are doing is they're paying just the interest amount and they're okay with it.

And the bank is loving it because it's a performing loan. Payments are being made month after month. They're making their compound interest and there's no fear of them getting the house back. So I just, at one point I realized that the idea of we'll always have a mortgage is a concept that someone plugged into our minds.

And we either choose to believe it or not. And in my world, it's like, I'm going to have a mortgage, but it's going to be the lowest I can swing with the majority of the payment going to principal and all the rest is going to be my discretionary income that I can use to grow massive wealth.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And Adam, as you're talking about that, it reminds me of a story. We actually talk about this in the 90 Day Deep Wealth Mastery Program about. Interest. And now in in this way, we're talking about compound interest for our benefit, not for debt, but it applies to your point. And have you ever heard of the magic penny [00:37:00] story?

Does that ring a bell? And if not, I'll give you and the listeners the quick overview.

Adam Carroll: Yeah, please.

Jeffrey Feldberg: so what it is, someone walks up to you, you know, you're walking down the street, someone walks up to you and says, Adam, today's your lucky day. You can make a choice. I can give you a million dollars cash right now.

Well, here it is. It's in this. Briefcase here, it's in this bag, or I'm going to give you a magic penny. Now this magic penny, you'll own it for 31 days and it'll double in value every day. So today it's 1 cent. Tomorrow it's 2 cents. On day three, it's 4 cents. On day four, it's 16 cents. On it goes, but you have to choose one or the other million dollars cash or the magic penny.

Now, most people say, give me the million dollars cash. What are you crazy? Yeah, penny add up to what a few dollars here or there. I'll, I'll take the million dollars. Thank you very much. And on the surface, sure. That sounds like the way to go, but to your point, when you take the power of compound interest, no compound interest, it isn't doubling day over day, but this does get to it.

So on the eighth day. Okay, the [00:38:00] penny is worth 2. 56 or 1. 28. On the 20th day, it's 5, 242. On the 25th day, it's 167, 000. It's a far cry from the million dollars. And the listeners are saying, yeah, I'm glad I took the million dollars. On the 29th day, the 30th day on the 31st day. So the last three days, listen to this on the 29th day.

It becomes $2.6 million. Actually 2,000,684. $354 would be precise. On the 30th day, I'm gonna round up a little bit. It's $5.4 million. On the 31st day, it's $10.7 million. Now let me add a little twist. You get this proposition, the million dollars or the penny, and you say, you know what, let me think about this.

I'm busy, as you and I were joking offline, I'll get to it tomorrow. And tomorrow turns into actually two days. Well, [00:39:00] instead of it being worth 10. 7 million, almost 11 million. Two days later, that costs you because it's only worth only 5. 4 million. Let's say you said, you know what, give me a week, week and a bit, and you delayed 10 days.

So you now have 21 days. Well, it's worth 20, 000, a 10 day delay, 21, 000 rounding up compared to almost 11 million. So to your point of paying off that debt, that mortgage, the numbers are huge. And the magic penny, it's an over exaggeration. It's based on the data, the facts. It's an incredible story. So number one, don't delay and two, value that compound interest.

Adam Carroll: No doubt. I love that example. I used to use that in, programs when I was speaking on college campuses all the time. And I used a little bit differently in context, Jeffrey, mine was, imagine if you're putting just a little bit away today at 18 or 19 or 20 and what that could grow to. When I started figuring out Shred, honestly, there's, [00:40:00] we have a sort of a contingency of folks in our.

Community that are nearing retirement or they can see retirement. They're smelling it in the air a little bit and they're going, I don't know that I've saved enough and I don't know what to do. Cause if you haven't saved enough, the feeling is I'm going to have to get really risky. I'm going to have to take enormous risk in order to make enough to be there.

And we're saying that is one way. The other way is you can use shred to minimize your expense profile and then use the equity that you have. To begin, leapfrogging the amount that you have in investments. And I love this example. I mean, I've shared that with my kids, my wife, every client of ours is how do we get to the point where the compound interest velocity of what we have invested is taking care of us?

And we know it will forever.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And Adam, you can tell me if I'm on base, off base, when I'm going through the shred method. So number one, you're minimizing my expenses, both through behavioral change through my mindset, knocking off debt as quickly as we can. [00:41:00] It also sounds like what you're doing is You're letting me see, what do I actually need to live month over month?

What are my expenses? Not just any expenses. What real expenses do I have? Not the social media ones, not the pipe dream, keeping up with the neighbor's one, but the meaningful expenses. And so by the time it comes for my retirement or my exit, I have peace of mind. I have clarity. I know I need X dollars a year or X dollars a month that I can live comfortably a little bit.

Beyond that to read, real comfortable or a little bit below that, but I have that clarity. How am I doing with that so far?

Adam Carroll: Yeah. You're nailing it. You're nailing it. think the realization that people have when they get into this. And the other thing that we showed them is actually just how much or how little they actually might need at some point in the future to live very comfortably. And I'll give you a great example.

We have a client that started with us. Their house payment was near 2, 000. They had a, a decent amount of discretionary income every month, maybe three grand that wasn't being earmarked towards anything [00:42:00] beyond. It could go to an IRA. It could go to, 529 plans, et cetera. And what we showed them was.

They had younger kids, maybe at 10, 11, 12 years of age. And we showed them that within three years, they could take their mortgage, which I think was 350, down to around 100, 000, recast their mortgage. So their payment wasn't 2, 000. It was, get this, they would have a 425 a month payment. No escrows, because we take care of that through the Shred method.

But for 425 a month to live in a house, I think their house was like 3, 600 square feet. And they said, well, what we realize is we can cashflow college. We can put 10 or 20 grand into investments at a time if we're doing it this way. And that gave them a greater deal of. clarity and certainty around what retirement looks like because they are putting such, such a massive amount away.

And this is the lesser known cost to it all, but in the process of [00:43:00] doing this, in those three years of paying things down, they were saving hundreds of thousands of dollars, like 425, 000 in interest that they would normally have just sent to their banker. And now they, over the course of that mortgage, now they get to keep that.

And use that to apply to their wealth building. So there are cases like this, I mean, lined up from here to Florida of people that we've helped do this. And for me, it's the greatest satisfaction is knowing that someone says, I now know that I can retire and how I'm going to retire and do it with peace.

Jeffrey Feldberg: What a change. And you go back to the mindset, you have that clarity, you have that peace of mind. So let me ask you this roughly, I know everyone's different, but roughly how long does it take from, okay, Adam, here I am. Let's go through the shred method. Let's get myself using this mindset change and the special system that you've created with the technology and all those other bells and whistles behind the scenes.

So when I'm now sailing down that path, give or take, you know, other side of that, what are we looking at?

Adam Carroll: Yeah, 30 to 90 [00:44:00] days to get your legs under you to know, where it feels a little bit normal. And the reason for that is we're reorienting how cashflow runs through the household and it just. It's not that different, but it's different enough, Jeffrey, that somebody is going to go, wait, this is saying this, is this right?

Should I do this? And, the system, it's not magic. It's math. It's a mathematical algorithm that's teaching you exactly what to do along the way. By the 91st day, It's like, okay, I get it. Things are working. I'm seeing progress within months, usually three to six months, you've blasted away a couple of the debts.

Maybe it's credit cards, a car loan could be student loans and you're realizing, oh gosh, there's more here. I have more discretionary income and then it starts rolling, faster and faster towards the bigger debts like the mortgage. Student loans, if someone has significant student loans on the business side, it could be a commercial building.

It could be an SBA loan that that you use to start the business. You'll start to see, those things [00:45:00] start to get eradicated really quickly. And I would say, by and large, everyone that's with us at least 12 to 18 months would say this made a market difference in my financial picture, and those who are with us three to five years are.

Devotees. It's not a mindset. This is a lifestyle. They will always do it this way. They'll rarely ever go back to the way they did it before.

Jeffrey Feldberg: What I really like about this, it's a set it and forget it kind of system. I'm changing my behaviors as I go along. I have this proven system behind me. I don't have to think about it. You're making all the updates as needed. And like anything else, it's, as you begin to work out, you build the muscles and over time, not a big deal.

And it just happens. It's part of your flow, what you're doing day in, day out, that you really put this all together. Adam, let me ask you this. As we begin to go into wrap up mode, is there maybe a question I haven't asked, a topic we haven't covered? Is there something that you'd like to get out to the community?

Adam Carroll: One of the things that [00:46:00] I always like to leave people with is this idea that our lives are perfectly engineered for the results we're currently getting. And so if you don't like the results that your business is getting, or that your marriage is getting, or that your relationship with your kids is getting, what we have to do is re engineer things to create the result that we most want.

So what I really love about your system is it's formulaic, it's step by step, it's literally step one, step two, step three, step four, and it's easy to follow. And I think that makes the pursuit of wealth or. In your case, the exit of a business, really manageable and manageable, actionable, and realistic.

And in our world, if we're going to, if we are going to redefine someone's financial goals or metrics. We're going to have to re engineer some of how they're operating in order to get where they want to go. And we do it in a way that's just, it's super easy to absorb and put into practice.

Jeffrey Feldberg: [00:47:00] And it sounds like as you're talking about that, Hey, if you want to change your life, change the questions that you're asking through this methodology, a proven methodology with the technology, with the system, you're having us ask better questions, and then you're helping us implement that along the way to really make a difference and have things move forward with us.

Well, Adam, let me ask you this, we're going to go into wrap up mode now, and I know offline you're sharing, you had a chance to listen to some of the episodes, so can't wait to hear what you have to say. You've had a little bit of time to think about this. It's a fun question, and it's really a tradition here in the Deep Wealth Podcast, where every guest has this question.

I'll set it up for you. When you think of the movie Back to the Future, you have that marvelous, that fabulous DeLorean card that can take you to any point in time. So Adam, tomorrow, it's the fun part. You look outside your window, not only is the DeLorean card there, it's curbside, the door is open, it's waiting for you to hop on in, which you do, and you're now going to go to any point in your life.

Adam, as a young child, a teenager, whatever point in time that would be, what are you telling your younger self in terms of life lessons or life [00:48:00] wisdom? At home, do this, don't do that. What does that sound like?

Adam Carroll: Oh boy. This is such a great question. I love this. I've thought about it in listening to your show, Jeffrey. I would go to myself just post college and what I would tell myself is that the mistakes I'm about to make are leading me down a path that is going to make me very successful. And so to know that I should be willing to take risks, but I should be looking at those risks as a stepping stone to where I'm going to go.

The other significant piece of advice I would give myself is to pursue mastery in one topic as early as humanly possible. I think I pursued the mastery of money when I was in my late twenties, Jeffrey. And if I were to go back, I would insert two ideas, the mastery of money and the mastery of speaking.

Because for me, nothing has been more advantageous or instrumental in me wealth building than learning how to present effectively in front of a group [00:49:00] and the ability to make, manage, save and invest money. And those two together, it my worlds, I think I'd be worlds apart today.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Terrific advice. On the one hand, I'm going to paraphrase a little bit, not much. The mistakes that you're making today, that's really the stepping stones for your future success tomorrow. So don't beat yourself up. Value that. And I really like what you said, become a master as early as you can in one area, not the jack of all trades, a master in one area.

And what you suggested really in the area of money, absolutely. We need that day in, day out. I also like what you're saying of speaking. It's such a gift when we can speak. That's really our communication. That's who we are. People make judgments about us without knowing us based on the first few words that come out of our mouth.

So great advice that's out there. And Adam, one other question for you. So for our listeners, and again, we'll have all this in the show notes, they're hearing you talk. Adam, I want to get to know the system. I want to become a shred master, sign me up, where do I go? Or they want to have just a one on one and you and the team learn [00:50:00] a little bit more about this.

Where's the best place online that someone can really learn about this or talk with you, talk with the team.

Adam Carroll: The best place to go is TheShredMethod. com, very simply. And what I would have people do, Jeffrey, is there is a calculator on our site that would allow you to plug in maybe four or five pieces of data. And within a minute or two, you'll have a PDF printout of what's possible. Literally, like, how fast could you be out of debt?

How much would you save? How much would the investments be if you turn this thing into an investment vehicle? It's mind boggling. And most people, when they look at it, they go, Is this true? Is this magic? And if you're feeling like, is this magic, set up a 20 minute call with one of my team members, one of my coaches, and we'll walk through your numbers with you and show you it is possible and how it's possible.

And at that point, the decision's yours, like come along for the journey, take the red pill or take the blue pill and wake up in your bed and forget that it all ever existed.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And for our listeners. Take Adam up on his suggestion and see, take [00:51:00] a few minutes, see what that's like. Where can that take you? What the possibilities are. what terrific advice, Adam. Well, congratulations. It's official. This is a wrap. And as we love to say here at Deep Wealth, Adam, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy and safe.

Thank you so much.

Adam Carroll: Thank you, Jeffrey.

Jeffrey Feldberg: So there you have it, Deep Wealth Nation. What did you think? So with all that said and as we wrap it up, I have another question for you.

Actually, it's more of a personal favor. Did you find this episode helpful? Have you found other episodes of the Deep Wealth Podcast empowering and a game changer for your journey? And if you said yes, and I really hope you did, I have a small but really meaningful way that you can actually help us out and keep these episodes coming to you.

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So all that said. Thank you so much for listening. And remember your wealth isn't just about the money in the bank. It's about the depth of your journey and the impact that you're creating. So let's continue this journey together. And from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for listening to this episode.

And as we love to say here at Deep Wealth, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy and safe. Thank you so much. God bless.