311 Dr. Sam Adeyemi

Jeffrey Feldberg: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast where you learn how to extract your business and personal Deep Wealth. 

I'm your host Jeffrey Feldberg. 

This podcast is brought to you by Deep Wealth and the 90-day Deep Wealth Experience. 

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Atlanta based Dr. Sam Adeyemi leads leaders, more than three million CEOs and high performing individuals follow Dr. Sam on top social media sites. He holds a Doctorate in Strategic Leadership from Virginia's Regent University and is the author of the new book, Dear Leader, Your Flagship Guide to Successful Leadership.

He and his wife, Nike, have three children and founded Daystar Christian Center [00:02:00] in Lagos, Nigeria.

Welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast, and you heard it in the official introduction. Wow! We have a thought leader, we have a best selling author, we have a change maker, a market disruptor in the best of ways, and you know me and my rhetorical questions, here's rhetorical questions for all of you out there in deep wealth land.

When you started your business, as you're running your business, do you want to be a leader that gets things done, that people respect, that people will go in your vision, in your way to really make a difference out there? And of course you said yes, but you're probably asking the question how do I do it?

And what do I do? Well, We'll do all that and more, but I'm going to stop it right there. Sam, welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast. It's such a pleasure to have you with us. And there's a saying that there's a story behind the story. Sam, what's your story? What got you from where you were to where you are today?

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: Thank you so much, Jeffrey, for having me on the Deep Wealth Broadcast. So what got me from where I was to where I am? One [00:03:00] word, leadership. Okay.

Jeffrey Feldberg: that. Yes.

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: Leadership. So it's interesting. I actually trained to be an engineer, a civil engineer.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Okay. Mm-Hmm?

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: Dad owned a construction company and I had only one plan, after college, to work at a company. Only challenge was, by the time I was done with college, the company was not there anymore.

The company ran into some big trouble, and it was not there anymore, so I had to search for a job.

that was a bit difficult, I must say. When you're searching for a job for a month, six months, a year, a year and a half, I began to despair.

And began to ask myself, Oh my God, the future is looking bleak. It looks like all the doors are closed on me. Is there any system that can guarantee success? Is there any system, you know, that I could just follow any principles? So I began to read books I found out, [00:04:00] sure, our world runs on principles and there are basic principles.

That's. Increase your chances for achieving success, and I began to apply them. One significant thing that happened. An elderly gentleman in my church, a reverend minister, looked at me and said, there's something about you.

This book. So he gave me a book to read Christian Leadership by Donald S. Altman, and this was over 30 years ago,

That was the first book I read on leadership. And I'll tell you the major thing I came out with, the author said, the idea that only few people are born to lead and everybody else is born to follow, those ideas have expired.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Mm-Hmm. 

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: Even though they were pushed by some of the brightest philosophers of their time, those ideas have expired.

He said especially if you're a person of faith. And you've read the Bible and you saw there that God created man in his own image, then you would [00:05:00] know everyone has the capacity to be creative, to be innovative, and to influence others.

Author listed the qualities of a leader and said, when you look through that list, you will see that you have some of the qualities already. The ones you don't have, you can cultivate. And honestly, he was speaking to me. The author wrote that book for me

Jeffrey Feldberg: Sure.

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: because I am introverted. So when I was much younger, if you found me in a group and you asked someone to volunteer to lead the group, I would be the last person to volunteer because I was extremely shy.

So I always thought the people that are extroverted That express themselves easily, that make friends easily. Oh, I thought they were the born leaders. They were the ones born to lead. But for me, oh no, the book gave me a paradigm shift, made me see myself as a leader. And honestly, I think one of the greatest gifts you can [00:06:00] give a human is a new perspective. It changed how I see myself, changed how I see my world. So actually, those qualities that I did not have, then became my developmental goals. So I began to make effort to develop the qualities I did not have. For example, communication, because that was my difficulty. I did not have a problem thinking. I had a problem speaking, right?

Expressing my thoughts. So I bought. How to win friends and influence people by de tangy.

And I was underlining , practically every page I was underlining because I was getting skills, communication skills, right? Fast forward in my late twenties, I just got this strong idea to go on radio and to begin to teach people how to succeed.

Wow. To teach people how to succeed, even though I had a conflict in my head because I was wondering, wait, am I actually successful [00:07:00] yet? Why should I be teaching people how to succeed? But I had a strong intuition about it. I went on radio and it was boom. This was in Nigeria and I did not realize that this tough experience that I had, not getting a job, my family going through a difficult time in business, having to struggle to find food to eat and so on, I did not realize millions of people were also in the same scenario.

It's Africa,

So the moment I went on radio and began to come with my positive message and to assert that there are actually principles you can apply to your life and the power within those principles will help you to achieve your goals, it was just boom. I mean, so many people loved the broadcast.

It was just 15 minutes once in a week, but it went national in a short time.

And then with time, I got to realize again, the leadership thing came back. At the [00:08:00] highest level of success, you help other people to succeed. Now, helping other people to succeed, that is leadership. I actually founded a leadership school, because I saw this big gap, especially in Africa, before I saw it in the whole world.

If leadership is so important, why don't we have leadership schools? And this was in Africa, right? There was no leadership school in Nigeria. So I founded one 21 years ago, and we've had some 45, 000 people come through the school.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Wow. That's tremendous. That's tremendous. Congratulations with that. Sam, let me ask you this, with what you're sharing, really from very humble beginnings to now being on the world stage, leading the charge with countless business leaders, all the people whose lives you're changing, as you're talking about this, in the back of my mind, I'm thinking about some of the titans of business.

And we talk about this in our 90 day Deep Wealth Mastery Program in step one, big picture. We do a deep dive [00:09:00] on a modern day. You're talking about the Bible. A modern day David versus Goliath story. We focus on Blockbuster versus Netflix and how Blockbuster at the time being that huge 800 pound gorilla, the really the successor, the victor that's out there and how Netflix Out of really nowhere, a startup ultimately put them out of business and a little bit of a spoiler alert here, it was leadership or lack of leadership that led to Blockbuster's demise.

So leadership is so critical and if you go through the history of business, all these titans of business that are no longer here, it's from some kind of leadership failure. So let me ask you this, When it comes to leaders, and you're the world's authority on this, are there, Pareto's principle, the 80 20 principle, are there maybe 20 percent of the same mistakes that we're making time and time again that cause 80 percent of the issues?

And if that's the case, what would be a few of those?

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: [00:10:00] Wow. Thank you. I would say

Jeffrey Feldberg: Okay,

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: it is lack of sensitivity to change and inflexibility and of course, lack of vision, and they all go together.

Jeffrey Feldberg: sure.

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: See, disruptions happen. What Netflix did was to disrupt the market, right? It came with a new idea.

David took Goliath out because he disrupted. The market, right?

Disrupted the fighting process. He did not fight with conventional tools.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Right.

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: That's the way technology is disrupting the market, right? And then you have government policies, sometimes disrupting the market. And sometimes it's environmental factors like climate change, or sometimes it's just a hurricane and so on. And when leaders are not sensitive to change, they do not catch change on while it's still on the fringes.

By the time they [00:11:00] realize change is happening, it's too late for them to respond.

Now, that defeats the essence of leadership, because I believe that leadership actually is managing the change process, managing people through change.

The change process. Some experts say leadership is moving people from point A to point B. So there's got to be movement. It's about progress. If there's not going to be progress, there's going to be change.

People want the results of change, but they don't like the process.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Sure. 

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: And that's why we need leaders.

These days one of the things that's we help our clients to do in my leadership consulting practice is scenario planning.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Okay. 

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: So we found out, okay, the traditional way to plan is to plan for one possible scenario.

We plan like things are going to continue the way they are.

More Often than not, they're going to change.

So in scenario planning, we help people to plan for [00:12:00] multiple scenarios, multiple possibilities at the same time. And I actually, since it's the negative things that happen that actually kill our businesses, so it's the negative factors we focus on.

We check the social factors, what are the changes happening in terms of demography, age distribution, and so on.

We look at technology, like I said earlier, we look at the economy and the changes that are likely to happen there. We look at the environment and we look at politics. We look at the government. So if they have enough numbers in the organization, we actually split them into five groups and ask each group to take each of those factors.

And then we ask them to imagine the worst things that could happen and affect their businesses adversely over the next one year. And we bring all the groups together. Each group reports what they found. Then I say to them, you guys are leaders. [00:13:00] You guys are entrepreneurs. The interesting thing about leaders and entrepreneurs is we don't see problems as problems.

We see problems as opportunities.

So if these things happen, what opportunities would they provide for your business? What new opportunities, what new products do you need to create? What new services will you need to provide to take advantage of those opportunities? So that way, we found that they are prepared for multiple scenarios.

Now, most of those things may not happen, but if any of those disruptions happen, rather than go down, they will ride on the wave of that disruption. And then these things include I'm a very positive person, interestingly, and I don't like for bad things to happen. But when we do this exercise, we've got to imagine the worst case scenario.

Jeffrey Feldberg: That's

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: How about if there's a war? How about if there's a tornado? How about if somebody dies, So I would say that sensitivity to change, preempting change,

Sensing change [00:14:00] even before it happens, because that's part of the function of vision.

Change is inevitable. It's going to happen. And then we prepare for opportunities that others can't see yet.

Jeffrey Feldberg: That's right.

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: That makes business leaders strategic.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And everything that you're saying, Sam, is really one in the same with what we say. And for people that are familiar with our 90 Day Deep Wealth Mastery Program, step number one, big picture, the question that you ask is also what we're asking, okay, what's, we call them inflection points or blind spots.

What change could happen? What trend could take place that could put you out of business, regardless of how successful you are, what could put you out of business? And then once you identify that, how do you prepare so that doesn't happen? But let me ask you this while we're talking about strategies and for our listeners in the show notes, when you click on the show notes, there's a link to Sam's latest book, Dear Leader, your flagship guide to successful leadership, and when I started the book, Sam, before I even got to page one, you had a dedication in there and you say, dear leader.

I [00:15:00] believe in your capacity to grow your influence and use it to change our world for good. I dedicate this book to you. And I thought, wow, what a way to start things off. And then in the book, and again, for readers, click on the link, get the book. You'll see it yourself. You put it into four different areas.

And you very methodically and systematically, you go through each of the areas. You explain what's going on. And it's really from mindset to talent, to decision making, to everything else in between. And I'm going to ask a tough question. In some ways, it's almost like asking who is your favorite child? If you had to pick perhaps a favorite chapter or one of your favorite strategies, does one come to mind?

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: Interestingly, it would be chapter three, where I wrote my story and then drew some principles or lessons from my story. I say to leaders that most of the time we underestimate [00:16:00] the value of our stories.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yes.

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: Like we've been saying, a leader's got to have vision.

Vision is at the heart of leadership.

So I appreciate that you bring it up first in your masterclass. It's the starting point. You take vision out of a leader, there's almost nothing left. And I describe vision as the ability to see people, places, and things, not just the way they are, but the way they could be.

But then it's not enough for a leader to have vision.

You've got to be able to transfer it successfully into people's hearts.

And the one major tool that leaders used to do that is stories,

Jeffrey Feldberg: yes,

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: stories, communicate, they connect with people at the subconscious level. They bypass barriers in people's minds and draw people in to your experience and help them to be able to translate what you are saying.

In my speaking career, I found out, [00:17:00] yes, I can teach people a lot of principles.

I found out they remember the stories longer than they remember the principles. And when it comes to applying the principles, the stories help them better. So I feel that one, people will find my story inspiring.

Secondly, that they will have principles to draw from there that will help them to actually understand and apply everything else in the book.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely spot on, Sam, everything that you're saying. As humans, we are wired for stories. Before there were books, there were stories, and the books, we wrote down what those stories were. You're absolutely correct. And I'll share a quick story, speaking of stories, with you. On the podcast, I have evaluators.

These evaluators, they come in and they take a look at businesses and they'll put a number beside the business, okay, this business is worth x, many dollars. And they all say the same thing in different ways, but effectively what they're saying is that when it comes to valuing a business, 80%, eight zero, [00:18:00] 80% of the value of a business is based on how strong of a narrative, how strong of a story it is around the business.

And then the rest of the value comes from the numbers, the facts, the data, not the other way around. And so, yes. So with what you're saying, stories are so important in our leadership. Stories are huge. It's you're right. Stories change emotions. It's what people feel. That's what they remember, not what we tell them.

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: That is amazing. That's amazing. Thank you.

Jeffrey Feldberg: So Sam, you're really out there and you're changing lives through your stories and through your lessons. How do we become as leaders? Terrific. Storytellers, do you have some strategies or hints for us?

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: All right. Thank you. So I had to learn it, right? I think first we've got to, at the basic level, we've got to be good conversationalists, right? And to be good conversationalists, we've got to be good [00:19:00] listeners. That's the interesting dimension to it. We've got to be good listeners because when we ask questions, and we really listen to people, we get to learn a lot. a short time, I used to find it difficult to hold conversations. In fact, I found it difficult to even start, I eventually, I found what my problem was that I found it difficult to do small talk. I only wanted to choose very serious and heavy subjects, right? But eventually I discovered, first, people like to talk about themselves.

you're a master at it, Jeffrey, right? Asking people questions. And so when I was reading Dale Carnegie's book, I discovered that as much as I think that I'm a patient and quiet person, I really wasn't listening to people. That when somebody was listening to me, what I was actually thinking of what to say after [00:20:00] they had stopped.

I wasn't listening to them, so I now discovered that when I learned to listen, I really get to know people and then from what they said, I'll have a question to ask that will get them saying more. So leaders are good listeners, always good listeners. Secondly, leaders are good learners.

So we've got to read, we've got to read and read and listening and watch movies It's storytelling all the way. Music is storytelling. The movies, that's storytelling. So when you read books, there's a lot of storytelling in there. When you go to conversations with people, there's a lot of storytelling. I would then encourage that we document.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Okay.

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: See my younger brother is a preacher.

And both of us became preachers when we were teenagers. But I listened to him one day. And I was amazed at how much I enjoyed his [00:21:00] presentation. And I was trying to find out what the difference was. Now he is extroverted, okay? And I found out it was the stories.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Uhhuh.

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: That made the presentation so exciting.

. So I now found out that he found it so easy to recall, you know, because he was saying things that happened during our childhood.

And I was thinking, Oh my God, I can't remember the things that happened that much. So I realized I needed to be intentional. So I needed to prepare for it. In fact, at the point I bought books that had stories. You know, there are books that have illustrations in them that you can use if you're a public speaker. Good. And then these days, I actually don't use those books anymore because I find stories everywhere. The stories are there in the news, they're there on the internet, they're there on social media. Stories are everywhere. And leaders got to document so that when you are. About to make [00:22:00] a presentation, you can go back to them and you can reflect also on your own stories and find the stories that are appropriate for what you want to say and you just make sure you put them where they should be and they actually put life into what you say.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so putting life into what you say, getting the message out there, continuing things forward despite the change. I mean, you're a terrific example of that. Earlier, you shared how you really are out there. You had 45, 000 leaders that graduated from your program, the Daystar Leadership Academy. And Sam, with the Daystar Leadership Academy.

You were a very early adopter of technology and you now are doing what some people call online learning or back in the day distance learning. So here's my question for you, and I know you talk about this in the book as well. For us to really succeed as an organization, we need to continually bring in new [00:23:00] people.

People leave the organization, people retire, the company expands. And as we're bringing in new people, oftentimes it'll be the next generation that we're passing the torch to. So often in leadership, it fails because they don't know how to speak to the next generation, how to relate to them, and we lose them and they lose us.

And it's a real loss for everyone all around. So what can you share with us as leaders? How do we connect with the next generation? They have a different experience, a different outlook, a different viewpoint, but what can we do that we can connect and relate to each other?

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: Oh, thank you so much, Jeffrey. This is a big question for leaders right now.

I remember I was on a flight to New York, hmm. know, some, about two years ago or so, and I was sitting right next to a gentleman. We got talking and I found out he also is an engineer.

So he said to me, have you had the kind of fun experience I've had with younger folks these days?

He said, look, When [00:24:00] we were young, we got to work, yes, and started at nine, but closing time was in figs. Closing time was when we finished the job.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Sure.

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: He said, these guys don't, he said, when it's approaching 5 PM, they can't wait to run away. He said, they're just so different. I said, yeah, I get what you're saying.

I said, This is what I have thought about it, that for us, work was life, and then whatever time we found outside of that, we used it for entertainment. I said, it seems to me like for them, the younger guys, entertainment is life, and then work is what they do to fund the life. And then also. Back in Nigeria sometime last year, an organization hired young man to work as a graphic artist.

Jeffrey Feldberg: mmHm.

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: And then on the day he was to resume work, he did not show up and he had accepted the job. So the [00:25:00] head of HR called him and said, excuse me, are you aware you're supposed to resume work today? He said, sure. Yeah, I've resumed. He said, but why are you not here? He said, where? He said, at the office. He said, what do you want me to come do at your office?

Yeah, I said, to work, he said, did you not employ me as a graphic artist? Why do I need your office to do my job? Send whatever you want me to do to me. I do the job. I send it back to you. That's work, right? So like you said earlier on, you know, it's like two different planets speaking, and they're not even understanding one another.

And you have a lot of that going on right now in the workplace. So the first thing we need to do is talk, especially to the older ones, who are the managers and the leaders. It's part of the change that we're talking about, right? The world is changing, attitudes change, preferences change, [00:26:00] okay? Styles change, fashion changes, music changes, right?

So when you're bringing in young people, just assume in the first place that You don't know that.

And that you actually need to find a common language. It's normal. It happens everywhere. It happens in the family,

Right? It happens at the church. It happens practically everywhere that people meet that when the younger generation is coming up.

Usually they tend to swing in the opposite direction from that of the older generation, right? Pendulums tend to spring, to move to the extremes, right? There's a need for humility, which is a major quality for a leader. There's

Need to listen to them.

Because we're not going to understand them until we listen to them.

You can be saying exactly the same thing with somebody else and end up in an argument, right? [00:27:00] Simply because you're using different terminologies of vocabulary. There's need for mutual respect. So we have to admit there are some things we'll be learning from them. And they also have a lot to learn from us.

And then leadership actually just requires that we love people, that we genuinely care for people. Let's start from there. They're humans, not machines, right? And they have feelings. They have aspirations. And what leaders do is to ask people where they want to go in life ensure that while they're helping you to achieve your organizational goals, Serving with you is also helping them to move along to where they want to go in life, right?

And then empowering them, because that's what brings the loyalty. Actually being out there to help them succeed we had an interesting scenario in one of our organizations, okay? So we fixed our target and that's the church that my wife and I [00:28:00] founded in Nigeria. We had fixed our target, young adults between 16 and 35.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Okay.

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: At the time that we created the persona for our target.

Which was 23, 24 years ago,

Jeffrey Feldberg: Okay.

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: I was in that age bracket for the target. So their needs were my needs. I didn't need anybody to tell them what their needs were. They were my needs. So addressed them with passion. Then a few years back, something just clicked in my head.

I am no longer in the age bracket of our target. There's a possibility of a misalignment or dissonance. Then I looked at our management team, and almost everyone was out of the age bracket of our target. We reviewed the target. The target remained the same. Then I said, we're going to have a problem if we don't bring people into leadership that are within that age bracket. Gradually, we're going to lose touch with [00:29:00] them, we won't even understand their needs anymore. How do we meet those needs? Okay, so sometimes leaders need to come down, at least into the younger generation, because we will hear them interpret the vision for our organization in their own language. And that's the only language with which we can reach their generation.

Fantastic.

Jeffrey Feldberg: such a pivotal point that you're sharing. It's so easy on the one hand to do, but it's often overlooked. And for our listeners, I hope you picked up on this. Sam is saying at one point you may have been in the same demographic, the same age, the same situation as your target market. But that may no longer be the case today.

And again, no judgment here. If you and your team are maybe a decade or three decades ahead of where your target market is, you're maybe out of touch. So what I'm hearing you say, Sam, is always ensure whether it's on your team or perhaps you have an advisory board. Or you're reaching out to different audiences, have people from that target market be in [00:30:00] direct contact with you, the team, help you update your vision, your strategy, what the latest problems are, how are you going to help those people?

How am I doing with that?

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: That is it, right? Organizations have life cycles. That's what we discovered. You know, just like we have the startup and then we build it up. At some point, organizations just tend to just fizzle out. They run through the cycle, so there's a need to revitalize the vision, and that's where it becomes very important to listen to the younger generation.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so Sam, let me ask you this because perhaps we've failed. I'll use another F word, failure, to fail. Maybe as an organization, as a leader, there's been a failure. We haven't embraced the younger generation. We've lost touch of what that message is. So when it comes to failure, and as a leader, I'm now responsible for the team.

And whether it's been my own personal failure or the company has failed, nothing that I had to do with it, but it's still my failure because it's the [00:31:00] company. How as a leader do I deal with failure within the organization that we can move forward in a positive way? Okay.

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: Wow. Thank you, Jeffrey. We've got to reinvent. We've got to reinvent, and honestly, the best illustration that I have found for it is death and resurrection.

It's like... the way it works for a seed,

You put a seed in the ground, the first thing it does is to disintegrate. And then the beautiful thing that happens is that new life emerges,

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yes.

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: plants that has never been in existence before

Grows out of the soil,

Which means that we can always rise out of failure, that our organizations can rise out of failure on one condition, that we are willing to cannibalize our past success.

Because I think of the major causes for failure is our holding on too long to what used to work.

And [00:32:00] honestly, when you're a founder, you have some sentimental attachment to what you built.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yes.

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: And the people who built it with you,

Sometimes we just hold on and hold on with the hope that things will turn around and eventually everything fizzles out.

So there's a need to just. Let's go,

And to be flexible and to be willing to try things we have not tried before. And it is at that point of birthing the new vision of innovating, you know, of unleashing our creativity. That's where we need the young people, right? The vision needs to be reinvented and we need new eyes to come in, you know, look at things with us.

And then help us to express how they see it, right? And then get, be willing to experiment,

Jeffrey Feldberg: And, you know, Sam, as you're talking about [00:33:00] this, of reinventing and really taking the leadership to the next level, I want to go back to something that you started off with very early in our conversation, because you're talking about really your background with being a minister. And with the minister, I think of the Bible and with the Bible, I'm thinking of one of the first stories of leadership was with Moses.

In the beginning, Moses was doing everything on his own and his responsibilities grew and he was from morning to night. And then very fortunately for Moses, his father in law Jethro comes along and says, Moses, this isn't how you do it. Why don't you take groups, I'm making up some of these numbers, why don't you take groups of 100 and have those 100 men or women overseen by this one person.

And you'll have groups of 20 leaders, have them overseen by this person. And he gave Moses a system of leadership. That freed up his time so that Moses could work on the bigger picture things. He wouldn't have to get involved in the daily squabbles that were taking place or being a judge presiding over something that really, he wasn't the best [00:34:00] person suited to do that.

So Sam, as you're talking about all these strategies and this leadership, the question for our listeners that you and I can both ask, Hey, have you also lost touch with your team and with your business, are you perhaps doing too much, is your leadership overextended? Are you running the business instead of your team running the business?

Sam, I'd love your thoughts on that.

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: Oh, Jeffrey, you touched on a very important subject there. In fact, I discovered first a major difference between a solopreneur and business owner is ability to build systems

And the ability to build systems, you know, when it's only one person running the business. And you have limited time.

You can only make so much money. To make more money, you've got to be able to make more time. But you can't make more than 24 hours in a day.

Jeffrey Feldberg: yes,

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: People work longer and longer until their health breaks down, which was what Moses father in law was warning him about. You're going to break down somewhere along the line.

You're just a [00:35:00] young man, right? But I tell you, back to my last point or my previous point, to move from being someone who can do something yourself, you know, you're excellent at your job and so on, to move to someone who now has to delegate to two people or five people or 10.

The old you needs to die and the new you needs to resurrect.

You've got to learn to trust people yes,

Because sometimes we're just afraid that they may not do it as well as we do it.

We delegate, they make mistakes, and then we're freaking out, right? And we forget that we were not born perfect. We were not born as experts, right? They've got to try. They've got to fail and then improve until they become experts.

So drop in what you're doing. absolutely important. It's something a leader has to do forever because once in a while you need to clear your plate and delegate as much as you can. And then you find out it doesn't take much time before plate gets filled [00:36:00] back because you're creative, you're innovative, right?

And then you've got to clear the plate. But each time it's like you're dying because you have to let go of what you've been doing. And I say to leaders, now, don't be afraid. Because some leaders are actually even paranoid, believing that if they teach somebody else everything they know how to do, that means they are going to be jobless.

And I say, no! If somebody takes over what you're doing now, it frees you up to go higher, to do more strategic work that creates new levels of success for your organization.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. The biggest challenge for leaders, whether you're in a startup or whether your company has been around for decades, are you free from the day to day? Do you have a competent team that you can trust? Who runs the business for you so that you can work on that vision or finding that next problem you're going to solve to create that market disruption.

Because after all, as business owners, as founders and entrepreneurs, it's our [00:37:00] responsibility To solve the painful problems, to make life better for people. And as business owners, I love to say we make the world go around as best we can with what we do. And so Sam, let me ask you this because we need to start wrapping up very shortly.

But before we do that with every episode, we love to have a situation where a listener, they can walk away with one strategy, perhaps a low hanging fruit. So before one of our listeners goes to the next meeting or the email or a phone call. If there's one thing that a listener could do that could really make a difference, what would you suggest?

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: you so much, Jeffrey. I would suggest leadership development. Leadership

Jeffrey Feldberg: Of course. Yes.

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: It was just a few days before the Super Bowl, some years back, and I was at a meeting with a friend. He's also a leadership consultant, and he said to me. I have an idea which team would win. I said, how do you know?

He said the team with the better bench strength [00:38:00] always wins. I said, oh, wow. I was hearing that for the first time. The team with the better bench strength wins. And since then, I've been applying that every time I watch a game, right? The team with the better bench strength. So it's not that one Superman at the top that's going to create all the success. It's making sure you have supermen and women at all levels. It's revolutionary when your own organization has its own training system, because what it does, apart from ensuring people have skills, is that it helps you to build a culture.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Oh,

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: when that culture gets to work, it takes the weight off you, because it just gives the organization a life of its own.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Oh, culture is so much. We talk a lot about that in our nine step roadmap. It's step number two, X Factors, where culture, when you're world class, when you have a rich and thriving culture, your competition, no matter how much money they [00:39:00] have, they cannot buy your culture. So what a terrific strategy. Hey.

Focus on your leadership, get some terrific bench strength going, have wonderful leaders on your team that can really take things forward. Absolutely love that advice that you're giving us. Let me ask you this, Sam. It's time that we start wrapping up. And it's a tradition here at Deep Wealth where I'm very privileged to be able to ask this question.

It's a fun question. I'll share the question with you. And then I'm really eager to hear your thoughts on this. So the question for you is this. When you think of the movie Back to the Future, you have the magical DeLorean car that can take you to any point in time. So Sam, the fun part is, it's tomorrow morning, you look outside your window, not only is the DeLorean car there curbside, the door is open, it's waiting for you to hop on in, which you do.

You are now going to go to any point in time. Sam, as a young child, as a teenager, Sam, what would you be telling yourself in terms of life lessons or life wisdom, or, Hey, Sam, do this, but don't do that. [00:40:00] What would that sound like?

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: Wow. Okay. So I would go back to the time when I was searching for a job and couldn't get a job for almost two years. And I then came to the conclusion the best thing that could happen to me was just to run out of my country. Just escape. 

Go to the UK or go to the us and never come back.

right? And then. I had, interestingly, it seemed like it was going to work out. I got an opportunity. I had even gotten my flight ticket and then something went wrong and the whole plan collapsed. And it was like, oh my God, my future just disappeared.

But when I look back now, I realize I was making interesting, funny assumptions.

I was expecting my outside to change when my inside had not changed yet.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Interesting.

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: to focus on the inside first. Being has to [00:41:00] come before doing, which then leads you to having,

Jeffrey Feldberg: Aha, wow. So being has to come before doing, which leads to having.

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: right?

Jeffrey Feldberg: Wow. What terrific advice. And so as a follow up to that, once you realize that, I take it that you changed and then things began to happen?

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: Absolutely. I just focused on what I could control, my thinking, right? And my emotions. And I read Tough Times Never Last, but Tough People Do by Robert

Schuller. I'll tell you the one sentence I took away from the book that I'll never forget is attitudes are more important than facts. At

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yes.

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: first, it was a brain twister for me, where it it was like, what are you saying?

Facts are facts, come on, facts are facts. But then with time, I got to settle down with it. Attitudes are more important than facts. what I think about the situation, how I feel, they are more important because eventually my outside will catch up with my [00:42:00] inside.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Wow. Terrific advice for our listeners. I hope you picked up on that. And speaking of our listeners, again, in the show notes, there will be a link. Click on it. You can pick up the book, Dear Leader, your flagship guide to successful leadership. And Sam, let me ask you this, a listener who wants to reach out, they have a question, they'd like to learn more, perhaps they want to bring you into their company to help them with their leadership, their culture, their team.

Where is the best place online that someone can reach you?

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: The best place is samadeyemi. com. S A M A D E Y E M I. com. Then all information is there about me and what I do.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Wonderful. And again, we'll have all that in the show notes. It doesn't get any easier. It's a point and click. Well, Sam, as we love to say here at Deep Wealth, it's official. It's a wrap. Congratulations. You're terrific. And coming out of here, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy and safe.

Thank you so much.

Dr. Sam Adeyemi: Thank you so much, [00:43:00] Jeffrey. I've had an amazing time with you here. All the best with the podcast and all you do. 

Sharon S.: The Deep Wealth Experience was definitely a game-changer for me. 

Lyn M.: This course is one of the best investments you will ever make because you will get an ROI of a hundred times that. Anybody who doesn't go through it will lose millions. 

Kam H.: If you don't have time for this program, you'll never have time for a successful liquidity 

Sharon S.: It was the best value of any business course I've ever taken. The money was very well spent.

Lyn M.: Compared to when we first began, today I feel better prepared, but in some respects, may be less prepared, not because of the course, but because the course brought to light so many things that I thought we were on top of that we need to fix. 

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Sharon S.: There was so much value in the experience that the time I invested paid back so much for the energy that was expended. 

Lyn M.: The Deep Wealth Experience compared to other programs is the top. What we learned is very practical. Sometimes you learn stuff that it's great to learn, but you never use it. The stuff we learned from Deep Wealth Experience, I believe it's going to benefit us a boatload.

Kam H.: I've done an executive MBA. I've worked for billion-dollar companies before. I've worked for smaller companies before I started my business. I've been running my business successfully now for getting close to a decade. We're on a growth trajectory. Reflecting back on the Deep Wealth, I knew less than 10% what I know now, maybe close to 1% even. 

Sharon S.: Hands down the best program in which I've ever participated. And we've done a lot of different things over the years. We've been in other mastermind groups, gone to [00:45:00] many seminars, workshops, conferences, retreats, read books. This was so different. I haven't had an experience that's anything close to this in all the years that we've been at this.

It's five-star, A-plus.

Kam H.: I would highly recommend it to any super busy business owner out there.

Deep Wealth is an accurate name for it. This program leads to deeper wealth and happier wealth, not just deeper wealth. I don't think there's a dollar value that could be associated with such an experience and knowledge that could be applied today and forever. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: Are you leaving millions on the table? 

Please visit www.deepwealth.com/success to learn more.

 If you're not on my email list, you'll want to be. Sign up at www.deepwealth.com/podcast. And if you enjoyed this episode, if it added value, if you walked away with some new insights and strategies, please [00:46:00] leave a review on your favorite podcast channel. Reviews help us reach new listeners, grow the show. And continue to create content that you'll enjoy and as we wrap up this episode as always please stay healthy and safe.