Episode 1354: Interview with Adam Lucero About Recovery, Choice, and Human Potential

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining us on episode 1, 354 of the Inspired Stewardship.

[00:00:07] Adam Lucero: I'm Adam Lucero, and I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to become the man you have the potential to become is key, and one way to be inspired to do that is by listening to this episode of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.

[00:00:38] The voice you hear in your head is literally your subconscious mind. So that's why when you retry changing your actions and behaviors, you hear that nagging voice. It's really a subconscious mind. And so. Again, by starting to actually execute the things you know you need to do, that voice starts to go away.

[00:00:53] You start having more confidence and certainty in yourself, and so the kind of a catch 22, right? Like, how can [00:01:00] you change your actions if you're in the habit of not changing your actions or keeping your word to yourself, etc? Welcome

[00:01:06] Scott Maderer: and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you

[00:01:14] must

[00:01:15] Scott Maderer: learn to use your time and Your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the Inspired Stewardship Podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:35] In today's podcast episode, I interview Adam Lucero. Adam shares with you how he took a journey from being stabbed in the throat to focusing on rebuilding himself. Adam shares also how his faith affected that journey. And Adam shares how he now focuses on helping entrepreneurs with their own performance and what that really means.

[00:01:58] One reason I like to bring you [00:02:00] great interviews like the one you're going to hear today is because of the power in learning from others. Another great way to learn from others is through reading books. But if you're like most people today, you find it hard to find the time to sit down and read. And that's why today's podcast is brought to you by Audible.

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[00:02:46] Adam took a deep dive into the ideas of human optimization out of a need to survive. He was stabbed in the throat while at a movie theater and woke up seven days later from an induced coma. He felt at that [00:03:00] point he had two choices, give up and quit or fight and rise to his potential. And he chose to fight.

[00:03:06] Now he fights to empower entrepreneurs to become the most powerful versions of themselves.

[00:03:16] Welcome to the

[00:03:16] Adam Lucero: show, Adam. Hey, I'm excited to be here. Thanks for having me on.

[00:03:20] Scott Maderer: Absolutely. So we talked a little bit about it in the intro and gave a little bit of a teaser, but can you share a little bit more with the lister about your journey, your story, and why you focus so much on potential productivity human potential in these

[00:03:37] Adam Lucero: things?

[00:03:38] Yeah, totally. Well, I got into it because it literally saved my life, which you could probably get from the intro, but yeah, we'll just get straight into the story. That's probably what you guys want to hear that are listening. Imagine you're in a movie theater, it starts, the lights dim, you're just watching the movie, eyes are glued to the screen, then all of a sudden...

[00:03:59] you feel hard hit [00:04:00] to your throat because that was exactly what happened to me. And in fact, my initial reaction was like, this guy hit me hard. So I stood up. I was like, dude, what the hell? And then I felt another punch to my arm and chest. So then I turned around. I was like, all right, screw this guy. So I push them.

[00:04:15] And as I push them, I feel cut on my wrist and ear. And instantly I knew I got stabbed, those weren't punches. I started yelling, I've been stabbed, I've been stabbed. The lights turned on, I saw him running off, and then I'm bleeding out. It went halfway through my throat with a chef knife, punctured my lung, got me deep right here, you can see this part of the scar, the lighting's kind of terrible, but nonetheless.

[00:04:40] Bleeding out, so I take off my shirt, wrap it around my neck, and I'm holding the blood in. And I'd say about two minutes passes, these older women come running up, and they're like, What should we do? And I'm like, just tell them, put pressure on my neck. And then, as I start applying pressure on my neck, I hear someone go, Should we call 9 1 1?

[00:04:59] And [00:05:00] I lose it, dude. I am so pissed off. Like, all I have inside of me is just... Pure anger in this moment. I literally yell back to him as I'm bleeding out, stabbed him in the throat, yell back to him, Yeah, you should call 9 1 1. If you don't call him in this situation, when would you? I just could not.

[00:05:16] Yeah, he was just so angry, I bet. Anyways, paramedics come, they start asking me all these questions. What's your name? What year is it? Who's present? And I get it, they're making sure I'm conscious, aware of what's going on, staying with them, whatever. They have their reasons, but again, I'm just angry.

[00:05:31] I'm like, you guys can get to know me later, we can have 21 questions, but right now can we focus on like the more important things going on here? And so I literally just remember being so angry through this process. And so the paramedics are like, all right, let's get him up on the stretcher. So they lift me up and I feel all my wounds worse than the initial stabbing because I don't have the adrenaline in me.

[00:05:54] And they started carrying me down the stairs and it was the most excruciating pain I've ever [00:06:00] endured. Because I don't have the adrenaline in me and it's just, it was terrible. I remember holding myself, looking at the ceiling and trying not to scream my guts out. It was... It's so excruciating.

[00:06:13] Anyways, we finally make it down, they get me to the ambulance, and as soon as I get in there, I get the thought okay, the paramedics got me, I can start to relax they know what they're doing. And as soon as I get that thought, I feel a cold rush through my entire body, and it dawned on me. I lost a lot of blood, like I could die here.

[00:06:32] And I see them come over with this oxygen mask, and I remember thinking like, don't fall asleep, you're not supposed to fall asleep in this situation. They put that mask on me, I'm knocked out. I wake up seven days later from an induced coma. Living off tubes, I'm completely broken and weak, like first of all, I used to be like 170 pounds, 6 feet, 8% body fat, so like pretty, pretty jacked.

[00:06:56] Now, I'm 130 pounds, sticks and bone, I'm living off [00:07:00] tubes, my legs forgot how to work, literally. Couldn't even support me standing up or whatever it was. I was getting nutrients through a tube up my nose that I could feel my body being malnourished. The way I often explain this is I know, understand, briefly have a understanding of what people in third world countries feel like, because you don't have the right nutrients.

[00:07:21] You can feel your body being malnourished and it's terrible. Besides that, it was. My mental state was destroyed. Like I couldn't think clearly. It sounds crazy, but I literally could not think clearly. You could have offered me 5, 000. If I answered what's 11 times 11, something like that can do it. I would be like, Nope, can't do it.

[00:07:41] Not possible. Keep your 5k. I ain't getting it. And then it just left me in this point where. I felt pathetic. I didn't have confidence anymore. It disappeared like a quarter in a magic show, and instead, I was filled with self doubt. Can I still achieve all the goals I have [00:08:00] for my life?

[00:08:01] Where's my potential destined to rot away with my ambitions? And so it was really at this point, I had two options. I could keep feeding into my negative thoughts. Of course, this happened to me. Ah, this sucks. My life's ruined. But I realized that wasn't serving me towards a better life. And at that point, I just said, you know what?

[00:08:19] This happened. It is what it is. But let's focus on what we can do moving forward. And I started learning the secrets of evolution, biology, and psychology that enabled me to build myself up again. How to boost our energy levels, our focus, our mental alertness. How to become more productive and just day by day, week by week, month by month, I kept building myself up.

[00:08:41] Within one year, I ran a 459 mile. I was putting up great weight in the gym. And fast forward a couple more years, and now I run a business around my passion to empower men to become the most powerful version of themselves so that They can become the man they know they have the potential to become and accomplish the things that come as a by [00:09:00] product of that.

[00:09:02] Scott Maderer: And we'll definitely unpack some of that too. I, I know from talking to you earlier that you don't consider yourself religious or feeling like that, but we also talked a little bit about how you are connected and feel a little bit that there are higher power, whatever you want to call it kind of part, can you unpack how that.

[00:09:25] Going through something like this affects how you. Feel about the universe and what that looks like for you. How did this, that journey intersect with everything that happened

[00:09:37] Adam Lucero: to you? I guess the biggest thing that took away in terms of having that faith or connected to a higher conscience or whatever you, however you wanna perceive it, whatever terms you want to use is, I just knew that everything happened for a reason.

[00:09:50] And maybe in that moment, I'm not able to see why it happened, right? But now fast forward here and now I know why I got stabbed. That story is [00:10:00] so powerful and it enables me to help other men. Build them into the strongest version of themselves. Like it's clear in day. It sent me on this path where first of all, it forced me into learning.

[00:10:09] You see all those books back there. I have 60 plus books on human performance. It forced me into learning the deep trenches of that and to discover my passion to help men that have some performance issues or aren't the version of themselves that there are being.

[00:10:24] Scott Maderer: So when you think about did you have that passion for performance and productivity and things before the event or did it come completely after?

[00:10:34] Adam Lucero: Yeah. So I had it before, but not to this extent. So I was always, I've always been ambitious, driven, always been into performance and just becoming a better version of myself.

[00:10:45] But this just took it to another level where it was like, I spent so much more time and energy on it and looked at so many different aspects of it, whether it was, How your subconscious mind dictates 95% of your action. So if you procrastinate, it's because your subconscious mind [00:11:00] isn't linked to your conscious mind.

[00:11:01] I learned on a deeper level, how to boost your energy levels through nutrition, fitness, certain type of exercises, learned about sleep optimization, hormone optimism, every single aspect. So it just made me get it from a bigger perspective, right? Expand that knowledge and depth.

[00:11:18] Scott Maderer: So a lot of the work that you do when you think about a lot of the folks that are listening are entrepreneurial minded they may still work a corporate job, but they they wish they had their side hustle would turn into their job they're trying to do.

[00:11:31] Yeah. And let's face it, almost everybody today has got. A lot of different irons in the fire there you ask anyone, how are you doing? Oh, I'm busy. That's always the answer when you start talking about performance for those of us that are dealing with all of that sort of things.

[00:11:49] What are some of the most common factors that show up that folks need

[00:11:53] Adam Lucero: help with? Procrastination. That's, it seems like, so I'm a performance coach, but it seems like I specialize in procrastination now [00:12:00] because ultimately that's what it is. People, they don't execute, whether it's fear based, whether it's terrible habits or their subconscious mind, how it's programmed or whatever it may be, they know the things they need to do.

[00:12:11] It's like New Year's resolutions are a perfect example. People consciously declare they're going to change their actions and behaviors to improve their life. They're going to work out, eat healthy, do X, Y, and Z in their business or career. They're They make progress for a few days until one day they feel tired, lazy, or unmotivated.

[00:12:27] So they say, Oh, I've been doing a fantastic job. I deserve one day off. We all know what happens. You fall back into your self sabotaging patterns again. So it's like a lot of the times, again, it's because your two minds aren't linked. Again, you're using your conscious mind to declare you're going to change your actions and behaviors, but your subconscious mind actually controls 95% of all the decisions you make in your day, which is why you get into this brain battle.

[00:12:48] You make progress for a few days. Before ultimately landing back into your old patterns and ruts again. So ultimately, I'd say that tends to be the biggest factor is definitely the procrastination, [00:13:00] being able to execute with ease. And regardless of how you feel on a day, getting yourself to operate on a higher place, seven figure entrepreneurs do.

[00:13:08] And so the way I always explain is like your life's a reflection of you, the person you have been. And so everyone always focuses on changing their actions and behaviors. But those actions behaviors are only as effective as the person you are being. If you're not being responsible and you're, again, making excuses, have that victim mindset, you're never going to, it doesn't matter what actions you take, you're never going to get the results you want in your life, just like how I wasn't when I was stabbed and saying, Oh, of course this happened to me.

[00:13:34] My life's done for X, Y, and Z. Victim mindset. I was stuck in a vicious cycle, hated my life, felt terrible about myself. Instead, I accepted full responsibility. This happened, let's do whatever it takes to improve ourselves. I started being a committed person, committed to the goals I want, to the life I want, to become the man I wanted to become.

[00:13:55] And by being a different person, it revolutionized my life. [00:14:00]

[00:14:00] Scott Maderer: So what you're talking to a lot about procrastination, but I also heard in there, this idea of what a lot of times you'll hear people call limiting beliefs or the deep core beliefs, the things that we unconsciously believe are true, even though consciously we may fight them.

[00:14:19] And of course, I think it also shows up a lot of times we have that inner dialogue that tells us those things the, Oh, why did this happen to me? Oh, poor me inner dialogue. What are some. some tips or some ideas that people can use to begin to break down some of that. How do you get people started on beginning to make those changes?

[00:14:42] Adam Lucero: Yeah. So again, those changes, that voice you hear in your head is literally your subconscious mind. And so that's why whenever you try changing your actions and behaviors, you hear that nagging voice. It's really your subconscious mind. And so again, by starting to actually execute the things you need to do that voice [00:15:00] starts.

[00:15:00] To go away, you start having more confidence and certainty in yourself. And so the kind of a catch 22, right? Like how can you change your actions if you're in the habit of not changing your actions or keeping your word to yourself, et cetera. And so again, you just want to start with smaller changes instead of saying that you're going to go.

[00:15:17] Read for 45 minutes a day or 30 minutes a day, declare you're going to read for two minutes a day and actually follow through with it. Start with these small steps and that consistency of keeping your word to yourself. And I guarantee if you do that for 30 days, 60 days, first of all, when you tell yourself you're going to do these bigger changes now, after building the habit of it, it's going to be a lot more easier, less resistance, less internal battles of whatever it may be.

[00:15:41] And so that would be like a big thing. I would say. say, because like literally I've seen time and time again with all my clients, if you literally just keep your promises to yourself. That will separate you from 99% of the people on this planet because you only tell yourself you're gonna do things that improve your life No one ever says, oh, let me get let me wake up [00:16:00] today and do all these drugs and things that are terrible for my life And sit on the couch watching Netflix all day Like no one says that it's like you will want to do better.

[00:16:08] And so being able to actually execute and be better is powerful in itself

[00:16:15] Scott Maderer: So what I've also seen sometimes when people will set that small action and even they're having difficulty following through or getting started what are some of the tips when when you're struggling, even you think you've made it as small as you can,

[00:16:32] Adam Lucero: but even then it

[00:16:34] Scott Maderer: seems impossible or you're having that resistance, what are some suggestions?

[00:16:38] Adam Lucero: Yeah, definitely. And so again, we haven't. structures and systems inside our program exactly for this. And I actually learned about this when I was in sixth grade. I'd pass notes, distract, class clown, like whatever it was. I hated school and I would do whatever it was just not to learn.

[00:16:54] And so I remember one day my teacher was like, all right, Adam, I'll give you a piece of candy. If you are good [00:17:00] and you don't disrupt the class. So worked, got my candy, did it for a few days, and then eventually I was like, all right, screw that candy. I'm bored again, like whatever.

[00:17:07] And then she was like, okay, if you keep doing this behavior, I'm going to send you to the principal's office. My parents are strict. I would have been like, that was not good. So in that moment, I was like, okay, I'm on my best behavior. And that lasted for the rest of the year. And so it dawned on me. Our actions are heavily impaired, whether we have incentives or disincentives or consequences, and so that's literally something we set up inside our program to help our students to is like we set up these incentives.

[00:17:38] If you do good you get this nice shiny object. If you don't do good, you're going to have to do something you don't want to do. Now, the important aspect to that is making sure that the incentives can actually be enforced because if they can't be enforced. the power is rendered useless.

[00:17:54] Scott Maderer: Yeah, I've actually seen people that have done things like given over an envelope with a check [00:18:00] in it.

[00:18:01] To like made out to an organization that they have no they have no desire to support that organization if they're ultra liberal, it's ultra conservative, they're ultra conservatives, ultra liberal, whatever just the opposite of anything that they believe and have to give it to a trusted friend and and if they don't follow through.

[00:18:23] Exactly. Mail the check.

[00:18:26] Adam Lucero: Great

[00:18:26] Scott Maderer: one right there. That's an example of what you're talking about with a disincentive because it's like, Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I don't want my, I don't want that going to I've got a couple of questions that I like to ask all of my guests, but before I ask that what else would you like to share about the work you do?

[00:18:46] What's really important for the listener to hear about this work you do around productivity and human potential?

[00:18:52] Adam Lucero: Literally, your life can change with a freaking single decision in an instant. It doesn't matter if you feel like you're in a rut, if you self sabotage non [00:19:00] stop, if you're not where you want to be, your life can literally transform in an instant with the choice.

[00:19:06] of committing to the life you want. Now, commitment is binary. You either are committed or you aren't. Lots of people think they're committed, but then when push comes to shove, they feel tired, they feel lazy, they feel unmotivated, they cave into their emotions. That shows you aren't committed, because if you're committed, you push through that, you persevere.

[00:19:22] But by actually being committed, 100%, again, it's binary, you can transform your life very quickly.

[00:19:31] Scott Maderer: So my brand is Inspired Stewardship, and I run things through that lens. That's just the language that I use. But stewardship is one of those words that it's a weird word, and it means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

[00:19:42] So when you hear that word, when you hear the word stewardship, what does that word mean to you and what does it, how does that impact what you do?

[00:19:52] Adam Lucero: Stewardship, honestly, I'm not gonna lie, I don't really know what it means. I'm just gonna be completely honest [00:20:00] there's not like a specific thing that came up when I thought of stewardship.

[00:20:03] But if you want to give me the term, I guess I can see how it's relevant. It's an

[00:20:07] Scott Maderer: old... word for somebody who takes care of something that doesn't actually, they don't actually own, would be called a steward. So in, in medieval times, the steward was the guy who ran the castle, but not the guy who owned the castle, if that makes sense.

[00:20:24] So the idea is that of taking care of things that you're gifted with. You don't necessarily own it or have full control over it per se, so your gifts, your talents, that kind of thing. That's what the word means.

[00:20:40] Adam Lucero: Yeah. So it's almost the way I see it is like any coach it's you're almost a steward. You're helping people, like you can't do the work. All you can do is I guess steward's a little bit different 'cause you are doing the work, but it's like you're guiding them and helping them get the end result they want in that sense. So this is [00:21:00] my favorite question that I like to ask everybody imagine for a minute, I invented this magic machine and I was able to pluck you from where you are today and transport you into the future.

[00:21:09] Scott Maderer: 150, 250 years and through the power of this machine, you were able to look back on your whole life and see all of the connections, all of the ripples, all of the impacts you've left behind. What 10,

[00:21:23] Adam Lucero: 000 men become man? The strongest and most powerful version of themselves so they can be the leader and role model that their children need them to be so that their children have the confidence to pursue a passionate life as well.

[00:21:41] Scott Maderer: So what's coming next? What what's keep what's on the roadmap

[00:21:45] Adam Lucero: for the rest of the year? Yeah. So just scaling out this program I've been built out and have a funnel dialed in and stuff. So just simply scaling this out and getting it to a point where I'm completely out of it, but having it in a way where I have the [00:22:00] coaches and systems in place, so it delivers just as good results without me in it, essentially.

[00:22:05] Because ultimately my goal is going, I'm going to own a eight figure business while working 20 hours or less. And so that's my vision. So I need to get myself to a place where I'm. Out of my business as much as possible and can focus more on the higher level things. But obviously you got to make sure you're delivering the freaking results too.

[00:22:22] So

[00:22:28] you can find

[00:22:28] Scott Maderer: out more about Adam Lucero on his website at superhumanceo. com. Of course, I'll have a link to that over in my show notes as well. Adam, anything else you'd like to share with the

[00:22:40] Adam Lucero: listener? No. So I'd actually say there's two other ways you can reach me. You can do it through Adam Lucero 1 Instagram.

[00:22:49] So Adam Lucero, L U C E R O, then the number one. Or if you want, if you're interested in procrastination, you can go to procrastinationkiller. co [00:23:00] slash podcast. Yep.

[00:23:04] Scott Maderer: Awesome. I'll put the links to those as well, and I look forward to seeing those and putting them out

[00:23:10] Adam Lucero: there for the world. Appreciate it.

[00:23:18] Scott Maderer: Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode please do us a favor, go over to inspired stewardship.

[00:23:42] com slash iTunes rate, all one word, iTunes rate. It'll take you through how to leave a rating and review and how to make sure you're subscribed to the podcast so that you can get every episode as it comes out in [00:24:00] your feed. Until next time, invest your time. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world.