How 6 Years of Podcasting Changed My Life

Thanks to those who’ve messaged me saying “are you ok?” This is regarding the round of layoffs my last job just had. Did I get laid off? No. Am I no longer with Motif? Yes as of Friday.

I took a one-month notice and about 2 weeks later, Motif suddenly announced layoffs. Everyone was surprised, as we were losing some really valuable people. We are trying our best to use our resources to get them new jobs. If you'd like to help, please message me. Thanks to those who have.

To say this has never happened to me was a lie. In fact, 2 years ago, I gave a one-month’s notice to the infamous company, WeWork and 2 weeks later, they started doing layoffs due to the pandemic.

Some people could say “wow Adam, are you the cause of layoffs? Did you see this coming?” I saw neither coming, but in both companies, at the time, it was highly likely that this would happen.

Good entrepreneurs (which I am not) mitigate risk by taking in data, trends, history and a general vibe check to make a risky decision. In both scenarios, you could tell that due to external conditions (pandemic or recession), whatever outcome will happen, will hurt. Either way, the vibe I got this time was one of opportunity.

I am fortunate to have gotten a lovely and thoughtful goodbye from my colleagues and friends from Motif. Everyone has taught me so much about being a better communicator, scientist, and professional

Special thanks to my manager Dilek Uzunalioglu whose boundless knowledge of food science, and her strong moral compass to do the right thing have influenced how I'll be working in the future. And special thanks to those I've worked closely with such as Conrad Rebello, Lauren Sallade, Melissa Page, Mike Leonard (and many more). Whether it was your advice in life or just your go-getter attitude to make a difference in this startup, it was all inspiring.

Ok, so what’s next for Adam? Basically, I’m taking an indefinite amount of time to travel the world.

I have no schedule planned, but I do have a special way of entertaining myself. I’ve been reaching out to people and asking them for an interview on a podcast so I can meet up with them and learn about the food industry there. What was once a little side project became this global networking tool. Will it work out? Who knows?

A summary of my life this year. They may seem random at first, but it always eventually, comes together eventually.

Podcasting in the Shadows

Though I don’t do My Food Job Rocks anymore, I still really enjoy creating new podcasts. Editing is my meditation. It allows me to reflect, and then improve something in the past. It’s also my art. I can create something that allows me to get a decent amount of feedback with no constraints. Even if it’s just one person.

In the past year, I’ve created two podcasts that are not food industry-related. I don’t think you should listen to them, but I find the projects have allowed me to really stretch my creative muscle.

Second Shot City

I announced this last year and a lot of people have listened to it. However, they could not understand it! They didn’t like anything about it, and people dropped it after the first episode. Though I don’t market this podcast, I love creating it. It’s just so different from My Food Job Rocks.

For those that don’t know, I manage a board game with an original story that I interact with a few friends and make a podcast out of it. For those that don’t have any idea what I’m talking about, I’m playing Dungeons and Dragons (DND) and recording our sessions. Except it’s not DND, it’s another game called City of Mist that’s new and no one understands, I don’t play by their rules, so the community of that game doesn’t like it.

However, it’s fun and I love creating it.

For one, it’s a story I’m creating with friends. I make the plot, my friends make the characters, they make decisions that affect the plot, and I have to revise the story because they shape the narrative. For me, that is the most amazing thing in the world. I have to act out unique characters with motivations that propel the story forward, I have to delegate “screen time” for each player without the other players getting bored, and I have to improvise when players don’t follow the path I want them to follow, I have to naturally convince them to follow my story, but if they don’t, I have to write a new path. For me, it’s allowed me to think quickly, and be more entertaining.

Not only that, but I invested a lot in hardware and software. I’ve made a lot of mistakes creating live sessions, but it’s been enlightening getting people together and recording. Nothing really beats a face-to-face recording.

Also, the software is a lot more complicated. I’ve been using Audacity for My Food Job Rocks, but to get the sound effects, and the voice modulations, to run smoothly, I invested in Adobe Audition. It’s a game-changer but I would have never switched and learned a more professional software if not for this nerdy hobby.

Though I don’t market it, it’s a lot of work, and overall, a sunk cost, it brings me great joy to not only gather with my friends to create a story that might last a long time, but it also allows me to really upgrade and explore podcasting through a different lens. I've done all the recording to finish the story that will last me a half a year and I'll be launching episodes during my travels.

I've always found that unrelated projects that are done with effort eventually transfer to things that matter. I'm not sure what that is, but we'll see.

Crisis Meets Opportunity

Apparently, I know a handful of Ex-Consulting, Top MBA people who work in tech. I find these people really ambitious, driven, and ask good questions.

I met Kai Wang, a fiery Asian Australian superstar in the tech industry. We argue a lot but we always have interesting conversations. I don’t have many friends who like to talk honestly about money, business, job history, and traveling, as much as her. She wanted to start a podcast as a distraction project for her busy life transitioning to New York.

I can do podcasts in my sleep now so this was easy, but also rewarding. I’ve always wanted to do a duo podcast with someone who would provide good insight and she is probably one of the most efficient partner I’ve ever worked with in creating a podcast.

We do a podcast based on Pivot with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway where a tech reporter and an entrepreneur bicker and talk about technology and startups. We generally are super topical and talk about current events, dissect businesses and give life advice (we both love to give career advice and I find it really rewarding)

For those of you who don’t know, the title is a play on words WeiJi, a Chinese word where generally white influencers take this word and say that “the Chinese have a word WeiJi that when you look at the characters, one means crisis but the other means opportunity” and so we cheekily named it that.

This podcast is really fun to do. Kai and I have intense travel schedules but we still find time to record and discuss our thoughts weekly. I think the discussions are really enlightening and thoughtful and I always feel a little bit wiser coming out of them. By not just talking about the food industry, it allows me to connect the dots and find new ways of thinking, and explore new perspectives that I can use for future endeavors.

Generally, with My Food Job Rocks, I let the guest do the talking but Crisis Meets Opportunity gives me a nice little chance to express my opinions. If you like my opinions, I welcome you to listen to them. I plan on continuing this podcast while I travel.

100 Little Lives

I’m fortunate to be able to move to different jobs, different places, meet different people and still feel like I’ve moved upward in life. No matter where I go, I see the good in everything I’ve encountered and I feel like that has allowed me to live 100 little lives. Each contains a story that provides wisdom to those who ask. That makes me so interested in new places, people, and things.

Whenever I talk about myself, they do a double-take about how old I am. I’m 30, I’m old. I feel old. My legs hurt.

We all have a relatively short time in this world. It doesn’t help that we really do just have one life to live. When I was a teenager I used to think my life was boring, mundane, and kind of sucked mainly because my childhood was very risk-averse and I had no money or ambition. I would rather play video games than volunteer at a hospital to get brownie points to go to college but I think I turned out fine. Anyways, this is a list of things that have happened to me this year. They aren’t very dramatic, but I found them worth writing about:

New things I’ve tried this year:

Getting sued twice: The two companies that I heavily associate with as a food scientist got sued by competitors who generally have a lot more money. It wasn’t particularly helpful that this happened to be publicized all in the same week, and news reporters always pair up the two lawsuits together. Thanks Elaine Watson and Michael Wolf. Also, the food news ecosystem keeps pairing the two lawsuits together. I don’t comment on these because I don’t want to put more fuel into the fire. I do think being sued for innovations that you do is a step in the right direction when it comes to innovating in the industry but maybe I’m just rationalizing it.

Generally, I’ve learned lawsuits are nice publicity shocks but generally, they fade away and are dealt with years later. Overall, this type of situation is healthy for the progression of technology, and is important to understand where the industry is going. There will be a lot more of these, they will all be an unproductive waste of resources, but people will still do it.

Being a landlord but also sympathetic: For those that don’t know, I own a house in Phoenix Arizona. I had to deal with eviction from my housing manager and was threatened to be sent to court by the renter. It’s a pain in the ass but whatever.

Overall, the guy was just being threatening. I don’t usually like to talk to my housing manager, but we caught up. He’s an old, retired guy who likes to take care of old dogs. I hated living with him but when I decided to leave and do the startup, I pretty much told him “you’re in charge, don’t bother me unless you need to fix something”. It’s worked out extremely well. The house doubled in value since I bought it. Yea, it’s going down, but I’m still greatful I have this “imaginary cushion”

Charcuterie boards: I got really into them.

Living with a roommate again: Every time I go to a new city, I go to a meetup event and talk with young professionals. Generally, I then form a friend group out of them. I still keep in contact with a lot of people from everywhere I’ve lived thanks to meetup. I met someone who is probably the most popular man in Boston and he’s a real estate guy so we got an awesome place for super cheap. He’s cool but having one bathroom really makes a difference. Either way, living here allowed me to accumulate a lot of money because my living expenses were really low.

Off social media sometimes: I don’t post as much as I used to. To be honest, I think 80% of the content on Linkedin is not very insightful. Mainly because the algorithm doesn’t promote insightful, long-form content. Linkedin believes I love being told I’m fat, lazy and a bad person for being a plant-based meat expert in under 200 words though. However, it’s a necessity when you’re on your own so you’ll be hearing from me a lot. I’ll probably write a lot more.

Apple Super-user: In Sacramento, I bought an iPad Pro. In Boston, I ended up buying an iPhone, an Airpods, Apple Credit Card, and a MacBook air. Two reasons: Everyone in Boston would comment on me having an android because of the green bubble and that iPhones, iPods, and macs sync everything when used in a system. For me, that’s super convenient. I never thought I’d be an apple super user, but here we are, as I type this on a macbook. Also, I feel better about myself because the brand subliminally tells you that you are of a higher caste if you use Apple products.

Dating: I’ve never been an aggressive romantic, but I’ve tried putting effort into online dating and it’s all right, met some people, but I’m getting the feeling stuff like this isn’t for me. Either I’m getting better at it or once you turn 30, people care a bit less about looks, or maybe I’m more self-confident now. By the way, saying you’re a food scientist or guessing people’s Meyer’s Briggs are great conversation starters. These are also the most popular articles that I write about for My Food Job Rocks.

Being 30: Something changes when you hit 30. Apparently, everyone has this feeling. If you’re not financially stable, own a house, are married, or have a kid, you will wonder what the hell is wrong with you? Nothing is wrong with you. But it’s ok to have these thoughts.

All that Matters is You: After all of these experiences. All I got out of it was that all that really matters is your happiness. There’s really no point in comparing yourself to the ideal life people want you to have because the experiences you have make you a really cool person. You just have to convince yourself that you have a good life based on your unique experiences. Once you realize that everyone has their own unique upbringing, their own unique struggles, and their own unique journeys, you start to piece them together and realize that there’s no right or wrong path. There’s your path and once you realize you can do whatever you want, that’s where the fun begins.

Recharge Complete

I generally talk to my friend Phil Saneski on important topics of life. After Better Meat Co, I was extremely anxious, depressed, lacked confidence, poor, and scared. 2.5 years later, I finally admit that what I’ve done with my life is cool, and telling the story over and over to new and different people makes me feel like I don’t have to be embarrassed about my life anymore. I’ve probably written about this so many times, but it always bears repeating. Yes, I co-founded Better Meat Co, it says so in the lawsuit. Yes, I’m a professional podcaster. Let me explain to you how to improve your radio voice in annoyingly complex detail. Yes, I’m a lot richer now thanks to the pandemic. Let me show you what I had to lose and discover to get to that point.

If anything, this break has given me the confidence to say that I’ve lived a good life.

Yes, I said break. The corporate stuff is a break for me, it’s not my full potential. Any place I’ve worked in, I’ve put in a ton of effort, and have had a supportive team saying I do a good job. But nothing is quite as exhilarating as starting something you’ve created with 110% of your effort, with no one saying “you can’t do this”. And it’s more rewarding when the effort you put in, starting something on your own is a closer correlation to the success of something.

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Ever since I was 25, I’ve always wanted to travel the world. I was always too frugal and poor to actually do it. Ever since I started a company, quit it, and then worked my ass off in the pandemic, I’m not poor anymore and that’s a lucky privilege.

I booked a one-way ticket to Australia in July and I’m going from there. Probably will be doing some research exploring other countries. I’ve quit my job, and I want to get as much traveling out of my system before returning to work. I don’t know when that will be. It may be a month, it may be a year.

In six years, I’ve built a sizeable amount of money and connections to make this possible but the most important thing I’ve built was risk tolerance. The little bits of risk I’ve taken in my life, the opportunity to move to new cities in the United States, the tenacity to build things, and the social muscle I’ve developed by making friends in these cities were all for this.

Here’s the Schedule of where I’m going. I’m bringing my Podcast equipment with me. Have a few interviews coming. If you know anyone, would love to talk to them.Will probably write more. I already have a platform so….MY FOOD JOB ROCKS WILL BE COMING BACK...eventually.

Schedule (may change)

Chicago (For IFT): July 10-13th

San Francisco: July 13-19th

Sydney Australia: July 21-26th

Melbourne Australia: July 27-31st

Singapore: August 1-20th

Malaysia: August 20-22nd

Around SEA (flexible): August 23 – September 8th

Vietnam: September 8th-September 15th

South Korea: September 15th-October 1st

All I have planned now.

Then I’m not sure. I’ll either run out of money, get robbed, break my leg, or even get bored before I think of coming back.

I’ll be back in San Francisco by the end of it. I’m not worried about where I'll be next.