Adam Pontrelli is a Professional EOS Implementer at Apex Coaching, where he helps entrepreneurial leadership teams use the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) to gain clarity, accountability, and growth in their businesses. A retired serial entrepreneur and Founder of AP World Marketing, Adam built a company that developed strategic partnerships with major retailers such as Costco, Walmart, Target, and Amazon. Under his leadership, the firm achieved sustained double- and triple-digit growth, ultimately leading to a successful nine-figure client exit.
Here’s a Glimpse of What You’ll Hear:
- [05:15] How a “rude awakening” shaped Adam Pontrelli’s entrepreneurial journey
- [09:22] Why building relationships was Adam’s secret entrepreneurial weapon
- [11:58] How Adam thrived during the 2008 economic downturn
- [13:43] Why joining EO transformed Adam’s leadership and business success
- [16:54] How the pandemic helped Adam find new clarity
- [18:40] The powerful benefits of implementing the EOS framework
- [19:47] How hiring an implementer helped Adam scale and step back
- [25:50] The real struggles entrepreneurs face behind the scenes
In this episode…
For many business owners, the challenge isn’t just building success — it’s sustaining it without burning out. How do you rebuild after major setbacks and design a business that fuels both growth and fulfillment?
According to Adam Pontrelli, a retired serial entrepreneur turned business coach, the key lies in embracing structure and self-awareness. He explains that true freedom as an entrepreneur doesn’t come from constant hustle but from clarity — understanding your strengths, aligning with the right people, and creating systems that let you step back while your business runs smoothly. Drawing from his own experience of being “kicked out of the nest” twice, Adam highlights how perseverance, peer support, and frameworks like EOS can transform chaos into confidence. His story shows that sustainable success often begins when leaders learn to let go.
Tune in to this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast as John Corcoran interviews Adam Pontrelli, Professional EOS Implementer at Apex Coaching, to discuss overcoming entrepreneurial setbacks and building sustainable success. They explore lessons from family business failures, finding purpose through adversity, and the game-changing power of EOS. Adam also shares how peer communities like EO shaped his leadership journey.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Special Mention(s):
- Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO)
- EO Los Angeles
- Gary Goren on LinkedIn
- Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS)
- Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO)
- Vistage
- Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman
- Mitch Langstein on LinkedIn
Quotable Moments:
- Perseverance means just to keep going — two steps forward, one step back. That’s the lesson my grandfather repeated throughout my life.
- Someone out there is making a fortune. Even when the economy struggles, there’s always an opportunity if you’re willing to double down.
- I looked back, and I was a better leader and better partner, making more money and working fewer hours.
- Taking a clarity break is essential. When you’re just doing, you can’t really calibrate or steer the ship effectively.
- People often look at entrepreneurs and don’t realize how many sleepless nights happen behind the curtain.
Action Steps:
- Embrace setbacks as learning opportunities: Viewing failures as fuel for growth helps entrepreneurs develop resilience and adaptability, two essential qualities for long-term success.
- Build structured systems and processes: Establishing clear frameworks like EOS allows your business to operate efficiently without constant oversight, reducing stress and improving scalability.
- Surround yourself with supportive peers: Joining communities such as EO provides access to shared experiences, mentorship, and accountability that accelerate personal and professional growth.
- Focus on your strengths and delegate the rest: Identifying what you do best and empowering others to handle complementary roles creates balance and maximizes overall performance.
- Take regular clarity breaks: Stepping back from daily operations gives you perspective to reassess goals, make better decisions, and ensure your business continues to align with your life priorities.
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Episode Transcript
Intro: 00:00
All right. Today, we’re talking with a retired serial entrepreneur who was overwhelmed by his business. It was a growing business, but he discovered a better way that led to a much happier life. His name is Adam Pontrelli. I’ll tell you more about him in a second, so stay tuned.
John Corcoran: 00:16
Welcome to the Smart Business Revolution Podcast, where we feature top entrepreneurs, business leaders, and thought leaders and ask them how they built key relationships to get where they are today. Now let’s get started with the show.
John Corcoran: 00:33
All right. Welcome, everyone. John Corcoran here. I’m the host of the show. And you know, every week we have smart entrepreneurs, founders and CEOs from all kinds of companies and organizations.
We’ve had Netflix and Grubhub and Redfin, Gusto, Kinko’s, YPO, EO, Activision Blizzard, lots of great episodes for you to check out in the archive, so be sure to go check that out on your podcasting app of choice. And before we get into this interview, episode is brought to you by Rise25. At Rise25, we help businesses to give to and connect to their dream relationships and partnerships. And my guest, Adam Pontrelli, here today does an amazing job of that of delivering value to other people in his network. And so that’s what I love about what we get to do helping other businesses to run a podcast to deliver value to the people in their network.
We are the easy button for companies to launch and run a podcast. And so if you want to learn more about how we do it, the three things our strategy, accountability and full execution go to rise 25 comm and you can learn more about what we do. You can also email our team at support@rise25.com. All right. My guest today is Adam Pontrelli.
He is a professional EOS implementer today retired serial entrepreneur. He’s been in this role doing EOS since 2023. Coaching and facilitating leadership teams help them improve their business. And he is also the Founder, Owner, and CEO at AP World Marketing. It’s a company that he started way back in the early 2000.
It provides strategic consultation and developed partnerships with a number of major retailers, including Costco and Walmart and Target and Amazon. That sort of thing has also been very actively involved in Entrepreneurs’ Organization in Los Angeles, which is how he and I met at an EO LA chapter retreat. And so I’m excited to hear his story, especially about growing up in a family business. So, Adam, you said that you’re actually a fourth generation entrepreneur, which is incredible. So going back to, I guess, great great grandfather, what was that great grandfather doing back then?
Entrepreneurial. What was what were they? What was what was he running or great grandma?
Adam Pontrelli: 02:33
He was in the textile business.
John Corcoran: 02:35
Okay. Textile business. Okay. All right. And then that and then his progeny start a metal business.
A scrap metal business in Los Angeles.
Adam Pontrelli: 02:45
I was actually the other side of my family was in the scrap metal business. Originally started in Youngstown, Ohio, and then made his way out to the West Coast in Los Angeles and got into the scrap metal business.
John Corcoran: 02:58
And so you grew up around entrepreneurs. What was that experience like as a kid? Just kind of normalized, just used to people working for themselves.
Adam Pontrelli: 03:06
Yeah. You know, I often think back how fortunate I am that I didn’t have a dad that was cracking his second beer at noon and that I what was normal to me was you got up, you worked hard, you came home late, you were tired, and you just kept going on and on. And I can still hear so many of my grandfather’s lessons throughout my life. In fact, he repeated them over and over again. And, you know, things like one step forward, like two steps forward, one step back.
Just keep going. It’s about perseverance. Keep going.
John Corcoran: 03:40
Were you like 3 or 3 years old? Four years old, running around in the scrap metal yard?
Adam Pontrelli: 03:47
I’m sure I visited back then. Don’t have many memories, but I do have memories of like five, six, seven going down there, you know, spending time around there and seeing that that was all about.
John Corcoran: 03:58
That sounds amazing. I mean, I know my kids have their grandparents had a scrap metal yard. I mean, they’d be like, let’s go to the scrap metal yard this weekend.
Adam Pontrelli: 04:05
There was definitely some interesting things down there.
John Corcoran: 04:08
Yeah. Yeah, I would think. And you did lemonade stands. As a kid, you also delivered pizzas. So talk a little bit about that teaching good work ethic for you.
Adam Pontrelli: 04:18
Yeah I mean I just I think I always, always wanted to be productive and always wanted to figure out a way to, you know, be of service and be of, you know, utilize my time. Of course, I was very athletic and got into various different sports and things like that. But, you know, thinking about what I wanted to do when I grew up, it was always, always, always, always had to do with business. Like, what am I going to do with business?
John Corcoran: 04:43
And you’re so your your parents did they they weren’t in the, the scrap metal business. Correct. They did. They were they founders of other companies?
Adam Pontrelli: 04:52
My father was an attorney and my mother was a professional, amazing homemaker.
John Corcoran: 04:57
Okay. All right, so the family business, the scrap metal business actually ends up getting passed down to your uncle and you, while all the time you were growing up, you thought you were being groomed to go work in this family business. But you had this experience right around the time that you were graduating. Tell us about that.
Adam Pontrelli: 05:15
Yeah, a little bit of a rude awakening, but glad it happened when it did. That. That’s right. My whole life I thought I was being groomed for that business. I worked there summers and any chance that I could all the way through college and graduated college.
Geez, 1992 93. Somewhere in there and just after graduation, got the phone call from my uncle and said, you know, just didn’t feel like there was a future for me. And that kind of began a little bit of soul searching, let’s say that lasted far too long. But in hindsight, you know, rather go through that type of crisis when you’re young. So that the rest of your life, you know, whatever you accomplish from there, you can always draw back on that strength and know that you can persevere whatever it comes at you.
I will tell you that that period lasted for more than ten years. And certainly, certainly went through some ups and downs.
John Corcoran: 06:18
And you tried a lot of different things. You’re kind of like trying to find your way during this period of time.
Adam Pontrelli: 06:23
You know what? I almost and almost raises hair on my arms just thinking about how how challenging it was, to be honest. Growing up and never spending a moment thinking about what you’re going to do when you graduate from college and you have a blank canvas. There was too many decisions. The ocean was too big, and I just I really didn’t have a place to, like, point my ship.
So yeah, I did cast a wide net.
John Corcoran: 06:57
You sound like that. You know that character in Shawshank Redemption that gets gets released, and then he decides to just, you know, pull start a crime just to get thrown back into prison so that he can just deal with it. He knows that system.
Adam Pontrelli: 07:10
If that if that if that was a way back then I probably would have done it. I mean, there were tough days, but yeah, I mean, I took the LSATs, I tried acting classes, I got into the fitness industry. I was like just going on a ton of different directions. One of the greatest things I did was I just threw a backpack on my shoulders and traveled 25, 30 different countries all around Europe and the Middle East. And I thought that was a really valuable experience.
So yeah, when you look back in hindsight, all that stuff just colors, colors, who you are today.
John Corcoran: 07:43
Eventually you find your way and you found this business in the early 2000. You’re the founder of it, AP World Marketing. What was the vision behind that?
Adam Pontrelli: 07:53
So. I got started in that business. I knew someone fortunately, I was like this, this whole concept of it’s like, who, not how. And it’s who you know and not what you know. But I was young, I was opinionated, it was just, you know, I probably still like that today where I didn’t really listen to everyone.
But when I did find someone and this is I can look back. And throughout my entire life when I found people that interests me or interest interested me, I really put a lot of effort and energy into it. So I knew someone who had a business that was selling Costco since it had one store, and he.
John Corcoran: 08:37
Would you say that selling Costco? What do you mean by that?
Adam Pontrelli: 08:39
So he he how do I say this succinctly? He was technically a manufacturer’s representative.
John Corcoran: 08:47
So he’d represent a manufacturer who had a product that wanted to sell that product to Costco Wholesale.
Adam Pontrelli: 08:53
I would say it was very specialized. And that he was extraordinarily successful. He was smart. He was aggressive. You know, when I met him, he was wearing his flip flops, wearing shorts, you know, had a legal pad and a telephone in his kitchen.
And the guy was making a fantastic living and.
John Corcoran: 09:15
In fairness, that it was Los Angeles. And there are lots of dress like that. So I’m from LA, so I can say that.
Adam Pontrelli: 09:22
Yeah. So he, I think he was looking for a little bit of an assistant. That’s how I met him. It didn’t jive, but he and I became good friends. We we ended up spending a lot of time together.
And then after a course of a few years, I was in between jobs and. And he just said, you want to give this a go? And then boom, we like flip the switch. And from then on out it was like 100 miles an hour. I found myself in China and then a week later I’m like in a at a trade show and then going to visit Costco.
Then we’re down in South America. I mean, it just never stopped. It was like seven days a week and two years of that. He looked at me and he said, if you can’t make a million bucks a year doing this on your own, then you ain’t shit. I’ll never forget those words.
And I, I kind of looked at him and I thought, okay, I guess this is it. And he kicked me out of the nest and and there we go.
John Corcoran: 10:14
So how was that being kicked out of the nest? Different from your uncle kicking you out of the family nest?
Adam Pontrelli: 10:20
Well, I think, you know, obviously it was a little scary at first, but. I think if we think back, what is getting kicked out of the nest? The the mother, the parent knows you can fly, kicks you out and you start falling. And then all of a sudden you spread your wings and you start flying. And that’s exactly what happened.
I, like most entrepreneurs, was good at something, got into the business, continued to be good at it. But then when you start trying to scale it and grow it, you realize you’re not great at doing everything. And running a business was one of them.
John Corcoran: 10:55
What were you good at?
Adam Pontrelli: 10:57
I was good at building relationships, being really accountable. And if, let’s say you and I are working together, I’m going to try to do as much of your job as possible so that when we talk, doing business with me is really easy.
John Corcoran: 11:10
I mean, the bottom line is for a company that’s selling a manufacturer or whatever, producing a product that wants to get into Costco, wants to get into target or whatever. The bottom line is, do you help them get in or not? And that you were good at that?
Adam Pontrelli: 11:23
Exactly. So if you’re the buyer, let’s say, at Costco or any one of the other major retailers, and there’s like ten steps hypothetically, I’m going to do eight of them, even though it’s a lot of work, I’m going to do eight of them before I even pick up the phone or call you, or send you an email so that when I do call or when I do send you an email, you’re interested in what I have to say.
John Corcoran: 11:42
So you you get kicked out of the nest, so to speak, and you start this business around 2003, which was not too long after the.com meltdown after nine over 11. In retrospect, was it a good time to start the business? A bad time? A hard time or none of the above?
Adam Pontrelli: 11:58
You know one. One of my favorite marks in time was about 2008 and 2009, when we were going through that mortgage crisis. Yeah. And I’ll never forget getting a call from my mother. And she said, how you doing?
You know, I’m usually pretty short on the phone with her during the day. And I said, mom in that tone, mom, someone out there is making a fortune. I know a lot of people are hurting right now, and it’s understandably what’s going on in the economy. But someone’s making a fortune. And I always look back on that call because 2008, 2009, 2010 was like, yes, I had, you know, starting from a small, relatively small number.
We had those double triple digit years year after year after year. But then when I hit 2008 and Nate in 2009. That’s when I just doubled down, and I went from selling Costco to everyone else. And I just, you know, I pick up the phone, I’d call and introduce myself and say, I’m a Costco guy. What does that mean to you?
Costco is one of the hardest people to do business with. They’ve got the lowest margins out there, which means you gotta.
John Corcoran: 13:02
If I can succeed there, then I can certainly succeed in others.
Adam Pontrelli: 13:06
Yeah, yeah. Which means in my bag of tricks, I’ve got some of the industry’s leaders. Because you can’t be successful unless you’re you’re near perfect if you’re selling Costco. So that got everybody’s interested. And those are the three, five years that I really expanded my business because I, I was confident in what I could do.
I was confident in who I, who I represented. And we went.
John Corcoran: 13:29
You said you were not great at running the business, though. And was there a breaking point at which you realized that you needed some help or you needed a community, you needed something to support you?
Adam Pontrelli: 13:43
Yeah. There was I was fortunate, you know, three of the vendors I represented, maybe six of the vendors were in these peer groups. So I had two in YPO, two were in Vistage, and one of them was in EO, and everybody kept telling me about it. The one I was closest to was in YPO. And I said, hey, you heard of YPO?
Yes, I mean EO yes, of course. And I said, well, I don’t have 50 employees or whatever the requirements were for Ypo. What do you think about EO and and again, I’ll never forget his words. He said no question. So again I just I dove in.
Took me a couple of years to join. I just thought I was too busy. I was always traveling, what have you. It’s just way too busy. I didn’t think I was going to make the time for it, but I finally joined at the end of the year.
I looked back and I was a better leader, a better manager, a better partner, a better Friend. I was making more money and I was working less hours. So from that point, I was fortunate enough to be asked to join the board.
John Corcoran: 14:51
And now you’ve been on the board pretty much every year since then for the last 12. Yeah, I.
Adam Pontrelli: 14:58
I’ve done most positions on the board, including leading the chapter of nearly 200 entrepreneurs as president coming out of Covid in 2122.
John Corcoran: 15:09
How was that leading an organization of 200 entrepreneurs coming out of Covid? All the uncertainty, all the the craziness, the chaos of that period of time, what was that like?
Adam Pontrelli: 15:21
I mean, I can’t say enough about the about you. It’s, you know, being third generation Angeleno, there’s really no shortage of contacts and resources. And yes, I have friends that are successful business owners. But the framework, the ethos of EO to help each other learn and grow. Just tremendous.
I can easily say that some of my closest friends around the world are through this organizations time and time again. This organization has been there for me and helped me be where I am today.
John Corcoran: 15:56
What was how did the the pandemic, you know, if you take us back to like March of 2020, how did the pandemic affect your business where, you know, did you have an oh shit moment? Did you have a oh God, I don’t know what’s gonna happen. Am I gonna lose everything kind of moment or, you know, what were you thinking in that at that time?
Adam Pontrelli: 16:16
I mean, honestly, some businesses got really, really hurt and some of them really succeeded. So one of my biggest categories was in the home furnishing business. And guess what everybody was doing when they couldn’t leave their house.
John Corcoran: 16:30
Furnishing their house. Yeah.
Adam Pontrelli: 16:32
Yeah, yeah, I mean, I, I had some pretty big years during that time.
John Corcoran: 16:39
Yeah. Do you, in retrospect, do you have mixed emotions towards that? I interviewed many people who say kind of with like a feeling a little guilty, like, you know, actually the pandemic was really good for me.
Adam Pontrelli: 16:54
It was good for me. I, I got a chance to step off the treadmill for the first time in a long time, and really got a chance to take inventory of my life. And, you know, in the EOS terms, we call it a clarity break. And I realized more and more how important that is to stop and pause and like, you’re in charge of steering the ship. And when you’re in the forest and can’t see through the trees and you’re just busy doing, you don’t get a chance to really calibrate.
And you and everybody else who you’re leading counts on you for doing that.
John Corcoran: 17:28
And how did you do that? Did you go away? Did you go out of town? Did you go on vacation?
Adam Pontrelli: 17:34
Well, during Covid we were spending a lot of time at home. Yeah. But really, I went from flying 100,000 miles a year to not flying at all. And I thought, wow, I really, I really detest traveling. I’ve done so much of it.
John Corcoran: 17:48
Yeah.
Adam Pontrelli: 17:49
So I just started thinking about what else I can do. And then having all this time at home, you know, you remember we were. We were. Yeah. I don’t know, you were probably in, you know, at the time.
But anyway, yeah, our chapter just rallied together. The resources rallied together. Everybody was there, the needs and the leads. We had a great president at the time that really provided a lot of framework and resources for us. Mitch Langstein, he was fantastic.
John Corcoran: 18:16
It was really a, I think, a case study in how an organization can rally around their members and support their members. It was really a really inspiring. So this leads you then to kind of your next chapter. Well, first of all, when when did you discover this book Traction. And, you know, when did you implement it in in your company.
And for those who don’t know what it is, kind of explain what EOS is.
Adam Pontrelli: 18:40
So EOS is a framework. Tools have been around for 100 years. But I think what Gino Wickman did was he pulled from all these great sources and came up with a really eloquent, easy to easiest. That’s the reputation I was that is in the going circles as easiest to implement. So I found out about EOS through EO.
It was a common thread amongst excelling businesses. I had to find out more. I had forum mates read the book. I was, you know, all the reports month after month. People are telling me how are things are progressing, how much more productive they were.
I watched one of them have a nine figure exit within a year. I don’t know, I don’t know if we can attribute that to EOS, but he was pretty. He dove into it pretty hard. Yeah. I I’m not sure I answered your question.
John Corcoran: 19:40
So so you so you implement it though in your business and you see you see a shift. You see a shift.
Adam Pontrelli: 19:47
Yeah. It was a similar thing to joining you. I read the book probably 2 or 3 times, then started adopting some of the tools. And yes, they all helped, but it wasn’t anything like hiring an implementer. Once I did that and there was like a strict process for exactly how you go from point A to point B, then I saw firsthand what it can do.
I got all the right people in the right seats that were that can do the things that they love to do much better than I could, most likely micromanage them. Yeah. And and then the business started running itself, and I got moved into the owner’s box. And, you know, it was like a salvation for me. And so I Then I started to spend a lot of time.
What am I going to do? What else am I going to do? And in joining EO you get so much from that organization. Eventually you start giving back. New members come in, you start moderating, facilitating, mentoring, coaching newer members.
And people always tell you that mentoring you get more out of it than your mentee. You don’t really understand that until you start mentoring. And I realized how much I enjoyed that. So I in talking to other EOS implementers that I had known for years, and they they all would look at me and say, hey, you’d be great at it. You’d be great at it.
You should do it. And I’ll never forget the last lunch I had with someone who recently made the switch. And he just said, just do it. And I was like, all right. I came home, made the call, signed up, and the rest was history.
John Corcoran: 21:29
I have a question about this because I’ve always been curious about this, because most of the people that get the biggest, most of the entrepreneurs that I interview, that I talk to, that get the biggest impact from implementing EOS are visionaries. And a visionary is someone who has great ideas but not great at follow through, not great at putting operations in place. But then they go and become an implementer and and it’s almost like they have to switch to the thing that they are weakest at. That’s what I don’t get about being an implementer. And yet I see it happen so often.
So what do you say to that? Because the implementer is they’re literally coming in. They’re helping other visionaries who are like them and helping them to put systems and processes in place. So I’m just curious how how you’re able to make that switch.
Adam Pontrelli: 22:17
It’s a really interesting perspective, John. I think I think the skill sets are a little bit different. I think you you teach the tools and don’t teach reliance on. the implementer, like I’m not getting in and creating dependence on me. I’m creating it.
I’m teaching the tools. So we are a teacher, facilitator and coach. We teach the tools, we facilitate the sessions, and we coach them on their journey.
John Corcoran: 22:48
You get in, you get out. You don’t have to be there forever. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, okay.
Adam Pontrelli: 22:52
Keep us around forever. But, you know, that’s like.
John Corcoran: 22:54
It’s not designed that way. Yeah.
Adam Pontrelli: 22:56
You know, that’s like going to the gym and saying, hey, I have an hour here. I’m like, how am I going to get best use of my time today? That’s what I want. So yeah, those are the people that keep us around for a long time. But getting back to your question, you know, the nuances come from I’d say in the first couple of years it was really wanting to wanting to deliver great sessions.
And then, you know, after a while and you’re you’re so. So much better with the material than it’s about the nuances of reading the room. And then you start playing with neuroscience and saying, hey, where is everybody’s capacity? How can I shift that so I can get more out of the sessions that I teach them. And that’s, you know, that’s just the next step.
So being a visionary versus an integrator, I don’t know anybody, by the way. And this could be a separate topic. I don’t know anybody by the way. That goes right to visionary. I think somehow people are either born to be visionaries.
But you know, if you’re lucky enough to jump into that role and it works great, I think I had a tough time understanding that dynamic. And once I had an integrator, then, you know, the sky’s the limit. It was just fantastic. But I look back on the person that I, that I worked with getting into the, the, the business selling Costco, for all intents and purposes, I was his integrator.
John Corcoran: 24:20
Oh yeah. That’s true. Yeah. So maybe you are a bit ambidextrous in that sense.
Adam Pontrelli: 24:25
Oh, I’m definitely visionary.
John Corcoran: 24:27
Not okay. Okay.
Adam Pontrelli: 24:28
Okay, Definitely. But when I find the right visionary, I mean, I would do everything for that.
John Corcoran: 24:33
So then if if you’re a definite visionary, but you say that you are in the integrator role for the guy that you got the job with in the late 90s, selling into Costco, then is is that why he ultimately let you go? Is because he realized that you weren’t sitting in the right seat.
Adam Pontrelli: 24:50
Well, hopefully he realized some potential and, you know, knew there was more for me out there and knew that I was never going to be satisfied until I did.
John Corcoran: 24:58
But you realize it. You you also realize it about yourself that that that that was not the right seat for me. Yeah.
Adam Pontrelli: 25:05
Listen, if if. And he and I could have done far more together than we probably, you know, we probably would have.
John Corcoran: 25:12
Yeah, yeah. I’m curious. So you had, you know, these these foundational experiences from closely held small, you know, private businesses, a family business where the uncle lets you go and then this relationship with this guy who then lets you fly the nest. How much does the did those experiences shape your passion for what you do with EOS now, and helping other businesses to have a more orderly process behind basically running their business so you don’t have these like sudden, unexpected exits that were so foundational in your life experience?
Adam Pontrelli: 25:50
Yeah. What shaped my passion? I think that’s an easy question. Number one, probably all the struggles that I had growing up and in my business, I think people often look at entrepreneurs and think, oh, well, they work for themselves. And you know, how how great is that?
Yeah. And I don’t think people realize what’s behind the curtain. And in fact, I don’t think many entrepreneurs realize they’re not getting paid enough for how much time they spent spend on the business, or spend worrying about the business or all those sleepless nights? Yeah. I think people look at your successes and say, oh, well, that that person is set.
They don’t realize how many nights they spent sleepless thinking this might be the end of it. It might be over. Like, how am I going to get myself out of this?
John Corcoran: 26:43
Yep, yep.
Adam Pontrelli: 26:44
So that really fuels my passion. All the friendships that I’ve made by, you know, just not just like minded but like, valued people and really rallying together to share resources, sharing common problems to common solutions, and not feeling so isolated. I’ve really built this band of of brotherhood in EO, and that has really shaped, you know, when when we talk about our issues and we talk about, like the things that are plaguing us, you know, we have that whole ethos, we have that whole, you know, Yeah. Gestalt protocol. I know it’s a little older language now, but we don’t offer advice.
We just share experiences because we’re really there to help each other.
John Corcoran: 27:34
Yeah, yeah. Adam, this has been great. We’re actually. Before I wrap up, I want to ask about, you know, I’m a big fan of gratitude. I’m a big fan of giving our guests a little bit of space here at the end to express gratitude to anyone who’s helped them in their journey, especially peers or contemporaries.
Anyone in particular you’d want to shout out and acknowledge?
Adam Pontrelli: 27:55
Oh, loaded question John. I would easily run out of time if I named everyone. But you know, when we’re talking about ego and that ethos, I always remember the first event I ever went to. I met a gentleman by the name of Gary Goren, and he just came right up to me. I was standing by myself and he said, hey, I’ve never met you before.
My name is Gary Goren. Tell me a little bit about yourself. Why did you join EO? Tell me about your business. And I was like, oh, okay, Answer the question and immediately he said, you know, you should meet this person.
You should meet that person. And by the way, I’ve been in, you know, for X amount of years. If you ever need anything along your journey, feel free to reach out. And I just thought that was like such a warm welcome that I immediately adopted that to the next, next generation of people coming in. And I’ve never stopped.
And that was just such a nice thing for me.
John Corcoran: 28:48
That’s really.
Adam Pontrelli: 28:48
Cool. Shout out to Gary Goren for that Gary Goren.
John Corcoran: 28:52
Good job Gary. Well this has been great. Where can people go to learn more about you and connect with you? Adam.
Adam Pontrelli: 28:59
My business, Apex Coaching. You go to apexla.com. You can find me there or on LinkedIn.
John Corcoran: 29:06
Awesome. Adam, thanks so much.
Adam Pontrelli: 29:08
Thank you. John.
Outro: 29:11
Thanks for listening to the Smart Business Revolution Podcast. We’ll see you again next time and be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.