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Transcript

Casey Combest: Hey, we want to welcome to the show today. I'm here with Adam Peters. Adam, thanks so much for being with me, dude.

Adam Peters: Thanks for having me, man. It's awesome to be here.

Casey Combest: Absolutely, absolutely. We're at the ICMG convention down here in Tampa, Florida, and so glad to be here. As we dive in, I'd love to hear a little bit about your story, man.

Adam Peters: Yeah, man. Where do you want me to start?

Casey Combest: Let's let's hear a little bit about leadership. This is the Insurance Leadership podcast. So a little bit about leadership and then maybe your history in the military.

Adam Peters: Yes. Show leadership. Man. That's that's a great word. All I know about leadership comes from my time in the Army. Obviously. And so I joined the Army when I was 17, spent a year on the delayed entry program. The main goal? I had a buddy that was ahead of me a year, and he went to basic training between junior and senior year.

And I saw the changes in him, and I was like, I need to do something like that. So that was like my main goal. I missed the ship date by like a day, so I couldn't do that. So I ended up spending a year on the delayed entry program, and I would leave for basic training a month after I graduated high school.

And then I would spend, you know, the next 13 years, learning leadership, being trained from the minute you get in there on how to lead and you know, all the other components that go with, adaptability, problem solving, you know, discipline is my, like, fundamental thing. Yeah. And so, you know, spent every other year deployed while I was in the military.

So from late 2004 until my last one was Afghanistan in 2012. Came home from that, had a bunch of surgeries, and they told me I couldn't do it anymore. And so. Okay. So yeah, so that kind of set me up for, for everything that I do now. And, and, you know, it's obviously a lot more convoluted journey for sure. Casey Combest: But You did a great job. Compacted 13 years a minute.

Adam Peters: Yeah okay. That's awesome.

Casey Combest: So that time in the military, like what were some of that you said discipline was a big thing. Was that going in and kind of hard for you and then coming out, you were a completely different person. Adam Peters: You know, that's such a funny question.

No. I thought basic training was a joke. I really, I did, yeah, it was I mean, I was a three sport athlete in high school, all four years.

So, football, wrestling, track. Right. So always in pretty good shape. Discipline is something that comes with sports, right? So, you know, that wasn't the hard piece. I expected basic training to be like what you see in the movies, like Full Metal Jacket.

Right. And you're getting beat on and just and don't get me wrong, it, I mean, it had its moments. It's more of a mind thing than it was physical. And then, you know, after, like the first six weeks, I think, you're asking me to remember 22 years ago,

Casey Combest: You did great.

Adam Peters: For the first six weeks, I think is what they call total control and basically have no freedom whatsoever as your individual privates or whatever.

You come off of that. And then the mind games stop, right? Because they've broken you down and they've built you back up or starting to build you back up into what they want you to be. So, you know, after the first six weeks, it's just like, okay, can we graduate? And can I go to the real army? Because this is silly.

Casey Combest: Yeah. Well, tell me, I this kind of a two part question, but I want to hear about your transition from military service to civilian life. And then I want to hear a little bit more about, what folks who are making that transition should expect.

Adam Peters: Yeah, man. To answer the first part of that question, my transition, you know, a marine, a book about this right now. But, through that process, I've realized that the transition I had, like a false transition for the for first four years.

So the transition program to get out is what I have a fundamental issue with, because they're not preparing people the way that they should take it out. They're not covering things like identity and purpose and encouraging people to figure out who they are as an individual without the uniform.

And so is that because they're in that group, they know their identity in the group, but they don't know their individual identity. Well, I mean, I think if you take somebody like me who joined at 17 years old, all I knew my whole adult life was how to be a soldier. Right?

Casey Combest: So, so just a natural growing up of, like, going from 17 to your late 20s or even mid 20s, you're a different person, completely different person.

Adam Peters: than you had in your four combat deployments. And just just that culture right here. But so my transition, you know, the first four years, I do what they say, you know, use your GI Bill, go to college, get the degree.

And it's just a check the box thing and, you know, through the work that I do with my own podcast and really trying to be an advocate for change in the transition space, what I found out is I'm not going to get this right, but the transition program for all of the military was actually put in place because, I want to say this after Vietnam, they had so many guys getting out and not being able to get jobs, right, because of, you know, society and how they viewed those, those individuals coming home, baby killers who been spit on all of that. But the basic you put a transition program in to help people get jobs, so they didn't have to pay unemployment benefits.

And so, if you just follow the money, you figure out like, this isn't to help us. This is truly a check the box thing. And it hasn't changed in 50 years.

So here we are. You know, they still give the same advice. Here's 300 million different resources. We're not going to give you any time to digest them or understand how to implement them, or the whole breadth of what these resources can do for you.

And oh, by the way, you've got this really cool thing called a GI Bill. Go get you a degree and good luck in corporate America. And that's the fundamental problem. There's no encouraging, you know, discovering who you are outside of the institution that you've just spent an entire career in. And I think this applies fundamentally to anybody who serves.

It doesn't matter if you serve two years or you serve 22 years, you're going to go through this because it's I mean, think about the military. Everything is done for you. You answer to somebody always, no matter what rank you are, you always have a boss. I mean, is always telling you were to be, when to be there, who to be there with, what to be wearing, when you're going to do it.

You know. And you know, for me, growing up 17 to 30, like that was my whole life. So that goes away the minute you get out, you no longer have that. Imagine that adjustment

teach you.

Casey Combest: It's not a gradual facet. Turn it off. No, the spigot that's off immediately.

Adam Peters: Yeah. And you know, the other problem with the transition is for guys like me.

Like I went to an appointment one day and the next thing I know, I'm in a bed board process. And then the board process while you're getting out, there's like, no kind of. And when I was going through a ten years ago, there was no really situational awareness on where you're at in the process, and then your career just ends when they literally just end.

You've got orders. You go pick up your DD 214, you sign whatever, and that's it. You're no longer in. So at what point? Yeah, I did a condensed a class and all of this. But at what point did I have a chance to really discover who was Adam Peters?

Casey Combest: Yeah. Well, for people who are listening, and maybe they're making this transition and then we're going to dive into this a little more later, but just kind of give them a nugget right now. Like, what advice would you have for them. Like they're approaching the end of their service. And thank you for your service. Thank them for their service. But they're approaching the end of that and they're trying to make this transition. What advice for.

Adam Peters: Stop running face to face yourself in the mirror. Ask yourself the tough questions. It's it's honestly the best advice I can give you, because if you don't do that immediately upon getting out, you're going to fumble through life.

Until you do that. You'll take the first corporate job because it pays the salary. You know, we're told that success looks like a six figure salary, right? But moreover, ask yourself, what does success look like to me? That's where you have to start, because it doesn't look the same to me. Is it made to you or anybody listening to this?

Casey Combest: Yeah. Well, tell us a little bit about the stronghold community.

Adam Peters: Yeah, man. The stronghold. It's like a love hate relationship. I had a bunch of mentors tell me not to start a community. It's a time suck, and it's a lot of energy. And I did it anyway because I really believe that spaces on the internet need to be, I don't know, better.

I created the stronghold to. Originally, I thought I was going, you know, kind of the direction of the path back to purpose is through entrepreneurship and and what I found out talking to over 100 veterans on my podcast is really, being an advocate for the transition. And putting that on display. So I started the community with the idea that Facebook groups are toxic and they're terrible.

So I wanted it to be the antithesis of that, just really wanted veterans who are getting out or who are already out, who have lost their way to come and have a space where they can get access to people like me who figured it out and it's truly a member driven community.

I don't I don't create courses in there. There's a couple of courses that I put in there early on based on some feedback that you like networking course, people don't know how to network and your network. Man, it's the reason I'm sitting here right now. You know what I mean? Like really just a random drive across the state to Tampa today to to do a live in person podcast.

Because because of a network. And so, that's what the stronghold is. We have 66 members in there now. Launched it in August, and it seems like every time I get in front of more veterans and people find out, they come and join. It's not as active as I'd like it to be, but that's kind of the the game.

When you're running a membership and you're just start. It sounds like this. Yeah. So I have no idea how it's going to make money. I don't really care. I just want to provide a space for them to get actionable advice and be able to be be vulnerable online, you know, with what they're going through in their transition.

And it started because when I was in flight school, after the Army, I was an instruments and I went to a couple of these, these groups, and I would ask questions of the professionals in the industry and I get ripped to shreds, you know, just just like, oh, you should you should know this.

And it's like, man, I'm a brand new student instrument pilot, you know?

Casey Combest: So, that's really what a safe place.

Adam Peters: Yeah, yeah. Safe place. Encourage vulnerability because we're not encouraged to talk about the things that we're going through. That's the biggest problem with the transition is we're largely left to think that we have to do this on our own.

Yeah.That's not that's not how it has to be.

Casey Combest: Yeah. Even so here listening to this, I mean, I made a few transitions and pivots in my life that, I mean, I can't imagine just how huge that is, not just emotionally, but like, your identity, your career. Everything's being shifted. That's a huge man. Yeah, yeah. Well, you mentioned the podcast. Tell our listeners a little bit more about the podcast.

Adam Peters: Yeah. So, I have the strategic veteran podcast, and like I mentioned, it started as this this idea that the path back to purpose for veterans was entrepreneurship, mainly because it's a never-ending mission. And so, you are always and you have full control over it. Our transitions are so messed up because of what they're not teaching.

And it just kind of became clear after I recorded 85 from May to December of last year.

And, you know, studying those transcripts and some riffs. This is what I've said. Driven, man. I'd like. Yeah, I got one good discipline, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, you know, studying those transcripts and asking questions of those transcripts, you start to find these 15 common themes.

And the two biggest things are identity and purpose. Yeah. And, you know, number three being community or network. Right. So everything that I'm doing now is focusing on really encouraging veterans to get out of their own way and figure out who they are when the uniform comes off.

Casey Combest: That's great. Is that a tag line? That should be a tag.

Adam Peters: It should be really good.

Casey Combest: That's that's good. Feel free to use it. Oh, well, tell me more about the entrepreneurial side of it. As an entrepreneur myself, I know how much that's helped me in my journey. Even with my DNA, there's a reciprocity. There is, you know, worked in the world and kind of figured out who I was. Adam Peters: But yeah, I think for me, the reason I thought the path back to purpose is entrepreneurship is because it gives you complete and total control over your time. And most of us hate having to go work for somebody. You know, an example of mine is working through college, regular retail jobs or whatever you having to to take PTO to go to a V.A. appointment.

Like what? What is that like? Why should I have to do that. Like why is that not just an accepted? And then being made to feel like, you know, I could do better with scheduling those appointments for like my off time. And it's like, I don't think you understand how the VA health care system works, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, like I don't get to say when I want to go to this appointment. They just tell me when the next available one is, is usually 90 days or more away. And so, I forgot what the question was. There.

Casey Combest: You just that role, that role that entrepreneur. Yeah. I just it is empowering is that it's empowering.

Adam Peters: I mean it you get to control your time. You get to really just get to do something that aligns with who you are as a person. So your core beliefs, values and passions and turn it into a business because it's 2025, the internet is a multitrillion dollar industry, and all you have to do is just get into that stream and take a little piece of that for yourself.

Casey Combest: Which, I mean, the biggest part of entrepreneurship is not just creativity, but that discipline. And so many of these guys getting out of service, they they do have that element that serves them really well.

Adam Peters: I agree with what you're saying, I don't think I don't think it has anything to do with creativity. It has everything to do with discipline and mindset. Can you show up every day without seeing results that you expect to see?

Until you wake up on a random Tuesday and all of a sudden.

Casey Combest: you're like, hey, I got an email from that person, that's all, to six months ago.

Adam Peters: Yeah, yeah, well, yeah, you wake up one day and you're drowning in work, and your brain hasn't caught up with the capacity to handle the work that's coming in. And now, you know, you've leveled up and you see the fruits of all your labor over the last six months, you know, so and so for me, it's just, I don't know, it's just fun.

Nobody gets to tell me what to do. You know, it's Monday, February 3rd, and I just drove across the state to come be here with you guys, and I didn't have to ask permission for, you know, thanks for doing that. Yeah. No, thank you guys for having it.

Casey Combest: Yeah, yeah. Well, I it sounds like with the podcast, and with the stronghold community, like, there's this holistic, wellness involved where it's not just, you know, physical.

It's not just emotional. It's mental. Can you talk to that a little bit?

Adam Peters: Yeah. So in July of 2023, I was blessed enough to get picked up our Heroic Hearts project to go to Peru and do an ayahuasca, a weeklong ayahuasca retreat. And it changed my entire life. Everything about my life. I've since lost 100 pounds. Everything that you see that I have built since, basically November of 2023.

So it just gave me perspective. It taught me how to love and respect myself. It introduced me to how food and pharma in the United States are actually not doing us any favors. In fact, they're making us sicker. It really introduced me to things like yoga, meditation, breathwork, grounding, gratitude practices, abundance mindset, growth mindset, and so all of these things, I'm an avid practitioner of myself.

I spend, you know, my evenings, using cannabis and looking inward to deal with whatever I've got to deal with for myself. So, I just think that all of these things are free modalities of healing, and we don't need to go to the VA and become zombies on pills. And I like to tell people these are the best kept secrets that they just.

I'm upset that they've kept them from us because they cost nothing, and they make your life infinity times better.

Casey Combest: Yeah, yeah. What about the emotional side? Okay. I feel like maybe you're speaking of this. But what does that look like for someone who's getting out of a service to, have emotional wholeness in their life?

Adam Peters: It's so important. And, again, you're going back to the vulnerability and stuff like that, sharing what you're going through, acknowledging what your feelings are and exploring your feelings. If you need to cry, cry like it's a huge chunk of your life that you're walking away from or being forced away if. Casey Combest: You almost have to mourn. Yeah.

Adam Peters: And I think, you know, I was raised in, you know, a product of the mid 80s. So I as raised like as a male, we don't show emotion. And that's weakness. Right. And I'm here to tell you the opposite. It's probably the strongest thing you can do is to be vulnerable.

Be that example for somebody who may be going through what you're going through. So if you look at any of my content, my newsletter, the podcast show notes, I talk about everything publicly.

I just, I like I don't want to be an influencer or a thought leader where people look at me and say, you've got 7500 followers on a platform and you're, you know, this, this untouchable, like, not human person. I'm very human.

And I want people to understand that you can get to where I'm at by doing the same things that I've done and just feeling and being public about it.

And I think that's why I'm having success is authenticity is the new digital currency. And I refuse to be anything other than who I am. Casey Combest: Yeah, yeah, they tell me. And part of that emotional health is the human experience. Right. Stoicism has a lot of great ideas, but I mean, it's not a full human experience. If you don't feel those range of emotions and learn and learn how to express them.

And I as well, child of mid 80s and so that was not so you suppress your emotions, don't talk about it. But as a leader like that's such an important thing to be in tune with your emotions. Like, well I feel fear here. Well maybe this is a bad decision. I should stop for a minute and think about this.

Casey Combest: Yeah. It's very, very important to love what you do. And, you also emphasize strategic partnerships in your work. Why is that so important?

Adam Peters: Yeah, man. So, I really emphasize strategic partnerships in the idea that, like, I made a lot of mistakes when I first started down this entrepreneurial journey or trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life that's in alignment with who I am as a person.

And I look like, you know, spending $1,000 on a course that tells you that you it's got the secrets inside. And, you know, caveat to this is the secret is the hard work. There's no shortcut. The shortcut is doing the hard work. So all these gurus that are telling you that if you buy their thousand dollar course, you'll make money in 30 days, they're lying to you, so don't fall for that.

That's why I emphasize strategic partnerships, particularly through the stronghold, is because, you know, my experience in the insurance industry, like we were talking about before we started recording, was not the greatest.

And I don't want people to have to fall for that and go through what I had to go through. So, you know, for example, the insurance industry have a, two of two women who are amazing women, you know, doing the right work on the insurance side of things so I can get kickbacks for sending them.

People who join their team or buy policies from them. Right. So it's a it's a way for me to drive revenue, but also provide vetted resources and opportunities for the members of my community. I have a husband-and-wife team.

I don't know anything about franchises at all. I know that I never want to own one, right? I don't want to buy a job, and I have a husband-and-wife team who get they make no money off of selling the franchise.

They get paid by the franchisor. And so, they're they've been vetted by me. I've had multiple conversations with them. I know their hearts in the right place, and I just got to take advantage. Advantage of veterans to make money. But, you know, I make a little bit of money if somebody goes through their program and buys a franchise.

And so I have this idea for the community. I don't know how I get there or what it all will be, but I want it to be the premier veteran resource online, and I want it to be real people with real opportunities that are doing it for the right reasons. And and, you know, not just trying to make a quick buck off of veterans or like, you know, fortune 500 companies do, or they just hire veterans because they get tax breaks or whatever, you know?

Casey Combest: Yeah, that's awesome man. Thank you for your work. As we're kind of wrapping up, I'd love to hear, so what are some of your big takeaways, big lessons learned over the last few years? You've seen so many different stories. You mentioned one earlier that authenticity is is huge. And what we're doing, what are some others.

Adam Peters: And for me, it's it's authenticity. It's mindset. And it's the discipline. Discipline is it's like my foundational kind of value within everything that I do is do I feel like showing up every day? No. But having the discipline to show up every day and understand that you're showing up every day and being just 1% better will lead to so many.

I can't tell you how many different opportunities have come my way. In fact, a poor kid from Indiana growing up, I would have never expected opportunities like this to be coming my way and you can ask my wife sitting right over there like I say no to more opportunity now, which has been a skill I've had to learn.

So, I would say, you know, authenticity really is my biggest number. One thing like be who you are always. And don't let society tell you that you need to fit into this box. We're human beings. We weren't made to fit in these boxes. We were made to, you know, to love one another because we're all connected. But to also like lift to be in service of others.

So, find something in your community that you're passionate about and then pursue it. It happens to be that I love being a leader. I had always said, getting out of the army, I'm going to find a way to be a leader again, whether that's through being a civilian on post and working or whatever.

Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would be this this, I don't know, cringe worthy thought leader on LinkedIn and social media in the veteran transition space and it's pretty cool.

And you know how I got here? I showed up every day and I took the guardrails off, and I just completely was myself. Yeah, you know, long hair, beard, potty mouth, tattoos, I don't care. Like I'm not going to I'm not going to, you know, change who I am for anybody anymore because I think part of it's because I'm motivated to just prove to people that you can look a certain way and still have great success.

Casey Combest: Yeah. That's awesome. Well, what's your hope next few years? You've done so much in such a short span that my biggest hope.

Adam Peters: My biggest hop is to to make change at a D.O.D. level, to make enough noise that the people who have the power will listen and I think there's a real possibility that might happen by the end of this year.

Now, getting things changed is going to be a completely different conversation, you know what I mean? But let's get the conversation started. Let's get let's get put in front of the right people this year. That's kind of the goal.

And honestly, just just to help as many people improve their situation in life as I possibly can, I have really no goal, you know, I mean, obviously I have, you know, a miracle that I'd like to get to with some other opportunities that I have going on and, you know, my wife and I travel the world and kind of work from anywhere, but genuinely just to keep helping people.

That's really all I care about. I've I've really decided this is my life's work, is advocating for for veterans in the transition and and veterans in general. And I think I'm doing a great job at it, man, because people keep coming to me and, you know, now now I'm faced with a dilemma, like there's only so many hours in a day and like, how do I, you know, keep helping people on a one on one basis without feeling like a scumbag for taking money for a loan or whatever.

So that's that's really no agenda, man. Just double down on everything I've been doing.

Casey Combest: Yeah that's great man. Thanks so much for your time today.

Adam Peters: Thank you for having me. This is a blast. I love doing this.

Casey Combest: Awesome, awesome. And thanks so much for watching another episode of Insurance Leadership Podcast. Everyone.