183: Adam Hergenrother on IMMUNOPALOOZA – be the water

I thought of bringing Adam Hergenrother to Immuno-Palooza, not because he is a physician or a health care provider, more so that he’s an ultra-successful person that is purpose-driven and gets things done in his health and life and inspires others to do the same. He takes care of his billion-dollar body like his billion-dollar business empire!

Here’s a little about Adam (from his website):

My story starts when I was a teenager. I was hanging out with the wrong crowd, dabbling in drugs, smoking cigarettes heavily, and using food as a way to escape from life. I was more than 100 pounds overweight, failing classes, and driving a piece-of-crap car. In short, my self-worth was nonexistent. One day my dad found me like that in my room and said, “You have two choices. You can accept where you are or you can change.” That was the day I told myself “Screw it. No more.” And I decided to change.

One year later I was a hundred pounds lighter — physically, mentally, and emotionally. I had shed everything that wasn’t serving me, and I was no longer letting other people dictate who I should be. It was only a couple of years later when I got my first taste of business. I flipped a car with a friend and doubled my initial $500 investment. That was such a powerful lesson for me that within six months I made another $40,000 using the same strategy. I was hooked on business, so right out of college I got a great job. It wasn’t long, however, before I realized my relentless drive to create the biggest life possible would not happen if I was employed by someone else.

Real estate piqued my interest when I took that $40,000 from car flipping and invested it in a condo. I had to sell unexpectedly, and it was just enough of a taste of real estate to realize that it was a good match for my relentless drive. So in 2006, my then-girlfriend, and now beautiful wife, Sarah Ostiguy Hergenrother, and I started the Hergenrother-Ostiguy Group. Our slogan was, “Hard to pronounce, but easy to work with!” Those days were awesome. We borrowed $8,000 to start our business and in the first 30 days spent half of it going to an industry conference. It was the first time I learned that investing in yourself and your own education would provide the biggest return.

I then met Gary Keller at a private event in Austin. After about five minutes of listening to him speak, I was sold. I immediately came back to Vermont and opened a Keller Williams Realty market center. It would prove to be much more challenging than I thought, but I had chosen to step off the sidelines, and into the arena, and it was time to fight for the vision I had.

Fast forward and here we are 10 years later. I have built Keller Williams Vermont to one of the top real estate teams in the state, Hergenrother Realty Group the #4 real estate team in the nation, BlackRock Construction is a dominate force in the development space, and Adam Hergenrother Companies is a $1 billion organization by where personal growth and work-life integration come first.

Now, I spend my time leading these organizations, writing books, creating podcasts, speaking, and training, so I can teach others how to use business as a conduit for their personal growth. I thrive on taking on physical challenges including Ironman races, Bikram yoga, hiking, white-water rafting, skiing, and more. I fuel my mind and spirit with forty minutes a day of meditation and spend as much time as possible outdoors with my family and friends.

All of this is simple, but not easy. Life is hard. Business building is hard. There are daily struggles to overcome. I believe it’s about finding the gift in all of life’s experiences and understanding that through discovering who you are – a spiritual being having a temporary physical experience – that you have the power to unleash joy in everything you do.

Adam Hergenrother,

My story starts when I was a teenager. I was hanging out with the wrong crowd, dabbling in drugs, smoking cigarettes heavily, and using food as a way to escape from life. I was more than 100 pounds overweight, failing classes, and driving a piece-of-crap car. In short, my self-worth was nonexistent. One day my dad found me like that in my room and said, “You have two choices. You can accept where you are or you can change.” That was the day I told myself “Screw it. No more.” And I decided to change.

One year later I was a hundred pounds lighter — physically, mentally, and emotionally. I had shed everything that wasn’t serving me, and I was no longer letting other people dictate who I should be. It was only a couple of years later when I got my first taste of business. I flipped a car with a friend and doubled my initial $500 investment. That was such a powerful lesson for me that within six months I made another $40,000 using the same strategy. I was hooked on business, so right out of college I got a great job. It wasn’t long, however, before I realized my relentless drive to create the biggest life possible would not happen if I was employed by someone else.

Real estate piqued my interest when I took that $40,000 from car flipping and invested it in a condo. I had to sell unexpectedly, and it was just enough of a taste of real estate to realize that it was a good match for my relentless drive. So in 2006, my then-girlfriend, and now beautiful wife, Sarah Ostiguy Hergenrother, and I started the Hergenrother-Ostiguy Group. Our slogan was, “Hard to pronounce, but easy to work with!” Those days were awesome. We borrowed $8,000 to start our business and in the first 30 days spent half of it going to an industry conference. It was the first time I learned that investing in yourself and your own education would provide the biggest return.

I then met Gary Keller at a private event in Austin. After about five minutes of listening to him speak, I was sold. I immediately came back to Vermont and opened a Keller Williams Realty market center. It would prove to be much more challenging than I thought, but I had chosen to step off the sidelines, and into the arena, and it was time to fight for the vision I had.

Fast forward and here we are 10 years later. I have built Keller Williams Vermont to one of the top real estate teams in the state, Hergenrother Realty Group the #4 real estate team in the nation, BlackRock Construction is a dominate force in the development space, and Adam Hergenrother Companies is a $1 billion organization by where personal growth and work-life integration come first.

Now, I spend my time leading these organizations, writing books, creating podcasts, speaking, and training, so I can teach others how to use business as a conduit for their personal growth. I thrive on taking on physical challenges including Ironman races, Bikram yoga, hiking, white-water rafting, skiing, and more. I fuel my mind and spirit with forty minutes a day of meditation and spend as much time as possible outdoors with my family and friends.

All of this is simple, but not easy. Life is hard. Business building is hard. There are daily struggles to overcome. I believe it’s about finding the gift in all of life’s experiences and understanding that through discovering who you are – a spiritual being having a temporary physical experience – that you have the power to unleash joy in everything you do.

If we don’t have fulfilling personal lives in addition to successful professional lives, then what are we working so hard for? Extreme time management has helped me build a $1 billion organization and a family of five, train for Ironman races as well as spend several hours a day on personal development. It’s essential to me that I spend daily soul time with my wife, Sarah, and kids.

If we don’t have fulfilling personal lives in addition to successful professional lives, then what are we working so hard for? Extreme time management has helped me build a $1 billion organization and a family of five, train for Ironman races as well as spend several hours a day on personal development. It’s essential to me that I spend daily soul time with my wife, Sarah, and kids.

Website: http://adamhergenrother.com