Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / Episode Six: Adam Kallen, Co-Founder Jane Motorcycles

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Episode Six: Adam Kallen, Co-Founder Jane Motorcycles · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to Hurdle. My name's Emily Abadi. I'm the
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: one with this raspy voice. Dear God, I feel like
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: I'm losing it. I'm bringing you this podcast week after
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: week that checks in with badass humans who got through
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: a tough time in their life a hurdle of sorts
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: by leaning into wellness. On today's episode, I sit down
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: with Adam Callen, the founder of a shop called Jane
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Motorcycles based out of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Now Jane's more than
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: just a shop to buy custom motorcycles. It's also a
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: cafe toting really delicious coffee and also really really cool apparel.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Quick thanks to.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: The sponsor of today's episode, Ultra Have your knees ever?
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Totally killed you after a few miles And isn't that
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: the worst? Well, then maybe Ultra Sneakers are the solution
• 0:47
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• 0:50
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• 0:52
  Speaker 1: forefoot are the same distance away from the ground, Ultra
• 0:55
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• 0:58
  Speaker 1: impact by three to five times. Yes, please again. The
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: brand is called Ultra A L T R. You can
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: find them at Ultra running dot com. Before I get
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: into the swing of things here with Adam, a little
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: housekeeping to do. If you haven't done so yet, please
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: make sure to rate and review this podcast in the
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Apple iTunes store. Do it right now, give me a shout,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Let me know what you love, who you want to
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: see on the podcast, all the things. Also, click on
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: over to hurdle dot us slash featured, where you can
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: enter your email address to stay in the loop with
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: my newsletter.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: I don't mean to toot my.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Own horn or anything, but in it you'll find some
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: pretty cool things guys, answers to listener emails, inspirational tippits
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: for my guests, some things that I'm really digging right now,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: that sort of stuff. Last, but not least, in today's episode,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Adam talks about his battle overcoming drug addiction, which means
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: that some of the material to come is sensitive in nature.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: If you or someone you know is struggling with drug use,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: know that you are not alone. There are so many
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: resources out there there for you, especially online. Take a
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: look at recovery dot org or drug abuse dot com
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: for some more info.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: And with that, well, let's get to hurtle In.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: I'm sitting here today with Adam Callen, today's guest. He's
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: the co founder of Jane Motorcycles. He's a designer and
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: also an entrepreneur. Adam, I'm so happy to have.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: You here today.
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: Hey, how are you glad to be here?
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: I'm so good.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: I'm so much better now that we're sitting in this
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: recording studio and we work.
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: This place is awesome. I feel real legit right now.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: I feel like we're doing the real thing. I still
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: didn't get my hair on my makeup, but I'm gonna
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: be okay with it.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: I'm you know what, I think you look pretty good today.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: First and foremost, Adam, why don't you tell me a
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: little bit about yourself?
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: Hey, So, yeah, Adam here. I am the co founder
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: of j Motorcycles. Born and raised in Los Angeles. J
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: Motorcycles is a men's clothing company, custom motorcycle company, and
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: we have a full cafe. So we do three things motorcycles, clothing,
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: and coffee. Sounds kind of crazy, but it works. And
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: that's where I've been putting all my efforts into for
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: the last four years.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: So you and that's in Brooklyn in Wolsburg, yep, A
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: long way away from Los Angeles.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: How did you end up here? It's a good question.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: So in a prior career, I was working in fashion
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: technology and I was flying back and forth from Los
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: Angeles to New York a lot, and my old company
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: asked me if I would move to New York, and
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: they offered me a really great package, and I took
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: that opportunity to move to New York and launch our
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: New York office, and which is what I did for
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: a year. It was great, but I was not totally
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: fulfilled in what I wanted to do, and I always
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: had a fantasy and desire of open of my own gig,
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: and so I did that for a year and then
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: I met my current partner and reopened up Jane.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: Awesome.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so along the way, obviously a few bumps in
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: the road, hurdles, if you will. Why don't we kind
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: of rewind a little bit and go back in time
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: to when you may not have been at the place
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: where you were ready to start your own company.
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure. I don't know why, but I always
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: had this sense of I was different than everybody else.
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: I had this feeling that you had this world figured
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: out and I didn't have the blueprint for what was happening.
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: And what that meant was I would do whatever it
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: took to make you think that I was doing good.
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: I would. It's a form of people pleasing. I would
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: tell you lies to make you think that I was good,
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: even if my heart was crushed. If I was in
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: a really bad mood, if you came to and said, hey, Adam,
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: how are you and I was in a horrible mood,
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: I would say, I'm doing great, and I have a
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: smile on my face, and you know, that's all that
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: mattered to me, is that you thought I was doing good.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: I think a lot a lot of people.
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: A lot of people do that, man, A lot of
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: people do do that. But for me, it manifested in
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: a lot of you know, character defects.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: What were some of those who think lying?
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: For one, dishonesty was a big one for me, stealing, cheating.
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: I became a liar, a thief, a cheat, all at
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: the expense of making you think that I was doing well.
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: I used. I also had a speech impediment. I used
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: to not be able to pronounce my rs correctly. They
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: would be they would sound like w's, so it'd be like,
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: oh that wabbit, we're going hunting wabbits. I sounded like
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: Elmer Fudd. You know, it's funny. But like as a kid,
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: it made me feel different than everybody else. And I
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: always had that feeling that I was different from you
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: no matter what. And so I always had this this
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: this thing in me that like I didn't get it
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: and everybody else got this kind of like table of
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: contents for life. A big thing that happened to me
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: was my parents got divorced when I was eight years old.
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: My mom, my sister, and myself. We went from living
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: in a comfortable, you know, middle class neighborhood to a
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: somewhat of a dangerous.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: Lower class environment. And this is in California.
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: This was in California, in Los Angeles. And the thing is,
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: so we moved from like, you know, the house to
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: the really bad kind of apartment and like almost like
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: a ghetto. And the problem was I kept all of
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: my rich friends. So I had all my rich friends,
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: and I was like the poor kid keeping up with
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: all the rich friends. And so that meant I had
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: to my people pleasing skills had to be turned on overdrive.
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: I had to make sure that they knew that I
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: had all the things like they had the trips, the clothes,
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: the toys, the family, you know, like the all the things,
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: and I couldn't bear for them to know that I
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: didn't have that. So I would like, I said, I
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: would go to my friend's house. I would like steal
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: their clothes. I'd say, oh, I'm gonna let me just
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: borrow this T shirt. And then I would like never
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: with all intention of never returning it. And that was
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: just that was just a thing that I did, Like
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: I lost all integrity at a certain point. Fast forward
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: to I went to law school.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: I did greade in college. I really didn't know what
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: I wanted.
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: To do, and what I thought society told me to
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: do would be, oh, go to law school. It's a
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: great education. You'll love it. You know it can't hurt.
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: So I did that once again, following like the people
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: pleasing kind of thing, and law school was a completely
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: different environment for me. College was fun and easy and
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: I totally was able to kind of handle it with
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: a breeze. Law school was compared aditive, vicious hard. They
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: made you stand in the in a group of like
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: a hundred people, and and and and give them your opinions,
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: and and it was it was. It was hard for me.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: I think it's hard for everyone.
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm not trying to say that it's not. It
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: should be, but it was something I'd never experienced or
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: even thought that was going to be like that. Of course,
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: and you find your you find your tribe in law
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: school and I found a couple of guys that were
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: studying one night and like, hey, try this stuff. And
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: so it was, uh, it was crystal meth. I did it,
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: and this white light kind of turned on in my
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: head and I was like, oh my god, this is
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: this is this is my medicine. This is a thing
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: that's going to make life fantastic for me. It uh,
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: it made me focus something that I had a hard
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: time doing for my whole life. It made me funny,
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: It made me creative, It made me smart, It made
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: you guys laugh at me. It did all of the
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: things that I always wanted to do naturally, but I
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: needed that as kind of a crutch. So I told myself,
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: I'm like, there will never be a day where I'm
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: not going to have this on me. And it worked.
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: It worked for a long time.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: Are you paranoiding that around with that.
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: Later down the line. Yes, for sure, law school was
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: a mess. Like law school, I was never destined to
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: be a lawyer. I graduated law school by the skin
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: of my teeth, and I had multiple careers. I was
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: working in the entertainment industry. I was working for a
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: talent agency, and then I decided to did you take
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: the bar? I took the bar, and I was not
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: sober at all for the bar, and I did not
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: pass the bar. Yeah, that was a low poem for
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: me as well.
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: I can imagine. I mean, I've had so many friends.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Three of my closest to youarest friends are all lawyers,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: and that time period of studying for it, nevertheless, the
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: actual taking of the exam.
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I didn't. It wasn't in my It wasn't
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: in my heart. I didn't. I didn't feel it in
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: my bones that I really wanted to be a lawyer.
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: So I'm not making excuses. I was not, you know,
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: it was it just wasn't. It wasn't meant to be.
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: I decided to follow my creative passions, something that kind
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: of was spurred in me from a kid being poor
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: and not having any money and making my own clothes
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: and do and getting creative. And I started my own
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: clothing company and it was fantastic. I had read these
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: clothes for it was. It was for men and women.
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: It was a clothing company called Material Junkie. It was
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: back how many years ago, Gottish It has to be
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: like fifteen years ago where it was like during when
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: everybody was wearing truckers and like you know, it was
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: like a very kind of street wear type thing and
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: a lot of DJs and I had every celebrity in
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: La wearing it. It was super fun. I had great
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: success with it. And the problem with that was that's
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: when I got really heavy into my drug addiction. So
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: I was writing orders all over the world. I was,
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: you know, working with Japan, in London and New York
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: and all like the places that I wanted to be in,
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: and my my drug addiction was taking up. I associated
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: too as if you do drugs, you're going to be successful.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: And how old are you at this point?
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: I am in my late twenties, got it, Yeah, I'm
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: in my late twenties. I thought I had, you know,
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: the world by its tail. The problem is the drugs
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: stopped working. But my addiction did not stop working. So
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: that what that looks like is I really stopped caring
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: so much about my business. I really stopped caring so
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: much about paying my bills. I stopped caring about you know,
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: my friendships, my relationships, and all I want to do
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: is get high and it gets dark, you know. I I,
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: you know, got kicked out of my house because I
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: didn't pay my bills. I ended up moving in with
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: my dad, who rightfully so eventually kicked me out as well,
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: and I ended up living in my car. I was homeless,
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: and I thought I was still killing the game, you know.
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: I thought I was like, Oh, I'm this artist, I'm
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: going to be great, Like I'm going to have this
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: over I'm going to overcome this whole story. The fact
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: of the matter is I was just a scared little
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: boy with no kind of skills for life at that point.
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: That's where we, you know, have the hurdle.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: That's the hurdle.
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: That's the hurdle.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: Okay, so how does one? How does one?
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: First of all, you obviously are getting to the point
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: where you're aware that this is problematic. Where is the
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: turning point that you understand you need to do something
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: about it.
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: I saw the writing on the wall. I saw that
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: I had a problem. I saw that this was not
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: going in a direction that I wanted it to go.
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: The fact of the matter is I was living in
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: my car and my car got repossessed, so my basically
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: my house was my which was in foreclosure, so to speak.
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: And I finally told my parents that I needed help,
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: and they had been trying to get me help for
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: a while. They saw, you know, what I was doing
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: with my life, and I had been lodging them and
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: making excuses, and they finally jumped on the opportunity to
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: help me because I asked for help, and I put
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: me in a rehab where the rehab. The rehab was
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: in a place in Culver City, California. It was not
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: one of those rehabs you think there was, like, you know,
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: fancy rehabs with room surveys. I mean this was This
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: was a bare bones, smash your ego type of rehab,
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: really humbling experience, and it was the greatest thing that
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: ever could have happened to me.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: I needed that humbling.
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: And the funny thing is when you go to rehab,
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: they take you to these AA meetings and they take
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: in La where this was. They took me. They take
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: you to these big AA meetings with thousands of people. Wow,
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: And I actually ran into people that I knew growing
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: up that I did not know were sober, that had
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: amazing successful careers, that had the lights on in their eyes,
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: and I respected and I didn't know that they were sober,
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: and I was like, Wow, these people are sober. Maybe
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: I can give this a chance. And the thing that
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: I couldn't tell you what I heard or what they
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: said at my meeting at initial meetings, I was so
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: out of my mind. But I do remember laughter, like
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: real belly kind of aching laughter. And I laughed and
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: I hadn't laughed in ten years. So that was like
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: the moment where I was like, Okay, I can do this.
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: I'm going to do this. It's not pretty. I'm in
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: my early at this point, I'm in my early thirties,
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: and it's it's it's not a pretty situation. So I
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: did what they told me to do. I got I
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: got a sponsor, I you know, worked the steps.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: And you said that this in our talks previously is
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: kind of about the time that when you were starting
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: to invest in yourself and you started maybe even to
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: work out a little bit and think about being a
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: little bit more mindful.
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, but I had let my you know self slip,
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: and you know, I was eating horribly. I was eating
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: fast food every day. I was drinking slurpees every day.
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: I was I was totally out of it.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: The question really quickly though, is what flavor slurpee?
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: Coc cola?
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: Only?
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: Oh, Coke? Only coke only? Anybody that does anything else
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: is disgusting. I realized that I really needed to kind
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: of make a change. I was smoking a lot. I
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: was smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. I was
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: eating horribly. I probably gained I was like probably forty
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: fifty pounds heavier than I am today. And I realized that,
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: you know, I had to get back into the gym.
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: I had to start running. I had to like start
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: doing all the things that I loved. But the main
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: thing for me was surfing. I grew up in La
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: Surfing was what was kind of is and was and
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: still is my my my spiritual practice. There's something about
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: surfing for me that everything in the world is right
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: when I'm when I'm out there and i'm you know,
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: you're working out and you're kind of paddling and it's
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: and it's a it's a it's a good athletic experience,
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: but it helps me focus. It helps me kind of
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: hone myself, not only in the water, but outside of water,
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: you know, with my relationships, with my business, with my
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: with my fiance, like at all as well in the world.
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: If I can get a good surfing And.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: Did you feel that way from the get go with
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: surfing or was that kind of a relationship that you built.
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: From the get go? You know, surfing is one of
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: those is one of those sports that it's the learning
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: curve is not easy. It's not like skateboarding or snowboarding
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: where you kind of can figure it out a day
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: or two. So like it's a struggle at first. And
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: it took me a while once I hadn't surfed in
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: a while, and once I got back into it, I
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: was frustrated a little bit. But I've never I've never
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: had a day of surfing at the end and told myself, Wow,
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: I wish, I wish I really didn't do that.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: And I think that's interesting that surfing has kind of
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: been your go to because if you think about it,
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: the waves and getting knocked down and getting knocked down
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: so many times up until this point where you really
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: dove into serving, you were constantly getting knocked down.
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: I was totally getting knocked down. That's a great that's
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: a great way to look at it. And there's no route,
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: there's no kind of course. It's mother nature, you versus
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: mother nature. So you have to read the environment and
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: every wave is different and it's a great analogy for life.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: Taking it break quickly.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: To give the sponsor of today's episode Ultra a little
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: bit of love, I had the chance to sit down
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: with one of the brand's co founders, Golden Harper, a
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: few weeks ago in Park City, Utah, and the craziest
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: thing I got from our conversation, aside from the fact
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: that Harper actually currently holds the Guinness World Record for
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: the fastest marathon at age twelve, seriously, is that he
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: actually made the first pair of Ultras using a toaster.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: Through this crazy science project in his kitchen, Harper was
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: able to create something really special and jumpstart a rapidly
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: successful shoe line that's helping people run injury free and
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: also winning awards like Crazy. Last summer, a shoe called
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: the Escalante, which I really can't praise enough. It's one
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: of my go tos in my rotation for sprint work.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: I love wearing it when I want to feel super fast.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: It won the Runners World Editor's Choice again. It's Ultra shoes.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: Give them a look. See at Ultra running dot com.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: That's a l TR running dot com. Okay, so we're
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: back here and we're sitting with Adam Callen. Adam's talking
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: to me about how through surfing he was able to
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: find himself a little bit after battling addiction and coming
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: out of rehab. The next thing that happens for you
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: at this point, as I think we can assume, is
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: that you're thinking about going to New York.
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah. So I moved to New York. Like I said earlier,
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: I launched this New York office for my old previous employer,
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: which was great and it was a great experience. And
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: I met my current business partner when I first moved here.
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: And it's funny because he actually wanted to work for me,
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: and I told him that I was leaving I wanted
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: to start my own thing, and he actually pitched me
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: on this idea of opening up with this motorcycle shop.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: And I was like, at this point, had you ever
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: ridden a motorcycle before?
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I had ridden motorcycles before, but I was not,
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: by any stretch imagination like a hardcore motorcycle rider. And
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: I hadn't ridden in a long long time. I just
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: I rode dirt bikes as a kid. I told him that,
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: get me on a motorcycle. Let's see how it goes.
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: If I like it and I don't kill myself, let's
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: do this. I knew that there had to be a
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: a clothing design element to it, and I hated how
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: motorcycle clothing look like. It looked like everybody looks like.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: A stormtrooper from Star Wars.
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: It looks like all super technical, and I just didn't
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: identify with it. So I told him that if we're
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: going to do this, we're going to make this our
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: clothing company, and we're going to make something that you
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: can wear on the motorcycle. But it's is, you know,
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: well designed, well crafted, well produced, and it doesn't necessarily
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: look like you're riding a motorcycle.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: All right, and so you like your motorcycle experience because
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: you're sitting here and you are the co founder of
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: Jan Motorcycles.
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: It worked Yeah, it's definitely. It was fun experience. In fact,
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: we you know, I started like riding right around this
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: part of the neighborhood. My partner lived in Chelsea at
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: the time, and by within twenty minutes we were we
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: were riding up and down the West Side Highway through
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: the FDR and I took to it right away, and
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: I was like, Okay, this is it. We're going to
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: do this.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: So you did it, and so now Jane is looking
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: at do its second location.
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: We definitely want to expand to more stores. Meeting from
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: Los Angeles, it makes sense to open up a LA store,
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: not only because I have roots there and I have
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: a lot of contacts there, but the weather is nicer there. Well,
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: I was going to.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: Say, with your decision to move to New York, I mean, like,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: were you amp to get out east and go to
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: the Hampton's and Montoc I mean, where's the surfing here?
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: It's funny the surfing in New York it can be challenging.
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: You know, look today it's snowing. You know you need
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: a car or really be aggressive and take the subway.
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: But yeah, I mean I'll surf in the Rockaways, which
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: is about forty minute drive from my house and the
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: surf can be really good. But I do spend a
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: lot of time in Montalk and in the Hampton's for
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: the summer, which was really It's really fun. But yeah,
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: it can definitely be a challenge living in New York City,
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: just the hustle of getting out and you know, I'm
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: sure you know, like just getting out and doing things
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: can be a challenge in New York City definitely.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, especially on days like today where you wake
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: up and it's pouring rain and maybe in my case,
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: I have a scheduled workout class at eight am and
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: the last thing I want to do is leave that
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: apartment and figure out what questionable footwear is right for
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: the occasion.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: It's not the ideal kind of situation, no no, But.
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: As I'm sure you know, like after you actually get
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: it done, you're super happy with your decision to get.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: Out and go always every single time. So then what
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: does incorporating like wellness and fitness on the regular here
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: in New York City kind of look like for you now?
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: So, like I said, if I can get out and
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: surf as much as possible, that's my number one. That
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: obviously doesn't happen as often as I'd like. I try
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: to at least get into the gym four days a week.
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: I try to get break a sweat, you know, run.
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: I start with running, and then I started with lifting.
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: I used to do a lot of crossbit.
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: I'm a crossfitter. I know you are. Sare we share this?
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah? We did, and I look. CrossFit was amazing for me.
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: It taught me so many things. The community of crossfits incredible.
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: I learned a lot of modalities and movements that I
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: had never known before. But I started to get injured
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: in places that I really didn't like getting injured in.
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: And you know, I'm turning forty five in a month,
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: and I just could the healing process was a little slow.
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: So I'm taking a break from CrossFit right now, but
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: I'm incorporating all of the like I said, the modalities,
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: the movements, the lifting, a lot of the techniques that
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: I've learned into my daily routine. I try to meditate
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: every day.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: How's that go for you.
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: It's funny because there was a point in my life
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: where I told myself I would never be able to meditate.
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: I've been there, my being, you know, coming from like
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: that add kind of like fast brain, constantly moving, telling
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: myself that I couldn't slow down my brain. It was
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: a lie that I told myself that I couldn't meditate.
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: I used to think that you had to be in
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: lotus position, sitting on a pillow in the center of
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: a room and super uncomfortable, and if you had a
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: scratch on your nose, you couldn't scratch your nose.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: And I also feel like the people at home should
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: know that Adam just moved his hands into like a
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: meditation pose.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: I'm just sharing that with the world, so you all know.
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: You guys did miss out on a beautiful lotus poace.
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: But so I thought that that was the only way
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: you can meditate, and I that was wrong. You know.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: I actually downloaded an app.
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: Called Headspace, which I'm sure you might know of, but
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: it's super helpful for anybody trying to just kind of
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: get started.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: How long are you going for?
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: I fell off a little bit recently because the app
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: somehow deleted all my information. I had to like start
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: over again, which made me really upset. But I was
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: going strong for a while. I learned that I could
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: just sit on the couch with my feet on the
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: ground and breathe, Yeah, and check in and look. I
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: don't meditate every day, but I can tell you that
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: the days that I do meditate are one hundred percent
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: better than the days that I don't meditate.
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: And that's a great lesson to take from it. Yeah,
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: for sure, small wins, that's all. It just needs to
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: start with some small one exactly.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: So, reflecting a little bit on your experience now as
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: a small business owner, a successful small business owner, what
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: do you kind of take from your experience after rehab
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: and you really kind of hone in on the lessons
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: you learn.
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: Then, now what do you reflect on the most?
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: Do you think what's prevented me from having so many
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: experiences my life in my prior life was was being
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: afraid to take a swing at things. The beginning stages
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: of being a beginner always scared me. Now I embrace
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: being a beginner. I embrace the newness of not knowing
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: what is the next step. It's kind of a beautiful thing,
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: not knowing what to do. When you're starting something new,
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: it can be scary and you're going to fail, and
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: you have to be somewhat nimble and you have to
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: make you know moves and evolve and edit and pivot
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: and all of the things that have to happen for
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: you to continue to move forward. But if you think
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: you know it all, you and that, in my opinion,
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: is probably the worst thing that you can possibly do.
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: So be open to being a beginner. There's something really
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: beautiful in that.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: And I mean, I think something else that's important when
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: it comes to beginning is also this concept of procrastination.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: A lot of people will procrastinate beginning because it's so scary.
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: I used to be such a procrastinator. I would literally
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: I used to not make my bed, and I would
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: sit on my couch and think for twenty minutes about
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: not making my bed, and while I could have just
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: gotten up one minute, made my bed and started my
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: day off. And you know, somebody once told me when
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: I got sober that like a messy bed is a
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: messy head. And it's a stupid little saying, but like
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: whenever I come home and I see that bed that's made,
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: I know that I accomplish something and that helps. And
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: you know, for me, procrastinating, it's something that I struggle with,
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: but I know that every time I just kind of
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: get over the fear of doing something. It always works out, definitely.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: And I mean so once you start making the bed
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: in your life, right then the other things just kind
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: of start to.
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: Fall start falling, They start falling into place. I mean
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: as you kind of you get you get in a groove,
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: you start to kind of get in a groove. And
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: you know, for me, every day for me is different.
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: Every day being an entrepreneur and running a business is
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: I'm always going to have something. You know, I don't
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: have like a set schedule, but having somewhat of a
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: focus for me is the way to start off my day.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: What's one thing that you are hoping to accomplish both
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: personally and as an entrepreneur this year is.
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: Really trying to have more human connections with people.
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: Oh I like that one. Yeah, I'm really about that.
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I really want to like have more opportunities to
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: to to have those deep human interactions with people. Because
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: I can tend to have a five minute conversation with
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: somebody and think, oh that's great, I'm ready to move
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: on to the next. But me and you like looking
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: at each other and having a real like common communication
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: and interact is what I'm striving for. Is to really
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: kind of have that more in with new friends, old friends,
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: with my beautiful fiance, with you know, my family. I
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: really want to slow down a little bit.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: I think slowing down is just like the key terminology there,
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: especially in the city.
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: We're running from point A to point B. We're doing
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: twelve things at once, and that's too much.
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: It is too much, and I can be I've been
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: described as somewhat spastic in the past and somewhat you know,
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: high energy, and me, I think that's definitely something is
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: to kind of slow it down, slow it down, slow
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: it down. I mean, I can talk fast, I can
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: move my hands fast, I can do all these things.
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: But I feel that that's that's definitely on the list
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: of personal. As far as professional, I would like we
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: talked about earlier. Definitely would like to move into hopefully
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: securing a place in Los Angeles, Definitely scaling our business,
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: growing the company, which we're doing every day, hiring new people,
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: which we're doing this week and every day, but growing
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: the line, and really becoming more of the international clothing
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: company that we started.
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: We're starting right now.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: For someone that feels stuck like you did at that
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: point where you felt like you needed to be a
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: people pleaser.
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: What would you say to that kind of person right now?
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: I would say, be as authentic as of a person
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: as you can be. Stop worrying about what people think. Look,
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: I still struggle with the fact of like trying to
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: people please people, people please people.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: See as people please. There, I'm still struggling with being
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: a people pleaser.
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: Yes, wow, say that ten times fast exactly.
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: But I would say, definitely.
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: Be your authentic self.
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: And what that means is stop listening to what other
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: people tell you that you should be doing. And I'm
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: not saying to be a rebel and don't and go
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: against authority and be an anarchist, but really like listen
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: to your heart. And I wish I could have taken
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: that advice from me a long time ago. And for me,
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: it's someone who, you know, I needed to lose everything
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: to kind of really get that lesson. And I hope
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: that that doesn't have to happen to anybody else. But
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: like some people, that's the only way they learn is
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: to really like lose it all to kind of like
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: dig themselves out of kind of like a phoenix rising
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: from the ashes.
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: But I.
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: Hope that that doesn't happen. I would also say another
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: lesson that I've learned is be of service to other
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: people much as possible, is to really help somebody else out.
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: So what does that look like for you?
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: For me, it looks it manifests in a lot of ways.
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: But it's like whether just just being a good listener,
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: helping anybody out if they need a ride or if
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: they need to be picked up at the airport. It's
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: just something that can help their day be a little
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: bit better. We've something that I'm really happy with that
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: I've done recently or not recently, that what we created
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: was an AA meeting at Jane Motorcycles. It's a men's
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: meeting every Wednesday night at four thirty, I mean sorry
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: four thirty at seven thirty. We have up to like
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: fifty men come to night and it's all entrepreneurs, successful guys.
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: It's men only, and so it's everybody from like successful entrepreneurs,
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: business owners, restaurant tours, designers to somebody with one day
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: just trying to save their life. And that to me
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: is probably been one of the most rewarding things that
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: I've ever done, is to see somebody come in with
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: one day see what see the kind of group of
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: men that we've kind of put together, take them under
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: our wing and have them and see the light turned
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: back on in their eyes, to see them kind of
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: rebuild their lives, to see them get things back with
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: their family, their relationships. It's an amazing ripple effect that like,
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: it's it's one of my proudest things we've ever accomplished.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: That's outstanding.
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: The last thing I kind of want to touch upon,
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: and you were talking about it a few minutes back,
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: is just this idea of self doubt. I think that
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: it's really easy when things are uncertain to just doubt yourself.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: How today do you get past what?
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: That looks? Like?
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: Wow? I mean it's it can be scary, you know,
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: like self doubt can be super scary. And one lesson
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: that I've learned is to do a contrary action. Like
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: when you think you shouldn't you're doing something that doesn't
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: make sense, do the opposite. And I know that sounds
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: like that might not make sense, but if I'm in
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: self doubt, that obviously there's something there that is like
• 33:08
  Speaker 3: within internally that I have to kind of move forward.
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: So I will do the opposite. I like if I'm
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: scared to do a podcast, I'm going to do a podcast.
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: Look at you gout yeah, and look at you go.
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: I mean, this is an incredible experience that that you've
• 33:22
  Speaker 3: decided to do. Like, I don't know if that was
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: there was like maybe some hurdles with you. I mean,
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: I know there are, but like for you to kind
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: of start this, there might have been some self doubt.
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: Everybody told us initially that motorcycles and clothing and coffee,
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: you're stupid. What are you doing? Pick one and stick
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: to it. We we had some self doubt by listening
• 33:42
  Speaker 3: to the professionals telling us that, but we decided to
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: not listen to them, be our authentic self and take
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: a swing at it and jump in with both feet
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: and do it.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: That is the kind of advice that I think is
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: a great place to leave off. Adam, Thank you so
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: much for coming in. Thank you chatting with me.
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, this has been great.
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: Please take a moment to leave a quick review by
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: clicking the link with the description to this episode. We
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: all face multiple hurdles in life. I want to hear
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  Speaker 1: about yours. Reach out to me at Emily at hurdle
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  Speaker 1: dot us. Connect with the podcast on Instagram and Twitter
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  Speaker 1: at Hurdle Podcast, and of course feel free to stalk
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  Speaker 1: me a little bit too at Emily A Body, A
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: B B A T E. Adam, how do they find
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: you on Social?
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  Speaker 3: I'm Adam Underscore Jane Mooto or you can also find
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: Jane Motorcycles at Jane Motorcycles.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: Beautiful thing. Another hurdle conquered. See you guys next time.