In this episode of Burning the Ships, I sit down with Adrian Smude — mobile home investor, mastermind leader, mindset coach, and one of the most genuinely interesting people to come through this show. Adrian grew up literally inside a family business in Plant City, Florida, and has been wired as an entrepreneur since before he could remember.

Adrian walks through a journey that includes buying his first house at 20 years old with $1,500 out of pocket, getting evicted multiple times before he owned anything, taking a 48% loss on his second property during the 2008 cycle, surviving on tuna and Lipton noodle packets at $5 a day, and eventually finding his niche in mobile homes with land — a space he has been quietly dominating for over a decade. What makes this conversation special is that Adrian is as passionate about mindset, coaching, and personal development as he is about real estate. The two topics are completely intertwined for him, and it shows.

We also dig into his belief that 60% knowledge is enough to take action, why he has coaches for everything from business to relationships to fitness, the ripple effect of helping people, and why health span matters more than any number in a bank account.

Key Talking Points of the Episode

00:41 How Jason and Adrian met at the Dealmaker conference in Richmond

01:43 Growing up inside a family business in Plant City, Florida

02:22 House hacking before it was a thing — spaghetti wrestling parties and getting evicted constantly

03:28 The second house, the adjustable rate mortgage, and the 48% loss

09:40 Going to four to eight meetups a week and driving up to two hours to get there

10:03 Being super shy and introverted — and wearing a Ninja Turtles shirt so people would come to him

15:18 What steered him into mobile homes — cash flow was the one thing his coach helped him clarify

16:47 The ego that kept him from hiring a coach for years — and why he has had one ever since

17:53 Coaches for business, finance, relationships, health, and writing his book

27:37 Everyone who is super successful has massive failures behind them

29:18 The temptation to go back to a W2 — and why he will live under a bridge before he does

33:11 The Savannah Bananas book Fans First and how it changed how he builds his team

35:57 Running his mastermind and the ripple effect of watching others succeed

37:00 Kelly Garrett and the mentor who helped him build a competitor — and why she did it

40:37 Health and fitness as a non-negotiable — started in high school and never stopped

43:39 Health span over lifespan — what is the point of retiring if your body can't keep up

Quotables

"I was ignorant enough to not ask a million questions, so I could actually take action."

"At 60% knowledge you've got to do something. By 80% you know everything that can go wrong and you'll never move."

"I throw mud at the wall and whatever starts sticking, I do it."

"If your mindset is not right, your whole life is not right, and your business will never be right."

"There's enough sunshine for all of us. You taking some sunshine isn't taking it away from me."

"If you help enough people get what they want, you will get what you want."

"I want to not just live a long life. I want to enjoy that life I live."

"Success is in the mundane of everyday things that has to get done."

"I will live under a bridge before I go back and work for someone."

Links

608B Capital https://608bcapital.com

Adrian Smude Instagram & Facebook: search Adrian Smude Book: Trailer Cash — available on social media and Amazon

In this episode of Burning the Ships, Jason Seward flies solo to tackle a simple but counterintuitive idea that stopped him in his tracks while reading — quitting bad habits is far more impactful than starting new good ones. The premise is straightforward: you have to stop the leak before you fill the bucket.

Jason walks through what that actually looks like in real life — why people default to addition instead of subtraction, how youth masks bad habits until the body starts pushing back, and how he spent years adding intermittent fasting on top of a bad diet, too much alcohol, and no real sleep routine and wondered why nothing was changing. He breaks down the most common leaks across four categories — mental, relationship, financial, and physical — and gets personal about the ones he has had to plug himself, including impatience, a condescending tone, alcohol, distraction, and identifying himself as busy all the time.

This episode is not about adding more to your life. It is about being honest enough to look at what is quietly draining it.

Key Talking Points of the Episode

00:23 The quote that sparked this episode — quitting bad habits is more impactful than starting new good ones

00:52 The bucket analogy — you cannot fill a leaking bucket by just pouring more water in

01:34 Why adding new habits without removing old ones leads to stagnation or going backwards

02:24 Why people love addition and hate subtraction — new habits feel productive and exciting

09:12 The squirrel in the backyard — what ADHD actually looks like mid-recording

10:46 Why building new habits feels immediately productive even when the leaks are still there

11:16 Jason's intermittent fasting story — adding a new habit while everything else was still broken

13:28 When his blood work finally showed what was actually going on beneath the surface

14:47 The real change started when he stopped the leaks — not when he added more in

16:47 Sleep example — buying melatonin while still doom scrolling and eating right before bed

18:09 His current nighttime routine — sauna, shower, and calm wind-down before 10pm

20:31 Mental leaks — doom scrolling, negativity, and comparison

22:38 How he intentionally curated his Instagram feed to make scrolling less of a leak

28:27 Physical leaks — poor sleep, alcohol, junk food, and stress

29:39 The most honest admission — using alcohol to cope during the transition out of his career

31:09 Removing friction creates momentum faster than adding complexity

32:47 The boat analogy — if your boat is taking on water you do not slam the throttle down

44:16 Your next level may not require becoming someone new — it may require stopping what is keeping you from who you already could be

Quotables

"Quitting bad habits is far more impactful than starting new good ones."

"You have to stop the leak before you fill the bucket."

"Nobody wants subtraction. It is painful to take away the things you perceive as pleasurable."

"Removing friction creates momentum faster than adding complexity."

"Most people are not losing because they lack opportunity. They are losing because they keep leaking."

"That bad habit is part of your identity. So you protect it."

"I would rather hear my kids drop the F bomb than say the word can't."

"Your next level may not require becoming somebody new. It may require stopping what is keeping you from who you already could be."

"I have intentionally curated this life. So why the hell am I telling everyone how busy I am."

Links

608B Capital https://608bcapital.com

In this episode of Burning the Ships, Jason Seward flies solo to break down one of the most powerful concepts he has come across in his reading — the Pike Effect. It is a real research study, it is a little dark, and once you hear it you will not be able to stop applying it to your own life.

A researcher puts a pike — one of the most aggressive predatory fish there is — in a tank separated from its prey by a glass divider. The pike slams into that glass over and over, day after day, until it finally gives up. When the researcher removes the divider, the prey swims freely around the pike. The pike never tries again. It starves to death with the thing it needs most right in front of it.

Jason walks through what the Pike Effect looks like in real life — in business, in parenting, in personal goals — and shares three stories that bring it to life: his mother raising three kids as a single mom who refused to quit, Dan Oliver of Daniel's Seasoning who nearly gave up right before COVID launched him into a mega brand, and his own early days building 608B Capital when nothing was moving and he just kept showing up anyway. This is a short, punchy episode with a message that will stick.

Key Talking Points of the Episode

00:00 Introducing the Pike Effect and why it applies to almost everything in life

01:14 The research study — what the pike did and what happened when the glass came down

03:13 Day by day the pike keeps hitting the glass until he finally stops trying

05:40 What this means for humans — giving up right before the barrier breaks down

07:17 Every goal in life requires pushing through resistance — sometimes it seems impossible

08:12 The two reasons people stop — they lose faith in the goal or they stop believing they can break through

09:50 Jason's mom — a car accident at 16, a hard marriage, and raising three kids alone with no high school diploma

15:25 Dan Oliver of Daniel's Seasoning — grinding for years with barely any traction

16:10 How Covid broke the glass wall for Dan — and what would have happened if he had quit in December 2019

17:28 The word he banned from his house — and why he would rather hear the F word than the C word

19:22 How he handles it when JJ says he can't do something — and what happens next

20:50 The rule on mistakes — I do not care if you fail when you are making the effort

22:52 Building 608B Capital — talking to investors and getting no wires for months

24:07 Just keep banging your head into the glass divider and tweaking as you go

25:28 The breakthrough moment — when the glass finally came down and everything started compounding

26:32 JJ in baseball — tucked in right field for years and now batting leadoff on two teams

29:35 The takeaway — don't be the pike, be like JJ, be like Dan Oliver, keep going

Quotables

"75 to 80 percent of businesses get to the point where the walls are not breaking down and they just give up."

"She was life's mosquito. You are not going to knock me down."

"I would rather hear my kids drop the F bomb than say the word can't."

"I do not care if a mistake is made because you were making an effort to do something you thought you couldn't do."

"The only thing I knew to do with confidence is just keep banging my head into that glass divider day after day."

"Don't go tuck yourself in the corner and die. Go get the goal."

"Some people are just too dumb to know when to quit. And those are the ones who break through."

"Keep slamming your head into the wall. Keep thinking of ways around it, above it, through it — until something breaks."

Links

608B Capital https://608bcapital.com