Hill Brothers Chemical Co. - Adam Hill

 
 

Podcast Summary 

In episode #58 with Adam Hill, CEO of Hill Brothers Chemical, international speaker, and author, you will learn a proven strategy to face your fears. You will also learn how to incorporate a daily clarity break and how to prioritize your physical and mental health. 

Adam is an Ironman triathlete and the host of the Flow Over Fear podcast. I know him through the Brand Builders community. We clicked instantly and he is just such an inspirational, incredible human being. I am so excited for you to learn about him and more importantly, learn from him. 

 

Contact Information for Adam Hill 

 

Transcript 

Tia Graham: Hi, Adam. 

 

Adam Hill: Hey, Tia. How are you? 
 

Tia Graham: I'm good. I'm so excited to have you as one of my first guests for 2023. 

 

Adam Hill: It is my pleasure to be here. I'm really excited to be here.  

 

Tia Graham: I know. 
 

Adam Hill: I've been following you for a long time, by the way. Just not to be a weird stalker or anything like that, but all of the stuff that you're doing is really incredible. 
 

So it's been a blast watching you.   
 

Tia Graham: Thank you. Thank you. I hope we get to meet in person soon, cuz I feel like I know you, even though we spent so much time virtually together. So you have such an incredible, inspirational story, and we could probably spend the whole time just talking about your story, but this is where I wanna start. 
 

So, for several years, you had a lot of anxiety. You were living in an unhealthy way. You talk and share about your alcoholism and not living a path where you were thriving, probably personally and professionally, and within a very short amount of time, three or four years, you completely transformed your life. I know it positively affected your career, too, and were in Hawaii at the Ironman World Championship.  
 

Can you talk about, number one, how you started this process of transformational, huge change, and two, how you stayed on the path? And I know you've done so much since then, but I would just, I'm really curious about that period of your life, about mindset, habits, and just how you did that. 

 

Adam Hill: Yeah, so I, so the first thing that really impacted me to spark that transformation, a lot of those things that have to really trigger a, an extreme transformation or some kind of shift in mindset. A lot of times, it has to be traumatic, tragic, or some kind of really bad occurrence to have happened. 

 

That's what happened to me. It was self really self-imposed. Once I got to the bottom of my level of alcoholism, the moment I realized that I had lost complete control over my life was when I was arrested for a DUI, and that was something that had resolved I would never ever do. That was the one rule that I would never, ever break because I hated the people that did that. They killed people. They ended lives. And so when I did that, it was such a turning point for me to recognize that it led me to that mental decision that I had to make in my life. 

 

I can't control this, so either I have to end my life, or I have to get my stuff together, right? And so that's the trigger. That was the trigger that led me into Alcoholics Anonymous, which is how I got sober. And that was, by no means was I sitting in a jail cell and saying to myself, all right, this is the moment everything changes. I'm gonna; I'm gonna get sober. I'm gonna do an Ironman triathlon. I'm gonna do all of this stuff. That didn't happen. I just wanted, at that point, I just wanted to live a life that was free of that burden of alcoholism. That's what I wanted. I wanted to be free of that because I wanted to be free of that anxiety. Because ultimately, I started drinking in order to alleviate that anxiety disorder I had and I didn't know how to deal with.  
 

While it was a short amount of time between that occurrence of becoming sober and qualifying for the Ironman World Championship and doing all that, there was a lot of healing that had to happen in there and a lot of change. But I was, so that was my number one priority, or over everything else, was getting sober, becoming more, becoming a human being again. And that was more important than family, job, or anything else at that point? 
 

Tia Graham: I love how just free of burden and anxiety and everyone listening maybe isn't in that exact same situation, but I know that everyone is living with a lot of anxiety about work, family, finance, politics, you name it. And then also, I know people are feeling different burdens from all different aspects of their life too. 

 

Thank you for sharing about just the starting, starting of healing. That could be a whole other show. We could just talk about the healing piece.  

 

Adam Hill: Sure.  
 

Tia Graham: But we don't have time for that today. So I'm sure, and I know you know you have this, you had this fear, but you also inside have this resilience. You found this grit, you had this determination, and you also became really focused on health, right? Your mental health, your emotional health, obviously. Did you drive on? You have to be focusing so much on your physical health, right? And mind-body is connected.  
 

So for people listening that want to be healthier and holistic health. It is. It's all mind-body. It's everything. What advice do you have for people who are really busy and they want to, right? Everybody wants to be healthy. It's not like people are like, oh, no, I don't want to [be healthy]; everyone wants to. What advice do you have? Because you, you really made that change in a very successful way and have stuck with it. 

 

Adam Hill: Yeah. Just to get into why I made that shift from, what mindset changed from like getting healthy to, or getting sober to getting healthy and then doing all of that stuff was... The mindset shift that I really had there was going through that first year of sobriety; I learned so much. I learned the power of community that is all aligned and going in the same direction is so important toward any of the goals that we want to get to. Whether it's getting sober, you find other people who have what you want or people who are on that same journey; you're more likely to get sober if you wanna start a business or not or some kind of thing like that.  
 

You get with a group of people that are doing that or where you're at. You get mentorship; you do that thing. So those kinds of things are to really put yourself in an environment that is conducive to achieving what you want to achieve. And I'll tell you right now for health and fitness or doing an Ironman triathlon or anything like that's not gonna happen with a 90-day video series of some celebrity shouting at you from the tv. 

 

It happens with community; it happens with accountability. It happens with immersing yourself in that lifestyle. And when I learned that in sobriety and I got to that year point of sobriety, It. It was another transformative moment for me. Where I had spent that last year getting sober, and people within sobriety had told me, don't make any major life changes before that, within that first year of sobriety, and what I internalized, because I'm a weird A-type kind of person, I internalized that once you hit a year of sobriety, make a major life change. So I said...  

 

Tia Graham: Don't make any during the year, but at the year. 

 

Adam Hill: At the year, yeah, that's when you gotta do it. You gotta make a big life change. And so I looked back, and I was reflecting on that previous year and my previous life, and I remembered a moment where I was sitting on the couch in the midst of my anxiety and alcoholism, and I was watching the Ironman World Championship on television, and I remembered that time being so inspired and I remember the feeling that it gave me, it lit a fire in me, it planted a seed, and that seed went deep into my soul, and it lit, and it was just this spark. And I remember just thinking to myself so clearly, so vividly that maybe I could do something like that. 

 

As I was watching these "normal people" crossing this finish line at 17 hours, and as quickly as that thought came in, it was this simultaneous spark of excitement and fear. And that is a trigger that basically you might be onto something that is gonna push you beyond your comfort zone. 

 

For me, I leaned into the fear, and I said, "Ah, no, I could never do something like that. I'm this; I'm that; I'm an alcoholic. I smoke cigarettes; I eat junk food. I can't run more than a mile. So no, I'm not gonna do that." And I didn't think about it again. But that mindset shift that I had with a year of sobriety, it gave me that, it gave me a new perspective on that so that it put me in the environment of having that thought again. And when that thought came again and when that simultaneous excitement and fear popped up, I said, oh, this is a signal that I could push beyond that, and I have this point of reference. I got sober, which is something that I didn't think I could ever do. Now there's this other thing that I never thought that I could do in front of me; maybe I should pursue that too. And so that's what led the fire to do that. And I think too, so to answer your question, I'm sorry for the long way of getting around.  
 

Tia Graham: No. It's super helpful.  

 

Adam Hill: Yeah. But to answer your question, when I guess what I would suggest to people is if you want to make a major life change, whether it be in health, fitness, or anything like that, it has to light you up. And it has to light you. Are you setting a goal that is somebody else's goal for you? Is it societies? Is it what you believe you need to do to be acceptable to society? Do you want six-pack abs because you feel like that's just what is gonna make you sexy to whomever, or do you, but or do you want it for you, or do you want this? 

 

Tia Graham: Yeah, the intrinsic...  

 

Adam Hill: So it's gotta be, yeah. It's gotta be intrinsic. That is a wonderful word for it. And it has to be aligned with your values. It has to be aligned with your core values. It has to have a very meaningful story to you. So creating a story around it that is meaningful. And, of course, it has to have that simultaneous fear and excitement that, that pop up, that, that gives you that sense that it's pushing you a little bit beyond your comfort zone.  

 

Now, that dream, for me it was, I wanna qualify for the Ironman World Championship. So that was a dream. That was four or five years out, right? When we set goals that far out, and then we just try to take a step at a time. That's great. Take a step forward. But if we just keep doing that without really planning for it, that's where we get into that trap of New Year's resolutions failing and things like that. Because 90 days later, and it's always 90 days, that's why fitness programs are all 90 days, cuz they know that's the quit point. That's where people quit on their long-term goals. So in order to hack that system, you have to break down that dream that you have into specific yearly and quarterly specifically goals. So 90-day goals that are, that that keep you on track. Yeah. And then you reset after that point. 
 

Tia Graham: Super helpful. Yeah. I intentionally don't have it this year for several reasons, but for many years I've had a big 12-month calendar on my wall just for that of looking at it and not just doing something for 45 or 60 days because of you. It's easy to stop, right? It's that persistence that keeps you going.  
 

So, in addition to the health and the transformation, you are an expert and a thought leader on embracing fear and flow over fear. And I know about flow from the science of happiness perspective, the positive psychology perspective of getting into a state of flow, and you know what that does for our happiness when we're doing things that align with your values, and you're just so entrenched it, that time stands still and passes fast at the same time, right? You're just right when you're doing that, whether it's a sport or work or something else, parenting, et cetera. So can you share with me and with everyone listening about rising above fear, embracing fear, and flow over fear? I just really wanna learn about this. 
 

Adam Hill: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So when, and this was a really powerful realization for me, was that really when I was in my anxiety when I was living in that, and I was trying to kill it with alcohol, what a lot of us do, and it might not be alcohol, it might be, it might be, it could be anything. It could be working too hard.  
 

Tia Graham: Yeah. Netflix 

 

Adam Hill: Or, yeah, Netflix. And so any, anything like that. Anything that's an addiction. Even exercise, being that addiction, being that way of  

 

Tia Graham: I've been there, yeah.  

 

Adam Hill: Yep. Sleeping. But what we're doing is we're fighting that anxiety. We're fighting that fear, and that's really the first layer of how we experience fear. You've heard of fight or flight or freeze. That's really that first layer. We experience fear as this way of, no, we don't wanna experience it, so I'm gonna push it away, or I'm gonna run from it, or I'm just gonna sit here scared and wait for something to happen. That's the first basal experience with it. And that's what put me into alcoholism. And I think that's more of like a victim mentality of being there. You stay a victim at that moment. But there's that element too that, that we talk about where it's facing your fear, and that's where you're rising up to meet your fear, where it's at. 

 

When I got sober, when I went into AA, that was an element of facing my fears, saying, look, this is a problem. I'm admitting this is who I am, and I'm acknowledging that I'm a person that has fear. I'm admitting that I'm acknowledging that I cannot control this substance or my actions when I'm on this substance. And facing fear is not fighting it. And this, I would call it, like being a soldier, because you almost feel like when you face it, you have this courage of facing the realities but not really fighting it, but just accepting it, learning to live with it, learning to find harmony and peace in it. 
 

A soldier is really a peacemaker. So, facing fear is really when we find some element of peace with the fact that it's an element of what we have to live with. But there's another level to it, too, that many people don't want, don't really get to, and that's rising above it. That's where we rise above it to embrace fear. And this was a powerful realization because once I stopped looking at fear as something that I had to either just live with or even run from, instead, that was like a friend that was telling me, Hey, guess what? See that thing over there that's your comfort zone, and I'm telling you now that you're pushing up against it, and just beyond it is growth. If you just push right beyond that, you'll start to experience some growth. Now granted, if there's a bear in front of you and you're afraid of it, probably good not to approach the bear. But if you are approaching something that is going to help you grow, then it's probably good to lean into it. That's where fear and anxiety can be a signal, and once you can make that shift consistently, it can change your entire mindset around fear and that experience. 
 

Tia Graham: Oh my gosh, so much there. Would you say in your experience and your research and just your life and the work that you do that fear and anxiety are always connected? 

 

Adam Hill: I think they dance together. I look at anxiety as more of a generalization, like it's if you think of a sphere of anxiety, it's really, you can't pinpoint what you're afraid of at that moment, but there's really, 

 

Tia Graham: you're worried about the future, right?  

 

Adam Hill: Yeah, great point; you're worried about the future or how the past might influence your future or things like that. And so it's a fear of uncertainty almost. And so you don't know what to be afraid of, so there's this anxious energy. But the fear is more pinpointed; it's I'm afraid of bears; I'm afraid of going in this direction. But once you name it, if you name it, then you can get it down to fear. And that fear can be your friend once you say, I'm afraid of starting this business because, then you start to get to the root of it, and you could start to realize where you know what is rational fear and what might be like a signal for you to push? 
 

Tia Graham: Oh, so much good wisdom there. So you are leading approximately 150 people. So, in addition to your book and your speaking, and your great new podcast, I wanna hear a little bit about you are also simultaneously, and you're taking care of your health. You're simultaneously leading a company, a fourth-generation family company. And so I would like to hear how you, how would you describe the culture there? Because you're the, you are the leader of it, right? And you have this incredible background and these stories and these philosophies also, right? So yeah. Can you tell me about your leadership style and the culture of this company with you leading it? 

 

Adam Hill: Yeah. Great question. So our company, we're, we, as you mentioned, we're a fourth generation family business, and we, so this year we celebrate in 2023, we celebrate our 100th birthday. 

 

Tia Graham: Oh my gosh. Congrats.  

 

Adam Hill: Thanks. I know. I look great for my age. Yes. No. No, but yeah. Yeah. So that the company was started by my great-grandfather. In Los Angeles, California, in 1923, with essentially a bicycle and a phone. And he went to deliver chemicals by laundry, chemicals by bike. And it evolved to what it is today, which is over within the Western states; we sell environmental and industrial water treatment chemicals for stuff that you just don't want to think about but happen to make our lives a little easier. And the culture really around that is, is, for a business that's a legacy business, and it's not a very sexy business. You just don't; it's not like people grow up thinking, I'm gonna work for a water treatment chemical company. 
 

Tia Graham: Different than like rockets to the moon again. 

 

Adam Hill: But it is such a critical element to what our...and it's something we all take for granted. So the element of our culture is that we are a people, and what we look for is, and I think the elements of any culture is that we have a strong set of core values and a strong vision that put us all aligned in the same direction of serving our communities in this very important way and in this legacy way that we've done for so long, we, we feel such a strong commitment to our communities and a strong alignment to our communities. That's really where our desire to serve comes from. And, it creates a culture where with that, when you have a legacy culture like that, it creates a culture where you do honor the people and you start to treat people like family. And I'll say this completely, honestly, with vulnerability, that's not always a good thing.  
 

If you think a family, a family can be a wonderful thing. A family can be a group of people that get together and enjoy it. But it could also be a very disorganized thing.  
 

Tia Graham: It could be dysfunctional.  

 

Adam Hill: Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And it, it could become that, and that's where a lot of family businesses fall apart. So I think it's very important for and what, the way I try to lead the try, the way I try to lead us into the next generation is to not completely disassociate from the family environment, but associate us more as a tribe. Because when you're a tribe, a tribe is aligned with the, with the same sense of goals, with the same sense of vision, and everybody practices the roles in that tune. I think that's what our company represents when we try to serve our communities in the way we do. We want to be a tribe that serves in the same direction, but when we get in that entitlement attitude of the negative family parts, yeah, that's where it can start to follow apart a little bit. 

 

Tia Graham: No, I appreciate that. That's, yeah, and I think even if you're not a family business, a lot of organizations and leaders try to create like we are a family, yeah. And it's so funny; I actually just recently saw a TED Talk that said work is not your family. I think that's like the type, so there is that balance of having connection and community and tribe like you said. But having a be in a healthy, a healthy way that supports everyone internally and then also, and also the business growth too. And I love that you said the strong vision and core values and a key part of happiness at work are having people connected to the meaning and the purpose of work. And I hear that you do that really well by just talking about the communities you serve and how you support, how you support the communities. So I'm sure that's motivating for people. Gosh, I wish we had more time. Like I told you to do part two. If people want to read your amazing book or listen to your audiobook. Shifting gears, find your podcast. Potentially have you come to speak and just get to know you more? Where can people find you? 

 

Adam Hill: Yeah, they could find my book on Amazon or Audible; the audiobook just released. It's called Shifting Gears from Anxiety and Addiction to a Triathlon World Championship. And yeah, anything else that I'm doing, including my podcast, including hiring me as a speaker or just getting some insight for coaching or anything like that, you can reach out to adamcliffordhill.com and find me there, and I'm on all the socials too, so you can see me. 
 

Tia Graham: Perfect. Okay, so I have one last question for you. I am obsessed with happiness and spreading happiness to as many people as possible, especially busy executives that have a lot on their plates. What is a happiness tip or a happiness habit that you have that really serves? 
 

Adam Hill: That's a great question. I'm glad you asked because I just figured out my happiness hack recently, which is, thanks to my EOS implementer, the clarity break, being willing to actually remove yourself from the business and get out of the office, get out of, into nature or whatever your happy place is, and spend some time there in clarity. Do something that's non-business related, but do that and make it part of your workday. 
 

Tia Graham:  I love it. I haven't necessarily called it the clarity break before. I talk a lot about creating white space and definitely getting outside and breaks and not seeing it as separate from work. So thank you for sharing that. Very valuable happiness stat cuz it makes you a better human, and it definitely makes you a better leader, too, right? We're not designed to just go. Without definitely stopping and nature. For sure. So thank you for sharing that. Adam, it was awesome having you on the show, and thank you so much for all your insights, inspiration, and wisdom. 

Adam Hill: It was my pleasure. Thank you so much for having me here. This was awesome. 

 
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