Brainwashed To Be Broke

Adam Rother
  • 0.0 (0)
  • Entrepreneurship

Most people aren't stuck by accident. They're stuck by design. From the moment you're born, you're handed a script. What to believe, what to want, what's possible and what isn't. Most people never question it. Brainwash to Be Broke exists to change that. Hosted by Adam Rother, this show pulls back the curtain on the social programming, beliefs, and conditioning quietly running your life. The stories about money, religion, relationships, health, and identity you believe so deeply you don't even know you believe them. This isn't just about being broke financially. It's about being mentally broke. Stuck in thinking handed to you by people just as conditioned as you are. Raw, unfiltered conversations with founders, thinkers, and people who woke up, questioned everything, and rebuilt life on their own terms. If you've ever felt like something is off but couldn't name it, you're in the right place. It's time to break the script. 🔔 Subscribe and follow so you never miss an episode.

  1. 1 day ago

    Cody Jefferson: Christianity and Money Was Twisted

    Christianity and money gets twisted when people confuse a tool with a god. Cody Jefferson breaks down why money is not evil, why being broke solves nothing, and why real wealth starts with stewardship, not flexing. This conversation exposes the conditioning around school, screens, faith, fatherhood, AI, and freedom. Cody Jefferson is a former pastor who spent 13 years in ministry, led across worship, youth, executive leadership, and communication, and now works in entrepreneurship, business, and leadership. Cody explains: ■ Why the quote about money is usually taught out of context ■ How school conditions obedience before people ever enter work ■ Why screens may be training children to lose focus ■ The difference between pressure you chose and anxiety you invented ■ How he prepares his sons for an AI future nobody can predict ■ Why money can solve most problems, and what it can never touch Chapters: 00:00 Intro 00:32 Why Cody Jefferson Came on Brainwashed to Be Broke 01:47 The Rural Oklahoma Story That Shaped Him 03:38 How Ministry Became a Leadership Crash Course 05:59 The Church Funnel Nobody Talks About 08:38 How He Learned to Communicate at Scale 10:30 What Screens Are Doing to Attention 14:30 Are Parents Losing the Screen War? 16:01 The Problem With Fake Masculinity 17:39 What Christians Get Wrong About Wealth 22:55 The Problems Money Can Never Solve 25:59 Why School Never Taught You Money 30:57 Why Dirty Hands Still Matter 35:57 The Pressure You Asked For 39:02 The Lifestyle Trap That Breaks Entrepreneurs 46:32 How to Raise Kids for an AI Future 51:02 The Books That Changed His Life 53:32 Where to Find Cody Jefferson If this conversation helps you see your programming more clearly, subscribe to Brainwashed to Be Broke, like the video, comment with the biggest belief you are questioning now, and share this with one friend who needs to hear it. Follow Cody: Website - https://codyjefferson.com/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/codyjefferson/ Adam's socials: Website: https://www.brainwashedtobebroke.com X: https://x.com/adam_rother Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rotheradam/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rotheradamlive TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@rotheradam Listen to Brainwashed To Be Broke: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/brainwashed-to-be-broke/id1879032145 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6UzZfVwqPmNjyOYfDaxEGc?si=91c9a140c35247db #socialprogramming #conditioning #moneymindset #freedom #deprogramming

    54 min

  2. 5 days ago

    Business Coach Jackie Lacroix: Why Most Entrepreneurs Just Build a Fancy Job

    The employee mindset does not disappear when you quit your job. It follows you into your business, and most people never notice. Business coach Jackie LaCroix spent 12 years coaching entrepreneurs and found the same pattern every time: smart, driven people build a new cage and call it freedom. Jackie LaCroix holds degrees from Johns Hopkins and Georgetown, launched her first company at 25, and now runs Million Dollar Empire, a mastermind built to help entrepreneurs create leveraged, automated businesses that match their life, not someone else's system. Jackie explains: ◼ Why most entrepreneurs accidentally recreate a job instead of a business ◼ The childhood conditioning around winning and losing that drives panic-based decisions for years without you seeing it ◼ How confidence is actually built, and why mindset work alone is not enough ◼ Why she believes sales objections do not exist, and what is really happening when a prospect says no ◼ How she designed her business so sales and delivery run without her, and what most coaches will not admit about why they do not do the same Chapters: 00:00 Intro 02:01 Why Smart People Build a Job Instead of a Business 05:30 The Moment She Decided to Leave Academia Behind 09:18 The Real Reason She Stayed in School So Long 12:20 The Difference Between Being Led and Being Told What to Do 14:36 The Habit That Makes It Impossible for Anyone to Stop You 16:02 How School Programs You to Stay Quiet and Stay Small 20:45 How She Learned to Stop Caring What Anyone Thinks 23:30 What Survives After People Try to Take You Down 25:00 Why People Attack Others When They Are Suffering 29:00 Are We Wired This Way or Were We Trained to Be 31:10 How the School Reward System Programs You to Fear Losing 35:18 What She Is Teaching Her Kids That School Never Taught Her 39:50 The Fundamentals That Will Never Change No Matter What AI Does 44:00 Who God Actually Is, in Her Words 49:10 Why Religion and a Relationship With God Are Not the Same Thing 52:08 How to Hear the Voice of God and Filter Out the Rest 01:01:10 How to Test Whether the Voice You Hear Is Good or Not 01:10:40 How She Thinks About Sales and Why Objections Are Not Real 01:17:40 Why She Built Her Business to Run Without Her 01:29:20 What Million Dollar Empire Is and Who It Is Built For If this conversation helps you see your programming more clearly, subscribe to Brainwashed to Be Broke, like the video, comment with the biggest belief you are questioning now, and share this with one friend who needs to hear it. Follow Jackie: Website - https://www.jackielacroix.com Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jackielacroix Adam's socials: Website: https://www.brainwashedtobebroke.com X: https://x.com/adam_rother Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rotheradam/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rotheradamlive TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@rotheradam #socialprogramming #conditioning #moneymindset #freedom #deprogramming

    1hr 18min

  3. 23 Jun

    Why 99% of People Are Speculating and Calling It Investing, With Ryan D. Lee

    Financial freedom conditioning has kept most people handing their money to Wall Street and calling it investing, when by definition it is pure speculation. Ryan D. Lee retired at 32, has never lost money in 15 years, and has paid zero taxes, by following rules already written into the tax code. Ryan co-authored Retire in 10 Years or Less with Robert Allen and Robert Kiyosaki, and has helped thousands of people acquire over 4,000 single-family homes. Ryan explains: ◼ Why Warren Buffett's two rules expose what most people are actually doing with their money ◼ The three financial IQs that separate wealth builders from income earners ◼ How a life insurance vault and rentals eliminated Ryan's taxes completely ◼ Why 1971 changed the rules of money and most people never got the memo ◼ The 2008 moment that forced Ryan to admit he was on the wrong path Chapters: 00:00 Intro 01:13 What Financial Freedom Actually Means 02:07 How Wall Street Captured the Retirement Narrative 03:13 Converting Money Into Time 04:03 The Conditioning That Clicks In When You Try to Be Responsible 05:47 The 2008 Wake-Up Call That Changed Everything 06:17 Why Financial Education Is Kept Out of the System 07:49 Wall Street Is Not the Same as Investing 08:19 The Three Financial IQs You Were Never Taught 09:32 The Biggest Destroyer of Wealth Most People Ignore 10:45 The Real Definition of Investing 11:33 Are You Speculating and Calling It Investing? 13:41 The Dependency Economy and What It Costs You 14:56 The Ownership Economy: Take Back Your Time 16:00 Why Financial Statements Are Missing From Every School 17:58 How to Turn Fake Money Into Real Assets 19:18 What 1971 Did to Your Money 20:24 Your Expenses Are Someone Else's Assets 21:52 Where to Start With No Investment Portfolio 22:27 The Books That Rewired Ryan's Understanding of Money 25:07 How Ryan Actually Became Financially Free 27:35 The Vault Strategy: Life Insurance as a Private Line of Credit 29:16 How 17 Properties Built Enough Cash Flow to Walk Away 33:19 Good Debt vs. Bad Debt 36:48 Why the System Is Designed to Keep You Dependent 40:03 What Student Debt Really Does to Young People 41:41 The Game of Money Once You Stop Needing a Job If this conversation helps you see your programming more clearly, subscribe to Brainwashed to Be Broke, like the video, comment with the biggest belief you are questioning now, and share this with one friend who needs to hear it. Follow Ryan: X - https://x.com/ryandlee Website - https://retirein10years.com Book - https://retirein10years.com/book Adam's socials: Website: https://www.brainwashedtobebroke.com X: https://x.com/adam_rother Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rotheradam/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rotheradamlive TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@rotheradam #socialprogramming #financialfreedom #moneymindset #conditioning #deprogramming

    45 min

  4. 21 Jun

    AI Won't Save Your Business If You Don't Do This First w/Rachel Pedersen

    AI won't save your business if you have not slowed down to actually listen to your audience, and that is the uncomfortable truth the Queen of Social Media, Rachel Pedersen, exposes in this conversation. We have been conditioned to believe that the right tool, enough automation, and a flood of AI generated content will manufacture real connection. It will not. Rachel built two multimillion dollar companies after starting on welfare, and she has tested AI against her own writing again and again. Every time, her manual work crushed the AI version. In the AI vs human content fight, the human weirdness, the specific story, and the real voice are what people actually crave. AI won't save your business when your outreach sounds like everyone else's pitch. Authentic content marketing still beats raw volume, and the founders who build a real audience first are the ones who win the next decade. We also dig into the social programming under all of it: the money beliefs that keep founders stuck, why you can be a CEO and still wash your own dishes, and how falling in love with the boring process becomes its own deprogramming. AI won't save your business, but listening, naming your conditioning, and a voice that is unmistakably yours just might. In this episode, you will discover: - Why authentic content beats AI generated posts even when the AI sounds polished - The simple test Rachel ran that exposed exactly where AI fails - How being raised below the poverty line shaped her money beliefs and conditioning - Why she keeps her three kids completely off social media - The strange tricks she uses to do the work she secretly hates If this conversation helps you see your programming more clearly, subscribe to Brainwashed to Be Broke, like the video, comment with the biggest belief you are questioning now, and share this with one friend who needs to hear it. Adam's socials: Website: https://www.brainwashedtobebroke.com X: https://x.com/adam_rother Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rotheradam/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rotheradamlive TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@rotheradam Guest: Rachel Pedersen Social media and digital marketing strategist, USA Today bestselling author of Unfiltered Facebook: Rachel Pedersen 🔗 Free Resources: https://beacons.ai/themrspedersen 📚 Her book: Unfiltered Chapters: 00:00 Meet Rachel Pedersen the Queen of Social Media 02:19 Raised below the poverty line in ministry 03:36 Pregnant at 21 and rejecting the default path 07:31 Will AI replace real human connection 08:25 Why human weirdness beats perfect AI content 10:31 The flood of fake AI pitches in your DMs 14:50 Testing AI against her own writing and it failed 19:42 Why you should never outsource your voice 21:44 Writing 3 million words a year without AI 26:52 The real story behind her book Unfiltered 39:47 Why she keeps her kids off social media 44:38 The money belief that keeps founders stuck 46:26 Falling in love with the boring process 48:13 Tricks to do the work you secretly hate 56:23 Finding new fuel after the pain is gone #aiwontsaveyou #authenticcontent #socialprogramming #moneymindset #deprogramming

    59 min

  5. 19 Jun

    How Childhood Conditioning Programs You to Stay Small Forever It w/ Mitchell Ryan

    Most people walk through life believing their thoughts, their voice, and their choices are their own. They are not. They were written for you long before you were old enough to question them, and this episode is about tracing that writing all the way back to its source. Adam Rother sits down with Mitchell Ryan, voice and embodiment coach, to pull apart the invisible architecture of social programming that most people never examine. They start where it all begins: school. Not because school is simply bad, but because the structure itself trains a set of deeply specific behaviors. Asking permission before you move. Dreading Monday and living for Friday. Getting publicly humiliated in front of your peers the first time you got an answer wrong or spoke too loudly. These are not accidents. They are conditioning, and the beliefs they install run quietly in the background of every decision you make about money, relationships, expression, and authority for the rest of your life. Mitchell brings a precision to this conversation that most self-help content skips entirely. He makes a distinction early that reframes the whole discussion: not all programming is harmful. Language is programming. Culture is programming. Religion is programming. The question is never whether you are programmed. The question is which programs are running you toward your own potential and which ones were installed to keep you manageable for someone else's system. From there the conversation goes somewhere most people are not ready to hear. Mitchell explains that the people who build empires out of spite, to prove a teacher or a parent wrong, are still handing all their power to that person. The empire is real. The freedom is not. True reclamation of personal power is not about rebellion. It is about reconciliation, recognizing the gift in the wound, and stopping the transaction entirely. The episode then moves into what Mitchell actually works on with clients: the voice. Not as a communication tool, but as a direct readout of how safe a person feels to exist as themselves. He breaks down why the classroom shame most people experienced in childhood gets locked into the nervous system and never actually leaves. It shows up decades later as a monotone delivery, a hesitation before speaking, an inability to hold a frame under pressure, or a compulsive need to justify yourself in comment sections. That nervous system pattern is not a personality trait. It is stored conditioning waiting to be processed. What Mitchell and Adam arrive at by the end is something that cuts against the entire self-improvement industry: the goal is not to build a better performance of yourself. It is to get safe enough in your own body that what comes out of your mouth is no longer filtered through what you think people need to hear. Speaking from the heart is not a metaphor. It is a physiological state that most people have never actually inhabited because they have been too busy managing how they appear. This conversation will not tell you to be yourself. It will show you why you have not been able to, and it will name exactly what is in the way. Guest: Mitchell Ryan Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mitchell.d.ryan Hosted by Adam Rother Website: https://www.brainwashedtobebroke.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rotheradam/

    50 min

  6. 17 Jun

    School Doesn't Teach You About Money And It Is On Purpose w/Sarah Thompson

    If you have ever wondered why school doesn't teach you about money, this episode of Brainwashed to Be Broke exposes the social programming that keeps hardworking people stuck. Adam Rother sits down with affiliate marketing coach Sarah Thompson, a former healthcare worker who got a 15 cent raise and a pizza party for years of effort, then discovered passive income at 35 and felt like she had been lied to her whole life. We dig into why school doesn't teach you about money on purpose, who profits when you stay financially illiterate, and why so many believe college is a scam built to sell a feeling instead of real skills. Sarah breaks down the limiting beliefs about money she had to unlearn, the scarcity mindset passed down from a loving family, and the money guilt that quietly caps your income. You will also hear why affiliate marketing for beginners may be the simplest path to passive income, how she turned a $7 training and a Canva checklist into thousands of dollars a day, and why busyness is a distraction the system rewards. This is a conversation about deprogramming the beliefs you inherited about money, work, religion, freedom, and what you are truly worth. In this episode, you will discover: - Why school doesn't teach you about money, and who actually benefits from the gap - How a 15 cent raise pushed Sarah to discover passive income at 35 - The limiting beliefs and scarcity mindset that secretly cap your income - Why affiliate marketing for beginners can start with almost no money - How money guilt and family conditioning sabotage wealth, even for good people - Why hustle and busyness keep you broke while the system wins If this conversation helps you see your programming more clearly, subscribe to Brainwashed to Be Broke, like the video, comment with the biggest belief you are questioning now, and share this with one friend who needs to hear it. Adam's socials: Website: https://www.brainwashedtobebroke.com X: https://x.com/adam_rother Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rotheradam/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rotheradamlive TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@rotheradam Guest: Sarah Thompson Affiliate marketing coach and entrepreneur Facebook: Sarah Day Thompson Instagram: @makemoneywithsaraht Chapters: 00:00 Intro and meeting Sarah Thompson 02:24 Discovering passive income during COVID 02:53 Why she felt lied to about money 05:00 The college or fail myth in high school 06:07 Why college is largely a scam 08:49 You don't need money to start a business 10:55 Why affiliate marketing is the easiest start 17:50 Her first affiliate product and lessons 22:26 The limiting beliefs that keep you broke 25:24 Money guilt and the scarcity mindset 33:39 Why busyness is a distraction not progress 38:29 Stop taking money advice from broke people 42:23 Money beliefs from childhood 50:08 Money, marriage, and respect #socialprogramming #conditioning #moneymindset #freedom #deprogramming

    1 hr

  7. 15 Jun

    Your Environment Determines Your Future, Not Your Effort w/Bashar J Katou

    Living someone else's dream is the quiet trap most high performers never notice, and Bashar Katu spent years inside it before he broke out. He escaped the Iraq war at 16, watched his father lose a thriving factory, and then almost got programmed into becoming a doctor because that was his mother's vision of a good life, not his. This conversation exposes the conditioning that scripts your career, your money, and your sense of what is even possible. We get into why your environment determines your future far more than raw effort, how the American dream is a lie that sells comfort while quietly keeping you broke, and why your circle determines your future income whether you admit it or not. Bashar breaks down the beliefs around money, wealth, sales, and freedom that he had to unlearn, the ego that blinded him for a decade, and the deprogramming it took to stop living someone else's dream and start building his own. If you have ever sensed your goals were handed to you by family, school, religion, or plain social programming, this one will land. In this episode, you will discover: - How conditioning from family and school quietly installs a life script you never chose - Why your environment determines your future more than talent, willpower, or a degree - The doctor trap that almost cost Bashar the entrepreneurial life he actually wanted - How he went from Iraq war survival to building toward a billion dollar exit - The ego and fear of regret that keep smart people stuck and broke - Why chasing passion is a trap and what to chase instead for real freedom If this conversation helps you see your programming more clearly, subscribe to Brainwashed to Be Broke, like the video, comment with the biggest belief you are questioning now, and share this with one friend who needs to hear it. Adam's socials: Website: https://www.brainwashedtobebroke.com X: https://x.com/adam_rother Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rotheradam/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rotheradamlive TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@rotheradam Guest: Bashar Katu Founder of BJK University, serial entrepreneur Facebook: Bashar J Katou Chapters: 00:00 The life script you were programmed to follow 01:50 Escaping the Iraq war and moving to America 03:16 Almost brainwashed into becoming a doctor 04:25 Dropping out to follow his father's path 06:30 Your environment determines your future 10:03 Life in Iraq when survival was the only plan 12:32 How school and culture program you for a degree 14:56 Ego and overconfidence as the first obstacle 21:24 The Jeff Bezos regret story 24:56 Focus and beating shiny object syndrome 35:18 Forget passion, chase money and helping people 39:08 BJK University and impacting a million lives 42:36 Why brick and mortar beats online coaching 52:01 Change your circle, change your life #socialprogramming #conditioning #moneymindset #freedom #deprogramming

    54 min

  8. 13 Jun

    Money Isn't Real, And That's Why You're Still Broke w/Josh Forti

    Money isn't real, and that one fact might be the reason you feel stuck, broke, and exhausted no matter how hard you work. In this raw conversation, entrepreneur Josh Forti exposes the most invisible piece of social programming most of us carry: the belief that the dollar in your wallet is actually money. It isn't. Legally and literally, it stopped being money a long time ago, and that quiet switch is a big part of why you're broke even while doing everything right. Adam and Josh dig into how hard work got sold to us as the only path to wealth, why inflation is stealing your time and life energy without your consent, and what real freedom looks like once you separate being rich from being free. They unpack the conditioning around the money beliefs we inherit from family, school, and religion, the day a handful of men rewrote the rules of money in secret, and why sound money would change everything from your finances to your relationships to your health. Money isn't real in the way you were taught, and this is less a finance lecture and more a deprogramming session for anyone who suspects the game is rigged. In this episode, you will discover: - Why your dollars quietly stopped being money and what that does to every paycheck - How inflation works like a hidden tax that steals years of your life - The real difference between being rich and being free, and why most people chase the wrong one - The 20 apples example that makes money printing impossible to unsee - The secret meeting that changed what money meant without a single vote from you - What sound money is and why it could flip the entire system back in your favor If this conversation helps you see your programming more clearly, subscribe to Brainwashed to Be Broke, like the video, comment with the biggest belief you are questioning now, and share this with one friend who needs to hear it. Adam's socials: Website: https://www.brainwashedtobebroke.com X: https://x.com/adam_rother Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rotheradam/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rotheradamlive TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@rotheradam Guest: Josh Forti Entrepreneur, founder of The Golden Mic Method, and follower of Jesus Website: https://www.joshforti.com Facebook: Josh Forti Instagram: @joshfort YouTube: @JoshForti Chapters: 00:00 Welcome and why the truth sounds controversial 02:35 The brainwashing story that keeps you broke 04:27 Is a 20 dollar bill actually money 05:04 How they changed the meaning of money 100 years ago 07:48 Money is stored energy, so what are you working for 12:56 Rich vs free, what real freedom means 16:25 Why Bitcoin is the only real money 19:43 The 20 apples trick, how inflation steals from you 21:25 How printing money steals years of your life 25:14 You cannot prove your money is in the bank 29:34 Why prices should fall but never do 44:03 Jekyll Island and the greatest money heist 47:18 Going all in, out of the US dollar 49:25 How Elon Musk and the pursuit of truth changed him 61:17 Raising kids to live in truth #moneyisntreal #socialprogramming #soundmoney #freedom #deprogramming

    1hr 7min
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About

Most people aren't stuck by accident. They're stuck by design. From the moment you're born, you're handed a script. What to believe, what to want, what's possible and what isn't. Most people never question it. Brainwash to Be Broke exists to change that. Hosted by Adam Rother, this show pulls back the curtain on the social programming, beliefs, and conditioning quietly running your life. The stories about money, religion, relationships, health, and identity you believe so deeply you don't even know you believe them. This isn't just about being broke financially. It's about being mentally broke. Stuck in thinking handed to you by people just as conditioned as you are. Raw, unfiltered conversations with founders, thinkers, and people who woke up, questioned everything, and rebuilt life on their own terms. If you've ever felt like something is off but couldn't name it, you're in the right place. It's time to break the script. 🔔 Subscribe and follow so you never miss an episode.

Information

  • Creator
    Adam Rother
  • Years Active
    2k
  • Episodes
    62
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Adam Rother
  • Show Website
    Brainwashed To Be Broke