Burn Up

Adam Nugent
  • 5.0 (21)
  • Self-Improvement
  • Updated Weekly

I'm not here to sugarcoat anything—I'm a single father who survived divorce, extreme heartache, limiting beliefs, and the collapse of my successful company. I've battled my weight, peaking at nearly 350 pounds, and faced such darkness that I nearly ended my own life. But today, I'm a transformed man with purpose. This podcast is your wake-up call. Join me to get inspired and hear tales from warriors who've faced their fears and failures and overcame the impossible. If I can do it, you can do it. Freedom is in the fire. Welcome - to the Burn Up Podcast!

  1. Sep 10

    You Won't Find God On Sunday

    Episode 76   Adam Nugent was raised inside a religious framework that gave him structure, certainty, and a clear story about God, life, and what comes next. Nearly ten years after leaving Mormonism and organized religion, he is still asking the questions most people are afraid to ask.   You may have been taught that God is found in the light. In the Sunday service. In the hymn that moves you. In the sermon that lands. This episode asks whether that is only the surface.   Adam makes the case that the deepest connection to God is found in the place you keep avoiding. The dark. The fear. The uncertainty. The shame. The truth you have not wanted to tell. The version of your life that is no longer working.   He shares the black pool metaphor, the clear pool where you can see the bottom and the dark pool where you cannot. He gets honest about losing his firm, reputation, and identity, then spending too long treading water through numbing, resisting, and fighting reality. The relief came when he stopped fighting and surrendered to the work underneath it.   This is a conversation about spirituality, but it is also about integrity. You can call yourself religious, spiritual, evolved, or healed. If your words and actions are not aligned, it is still a performance. The question is simple. Who are you at 3 AM when no one is watching?   You will be challenged to look at the two questions Adam now asks whenever life is not working. Are you out of alignment with your core values? What do you need to let go of?   Send Adam the word REBUILD on Instagram if this hit something real. @adamnugent   Most coaches talk about transformation. I have lived it in the most public way possible. I built a firm to $1.4 billion in assets under management and lost it publicly. I was forced to file for bankruptcy. I survived divorce and heartbreak. I shed more than 145 pounds. Everything I had built my identity around was gone. Under the weight of all of it I came closer to the edge than most men will ever admit. What came out of that darkness was a man with nothing left to hide behind and nothing left to lose. That man built Burn Up. I now work with men who have built everything that was supposed to feel like success and still feel the weight of something they cannot name. My credibility comes from having lived every word of it.     The Burn Up Podcast is for men who are done with the highlight reel. Every conversation goes past the wins to the truth underneath, what it costs to build something, what it costs to hide, and what becomes possible when a man stops pretending. No performance. Just the truth.   Follow Adam on Instagram: https://instagram.com/adamnugent   Watch the Burn Up Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@adamnugentofficial   The written work behind everything I talk about on this podcast lives on Substack: https://substack.com/@adamenugent   More about Burn Up: https://burnup.com   Freedom is in the Fire

  2. Aug 31

    If You're Chasing, They're Running

    Episode 75   Adam Nugent goes straight into chase energy, the insecure pattern that can quietly shape the way a man moves through dating, relationships, work, business, and the need to be seen. He has lived it in his marriage, committed relationships, dating life, business, and the seasons where his worth was tied to the approval of everyone around him.   If you are sending one more text after she has gone quiet, trying to win someone over who is not choosing you, over giving to earn closeness, or confusing pressure with pursuit, this conversation is for you. Chase energy is not confidence. It is insecurity dressed up as effort.   You will hear Adam break down the difference between pursuing and chasing. Why no is not personal. Why the right relationship does not need to be forced. And why the thing you are chasing may not be a woman at all. It may be approval, success, attention, money, or the hope that something outside of you will finally quiet what is happening inside.   Adam also shares the discipline and confidence that come from channeling sexual energy instead of leaking it everywhere. He has lived both sides. The man searching for validation, connection, and attention through sex and dating. And the man who deliberately chose to be alone, lock it down, build himself, and direct that energy into purpose, work, fatherhood, integrity, and the life he is becoming.   You do not have to keep chasing what is not choosing you. The work is to slow down, sit with yourself, and build enough self worth that you stop needing the world to tell you who you are.   Send Adam the word REBUILD on Instagram if this hit something real. @adamnugent   Most coaches talk about transformation. I have lived it in the most public way possible. I built a firm to $1.4 billion in assets under management and lost it publicly. I was forced to file for bankruptcy. I survived divorce and heartbreak. I shed more than 145 pounds. Everything I had built my identity around was gone. Under the weight of all of it I came closer to the edge than most men will ever admit. What came out of that darkness was a man with nothing left to hide behind and nothing left to lose. That man built Burn Up. I now work with men who have built everything that was supposed to feel like success and still feel the weight of something they cannot name. My credibility comes from having lived every word of it.   The Burn Up Podcast is for men who are done with the highlight reel. Every conversation goes past the wins to the truth underneath, what it costs to build something, what it costs to hide, and what becomes possible when a man stops pretending. No performance. Just the truth.   Follow Adam on Instagram: https://instagram.com/adamnugent   Watch the Burn Up Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@adamnugentofficial   The written work behind everything I talk about on this podcast lives on Substack: https://substack.com/@adamenugent   More about Burn Up: https://burnup.com   Freedom is in the Fire

  3. Aug 26

    You Built Your Life Around A Wound

    Episode 74   Jeff Low spent close to twenty years trying to outrun pain. He woke up before dawn, worked past midnight, built a career and a business, and stayed busy enough that he never had to stop and feel what was underneath. He came to the edge more than once. One time, his young son came running in and interrupted a plan to end his life.   That moment did not fix everything. It started a much longer process of understanding that the pain was never really about the outside. It was the story he had carried since he was a boy.   I am not enough.   If you have spent your life trying to earn your worth through work, money, achievement, relationships, or being needed by other people, this conversation is for you. If you are angry at the people closest to you, living as a chameleon, or quietly wondering why the life you built still feels empty, this is the mirror.   Adam and Jeff get into the wound so many men carry and rarely name. They talk about why worth is not something you find. It was there the whole time. They talk about why a man's anger is often loneliness underneath, why a midlife crisis is often the collapse of a life built around performance, and why a man cannot heal while he is still trying to hide the truth.   They also talk about the many ways men can numb, avoid, or outrun their pain. It may look like work, food, porn, money, sex, substances, performance, or constantly chasing the next win. The behavior is different. The wound underneath it is often the same.   You are not the thing you did. You are not the addiction, the mistake, the failure, or the wound. The work is to feel what you have spent your life trying to avoid, put down the shame, use your voice, and let other men walk beside you.   Jeff is the founder of Bonded Brotherhood, a nonprofit built to help men form real connection, friendships, and community. As a husband, father, former teacher, and business owner, he openly shares the parts of his story that are hard to say out loud so other men feel less alone.   Find Bonded Brotherhood on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bonded.brotherhood?utm_source=qr   Listen to the Bonded Brotherhood podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4kIMO2VgIlLFC36s43pOff?si=sBOhI0ZfS62UTmmfytNoAQ&utm_source=copy-link   Send Adam the word REBUILD on Instagram if this hit something real. @adamnugent   I built a firm to $1.4 billion in assets under management and lost it publicly. I was forced to file for bankruptcy. I survived divorce and heartbreak. I shed more than 145 pounds. Everything I had built my identity around was gone. Under the weight of all of it I came closer to the edge than most men will ever admit. What came out of that darkness was a man with nothing left to hide behind and nothing left to lose. That man built Burn Up. I now work with men who have built everything that was supposed to feel like success and still feel the weight of something they cannot name. My credibility comes from having lived every word of it.   The Burn Up Podcast is for men who are done with the highlight reel. Every conversation goes past the wins to the truth underneath, what it costs to build something, what it costs to hide, and what becomes possible when a man stops pretending. No performance. Just the truth.   Follow Adam on Instagram: https://instagram.com/adamnugent   Watch the Burn Up Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@adamnugentofficial   The written work behind everything I talk about on this podcast lives on Substack: https://substack.com/@adamenugent   More about Burn Up: https://burnup.com   Freedom is in the Fire

  4. Aug 12

    It's Not About Doing More

    Episode 73 It's Not About Doing More More systems. More clients. More workouts. More pushing. Men are trained to believe the answer is always more. Adam makes the opposite case. Transformation is about letting go, not doing more, and the hardest part of becoming who you want to be is releasing who you have already been. We are at 100 percent capacity every single day. To have more, more love, more money, more health, you need space, and the only way to make space is to let something go. The letting go is the painful part, because what you are releasing is tied to your identity. In this solo episode Adam discusses accepting what is and why fighting reality turns a hard moment into suffering. He recounts the night he walked into three feet of water in his basement, the insurance that never came, and the exact moment acceptance eased the tension. He talks about the ceiling men place on what they believe is possible, the guys in his fitness program who could not name an ideal weight under 250 pounds, and his own psychological wall at 270 that took years to break. He gets honest about the months he spent numbing out while he lost his firm, and how refusing to accept what was happening only multiplied the pain. The door you keep banging on is blinding you to the ten that already opened. Every hard thing that happens to you is a gift. You are the author. No one is coming to save you. You get to decide what your worth is, and then you go do the work. The Burn Up Podcast is for men who are done with the highlight reel. Every conversation goes past the wins to the truth underneath: what it costs to build something, what it costs to hide, and what becomes possible when a man stops pretending. No performance. Just the truth.   Connect With Adam:  Instagram: https://instagram.com/adamnugent Website: https://burnup.com  Substack: https://substack.com/@adamenugent

  5. Jul 15

    What Would You Walk Away From for Your Values?

    Episode 72 What are you willing to walk away from?   That is the question that tells you whether something is a core value or just a word you like the sound of. A relationship. A friendship. A deal on the table. If you are not willing to lose something to honor it, it was never a core value. It was an affirmation.   In this solo episode Adam separates three things men tend to blur together. Something you value, a core value, and an affirmation you repeat because you wish it were true. A value is a preference. An affirmation is the one you claim and do not live. A core value is a non-negotiable. There is a cost to it, and if it is truly core you are willing to walk away from anything to honor it, no matter who it is or what it means losing. Your boundaries get built around these. They are the lines you will not let anyone cross.   You do not have to wait to get tested to find yours. Look at where your time and energy already go. Adam shares examples from his own life and from the men he works with, where a man swears something is a core value, and his calendar says otherwise. Where he says one thing matters most, and his actions point somewhere else. He gets into why the thing that triggers you in other people is pointing at a value you hold, and why a value that shows up in a business deal but not in your marriage was never core to begin with.   Then he names the gap between what you say and what you do for what it is. Self-betrayal. You want to know if honesty is a core value of yours? Look in the mirror and take the real inventory. Where are you not telling the truth, and are you being honest with yourself about it? That is where the freedom is.   Send Adam the word REBUILD on Instagram if this hit something real. @adamnugent   Most coaches talk about transformation. I have lived it in the most public way possible. I built a firm to $1.4 billion in assets under management and lost it publicly. I was forced to file for bankruptcy. I survived divorce and heartbreak. I shed more than 145 pounds. Everything I had built my identity around was gone. Under the weight of all of it I came closer to the edge than most men will ever admit. What came out of that darkness was a man with nothing left to hide behind and nothing left to lose. That man built Burn Up. I now work with men who have built everything that was supposed to feel like success and still feel the weight of something they cannot name. My credibility comes from having lived every word of it. Freedom is in the Fire   The Burn Up Podcast is built for men who have lived something real or are living it right now. Every conversation pulls back the curtain on what it actually costs to build something, lose it, and come back stronger. No highlight reel. No performance. Just the truth.   Connect With Adam:  Instagram: https://instagram.com/adamnugent Website: https://burnup.com  Substack: https://substack.com/@adamenugent

  6. Jul 8

    You're Legally Divorced, Not Actually Divorced

    Episode 71 You have a legal document that says it is over. That does not mean you are actually divorced. Adam Nugent has been divorced nearly eight years. In this solo episode he shares that he felt divorced for the first time just a few weeks ago, and what it took to get there. If your ex still triggers you, if you still feel the pull, if there is still a reaction when her name comes up, the real divorce has not happened yet. The document divided the assets. It did not touch the part of you that is still outsourcing your worth to how she sees you. He holds up the mirror. Everyone wants to point the finger. He did this. She did that. Pointing it at her is the easy part. The painful part is turning it around and asking what role you played. What you brought. What you withheld. What you let slide for years. He shares the client whose real fight was never with his wife or her family, but with the version of himself who showed up in the marriage. He shares his own realization, that a piece of his worth was still tied to how his ex-wife sees him eight years later, and what it finally took to let that go. This one covers the inner dialogue that runs during a divorce, why accountability is one of the most attractive qualities a man can have, the difference between a real boundary and one you keep letting people cross, and the circle of people who will keep you locked in victim mode if you let them. You are not just divorcing her. You are divorcing the version of yourself you are no longer willing to be. Send Adam the word REBUILD on Instagram — @adamnugent — if this is where you are right now. Most coaches talk about transformation. I have lived it in the most public way possible. I built a firm to $1.4 billion in assets under management and lost it publicly. I was forced to file for bankruptcy. I survived divorce and heartbreak. I shed more than 145 pounds. Everything I had built my identity around was gone. Under the weight of all of it I came closer to the edge than most men will ever admit. What came out of that darkness was a man with nothing left to hide behind and nothing left to lose. That man built Burn Up. I now work with men who have built everything that was supposed to feel like success and still feel the weight of something they cannot name. My credibility comes from having lived every word of it. Freedom is in the fire.   The Burn Up Podcast is built for men who have lived something real or are living it right now. Every conversation pulls back the curtain on what it actually costs to build something, lose it, and come back stronger. No highlight reel. No performance. Just the truth.   Connect With Adam:  Instagram: https://instagram.com/adamnugent Website: https://burnup.com  Substack: https://substack.com/@adamenugent

  7. Jun 24

    You're Always At 100%

    Episode 70 "I only had twenty percent to give." No. You were at one hundred. I'm at one hundred. We are always at one hundred percent capacity. So if you want more in your life, you cannot pile more on top. You have to let something go first. The real reason you are stuck has nothing to do with how hard you work. It is the belief running underneath. The quiet story that you are not enough. That you are not worthy. That your worth lives in your bank account and in how other people see you. That story runs most men their entire lives. Here is why letting go is so painful. Your identity is propped up by the very things keeping you stuck. The belief. The story. The person. Let it go, and the question becomes terrifying. Who am I without it? In this solo episode Adam gets personal and raw, in the middle of letting something go in his own life right now, because he will not call a man into a fire he is not standing in himself. He goes at the wound that says you are not worthy until you check every box, and calls it what it is. A lie. You are worthy. No fine print. He talks about the power of plant medicine in the right setting as an accelerant for letting go. He talks about why most men live as performers, and what it costs to keep the mask on. What if the worst thing that ever happened to you was the thing that set you free? You would not have chosen it. You could not have seen it coming. Then you come out the other side and realize it was a gift. Adam shares the phone call from a man he had not talked to in ten years who asked the question that flipped everything. How cool is it that you get to start over? This one is about letting go. The story. The fear. The secret. The version of you that has to die so the next one can show up. So here is the invitation. Look at where you feel stuck, and ask yourself what you are really holding onto. Find one thing. Just one. Let it go.   The Burn Up Podcast is built for men who have lived something real or are living it right now. Every conversation pulls back the curtain on what it actually costs to build something, lose it, and come back stronger. No highlight reel. No performance. Just the truth.   Connect With Adam:  Instagram: https://instagram.com/adamnugent Website: https://burnup.com  Substack: https://substack.com/@adamenugent

  8. Jun 17

    The Wound Under The Weight

    Episode 69 The formula for losing weight is not complicated. A caloric deficit, adequate protein, and consistent resistance training are the core ingredients, and anyone can find them with a quick Google or ChatGPT search. The fitness industry has no shortage of programs, coaches, and systems that will tell you exactly what to eat and exactly how to move. Yet the obesity rate in America keeps climbing. Most people who lose the weight gain it back. The formula is not the problem. What is underneath the formula is. In this episode Adam gets into what the fitness industry is almost entirely missing. The emotional wound that sits underneath the weight. The reason most men turn to food is not hunger. It is pain. It is avoidance. It is a lifetime of using food to regulate emotions that never got addressed. Until you deal with that, every program, every plan, and every 75 Hard is a band-aid over something that needs real work. He also gets personal. His rock bottom with food, the night the shame of what he had just done to himself hurt more than whatever he was trying to avoid, became the beginning of everything. He shares what he discovered working with men in his fitness program who could not even identify a healthy goal weight because they did not believe it was possible for them. Men who had so much emotional weight tied to their physical body that they could not even allow themselves to imagine what healthy looked like. He talks about the moment he broke down in a dressing room after losing a hundred pounds and finally fitting into regular clothes. He also gets into what preparing for his first physique competition has brought up in him that he thought he had already healed from. This is not a fitness episode. It is an identity episode that happens to be about weight. If you have ever lost the weight and gained it back, you already know exactly what this episode is about.   The Burn Up Podcast is built for men who have lived something real or are living it right now. Every conversation pulls back the curtain on what it actually costs to build something, lose it, and come back stronger. No highlight reel. No performance. Just the truth.   Connect With Adam:  Instagram: https://instagram.com/adamnugent Website: https://burnup.com  Substack: https://substack.com/@adamenugent

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5
out of 5
21 Ratings

About

I'm not here to sugarcoat anything—I'm a single father who survived divorce, extreme heartache, limiting beliefs, and the collapse of my successful company. I've battled my weight, peaking at nearly 350 pounds, and faced such darkness that I nearly ended my own life. But today, I'm a transformed man with purpose. This podcast is your wake-up call. Join me to get inspired and hear tales from warriors who've faced their fears and failures and overcame the impossible. If I can do it, you can do it. Freedom is in the fire. Welcome - to the Burn Up Podcast!

Information

  • Creator
    Adam Nugent
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    76
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2024
  • Show Website
    Burn Up