About This Episode
Next Mile Episode 130: Forging a Path to Freedom and Independence with Adam Spiegelman. A conversation about wealth management, fintech, and the future of financial advisory firms.
with Adam Spiegelman · February 3, 2026
Next Mile Episode 130: Forging a Path to Freedom and Independence with Adam Spiegelman. A conversation about wealth management, fintech, and the future of financial advisory firms.
I've learned a long time ago, this business is not just about lining my pockets. It's not about money and fees. It's about relationships. And I'm happy to let a client go if it's not working for me, not working for my team.
[music] [music] Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of Next Mile. I am your host Kyle Vampelt, co-founder at Milemarker. And today I am joined by Adam Spiegelman. He is the founder of Spiegelman Wealth Management and he has actually successfully reached base camp at Everest and I heard that he spoke fluent Spanish at the base camp of Everest.
Adam, thanks so much for joining the show. It's great to have you, man. >> Kyle, it's great to be here. Thanks for your time today.
>> Absolutely, man. So when you're not climbing to the base camp of Everest, you are running a great financial advisory practice, but I love to ask everybody the same first question when we come into this to ease us into the conversation. So I've had over a hundred of these conversations, Adam, and I have found everybody has their own unique path into our industry. So some people maybe followed traditional family footsteps to where they're at today.
Other people didn't even know this was an industry they could work in and they came in the side door halfway through their career. But what I found is whether your path is traditional or non-traditional, everybody has what we call a money moment. And that's that moment in your life where the light bulb kind of clicks on and you go, "Yeah, this is it. This is what I want to do.
" So for you, what was that money moment that led you to having this conversation today? >> Yeah, it's really good question. I mean, I've been thinking a little bit about this. And back in 1989, I was, I think, 14, 15 years old.
My dad started a career in the financial services industry. He had been a banker for many years and started a financial planning career and I studied for my SATs, did homework on the weekends, went to the company picnics. I was kind of involved in his business per se from a young young age. And then of course life happened.
I went to school after school. I got a job at an investment management company for about 5 years. got fed up with the corporate world and called up my dad who had always been a you know a great resource and I said hey I'm kind of going to jump ship from this thing and I don't know what I want to do and he's why don't you come over and do a few projects for me and so at the end of the day I'm not sure if this was his master plan but I started slowly over time to start talking to some of his clients I again grown up in this industry and known a lot of the people that he had worked with and I don't know if this was his master plan but about after six months of doing kind small projects for him. I said, "You know what?
I'm going to give this thing a shot. " And again, he might have had this in his head all along, but that was my kind of entrance to the kind of financial services industry, >> having a background in kind of mutual funds and everything. And so that was 2004. And so I think that was my aha moment.
It was a tough start. I was I was, you know, selling insurance right off the bat, but kind of integrated into his practice initially and then building my own practice and and I think that was my money moment. I think like the aha. Wow.
This is this is pretty incredible. That's amazing. That's amazing. All right, speaking of incredible, LPL acquires Commonwealth, which was ground shaking in our space and many firms realized when that happened that they had a decision to make.
You had previously moved from one of the larger firms in the industry to Commonwealth. Did that experience give you the insights that you were looking for as you were weighing your opinions and your options? >> It kind of did. It's really interesting.
I mean, I was at a large insurance company for about 14 years that you know and moving was kind of a disaster to be honest. I mean the really really difficult. They fought me tooth and nail and I I just knew one thing that I never ever ever wanted to do this ever again. never moved to another firm and I was really really happy with Commonwealth until that day in March happened after years of saying we're never going to sell, never, never, never, never, they announced this and you know the S hit the fan and I went screaming to figure out what to do here knowing that I had of course told all my clients, told myself, told my wife, kids and I couldn't envision myself being at a a very very very large publicly traded company.
I thought Adam would be a miserable adviser and and his clients would suffer and I just I just couldn't do it. I couldn't couldn't do it. So, it was a much better transition second time around, but looking back again, I still would say I never ever want to do this again, Kyle. >> So, you never want to do this again, but you find yourself at this crossroads of do you move over to LPL?
Do you find another broker dealer or platform or something like that or is it now time for you to go do your own thing? So where did you land? What was the choice? >> Yeah, you know, I like to have a little bit of elbow room and Commonwealth gave me that.
I just felt that under this large publicly traded company that wasn't going to be the case. Not even from a compliance standpoint. I've had 25 years of kind of compliance experience and understanding all of that. And I literally set out to interview to I talked to dozens and dozens and dozens of recruiters of firms of advisors and did all of this due diligence with one purpose in mind and that was for somebody some firm some recruiter to scare me out of not wanting to go independent.
And no one could skin her people tell me compliance is a nightmare. This is a disaster. You're on your own. Nothing scared me.
And I knew I just knew in my heart of hearts that this was the absolute right thing to do. And I was one of the first people to go and I just, you know, I they they dangle this big check in front of me and it was a wonderful feeling to say no, I'm going to be independent and I'm out of here and thank you, but no thank you. >> Wow. And so what have been some of the learnings for you as you've gone independent now as you're doing this?
You know, you're on the other side, the dust has kind of settled a little bit. What are some of the big learnings for you? >> I wish I had done it sooner even maybe before having gone to Commonwealth. They're just you just have an entire different kind of perspective with freedom and whereas you know these broker dealers they'll give you three or four financial planning you know softwares to use or platforms and here it's I'm in charge.
It's me and the SEC for my clients and that's what it's always has been without the layer of additional bureaucracy in there. So remind ask me again Kyle the question sorry. >> Oh [clears throat] yeah no no problem. So the the question was okay now that the dust is settled and you're on that other side like what are some of the big learnings you've had from going independent and now what and I'll even tack on to that not only what are some of the learnings but what's the vision right where are you going with it and where do you want to take it?
>> It's really interesting cuz you know it's these are really really really good questions and all I knew initially after kind of making this move is I wanted to know I wanted to be free. I wanted to be independent. I didn't want to tuck in. I thought to myself, maybe later, but let me get situated and settled and I just need to have this space right now.
So, some of the learning lessons I think technology at the very very very top of the list. Conwell kind of did everything. Put it on a silver platter for us. And the most difficult part, I mean, the fun part is choosing and understanding.
I can use this AI, I can do this and this, but it's kind of integrating everything. Integrating everything together. this you got to have a very strong IT provider or someone that kind of understands all that integration and I had kind of resolve or I had kind of determined that if clients don't want to join me that's going to be you know up to them but this is where I'm going and I had the confidence to move and know that knew that I was doing the right thing so I don't have any regrets I'm super happy I did it and I did it I spent so much time on the front end probably hundred couple hundred hours of research and due diligence that I felt that you know things they were not perfect but they were smooth enough that I'm not sure I would change that many things going forward I was very very happy and since then I've had probably a dozen or so former colleagues at Commonwealth and other advisers that had seen the press call me up and say hey how did you do this I'm so jealous and it felt good to be in a position on the other side of it so I felt that the transition went really really really smoothly and I'm just I'm glad it's behind Yeah, no kidding. So, I think there's a lot of people who will almost daydream, for lack of a better term, about, oh, if I got to start fresh, I'd get to pick all this technology, I'd get to do all of this.
But then you look at the the Michael Kitsis map and there's 500 options there. Was it overwhelming to try and figure out, okay, what is the the actual optimal stack for Spiegelman wealth as I go out there by myself, or did you already have an idea of what you wanted to do? >> Really good question. And so I used a lot of the same technology that we had used at Commonwealth.
I just went direct with the vendor. But that Michael Kitson's map that's amazing and it's also overwhelming. But I did start to look at some of those categories. And what that really helped me with along with my attorney and you know Fidelity is the platform we use the cons the consultants and here's what you need.
That really helped me understand well there's some more categories that I hadn't even been aware of like not even document management but things that Commonwealth had been covering and stuff. So, I kind of looked under the covers or the the hood or whatever. I started to go deep into some of that and it got a little overwhelming and I did a few demos here and there. So, yeah, it's it's definitely overwhelming, but I had the basics, the financial planning, the platform and really the the foundation and then, you know, the add-ons were the ones that probably were a little bit more time consuming, but it was fun.
It was timeconuming and I was spending probably 7 days a week, 15 hour days for couple of months kind of going through all of this stuff and you know my wife says, "Huh, who are you? You're like a roommate. I haven't seen you now. " >> Oh man.
Okay. So, I've got to ask you. So, everybody knows when you go do this that you need a portfolio accounting tool. You need a custodian.
You probably need financial planning. You probably need a CRM. Was there something that surprised you in this though where you're like, "Oh, this is really cool. I hadn't really thought about this before.
Like were there any pieces of tech that as you were going through this that maybe you weren't expecting to to bring on board, but then as you went through the evaluation? >> That's yeah, another really good question. I think some of the AI stuff socks and kind of even though they say don't record, they kind of listen actively listen to the meeting and it gives you a summary of the call. It's really really good for documentation for kind of prepping for meetings in the future.
That was really really good. Black Diamond has been a blessing and a curse. I don't think I would have changed anything at the very very beginning of that or when I had selected them. But I didn't realize that the the curve is not even just kind of like this.
It's almost I mean it's just so so steep that learning curve and there's so many variables in there in a good way. But I think you've got to have an expert that kind of understands it really really well and can give you the nuance. That's something that's really impressed me is that software in particular because there are so many things and I've only kind of tapped the the surface of that, but there's so many nuances and and variables again blessing and a curse, but you can do so much to not only help create efficiencies in your business, but to help clients out as well and you know with flags and warnings and trades and buffers and all of this stuff and so it's still a learning curve, but I think the AI I think Black Diamond diamond. Those are probably the at the top of the list and I'm always looking and exploring and open to new ideas.
Sometimes I'll kick myself when something else comes out like, "Oh, I signed up for a year contract on this and that new software. " But I think, you know, there's so many players in some of these fields that it's difficult. You know, I went to a conference a few months ago and we had this breakout session and it was all on AI. I can't and like you said that the kits map, there's dozens of players out there.
Well, which one's going to be the winner? Which one's going to rise to the top? How are they going to support this? So, that's, you know, you got to kind of have to pick something and run with it.
And if it's around in a couple years or there's, you know, it that's probably a hard part and is kind of just navigating that navigating the technology. >> Yeah, I can imagine. I mean, because, you know, you didn't go and start an RA or go independent to become a technology expert, right? But you have to have technology to support you as you grow and it's something that helps make you efficient.
So, so that's really good. I'm curious, you know, as you try to figure out how to tie this together because I, you know, I'm a I'm a fan of Black Diamond. I actually worked there for a little while and I think the technology and the platform is is incredibly powerful, but you said, "Hey, Commonwealth kind of put everything on a silver platter for us. " So, I'm really curious to know, okay, Black Diamond, one of the leading providers for portfolio management, portfolio accounting in the independent space.
What was it that Commonwealth was doing that kind of made it a little bit more user friendly or put it on a silver platter for you that companies like Black Diamond or the others can learn to to support guys like you? >> It's really interesting because I think if we if we look at some of the reasons other than kind of the financial gain for some of the partners at Commonwealth, some of the reasons they alluded to or pointed to of moving and being purchased by this large publicly traded company is because they had the resources and I think to the tune of $500 million a year in technology thrown there. So who can kind of compete with that with an LPL? So I think it was draining their budget, their their revenues as well to do all that.
But I supposedly they had about 900 people working in technology at some point I believe which is astronomical. It's crazy. I might be misquing a little bit but I think it was a very very large in the hundreds of number. So and their systems were not perfect but they were really really good.
Their CRM and it was all custom. So again, blessing and a curse and I'm not sure what happens with that system at LPL, but they the trading platform was terrific. You know, they used it was Wellscape and we didn't see the Wellscape essentially. It was their program software that they put together and they had so many people working on it that it ran really smoothly.
I think one of the key differences is that yes, they were catering to the masses, but it wasn't 30,000 advisors, it was, you know, 18,900 advisors. So it was a very very boutique personal touch. You could call up the technology department and put a suggestion in a request for something and they would do it a lot of the time. So that's what I really liked about it.
So it was it was very flexible. They would make changes on the fly just for you. And I'm not sure that many firms had the ability to do that. So that's what made it so great.
>> I love it. That's a great answer and I think it's helpful because really what I heard you say is number one they had a bunch of people investing in what this was but number two if you and I go start a technology company tomorrow we're probably trying to reach 30,000 40,000 50,000 adviserss and they said deliberately no we are building this for a contingent of 1,800 1900 2,000 advisors that we have almost specifically bringing the niche down on that and having a secondary or uh several other revenue streams beyond okay we're just a platform company or technology that's really unique to hear you say that. >> Now, I'm not sure that that was the best, you know, model financially ultimately. Maybe in 1979 when Joe Dij started the firm, but I think it was costing them too much money and that was a big big issue towards the end as things just kind of exploded over the last 10 or 15 years.
I'm not certain that nobody told me this, but kind of I think they were just overwhelmed with the expense of it. >> Yeah, no kidding. This podcast is brought to you by Turncast. We make game-changing content for fintech and financial services companies.
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Tell me a little bit about the vision for your firm as you want to grow. So you've gone independent, you have these values of what you want to do as a firm, but what what are you thinking about? Is it are you going to try and get other people to join the fold? Are you like what's the what's the vision for Spagleman Wealth?
>> I love this boutique serviceoriented organization. I grew up kind of other than being in this financial services world on the weekends and picnics and things with my dad. I was also I was a valet when I was in my teens. I worked in a supermarket.
I worked as a waiter and all of these serviceoriented and I you know my mom my parents sent me to Catillian. I'm very serviceoriented. You come to my house and you know I'm the one serving the coffee to the guests and doing the dishes and like I I don't I like serving people and I was thinking a lot about this as I was thinking about what we're going to talk about today. And that was you know I like to talk to my clients and sometimes they're surprised.
You answer the phone, Adam? Yes, I answer the phone. I have 155 clients. I've kept it deliberately small and I don't think at this juncture, Kyle, and I I want to go to 500 clients or a thousand.
I'm not sure I want to have 10 advisors working under me. Funny enough, I' we've got three boys. My 18-year-old, a middle child said, you know, he's starting to express some interest. I'm not sure if he's looking at kind of a a lifestyle interest or he's looking at, hey, there's a lot of work that goes into this.
So, more to come. But as far as kind of expanding it, we're selective on who comes into the business. As far as clients go, I've had my assistants have been with me for 25 years, 22 and 25 years. So, they really, really know the clients.
The clients know them. And that's how I really, at least for the foreseeable future, I want to keep it that way. I'm not interested in tucking in to another, you know, RAIA. I don't want to be bought out.
I've got a lot of energy. I'm 51 years old and I plan on doing this, knock on wood, that my health continues to stay good for a long, long time and maybe bring my kids in. >> All right, so I've got to ask you then a question I love to ask people. >> I think this statement I want to offer great service is kind of a dare I say a throwaway statement, right?
Or it's almost like a table stake statement when it comes to this industry because this industry is service providers. But I also think it is an aspirational statement. But you said, "Hey, I did catilian. I did some of these other things.
" Like, what does great service mean to you besides picking up the phone? >> I'll give you a very good example. Just this morning, I sent an email out to all my clients about tax documents. It's a little bit of a complicated year because we transition.
So, they're going to have two sets of tax documents, two 1099s. And with the online version, you know, Fidelity, the the platform forces you to, at least initially, it's opt into receiving paper. So, by default, it's paperless. So, it's confusing.
Most of my clients are retired and some of them don't go online. So, I sent out this email this morning. Here's some information on how to you get your tax documents. And then I thought, you know what?
I'd like to give them a little bit more assistance. So, I went into to I use a I use Calendarly and I went in there and I set up a 20 minute, you know, one-on-one meeting with me with Adam and I sent that link out to all my clients and I said, "You know what? During the tax season, if you want, I can get on the phone with you. We can call Fidelity.
We'll call Commonwealth. " Just small little touches like that. If you went out, if you told me that you're going on a cruise with your family, I would, you know, in a a very subtle manner ask you, "Oh, when? Oh, where?
" And I would find a way to deliver something to your stateateroom. I don't know. Just crazy stuff like that that I don't have a operating procedure for. It comes from here, but it's bending over backwards, I guess, a little bit.
And just thinking of not only, you know, just the client, of course, that's the table stakes, but it's putting myself in their shoes. What are they thinking about? How can I help them? What's concerning them?
What, you know, are the, you know, their grandkids are the most important in their life? what can we do to I don't know things like that and just it's beyond service. Everyone has service. So it's I think it's those little little things where I make myself available.
I try to respond immediately within an hour or two or whatever. And just I want clients to know that I'm here. I'm available. I'm reachable and they can ask me anything about anything.
And I see myself as being extremely resourceful. So even when I don't know something, I'm going to find it out and and go down that path to figure it out, whatever it is, regardless of what industry it's associated with or subject. I love it. So what I'm hearing you saying is, hey, I'm going to stay the size I am.
I'm not trying to go grow this thing into this big old behemoth thing or whatever. I think you use the term boutique, but if you want to bring on more households and everything like that, is, you know, what does it look like? Are we hiring more people? Are you trying to figure out how to use technology to be able to serve more households?
You know, at a certain point, you can't be that responsive to everybody, right? So, >> I think I am at the point where I'm getting to be at capacity. I never thought I would be there, but I am starting to feel that a little bit. And maybe it's because of the burden or the load in a good way, but the RAIA takes a lot of my time.
But I'm figuring that out. In other words, you know, 6 months into it, 7 months into it, I'm still kind of getting my systems and getting adjusted and used to this. So, I'm going to take the next 6 months, the next year to really determine, can I be my very best that I was before to my clients in this capacity or maybe I do bring on a junior advisor to help out with some of those smaller clients, maybe automate them. But that it is potentially bringing someone on, but not I don't want, you know, 10 advisors.
So, it's to help out with some of the smaller accounts potentially. And yes, I am I feel that I am reaching getting very near to to capacity, but I it's a new phenomenon for me. >> Understood. Well, and for those who can't see, you've got a background there of the Golden Gate Bridge.
You live out in the East Bay in the Bay Area. Do you focus on a specific niche out in the Bay Area? Like obviously technology comes to mind, but I know there's plenty of other stuff out there or and is most of your client list in the Bay Area or are you national? Tell me a little bit more about that.
>> Yeah, most of the clients in the Bay Area. I've got a pocket in Sacramento, some lobbyists, former Chevron employees. I've got some in Palm Springs and a few scattered throughout the country. I have a fairly deep roots.
I was born in San Francisco. I believe I'm a fourth generation. Actually, my son, my oldest son was born in San Francisco as well. So, five generations of San Franciscans and we know a lot of people have a fairly substantial network here.
I don't typically concentrate on the the technology side. I found that younger people values maybe not align all the time with large sums of stock and that's a whole different beast. I love love love older age group and not even you know old old 60s7s and it's not because they have a lot of money. I've learned a long time ago this business is not just about lining my pockets.
I mean obviously it's not about money and fees. It's about relationships and I I'm happy to let a client go if it's not working for me, not working for my team. So, I want good people and it's usually retirees or those closing in or getting close to retirement. And most of these people are savvy, sophisticated, they have problems that I have to get creative with.
Sometimes I have to be very resourceful with. And I love that challenge. I tell them it's like solving a puzzle. and they know oftentimes a lot more than me about a lot of topics and they might not have thought of something.
So we collaborate together, we brainstorm and I love being a resource in that manner for them kind of them helping them kind of solve these problems and you know these clients are sophisticated. A lot of them could do this on their own, but they want to rely on someone else because they want to be off, you know, scuba diving, fly fishing, uh, seeing their grandkids, whatever, traveling. >> Yeah, that's awesome, man. That's awesome.
I love that. All right, I have to ask you one of my favorite questions as we move into a segment here. I'm going to ask you to get out your crystal ball, and I want you to peer into it. Obviously, this is a time make where making predictions feels crazy, but look a couple years into the future.
3 five years in the future and what do you think are some of the things that are going to happen in and around our industry that you're trying to prepare your firm for? >> Yeah, again really good questions Kyle. I think when I think about this I see technology playing probably a a greater role. I think already that a lot of the pure not stock picking but some of the the modeling that's becoming commoditized I think.
So, not only just, you know, AI to not replace all of that. I think you're always going to have need a human element with someone or a team that can think, but I think AI technology is going to be a much much greater factor. I think there's probably going to be some feed compression. I think I see clients as, you know, as the next generation rises up, clients doing a lot of this, some of it on their own or at least wanting to be more interactive.
For example, with our financial planning tool, I've literally just recently in the last month or so have had a couple of clients want to input all of their information in there. And I think that trend I see that is kind of continuing. I see people as wanting to take more charge of their finances. They're more detail oriented.
Gone are the days of pension plans, government, you know, kind of providing all that support. So, they're wanting to take charge and they're looking at things. they're it's a lot different than the you know their their parents grandparents generation where they were provided with all of that. So I think taking charge of their finances, you know, learning more about that, having the tools to push back, to ask, to compare not only performance but fees.
I'm just blown away. I met with a son of a a good client. This child was he's in his 20s. So knowledgeable that like, wow, I wish I had been that knowledgeable.
So I think I see people learning more, utilizing technology, and I think that trend is going to continue at a pretty pretty rapid pace over the next, you know, five and 10 years. That's awesome. I love it. I love it.
Great answer. Okay. And then so that moves us into the final segment of the show. We call this the milearker minute.
It's a series of lightning round questions aimed to get to know you a little bit better outside of the firm. So are you ready for the mile marker minute? >> I am ready. Let's do it.
>> Okay. If you could travel anywhere in the world you've never been to before, where would you go? >> I would go on a safari to Africa. >> I love it.
Great answer. You are a fluent Spanish speaker right now. If you could speak another language fluently, which one would you choose? >> Hebrew.
>> Oh, great answer. Okay. I love it. Are you a mountains person or a beach person?
>> Mountains. >> What is the best road trip you've ever been on? Vegas in college at UCLA in 1995 with friends from from LA. [clears throat] >> Is that what they based the movie The Hangover off of?
>> Oh, you didn't know that? Yes. [laughter] >> Unbelievable. What is the best flavor of ice cream?
>> Oh, definitely vanilla. >> Okay. All right. >> What's the best book you've read or listened to in the past year?
>> A Gentleman in Moscow. >> Okay. All right. So, Milemarker is a platform that powers progress.
And so, we love progress here at Milearker. This would be for your personal life, not your professional life. But I want you to finish this sentence. Progress is blank.
Achievement. >> Okay. I like that. Good job.
All right. There's an alternate universe. And in this alternate universe, your career has nothing to do with financial services whatsoever. What is Adam doing in this alternate universe for a career?
>> I'm a physician. >> Physician. Okay. You hiked to the base camp of Everest.
Is there any other kind of bucket list hikes that you would love to accomplish next after the Everest? >> Kilimanjaro in there's a mountain range in Argentina that I want to go to. I hiked Mount Whitney last year, but I think I'd like to go back there and Mount Reineer. So, yeah, I've got a few a few of them.
My buddy's been trying to get me to go do this climb at Reneer where it's like half ice, half whatever. And you have to you got to have the ice picks and it sounds really intense. >> It's intense. I had a friend that just did it.
It's extremely intense and it's exhausting. You get very very little sleep and it's uh a little dicey. I'm not one to be into kind of technical climbing with all of that, but it's not super technical. But yeah, you have have to have crampons and the ice picks and everything.
>> Yeah, that's next level, man. Normally I would wrap up the show here, but I actually think we have this unique opportunity to talk about you climbing to the base camp of Everest. So it's pretty well documented like, hey, this is a tough and difficult thing. It's hard and whatever.
But for you, like recount that journey for us a little bit and what what were like some of the lessons learned from making that climb and what was kind of expected and okay, we knew this was coming and then what are some of the things you're like, hey, nobody talks about this, but this was also a big component of it. >> Yeah, it's really really really interesting. I'm so passionate about it. I loved every every minute of it, I think.
Although there were some times, and I'll tell you about it, when I was up at 4 in the morning, freezing freezing cold, even in my, you know, negative 15° sleeping bag. So, the actual trek itself is actually it's not hard. You go maybe 4 to 6 hours a day or something like that, and it's only five to seven miles, a few sometimes a few miles less, a few times more. What's the most difficult part of the entire trek is the altitude.
And so when you're over 14, 15,000 feet, 16, 17, we went up to almost 19,000 ft because there's base camps at 176 and there's this little, they call it a dirt pile. We went up to see the sunrise on Everest. Got up at 3 in the morning and that's close to 19,000. And I never understood because I was really passionate about watching people climb.
by the way, I have no interest in kind of going up to to the top ever. I think some of it's kind of pay to play and it's just it's polluted up there and I just I'm happy and satisfied just having gone to base count. So, I never understood why people are just they're so slow when you watch these climbers on Everest. And I mean, I knew in the back of my head and like consciously, you know, like, okay, there's not much oxygen, but I felt it for the first time.
So, you're at 18 19,000 ft and you're only able to step. So that was the probably the this something that I hadn't really really prepared known about. You can't prepare for that. I mean even if you're climbing on an altitude and then you come down off the mountain you lose that kind of experience I guess.
So or or for your lungs. So that and then I don't mind cold weather but you know we stayed in these tea houses where you've got a a pit toilet and as you go up the mountain the resources become a lot less meaning at the the you know you're having there's maybe some fresh vegetables during the the bottom at the top you're getting like dried stuff, canned stuff. There's no protein or anything like that. They're using yak dung because you're above the tree line and that's what they use to to make the fires.
But it was really this incredible peaceful emotional experience and I'm still in touch. There were, you know, we had a group of six of us and we're still in touch. We get away every year and it was just so impactful. I think everyone should do something like that.
It was really it was beautiful. Really, really, really beautiful and challenging from an altitude standpoint. And really, it was it was inspirational. >> That's amazing, man.
That's so cool that you've done that. It's not often that you get to run into somebody who's even made it there like you're saying. I think there's a lot of people for ego or whatever they want to go to the very very top, but Base Camp by itself is that's incredible, man. And so, thank you for recounting that for us and for dropping all of your knowledge and wisdom and insights here for the audience of Next Mile.
Thank you, Kyle. It's been great speaking with you. You've got great questions and I really enjoy your podcast and and what you're doing for our industry. Thank you.
Thank you so much. >> Yeah, of course, man. Of course. Thanks for coming on.
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