Some career paths don't make sense until you're looking back at them.

‍

Copier sales. Financial advisor. Co-founder. COO of the most-watched Christian TV series in history. Fractional executive for growth-stage companies.

‍

On paper, Adam Swerdlow's path looks non-linear. In practice, it looks like someone who learned to trust his intuition, and said yes to some pretty extraordinary doors when they opened.

‍

This conversation left me inspired in a way I didn't fully expect going in. And I think it'll do the same for you.

‍

‍

The Chosen, From the Inside

‍

When Adam joined The Chosen as Chief Operating Officer, the show had four employees. By the time that chapter of his career closed, it had over $100 million in annual revenue and had become the most watched Christian TV series in history. Adam was one of the key architects of what it became, not just the operational infrastructure, but the culture, the fundraising model, the people decisions that made it all possible.

‍

What did that experience teach him about building anything? That the inside of something big is always messier, more human, and more dependent on the right people than it looks from the outside. That's not a discouraging thing. It's an honest one. And it's what makes the building worth doing.

‍

‍

Trust Your Intuition

‍

This was the theme that ran through the whole conversation, and it's the one I keep coming back to.

‍

Adam has made some genuinely unconventional career moves. None of them followed an obvious playbook. All of them followed his gut. And that intuition, developed, trusted, acted on, has led him somewhere most people wouldn't have predicted from the starting point of selling copiers.

‍

The message for every entrepreneur and advisor in the middle of building something: your intuition is a gift. The more you learn to lean into it, the better your decisions get. Not every next step is going to make sense to everyone around you. It doesn't have to. It has to make sense to you.

‍

‍

People and Culture Are Never Soft Priorities

‍

Adam was emphatic about this and I want to pass it on exactly as he said it.

‍

It's the people that make the business happen.

‍

Not the strategy. Not the systems. Not the brand. The people. And the culture those people create and live inside every day. This isn't a nice idea, it's the operational reality of every organization that has built something meaningful. The leaders who treat culture as a soft priority find out eventually that it was actually the hard thing that made everything else work.

‍

Don't underinvest in people. Build the culture intentionally. Protect it like it matters, because it does.

‍

‍

The Future Is Fractional

‍

Adam makes a compelling case for fractional leadership, and having watched him build the career he's built, I think he's right.

‍

The fractional model gives growth-stage organizations access to their most valuable capital, experienced, senior leadership, without the overhead of a full-time hire. For the right stage of company, it's not a compromise. It's an advantage. Adam's work at Alpine Consulting is built on exactly that premise.

‍

‍

Niche Faster Than You Think You Need To

‍

This comes up in almost every conversation I have on this show. And Adam said it again, unprompted, naturally, because it's just true.

‍

The quicker you niche out, the better your business becomes. Full stop. If you're still trying to serve everyone, this is your reminder that specificity is the thing that unlocks everything else.

‍

‍

The Takeaway

‍

Your story is still being written. You don't know yet what doors are going to open, what opportunities are going to come, or what kind of impact you're going to make. Adam's career, from copier sales to The Chosen to fractional COO, is proof that a nonlinear path can lead somewhere extraordinary.

‍

If you're in the middle of building something and wondering if it's all going to come together, this episode is for you.

‍

Full conversation with Adam Swerdlow is live now on Beyond Referrals, Episode 15, available wherever you listen.

‍