Adam Metwally is a 34-year-old Australian who moved to New York two years ago on a gut feeling, and is now building a media business around his health and wellness podcast, That One Time. A civil engineering grad who left the field and went from opening a nightclub mid-degree to running events full time to betting on media.

We talked with Adam about the long left turn, cold emailing WIRED's co-founder, and why he would never start a podcast again now that he knows what it takes.👇

I'm a 34-year-old Australian guy who moved to New York City two years ago on a gut feeling. It started as a four-day holiday that turned into six weeks, about 50 hours of DJ gigs, a nightclub investment, and a ton of connections.

Right now the main thing I'm building is a media business: my health and wellness podcast, content on my personal social, and strategy, editing, and content agency services for corporate clients and people building their personal brands. Off the back of that, when good opportunities come up, I invest in startups.

It's basically a media to investment flywheel. And on weekends I DJ for some extra money and for fun.

I have a double degree in civil engineering and business. I was just following what my dad did. He was an engineer, I didn't really know what I wanted to do, so I started engineering. Then about three years into a five-year degree, I opened a nightclub, and it took off. That left-hand turned my whole life away from the normal nine to five into nightlife, hospitality, events, and music. I did that pretty much full time from 2016 to 2020. Then I tried to turn it into a scaling business, Covid hit, and it all fell apart. 

It kept falling apart, I kept trying to scale, made a bunch of mistakes, lost a bunch of money, wound down the business, and moved to New York into content and media, with a bit of music still in there because that comes naturally.

Health and wellness has always been a core hobby of my life: the gym, supplements, biohacking, cold plunges, saunas, meditation. I've read pretty much all of the health and mindset books people tell you to read. At some point I noticed I was genuinely influencing people around me, my sister, a girlfriend, a roommate, and I thought, I actually have something useful here, maybe there's a better format to share it. I didn't want to become a coach, so content was the next logical step. I didn't want to do short-form video because making content never came easy to me, so I started a podcast thinking it would be the easier path. 

Little did I know it's quite the opposite. But I'd been obsessed with podcasts since around 2014 and they were really impactful in my life, so the medium came naturally. Talking came naturally. It was just a matter of getting good at it.

I just cold emailed him.

Early on I interviewed a guy named Conor Bayton, who does men's mental health content. I'd followed him for a while and he had maybe a quarter of a million on Instagram, so I DM'd him and he answered. This was around episode 30, and I'm now past 150. At the end he said, hey man, you're really good at this, you should keep going. 

That was the first time anyone had said that to me, and it wasn't a friend gassing me up. It was a complete stranger who had been on Modern Wisdom and a bunch of big shows. That's etched into my brain. He came back on, we met in person, we're friendly now, and he introduced me to a bunch of other people who also came on.

Don't waste time. Honestly, if I were starting again knowing what I know now, I'd never do it. But now that I've started, I can never stop until it's a success, purely out of stubbornness. 

Joking aside, focus on the niche first. Unless you already have a big following in your own world and a clear direction, really stop and think about what you're trying to achieve with any media you build, who the audience actually is, and what you want them to do. 

Are you funneling them into a business, or just building a show and locking in for five years? Because it will not be easy. I have editors and I still spend at least a couple of days a week on one episode a week.

Just clips and word of mouth. No ads, no events. And trying my best to make a product that's actually worth people's time. If I'm honest, I haven't achieved that yet. I'm so far from where I want to be. It feels like the beginning and I'm already three years in.

Australians are very friendly on the outward, but people are indirect in how they navigate interactions, so it's harder to gauge someone's intentions. There's also tall poppy syndrome back home, where anyone who stands out or talks openly about big ambitions tends to get cut down. Here, and especially in New York, people are straightforward and really receptive to giving people a shot. It's just, we're doing this, come along if you want, no worries if you don't. I work much better with a clear "here's where I'm at" attitude. People will genuinely give you a shot here.

Just listen to the pod. If you like it, send us a message and tell us what you liked, which episode and why, and how it could be better.

Favorite book? Sapiens, though I've come to see flaws in the thinking as I've gotten older. Otherwise, The Way of the Superior Man by David Deida and The Creative Act by Rick Rubin.

Favorite podcast? I'm listening to Bible in a Year every day right now. My other favorite is Moonshots with Peter Diamandis, which covers frontier tech and AI in a way that's about the breakthroughs happening rather than everything falling apart.

Favorite entrepreneur, dead or alive, you'd want to meet, and why? Elon Musk

Current hype song? "Decode" by Paramore 

Favorite basketball team? Lakers

Favorite player? Kobe

Favorite game you've witnessed? I had tickets to Game 1, Cavs versus Knicks, and watched that 20-point comeback in real time.

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