Meet Adam Levine

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Adam Levine a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Adam, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?

I’m not sure I have such an extraordinary work ethic. I think, where as say in my parents’ generation, it was considered hard work to spend most of your waking life focusing on your job (rather than socializing or travelling or whatnot), today it is just a necessity for success. A necessity but not by any means sufficient.

So, as far as my own yardstick, I think that I work less than the small amount of hardworking friends I know, but probably harder than most of my other regular friends.

I spent much of my early life enduring some emotional and psychiatric struggles. They lasted through college and grad school and into my professional career. And while I always promised myself I wouldn’t let it rob me of any of the rest of my life, to a certain degree, when you are talking about mental health, it’s not always up to you.

Now that I have arrived at a good place where I am healthy in mind and body, I feel very grateful for the ability to work as hard as I do. On top of that, turning 40 always throws a little urgency into everyone’s life (or so I’m told), and it has for me. As I see my life rushing by I can’t believe how little I feel I’ve accomplished, especially compared with all I still want to do while I’m here.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

My current endeavor is running and growing Grave Line Tours. Grave Line Tours is Los Angeles’ only vehicular sightseeing tour operator that focuses exclusively on the morbid and macabre. We have a splendid roster of rides that span a pretty complete array of our city’s true crime, paranormal activity, haunted homes and fabulous homicides.

Each tour is conducted in a vintage Cadillac funeral limousine, which was restored custom for touring our mourners around town. They transport in both the literal and figurative sense. Combined with QR-code access to autopsy and crime-scene photos, and primary source audio like 911 calls and tv death announcements, the tours end up feeling pretty immersive. We really want to bring the crimes back in order to offer the most luscious experience for our dear mourners.

The business is only two years old and still in its fledgling state, but so far our services have been well received by the city. It’s a great honor to be the operator of murder tours in Los Angeles, and we are only the latest in a line of succession. We do not take this mantel lightly, and strive to ensure that each tour honor our predecessors. Our name, an obvious play on “Gray” Line Tours, is an homage to the first in line, the Grave Line Tours from LA in the 1980s and 1990s who drove passengers around in 1960s hearses converted into tour coaches.

I’m super psyched because we recently launched our latest tour, “Gangsters’ Paradise” and it’s a significant departure from the other routes. In contrast to our survey or premium tours, Gangsters’ delves into a relatively little mined topic, the history of the mafia in Los Angeles. I think it’s going to be quite exciting to many of our mourners.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Wow good question.

1. Humility. It may have been specific to my own upbringing, but I would have liked to have been taught some humility when I was younger. This may not on the surface seem like a business-useful trait. It’s important to interact with others from a place of respect and interest, not only because you will have a better response, but because you never stop learning. My grandma said she never met a single person who she considered stupid; if you can identify something, some knowledge or area of expertise that someone is passionate about, then anyone can teach you new skills or ideas. I’ve come to believe that business is 99% human interactions, so a little humility definitely does not hurt.

2. Passion. Find what you love, and pursue it relentlessly and unapologetically. To succeed at anything in life requires dedication, commitment and devotion at the very least. If you find what it is that makes you light up and your eyes brighten, do everything possible to turn that into some form of an occupation. Our society has these silly conventions about what job is more lucrative and which are less, but what I’ve learned over the years is that passion tosses all those conventions to the curb.

3. Learn to write. On career day in high school, I visited the Santa Monica police station, because it was the closest approximation my school offered to my stated career goal of being a forensic psychiatrist. I remember only that the thrust of the message of the department chief who spoke to us was that to be good in any field you must be able to write well. I can’t believe how true that has turned out. And, in this age of email and social media, it has only grown more so.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

Part of our central growth strategy at Grave Line is finding and collaborating with like-minded influencers and micro-influencers. It’s no secret that quality influencers is sort of oxymoronic, and it is not terribly easy to come across ones that we connect to. But whenever we do, the bond is very special.

If you or someone you know with a decent following on social is interested in partnering with Grave Line to spread the word about our morbid tours, please give me a shout. We’d love to collaborate, in the truest sense of the word, which means a win-win arrangement.

A typical Grave Line collaborator is female, predominantly Latina, with an enduring interest in true crime and the paranormal. But we work with all types…we just want to meet people who like what we do and want to experience it and help share the experience around!

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