Adam Baugh
Adam Baugh is a partner at Withey Morris, PLC where he has been practicing land use and zoning law since 2007. He is an experienced problem-solver with a talent for removing obstacles that impede development. He regularly works with city councils, planning commissions, and neighborhood groups in representing landowners, developers and businesses in building their communities.
Adam, along with business partner Jason Morris, host Dirt To Development, a podcast featuring insane stories and insights from industry experts, city staff and intriguing community personalities.
Episode Transcription
Guiding Growth. Conversations with Community Leaders. In this podcast, we'll explore the human journey of leaders, their stories of humility, triumph roadblocks, and lessons learned. Come join us as we journey together and uncover the questions you've always wanted to know. This podcast is brought to you by the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce, providing resources, connections, and belonging for business professionals and rocket space. An event and meeting venue in the heart of the East Valley with a full-service four-person podcast studio. Today's guest is a family man married to his wife, Kim for 21 years and father to five kiddos.
He grew up in an air force family landing in socal by third grade through high school. He made his way to by BYU and eventually attended law school at Arizona State University. He is a wheel of Fortune contestant with several, several aliases, but we know him as a partner and owner of Whitney Morris. The man who makes communities come to life, welcome at a bar. Oh yeah, thanks so much. I feel like I probably should have scaled that down. Sounds kind of nerdy. Well, Sarah does her best to try and make them sound fabulous, but you know, well you can't help but be fabulous.
It's just who you are trying my best. Hey, we're so glad you're here. Let's start off with what we call rapid fire. There we go. Would you rather find your dream job or win the lottery? I'd rather win the lottery and that's pretty simple. Right? I shouldn't have spent so much time thinking about that battle between like what you should say and what you want Exactly. I said what I, what I wanted to say, which is win the lottery, there's no need to work. So then what's your guilty pleasure?
I get the pleasure. Okay, this is embarrassing. But I'm supposed to be like professional and all that kind of stuff. I can get, I can get lost on reels there. So I feel like it's so juvenile. Like I, I'm an adult, you know, I have like five kids. I'm supposed to create humans and training to be good and I'm busy like watching somebody get kicked in the nuts on fail army or something like that. I don't see anything wrong with. I feel like I'm just wasting away, but you get trapped.
It's like, it's like just getting sucked away time and all of a sudden you're still on the toilet and two hours later would you rather host a party for all your friends or enjoy a dinner for two? I'd love to host a party for a lot of friends. Bring it on the party? Yeah, I can have dinner with kim any time alone boy quotes. Have you ever moved across country? Yeah, lots of times. Would you ever appear on a reality show? Yes, I would love to, definitely please somebody hook it up.
I want to be on that. I actually, besides you mentioned the world fortune, I got listed to be on family feud and then they canceled it, Which this was um Gosh, it was probably like 92 93 you know that you know, you know the guy because on Saturdays during the summer you would you would watch it when you're home from school. It was like syndicated and they canceled. So I actually got my family on the show were we had the letter, we had a date, recorded everything and something like that.
It was before or literally the most distracting rapid fire guests. Go ahead. That put me on that reality show. What's your favorite dessert, dessert? Um cheesecake, strawberry cheesecake. What song makes you smile? There's a lot of just because I see you grappling once again. Oops, I did it again. I mean should I said that it's Britney Spears in 1999. Are you more cautious or bold? Oh, I'm cautious. What's your favorite rainy day activity? Does it ever rain here? Yeah, I'd say just throw on a D. V. D. Do people even do Dvds anymore?
I don't, I still do like indiana jones on the like the set, that glass half full, half empty, half full all the time. Okay, Gilbert city lifestyles is a locally owned publication whose mission is to find and share great stories in our community and help build a stronger, more vibrant local experience, become a digital subscriber at city lifestyles dot com forward slash Gilbert. Alright, let's go back contestant on Wheel of fortune. So I grew up watching game shows during the summer because what you did had nothing else to do.
And we grew up in southern California in riverside, it's kind of hot. So you'd stay inside when I came to Arizona for law school and my wife as a nurse, we could barely afford the house, we had nothing, so I got an antenna and I could get like four channels abc cbs, fox PBS, right? So between like 3 30 to 5 30 they have the game show jeopardy, Will Fortune and one other one. And I saw that they're doing a phoenix episode. And at this point I lived in phoenix for like eight weeks, just brand new.
So I went down to the copper square downtown phoenix and they had this open audition in the street and I just stuffed the box full of a bunch of different pseudonyms, you know, adam bought Gary baba, ace bar and probably a dozen different versions of my name in this little, you know, box And they drew my name out of like a crowd of like 1000 something people. Ace, ace got drawn. So I knew that you were looking for someone who was just spastic. So I just overreacted and jumped up and down and hollered and ran up on the stage.
I didn't solve any of the problems, I was barely knew how to play the game show, but I was just enough energy for them to call me back for like a second round. So then the next day I went to a hotel, downtown phoenix And played games for two or three hours and they just tapped on the shoulder and tell you to leave the room and the room got Smalling and smaller and smaller too. It's just me and let's say like 30 or 40 other people. And they said, Hey, if you're, if you're on the show we'll call you up.
And then like a week went by and I got a call, it was his uh, his ace father. Yes, he is. And so they made the show and they said, is your name really ace? I said, you know, for the show you just call me adam. So I got on the show is february of 2004 at this point it was the phoenix show and I'd only been in phoenix for just a couple of months and it's probably somewhere on Youtube or wherever. But I had a problem on the day of the show, had cotton mouth really bad.
So when I would say letters, my lip would stick to my guns and they told me to project really loud, but I look like I'm just yelling at the stage. So it's just a guy whose lips are stuck to his guns yelling, they're like, what happened to this man, why is he on the TV show? I was nervous, I was trying my best, I remembered all letters, but I think there's 26 Um I made, I won a game, made like $3500 and I took the money and went to Sweden for two weeks and that's awesome.
I also had like $9,000 in the game. I just kept spending because I was greedy and I land on bankruptcy. I was so mad but my lip was hanging in my gum so I couldn't show anger. Look I was just smiling. Oh no, well I have to say a bit of a character adam bought. So you're one of six kids And your mom tells the story of holding you and knowing that you are going to grow up to do great things, which I think as a mom, like I just love that story.
So first of all no pressure on the other five, she said to Oliver where are you in the lineup? I was the fifth of six kids, like older brothers, about 10 years older than me and then there's a bunch of sisters and then me another side and then another sister after me. So I believed it. Um you know, I don't even know if my wife knows that story, but um you know my mom raised us right and she would deliver yellow phone books out of our minivan and she would teach piano classes or dance classes, but my dad was an Air force and that was kind of our life.
So raising six kids is hard to do. But um, you know, we always felt a lot of love in our family and I think my mom just made me, made me feel special. Whether it was something she told everybody else, I don't know. But um, I remember her even giving me like my youth journal that she had recorded and her, she had written in there that same thought and sentiment and so I felt like I was meant to do something or something very important because my mom made me believe it.
So it was, you know, great mom to have, that's awesome. I think you gotta wonder now did she say that to all the kids or either one? Yeah, I don't know. She probably did. She probably did. I'm sure she likes them better than me. But so hard question. Do you feel like you lived up to her expectations? Oh man. Why would you ask him that? I mean to be honest, I feel like a failure and I'm not doing this podcast. I mean, I don't know, I hope so.
I mean, I think I'm trying to live up to it right. I mean just, you know, I think, um, the most part try to speak kid, a good person, get human, whatever raise my kids to be good. But um, yeah, I guess it's up to mom. We should bring her on the podcast. We should definitely come on. If you want to give a shout out to joan, we can do that. It is joan. Hey, thanks for listening, joan but with your dad being there in the military, gone a lot. Yeah.
Well you know, my dad was, my dad was lieutenant colonel in the air force at the end of it. And so we lived in Virginia Alabama texas and in Guam and when I moved to Guam, it was just, there was no place better to be 67 and eight years old. You know, the island felt huge. Although it's a really, really smile and, and you can go anywhere on the base because it was safe and there was geckos and there was lizards And so dad would do his job.
But you know, mom raised us and dad would come home and then he'd go then volunteer civically, you know, church or the optimist club or other types of things. He was very, he was a great example of how to, you know, give you know your time back publicly. But you know, I think we moved so much. We all just kind of had a rally. Right. And so I didn't have as bad as my older siblings who I think how to find new friends every two years, You know, that's gonna be really tough when you're calling high school middle school when you're younger, you just kinda go with it.
So as long as there was like a gable with transformers or G I joe and I could figure it out and just make friends as you could. So I know well anyone who knows, you knows that you are, you are an optimist and you are always bringing positive energy to the conversation. Your, one of your mottoes, positivity wins um sounds like your parents had a big influence on that. Is there anyone else that might have influenced your, your attitude over the course of time? I don't know if there's any particular person, but just, I don't know why you waste your energy on something negative, you know, I mean there's a lot, it's all kind, you can find bad news anywhere you look and you have a really good friend who helps me out tremendously, a lot of things but it is funny how we are so much yin, yang and to me it's just like, he's like look at this problem, I'm like we can move, we can solve it and I don't know what the solution is going to be, we'll find a way and like I just rather put my energy into something that's far more productive, makes me happy.
So I'm definitely a positive person that guides my outlook, it takes a lot to get me, I'm easily angered, don't get me wrong, I'm super impatient but yeah, but I mean for the most part, I think generally positive and as a result I feel like I live a healthy life, I feel like I have a lot of, a lot of joy, a lot of happiness, the things I do and surround myself with, you know, kind of align with Maya look and so I find success in what I do and I think a lot of it has to be because I choose just to be positive and find a way forward like that.
Yeah, we gotta think model in our office here about choosing the right attitude. You can choose how you want your day to go write a lot of people, let that circumstantial stuff get to them and you know, bad things happen every day, Great things happen every day, but you have to choose which path you want to go right? And that's what you're basically saying and I like that, that's Yeah, and it doesn't mean that some stuff just doesn't suck. It does, but I mean if I dwell on it all, it means is it just delayed me finding success on the next round or moving forward with an important decision.
I just can't, you can't spend a lot of time you deal with it and then you just move on And find a way to still be successful? Do you feel like you carry that into your family life as well or I mean, do you invest even, you know the story about your mom, do you have that type of messaging towards your Children to 100%. I'm always trying to do with my kids and they'll probably listen to it and be like, yeah, right, you never do that for us.
But it's intentional. Just yesterday morning, I got up at 5:30 with my son to go spend some time together doing some church stuff Last night, I got home from work around nine and I texted my daughter who's just going from college and I said, let's go work out together trying to create those moments and just finding ways to buoy them up for them. So my one daughter noticed that I was calling my other son, um partner all the time and she said, well, like, who am I? You're a champ.
So he's partner and she's champ. And so trying to do in many ways, kind of like what my mom did for me, I felt like I was important. I was going to do some amazing stuff because she told me that and I found it in writing and so I believed it. So I tried to that my kids a lot, you know, tomorrow my daughter's running state track championships last night, I sat down and said, I want to show you this video from last year, Look how hard you competed if you compete like that tomorrow, you're going to do better than that and just giving them like that, that that confidence in themselves.
And I think I was given that comments by my parents and other folks. If I could give that same gift to them? I think they'll rise up to it? Absolutely, they will. Yeah, I find that interesting too because I run to that with my kids where they often will notice me doing something with one and not the other. And there's this little bit of like, you don't want to call it favoritism, but like sense that, right? So that's interesting. You bring that up resonates with me a little bit.
But yes, so then going forward As you kind of moved on, you had mentioned something about a mission trip that you had to serve in 19, how that really was a pivotal point in your life. Talk to us about that. Yeah, you gotta understand when I was 17, 18, 19 years old in southern California. I, I loved doing a couple of things going to punk rock concerts. I was huge into that music and singing and skateboarding and surfing. I mean it was still far from the beach, but it was what we did.
We, we'd stay up, we go to the concert, friday night, stay up and watch the surf videos that you get the swap meet and then at five am leave and go down to trestles and surf trestles and so that was our friday saturday team forever and it was a fun little time. But um, I went away to college and there was something about being away from the home and kind of being independent. That lets you think, what, who am I like? What do I believe in? What are my kind of core instincts And this probably is way to, to beyond where they really what I was thinking.
But it was enough to make me reflect back and at the time I said, you know, I was like really hot girlfriend that never really had a girlfriend before and had time in my life and I, there was something more important for me then. And that was a chance for me to just go, I'm gonna go give to two years to go do a service mission. And so I thought I was gonna go to brazil or Vietnam or someplace, you know, foreign instead I got called Atlanta Georgia spanish speaking, which you know, who would think right.
It was the best experience ever happened to me and it helped me learn to live independent. It helped me learn to really just give my time for tears to somebody else or some person or some group or some family and leaving outside of yourself really. I wish everybody could have experience what's Peace corps or volunteering abroad or some type of humanitarian service or my case of missionary service learning to not be selfish and give your time talent. Everybody else set me on a path that's probably had the greatest influence in my life going forward.
I learned the language, I learned how to lead, I had a chance to lead leadership opportunities in that place, learn how to to serve people, learn how to empathize, learn how to meet somebody have nothing in common and in a minute break down those barriers and walls and so these are skill sets. I literally apply every day in my life and my business with my employees with my family. Like So much traces back that moment, 19. So it sounds like the biggest one was putting you not number one to right?
You mentioned that your your focus on other people now. 100%. It was so weird to come back And you know now it's 21 and and go back to Adam bought time, go to college, try to find a job instead of for last year's. I've just done everything for everybody else. I mean you would stay up late thinking how can I help? So and so how did you end up? So you come back from your mission? How did you end up at Arizona state? So I went to BYU and finished college, got a degree in political science.
I loved, I learned that I loved that. I thought I was going to be a dentist and took some english classes, hated both ideas. Quickly learned. That's not what you wanna do, took political science. I loved tremendously and I did not want to be a professor. So the next course was just law school came to Arizona because Arizona had a program that you could volunteer down at the detention center in Eloy for immigrants. And so because I have been spanish speaking and I paid my way through college by, by teaching at the school district english as a second language.
So I taught kindergarten through like sixth grade as like a call me a teacher, just like an aide probably. And then I teach adult citizenship classes in the evening so that I felt compelled that I should go serve these people. And so I came to ask you because they had this pro bono program down at Ely, spent a year volunteering down there. And I realized that's definitely not what I want to do. It was good to have the experience, but I opening that, that's not how I want to raise my family or have a practice.
And by coincidence, I got an internship with the city attorney's office in Tempe, and then another internship with the mayor of phoenix Phil Gordon at the time. And that's when my eyes opened to what is how does the city grow, what are decisions that get made? How do they get made? And I'd go to the city council meetings to, you know, get my student hours and I'd see applicants get up and present maybe for a liquor license or a zone change or a, you know, feral cat issue or something like that.
Yeah, yeah, right. And I could see the difference between these guys who come in. They would, they're just very charismatic and they had this art on how they could persuade the council to say yes and I didn't know what that was. But whatever it was, I wanted to be turned out that that was called his own attorney. And so once I discovered that then it was my whole focus was become who those people are. So that's the beginning of where I ended up today. Yeah. So let's talk about that.
What really is your day job? Like what do you actually do, What do you do? Let's translate it for me. When I was doing a summer internship in las Vegas for this, I saw how they worked and it was really a relationship with business and I could see how these city council member or excuse me, the zone attorneys would work with the commissioners of the city council members or neighbors and they just had this sort of natural way of connecting with them. And I realized this was a relationship that had been years in the making and my business is relationships, that's all it is.
And the way I got my job was because I convinced the guy who was the owner of the law firm to just let me take you to breakfast and let me work for free If you could let me work for free, I could prove my value and eventually pay me like $25 an hour something after some time. But I literally manipulating my way into a job Of the law firm that I'm now the owner of 16 years later. And, and I think that success only happens because of the friendships that we've been able to create over the years and they have to be real.
They have to be authentic. People will see through that all day long and I think that's where I've been able to thrive, is building those real relationships and they take time. Like you just can't meet somebody and then have an ask. In fact anyways, I find you have to serve them first. So you know, there's value there that you're trying to provide before they're willing to help you out and um it's not like the long game or a con game, but it's a very reciprocal relationship and so I always try to help others first.
I know sometime down the road there will be a need and they'll be able to help me back out and it works out perfect. Yeah, that's a good theory. So do you find most rewarding about what you do now? Um you know, I love, so a lot of people don't wake up in the morning, like I gotta go to work or it's a monday or something. I love, I love what I do if I wasn't doing this, I think being an attorney would probably be a crummy job, but I love that I get to build a community up and I'm just one small part in how it gets done.
It's not my project, that's not my investment. I didn't negotiate the deal, but when they come to me and they say, hey, we want to build this master plan community or we want to build um this business park or I just a small business owner, I just want to open my dream business and then they come to me and say, how do I do this? I help create the strategy and the vision and the pathway forward and I love driving by and saying to my kids, you see this building right here, like daddy had a role, this is I did this.
They don't know, I don't know if they think that means I built it with my hands or if I like finance. I don't know if they completely understand it, but they know I had a role in it. So I just wonder if it has ice cream, it's great. I mean I love going by american furniture warehouse. They don't know the background, all the weird things that happen to make, to make it the deal work or going downtown Gilbert and point out the different projects we've worked on, but there's some pride, I feel like I'm helping build a community and I can see tangibly where I've had a role in it.
And so that to me is like the greatest satisfaction. You mentioned some of your successes really attributed to times of failure. Um a little bit about summer law clerk being a pivotal moment. Take us back to that time, what happened and what were you going through? You know, people used to not talk about these kind of failures because we live like this, like very fake life. Yeah, but um I have, I have learned that there's been many great moments in my life that have come from failing and also sharing those failures.
So I'll tell you this, my wife was pregnant with our second kid and I got this dream summer clerkship in las Vegas. They come out from Las Vegas to interview like 200 law students and they may be given a job. Like one guy, I got the job, I had no business getting this job, I was not smart at all. Yeah, the ace, ace shined that day. I conned my way into this summer clerkship and I had an enjoyable experience. But the idea is that you clerk for the summer because they're going to give you a job at the end of summer and they brought in like maybe five clerks from across the nation and it's a hard thing to leave your family for a summer, especially when your wife's pregnant.
But if you know the payoff at the end is a great job you're set and um you know, I made a mistake that summer and it was a harmless mistake, but you know, it was a fatal mistake for um, you know, a future career. I think I had, you know, uh had visited with somebody about the case and they didn't really like, you know, me getting too familiar with the case. And so at the end of time I had a great experience and I think they had a great experience, but I I didn't get the Red Rose right at the end of the summer.
And I think only like one or two of the five of us even got offered the job. I mean, come on, I just put my family on ice while I had gone to a different state. Come on, my mom told me I was special. So, um, you know, it's tough. I remember feeling kind of super embarrassed, you know, that I had and everybody's expecting, I was going to get this job. Family members and kim and everybody else. And so it was embarrassing to not get the job.
And it's totally, yeah, I mean, it's kind of like, how do you go back and start over again? And I'm not from Arizona. So I didn't have local connections out here really, was starting from the beginning, but honestly, you look back and that was the best thing ever happened to me. You know, I've been able to live in Gilbert for 19 years. I've raised five kids in there where they are so much um good here. They thrive in this community. They thrive because they have these teachers that just love them, they have friends in the community that supports the parents of the friends, kind of are like a village that rally for them when kim and I can't be there um a church group where they feel valued and so I just don't feel like I would have gotten the same experience in Vegas and I know I wouldn't have, and in so many ways I always, I'm thankful for that moment of thought and I've had a few of them since then, but I share that because we, there's this polished image that's out there and it's good, it's good to know, kind of like your successes sometimes lead from a failed moment and you know, my family is not perfect, but we've we've grown a lot because we made a bunch of mistakes and we just continue to evolve and do better.
That's that's absolutely how it goes. And I love the positivity wins in this moment. That's great. It's my favorite part of this entire process of podcasting is we do, we take so many people at surface level and there's so much more to it. And so I appreciate hearing stories like yours and recognizing that, you know, because you are such a respected leader in our community and I think that it could easily be assumed that you just have had an easy ride all the way through and everything in life is always perfect for you.
So she got that from your mom. You know, and it is and it isn't. I mean I people have had so many more challenges than anything I've experienced. But um I'll tell you that it's selfish to live in this community and not give back, we all get so much benefit from it. And so when I would observe my dad, when he retired from the Air Force, he became deputy, became the assistant to the city manager and the city's HR director. And so I saw what city Hall was like through the eyes of a 12 year old kid, right?
I got dragged to the opening of the first dog pound or the expansion of the senior living center. Right? We got a ping pong table because it came out of the old one. And so city Hall was part of our life. So when I live in this community, I feel like it's my obligation. I I'm obligated to give back in some degree or form and so you'll see Sarah knows, you'll see me around at different things which volunteering or participating in a committee or um service activity.
It's just, I feel like I can't give enough for the value that I'm getting back by living the community and that's not just in town, but the relationships that we've created in this area and the folks that have made me and give me the success I have and taking care of my family who we are like, there's probably not, I can't repay it back because it's been so great. Yeah, well I certainly our community is better for people like you and others that do the sealing. So thanks.
What's next for you? What's the future look like? Great question. I think my, my job is fantastic. I enjoy what I do tremendously and I hope to have more success that. But I'm in the middle of creating another company that is an extension of what we do. It's called permit concierge and what we find is a lot of small business owners just don't know how to navigate city hall and if they just wanna get a sign permit or get a tenant improvement permit so they can finally build out their space, but they just throw their hands up because they know how to create signs or they know how to draw blueprints because they're an architect, but they don't know how to get through the permitting system.
And so we are creating a company that helps people get through the molasses of the permanent process. So helping small businesses get closer to launch is the plan and we're working on it right now and sparking some entrepreneurialism in your own kids, right? Yeah, yeah. So that's kind of fun. Um, I don't know if my kids really like all the entrepreneurial lessons I keep trying to give them, they will someday. But yeah, my kids um through the pandemic, we had these paddle boards in the garage and they said, let's do something with it.
And so we help them create a paddleboard rental company. And so the kids, you know their eighth grade to high school and they're out there paddleboards and so then my son said, noticed that he said, well I want to do it. So he went and bought some kayaks and how he rents out kayaks and then, and I knew the moment had hit pinnacle peak when we're in the kitchen talking and kim and I were discussing, I think something maybe like getting a boat or like, or something like recreationally and really is like, and I was complaining because some cheap water and I was like, you know, it's going to cost us money and then there's the maintenance and Wrigley who at the time was like the third or fourth grade goes well dad, if you just rent it out, it just pays for itself.
And I looked at him and I had to tear my like the lessons. Yes, it worked. I love you, you can have all the paddleboard business this week. So yeah, I want my kids to learn to be independent and we all jobs are important to teach your skill sets, but um, there's something about being a business owner and it's hard, sometimes it's scary, there's blanks in the schedule, but there's, there's so much good that comes out of that, that anytime I can I try to help him kind of own the independence of this little gig that they got going on, so I just I'm so proud of them.
That's awesome. Thank you. Thanks for being here today. I'm a pleasure. This is probably the lowest reviewed episode, but I'm glad to be a part of it. I think this has been a good conversation, so thank you for being here. Thanks so much. So I know you love this episode, just like we did and there's plenty more to go. So if you like this, please subscribe to our tribe and join us as we interview more candidates just like this gentleman today. Thanks for being here, guiding growth conversations with community leaders.
Ben, let me ask you a question. How do you see other community members being involved in this podcast? This is going to be a great opportunity for so many people in the community to have a chance to be heard if they want to tell their story or if they just want to be part of this journey with us and help sponsor in a way that helps bring more people to the table with us. So, I think there's many opportunities at hand whether you want to again be on the show, reach out to us, let us know what your story is and how you think you could be part of it.
We'd love to hear from you, reach out, let us know, and we'll see if we can make that connection.
