Adversity Architect - Scaling a Business, Redefining Success, & Resilience in Business - BM2

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Melody [: 00:00:00

Hello, my business misfit. I feel like today's guest, Edwina Adams, has done it all. She's a military veteran, retired paramedic, and entrepreneur with nearly 2 decades of experience, a published author, speaker, podcast host, and a thought leader in her field. The other thing to know about Edwina is that she has really survived incredible challenges. She was married to a con man and obviously didn't know it. She had a near death experience a few years ago that forced big changes in her life, but those challenges led her to where she is now. She turned those seasons of adversity into fuel for her mission. Edwina believes that adversity is our greatest asset and that we can thrive in life and business no matter what we've been through.

Melody [: 00:00:49

When I think of business misfits that I resonate with, Edwina comes to mind first because we have both been female trailblazers in our former industries. I know this to be true because our industry is worth dominated 99% by men, and we're both ladies. It's not an easy space to be seen. She's also encouraged and inspired me to start this podcast. I wanted a podcast for years, but my brain likes to lie to me. And for a decade, it told me I wasn't ready. But Edwina told me I was, and when she started her podcast, it really inspired me to finally take action and start my own. So thank you, Edwina.

Melody [: 00:01:27

You're a misfit now. Welcome to the club. Hello, business human. Are you a misfit? A person who wants to make a difference in this business world. Are you one of the unconventional? The visionaries? The quiet innovators? The heart centered leaders? The purpose driven? The community builders? The givers? Then you are my people. I used to think business was a secret formula to be discovered and followed, but now I know it isn't a set of rules. It's an exciting creative adventure, and I wanna be on that adventure with you. I am your lady of business, Melody Edwards.

Melody [: 00:02:07

Welcome to the Business Misfits podcast. Okay, Edwina, let's just get right into it. Are you a business misfit? And if so, why? What makes you one?

Edwina Adams [: 00:02:23

I think I am. And I would say I am because with a misfit, you just don't fit in a box, right? And I don't know what box I would fit in if there were a bunch of boxes in front of me. So I definitely would say I'm a business misfit because of that. Like I'm open to change. I'm flexible as far as like with life and business because you have to be. So I think that makes part of being a misfit.

Melody [: 00:02:50

And what has your history been in business? Like, tell us a little bit about what your background is.

Edwina Adams [: 00:02:57

So this is 2024 as of this recording, October, and I entered into the business entrepreneurial world in 2008. I was still even at that time, a captain in an EMS service. I was a paramedic and I was also still in the Air Force Reserve as a flight medic and I thought, hey, let's start a business. Right. Again, because I'm a business misfit. Yeah. That's what he does. Right? So that's when I first started and it was just like a small local service.

Edwina Adams [: 00:03:33

It actually took off, but I learned a lot and I learned why I had to shut it down was because I kind of positioned that business so that it was the clients wanted me, only me. So I couldn't really grow and expand because I had great clients, but I couldn't be everywhere at all times. So that was awesome. Like I said, because I really learned a lot and I was like, okay, so I did this right. I did that right. The marketing was great. People like me. I can follow through on this, but I totally have to set it up different next time.

Edwina Adams [: 00:04:08

And that became very valuable to businesses later. Right. Because I shut that one down and by that time, he wasn't my husband at the time, my second husband, but we were together already and he had started a transportation business. So I just started, I dove in and started helping him. And we grew that pretty big, sold it. And then I started my 3rd business. And I took all those lessons that I learned from that first one, was able to set it up the right way so that people weren't, you know, I wasn't the business. I knew that I'm like, I want this to be sellable and I don't want it to be about me.

Edwina Adams [: 00:04:48

Yeah.

Melody [: 00:04:48

Haven't we all learned that lesson on accident, at least in, like, when you're a small business owner? That's definitely something that I struggled with as well. Like, if you're looking back at your business journey, what do you wish that you had known right from the beginning that would have saved you a lot of time? Even though we both know that if you had known it, it probably wouldn't have we wouldn't have done it, but still.

Edwina Adams [: 00:05:11

Hands down, it is finding a mentor, like the right one. A mentor that we've both used, Josh Latimer, he uses the term collapsing time. And getting the right mentor really does help you collapse time because I wasted a ton of time trying to figure a lot of things out. And I would say do that. And I've said this on other podcasts that you may go to find a mentor and maybe they're good for this or that, but maybe they're not the one you're needing in that time and that's okay. Find another one, Try them out till you get what works. But there's something out there that's gonna be right for what you're doing at that moment, and it is so valuable.

Melody [: 00:05:53

Yeah. My mentor, Kedma, has told me that I should have a board of advisors. So it's kind of like and I've thought about that of like and I kinda do. Like, I have a lot of business friends who I look for advice from, but I think that's different from having somebody like a group of people who's gonna properly advise you. But I agree with you. Having a mentor or a coach just made everything so much quicker for me in business because my brain is stubborn and it needed to have different points of view from different people.

Edwina Adams [: 00:06:26

Yeah. There's so much you're you have to be responsible for and think about as a business owner and there's no way you can't keep it all organized. You can try. You can do some are way better than others. But even those really good ones, they need that accountability and that extra push sometimes.

Melody [: 00:06:45

Yeah. Absolutely. I don't know actually many people who don't need that. And if they do say they don't need it, then they're lying or they don't know any better. What is your strongest area of business? And in terms of like, if it's sales, marketing, operations, the admin side.

Edwina Adams [: 00:07:04

I would say my strongest area is now if I'm just like running my own businesses, what's my strongest area? I would say that it's customer service related. Like I'm really good at knowing how to talk to people. And I think that has been evident in the business that I actually just sold because, I even just recently saw an exit survey from somebody because we send these out. Like if somebody cancels, hey, what's going on and how did we do and what could we do better? And this is quite common on these exits that honestly most people that cancels because they moved away or something like that. But you know, they say things like I love not just the service and the reliability of it, but if somebody offered the same service for less, I wouldn't leave because the way we're communicated with and the storytelling and things like that have just drawn me in. So I think knowing how to communicate well really goes a long way. And that's a

Melody [: 00:08:09

big part of customer service. Yeah, it really is. And I think you and I have that in common. And maybe it's because we were both women in the trades for a while or home service that we understood that the majority of, you know, residential household income is controlled by women. And so when you know how to communicate with women, then that's where you win in that industry at least. But I agree with you. I have a weird question for you, and I'll tell you why after. Did you go to your prom?

Edwina Adams [: 00:08:45

I did not. I went to an after prom party that the school is like a school after prom party, but I didn't go to prom.

Melody [: 00:08:52

Okay. Because you and I both know we were at an event a couple of weeks ago, and we found out that, like, how many people in that group had actually gone to prom of a group of entrepreneurs. It was like 3 people. It was very few people out of all of the people in that room had gone to their prom, and that got me thinking, maybe there's some correlation between entrepreneurship and going to the prom.

Edwina Adams [: 00:09:15

Yeah, maybe the misfit thing.

Melody [: 00:09:17

Great. So I'm gonna continue to test out this theory. Here's a hard question. What do you think the purpose of businesses?

Edwina Adams [: 00:09:26

I like that question. There are a couple of different purposes in business. You have the purpose of what the service is about, and then you've got the purpose of the entrepreneur. So you could have the same business, 2 different entrepreneurs and the purpose is gonna be different. So one purpose may be because they want to rule the world with their genius, you know, and just keep learning and growing. The other may be that they started that service because of a connection they had with their grandma and led them down this path. And then now they just have this heartwarming story about their connection to it. So if that that's a very wide, I guess, a broad question and would really vary for each person, you know.

Melody [: 00:10:17

What do you think about for you? What does business mean? Like what is the purpose of business for you?

Edwina Adams [: 00:10:24

For me, it is freedom. I don't want to be put in a box. That's why I actually enjoyed EMS and being a paramedic. I was very autonomous job, right? I mean, we were just me and my crew member in a truck driving around 1 am, 2 am, 3 am, 24 hour shifts, just kinda doing our thing except when we get a call and then we gotta go, right? Even then we don't even we do things that doctors do, but we're autonomous. We're just out there doing it by ourselves. And I love that freedom. I love the challenges, 1, and just the adrenaline and the freedom. And I think you get a lot of those things with entrepreneurship.

Edwina Adams [: 00:11:06

You get challenges, you get adrenaline and freedom if you do it right.

Melody [: 00:11:12

That's true. That is very true. So entrepreneurs are always talking about getting work life balance. I'll say out upfront, I don't really believe in work life balance for entrepreneurs because and I'm speaking for myself, but most of the people I meet say they want it and then they fill the space again as soon as they get that freedom of time. And I just made a video the other day that said, like, what we really want is the freedom to create more, like the way that we wanna do it. And we drive our families crazy by telling them we want work life balance. And then when we get that boring piece that we talk about, we go and start the next business. Our families are gonna disown us if we continue to say that phrase.

Melody [: 00:12:00

But I also know that your experience has been different, and I would love to hear what you think about work life balance.

Edwina Adams [: 00:12:07

Well, I just coauthored a book and actually wrote about that, a little bit about that. And I agree, you can't really have balance. And when I was talking about it, I was talking about specifically being a woman and a wife and a mother and an entrepreneur. And you could also be like a working mom or even just a mom who isn't home with her kids, but she has these big dreams. And you're just like, how do I balance all this? You know, you can't. And I likened it to when you think about staying balanced, I picture walking on a balanced beam up high, like a tight rope, right? And what happens if you're not balanced and you fall off that tight rope? Like you could get injured really badly or you could die. Bad things happen and it's super stressful. So if you're walking through life thinking, oh, I gotta keep it all balanced.

Edwina Adams [: 00:12:58

That's stressful. Yeah. And it produces a lot of anxiety and I've had, I have tried that and that's just what it did for me. So I finally learned, okay, well, I can't keep this all balanced. This is impossible and it's stressing me the heck out. So what if I just found some kind of harmony instead? And just like in music, harmony changes, right? So ever changing and there may be seasons where you're higher here and lower here and different things. And there's just ebbs and flows, but you're and when you feel it, you can hear, you're like, Oh, this is not very harmonious right now. Then just tweak something here and there.

Edwina Adams [: 00:13:42

And you it may not be long term, you might have to tweak it again later, something else. But if you think of it like that, it's just less stressful. You know, you're not thinking, okay, if I don't do this right, I'm gonna die or I'm gonna kill my business or whatever.

Melody [: 00:13:56

Yeah, as entrepreneurs, we're really a lot of times all or nothing. And meaning, like, we think that the business will fail if we're not putting in all of this effort. We put in all this effort and then we're thinking of how much we wish that we could just do absolutely, like, just do nothing, have the freedom again for the time freedom to just, I don't know, like eat bonbons or something in those very busy moments. I don't know what I'm dreaming of, but it's dreaming of just lying in bed essentially. Probably because I'm super tired, But I think harmony is a great way to put that instead of balance. So thank you for that answer.

Edwina Adams [: 00:14:38

Time of your life of your life.

Melody [: 00:14:45

So I would like to ask you now about the timeline of your life. There are certain things that happen in our life that kind of change the way that where we end up, and we never know what it could have or should have been. But like, what are some key moments in your life that brought you to where you are right now?

Edwina Adams [: 00:15:04

The main ones for me was the end of my first marriage coming out of that as that unfolded. Well, it had ended, but as it was unfolding afterwards I guess. There was a revelation upon revelation, upon revelation that my first husband was a con man. And there was so much deception involved, not just like lying and cheating that as well, but it's just a total head game. And you know, here I was this strong, confident, independent woman who was in the military and a paramedic and all these things and it just total mind game.

Melody [: 00:15:39

What year was that?

Edwina Adams [: 00:15:41

Yeah, that ended in 2007. Then in 2020, I nearly died. So I had a major health scare and was told I'd be lucky if I lived a year. So those have been the biggest pivotal changes in my life that like kind of altered who I was and how I approached life.

Melody [: 00:16:01

Yeah. What do you think when you found out your ex was a con man, how did that change the way that you approached your life?

Edwina Adams [: 00:16:10

I like to describe it as, you know, people talk about, you know, you get burned or you go through things in life and you put up walls. And honestly, walls are not bad. You should have walls, they protect you. But what I learned is that it's okay to have a wall, but make sure you have some gates installed because you do have to let people in and you do still need to let people get close. That's really important. So I'm thankful that somehow I knew that early on and I didn't just install the walls. I had gates.

Melody [: 00:16:50

Interesting. You know, this is funny because once again, I go back to Kedma because I just saw her this week, and she was telling me that I need to build a garden that has a gate and a gatekeeper so that I do not basically, I need boundaries. We all know that because I love giving and giving. But she was helping me visualize a different way to think of those boundaries. So I think of it more as the secret garden and where there's a gatekeeper. The gatekeeper cannot be me because I would just let everybody in, of course. So I decided it was gonna be the villain from Snow White for some reason popped in my head because she seems pretty like, nobody would wanna mess with her. So that apparently is now my inner villain that keeps track of all of the garden.

Melody [: 00:17:39

But that has not been put into action yet. We'll see how that works out. So yeah. And then the other thing with you almost dying, I mean, that's insane. And also, it's crazy because we are we don't talk about it a lot, and we all are going to die at some point. Even just saying it is scary, it to me. I don't know why, but that must have really put you I mean, like, what does that do to you when you almost, you know, when you have that happen to you?

Edwina Adams [: 00:18:09

Well, for me, so I had been so healthy my whole life and I wasn't used to any kind of health problems. So it was a big surprise and did freak me out initially, you know? But, you know, I say adversity is our greatest asset and I'm truly, truly grateful for that experience.

Melody [: 00:18:33

Yeah, I can understand that. I mean, I definitely have gone through a lot of things where I don't know what I would have been like without those things. It you and I are very growth minded. We're always trying to look forward as to how these things can help us and help us grow. So I think that's a great way to look at the world. Of course, I think that because that's the way I look at the world, but it is helpful.

Edwina Adams [: 00:18:58

The other thing about a big health scare like that is that you don't really play small after that or your most people don't. They're like, what am I waiting for? Like, just do it. And if it doesn't work out, whatever, I could die next year anyway, you know? So just do it and we could all have that mindset. But so many times we just live scared or live small because of other people and what they may think or whatever. Who cares? Like, I just don't care.

Melody [: 00:19:28

It feels very liberating to not care. And most of the time I don't, and then sometimes I do. I go back and forth with this. My ex or my former husband passed away 7 years ago, and I remember thinking that I am going to live very differently after this because he was only 40. And it was, you know, big surprise. And I have. I've traveled a lot since he passed away. I had kind of lost my love of traveling just because life, you know, you get a house and things happen.

Melody [: 00:20:01

And there are other things. I just started taking more chances and putting myself out there more. It's not an easy thing to do, though. I think you're kind of in the same boat as me where you're trying to make a, you know, a difference for people while you're here, And that can be really hard, but I think it's worth

Edwina Adams [: 00:20:20

it. Yeah, definitely. I mean, what is the alternative? Just sitting and watching Netflix and worrying about other people, what they're thinking when they're probably not even thinking about you? They never are. No. It's like

Melody [: 00:20:35

when we're on this podcast, are we looking at each other or are we looking at ourselves? Sometimes, usually, people are looking at themselves because we're always worried about ourselves, but that's kind of how it is. Although I'm looking at you, Edwina. So

Edwina Adams [: 00:20:49

I'm looking at you too. You look very beautiful.

Melody [: 00:20:51

Oh, you too. Thank you. Okay. Let us play a quick game that I'm just calling this or that or either or, whatever we wanna call it, And it's just a way to get to know you really quickly, and whatever pops in your head first is what you would say. But I need to put on a timer because that's what I said I would do. So I'm gonna put a timer on for one minute and 30 seconds, which is 90 seconds. And then I'm just gonna ask you and you just say whatever pops in your head. Okay?

Edwina Adams [: 00:21:24

Alright.

Melody [: 00:21:25

K. Don't be scared. It's really hard though, but don't be scared. It'll be fine. Okay. First question, early bird or night owl?

Edwina Adams [: 00:21:34

I guess night owl. I used to be an early bird, but I'll say night owl.

Melody [: 00:21:38

It doesn't have to define you. Introvert or extrovert.

Edwina Adams [: 00:21:42

I guess introvert. I hate saying that though.

Melody [: 00:21:46

I know I don't seem like it, and I also feel like I probably am. More time or more money? More time. Type a or type ADD?

Edwina Adams [: 00:21:57

I'm calling more type a than ADD.

Melody [: 00:21:59

Workaholic or recovering workaholic? Recovering workaholic. Adventure or relaxing?

Edwina Adams [: 00:22:08

These days, relaxing.

Melody [: 00:22:11

Things or experiences? Experiences. Phone call or text?

Edwina Adams [: 00:22:17

Text.

Melody [: 00:22:18

Same. Plan ahead or go with the flow?

Edwina Adams [: 00:22:22

Plan ahead.

Melody [: 00:22:23

Compete or collaborate? Collaborate. Sweet or savory?

Edwina Adams [: 00:22:29

Savory.

Melody [: 00:22:30

And the final one quick thinker or overthinker? Overthinker. Yeah. Thank you. That was very exciting. And honestly, this is the 2nd time I've done this. And for some reason, these questions are really much harder than I think they should be. Like on my end, I feel like they should be easy.

Edwina Adams [: 00:22:50

It is because, you know, I think because you sometimes you're this, sometimes you're that.

Melody [: 00:22:54

I know. Same. I was trying to, like, put you into a box, but you already told me you can't be in a box. That's how I know you're a misfit. That was a test.

Edwina Adams [: 00:23:02

Yeah. Glad I passed.

Melody [: 00:23:05

Yeah. You did. Okay. Where can my listeners find you? What are you up to? Tell me about the things in your life right now. Tell me about the book also.

Edwina Adams [: 00:23:16

I've been an entrepreneur almost 20 years, but I'm transitioning now to doing, speaking. I just I wrote a book, writing another book, and I have a podcast and I do business consulting. And I'll talk about that in a minute. But all of my links are just at edwinaadams.com/links. And I'm an Adversity Architect so I, what I do is I help women and audiences transform their adversity into opportunity. And as an adversity architect, come along beside you, give you a blueprint for how to turn these things into and build the life or business you want into something that's purpose driven and monetized.

Melody [: 00:24:02

That's awesome. I love the term adversity architect. I think it's so good. And as you said before, it does sound like you're helping people to build chaos in their lives, but only if we're creative, sparkly brained people do we think it's that. Really, you're just giving helping people have a blueprint of how to turn things that sometimes are hard to look past or to figure out how to get past into something that's gonna be able to be monetized, which is a big deal for people.

Edwina Adams [: 00:24:36

Yeah. My husband had joked when I said was an adversity architect. He said, what does that mean? Do you create chaos? And I'm like, no. But you build upon adversity because adversity is your greatest asset. I truly, truly believe that. The biggest, most crazy, hard things in my life have been the best things that forming me into who I am. And I don't even know who I would be without that. I mean, I don't even think I would like that person, you know? I just think they would be soft and not out doing big and good things and how boring is that? So let's take adversity and like I said, once you have a blueprint, if you're afraid and scared and don't know where to start, I can help you with that.

Edwina Adams [: 00:25:20

And then you go build. Go build what you're wanting to build. You really can do it. I truly, truly believe that and people need you to do that. That's the truth.

Melody [: 00:25:30

Yeah. It's from what you where you and I have both been sitting, like the things that we've done are not necessarily easy to do. They might feel easy to us. And then we you probably have the same thing where people are asking, oh, I could how do you do that? I could never do that. But it's like you have to build upon each thing. Like I didn't just start with the podcast or start by putting up videos online. I had to build myself up little by little to do these things, and I also had to stop caring in a way about things that don't matter. But it's totally trainable for anybody, I think, to do this.

Melody [: 00:26:07

But a coach is needed sometimes. Like, that's what worked for us. So I'm glad that you're gonna be able to coach or that you are coaching people who may not have the same blueprint that we did, having the mentors and coaches that we've had.

Edwina Adams [: 00:26:21

Yeah. And I specifically want to work with the people who have been through, like, major, like, crazy adversity because, oh my gosh, you're the best.

Melody [: 00:26:31

Yeah.

Edwina Adams [: 00:26:31

You're gonna do amazing things and you may just not know that yet. You know, you've got something like you know it's in there but you just don't know how to bring it out. Yeah. Let's do that.

Melody [: 00:26:42

That's really awesome. I love it. Well, Edwina, I think we have completed our session on the Business Misfits, and you are now officially considered a bizfit, which is just a business bizfit. So you're part of the club now. You weren't before, but now you are. That's the test. But I really appreciate you being here today, and I will make sure to put all the links for your things into wherever that goes in a podcast.

Edwina Adams [: 00:27:10

Awesome. Well, thanks for having me on here.

Melody [: 00:27:11

It was fun. Thanks, Edwina. Listen, Bizfit. If you believe in the mission of this podcast, I need you to like and subscribe right now. Pause this. Go find the podcast. You might already be there, which is easy. Just go like and subscribe.

Melody [: 00:27:28

And if you really, really believe in it and you want BizFit's to unite and change the whole business world, please rate it. Rating is the best way to get the word out to attract more like minded misfits like you and me so that we can overthrow the takers of this world who currently dominate the business universe.

Melody [: 00:27:42

Now I know I sound like I'm some courageous lady of business universe. Now I know I sound like I'm some courageous lady of business. I am not. I can't do this alone and I don't want to. I need you and we need a coalition of fellow bizfits. So do it now.