The Vision Architect

Episode 205 - Tom Adams
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[00:00:23] Simon Vetter: I am excited about our podcast today with Tom Adams. Tom, great to have you here.

[00:00:30] Tom Adams: Oh, I'm excited to be here.

[00:00:32] Simon Vetter: You have a rich background, um, you have a tri national, um, background. You were born in Chile, south America. You grew up in Canada over 30 years, and now you reside in, uh, upper state New York in the us. You started your career in ministry.

Then you were immense fashion. You were an entrepreneur 10 years, you were a professional speaker. Uh, you have hosted television shows and now you host several podcast ho shows. You're an author and also you are a tech genius, so you got a lot

[00:01:09] Tom Adams: I,

[00:01:10] Simon Vetter: rich

[00:01:10] Tom Adams: I don't know if I'm a tech genius. I, I, I just, that, that's one weird little thing I've added to my resume in the last little bit. So.

[00:01:18] Simon Vetter: But you know how to apply technology for your own efficiency and productivity. So as we talk about, uh, strategy, planning and transition and adapting, how did you decide when you made a, a big shift in your career?

[00:01:36] Tom Adams: Yeah, I think, I think for me it, it's, um, life unfolded in a way that I wasn't always planning. Weirdly, uh, I have this concept in my head that I walk into a room and there's often many doors, and when I walk in and there's many doors, sometimes a door is open and I walk to that door and I don't always kn know which door is gonna open.

I just sometimes like going in rooms with lots of doors.

[00:02:00] Simon Vetter: Yeah. So what guides you? What attracts you to which store?

[00:02:06] Tom Adams: Well, sometimes it's my fascinations and so I learned this concept many years ago, which is be guided by some fascinations. Like what, what to me is a fascination is something that grabs my interest. It pulls me in. Uh, there's a magnetism to it, so.

Um, or sometimes it's just the logical next step from the room I'm in, right? Sometimes the room I'm in only has one door and, and so that door seems to be the logical next choice. And so for instance, when I started my television series, so I've had two television series and I was, at that point in time, I was trying to be a consultant.

I had. Built and, and dealt with a men's wear business. I had previously been a minister and then I'm in the, um, I'm in the phase of wanting to be a consultant and I went, I'm, yeah, I've got some interesting business background, but I haven't figured out how to be a consultant. And I went. Hmm, this might be an interesting approach.

And so I thought the CEO of that local company will never talk to me if I say I'm a consultant. So I decided I would interview them as a TV host. And guess what? As soon as I called and said I run a local TV show. Can I have some time with you to talk about what you're doing and we're actually gonna put you on tv?

Guess what they did? They said, oh yeah, come on in. And then I would have a conversation and say, I don't really do this. I happen to be in. I'm a consultant, and what I help people do is figure out how to get more business. Um, is that of interest to you? And weirdly, my TV show created more clients than it I ever did in other ways, and I've subsequently used that in my podcasting business.

Um, that's a conversation you and I have had previously, which is you can use the podcast business as a vehicle to talk to interesting people that you might never get. In their, their purview, or you might never be in their circle of influence otherwise than asking for an interview. So that's an approach I took and it worked really well.

So that was me at a particular road. I wanted to be a consultant and I went, where do I go? The only door that seemed logical was not traditional marketing, it was TV show marketing. And the really cool thing with that is that opened up a whole bunch of other doors because I got the. I got a TV show. It was in Canada initially, it was local.

And then my second TV show went national and my TV show was National in Canada. Uh, and that of course opened all kinds of new doors for me that I never expected. So I went from a single door room into a multi door room.

[00:04:48] Simon Vetter: What, uh, what's the TV show about that national

[00:04:51] Tom Adams: Uh, it, my, my show was called Adams and Company and it was, uh, a TV show about fast and funky companies and the people that make them that way. And so I interviewed CEOs of fast and interesting companies that, that were doing interesting work and that just kind of led to a, a plethora of opportunities that I never expected otherwise.

[00:05:13] Simon Vetter: What were some of the insights that you still remember from those interviews and what really worked around fast and interesting companies?

[00:05:23] Tom Adams: Well, I, I, I think it was, um, a, a they had to show up on my radar. And, um, so some of the, the interesting things were some of these companies were not what the, the literature talks about. So you can read a bazillion business books and you read all that stuff and they say, do it this way. But the companies that were doing fast and funky, interesting stuff, often were not.

Following the path, right? So they weren't saying, oh, let's do what a traditional MBA school would teach you. They were going, I'm gonna do this remotely crazy thing and do it completely off the grid and do something different. And I found that there, those companies, they didn't always, they didn't grow to like publicly traded status necessarily.

But they did create a following a movement. There was some kind of like energy around them where people just were passionate about it. So, uh, for instance, back when I was doing that TV show, it was quite a while ago, I did this, um. It was called, uh, it was basically a company that decided that they were going to put on A DVD how to, um, actually cut up a frog.

So, you know, in public school you learn to dissect a frog. Um, and it was, you know, you had to go through all this process. Well, what they did was essentially built the ability to cut a frog with a mouse. Right? And you cut it open and it was visual and it was so cool. Um, and what, what that gave me the ability to do was see these companies who went, well, this is, it was new technology.

They were doing something interesting, they had a really passionate following. And so it's those kind of things that made me go, hmm, in my life. the best way to present yourself is not always what the books say. It's like, what's, what's in alignment with who you are as, as a person, not necessarily what the rules say to do.

[00:07:16] Simon Vetter: Yeah, you talk about your company Flourish Press. How did you get to start this and what was the background?

[00:07:26] Tom Adams: So the background of that was sort of previous to Flourish press. I was, uh, speaking around the country. That's when I had my TV shows, uh, and I had more of a sole proprietorship. In Canada, there's only two options. You either are a sole proprietor or you're a C corp. Those are the only two options.

In Canada, there's no InBetween. So, uh, unlike the US where there is a. A, a lot of different layers. Um, there was only two layers there, so I stayed as sole proprietor 'cause I was basically getting paid. Um, and, and that worked for me at the time. But, uh, in 2003 when I started Flourish Press, my concept was, um, and the idea that the room I had walked into said, I wanna help people.

To thrive and flourish. That was this thing that stuck in my craw, which is I wanna help others to thrive and flourish. And conceptually, at that point in time, before the internet was really big, I mean it had started at that point, but it wasn't really big. I went, the way I'm gonna do that is either publish or help other people publish.

And my initial intent in that was to help other people. Uh, thrive by publishing their work and publish people who are helping other people to flourish. That was the concept.

So what came of that was not what I intended.

[00:08:47] Simon Vetter: yeah. And then it unfolded.

[00:08:49] Tom Adams: company. Yeah.

[00:08:50] Simon Vetter: And what, what is it now? How, what is the

[00:08:54] Tom Adams: Uh.

[00:08:55] Simon Vetter: now that you help your clients?

[00:08:58] Tom Adams: Yeah. Flourish Press now for the last 23 years was primarily two facets. The first facet was I was an executive and am an executive coach. I am a full-time executive coach. I have a full thriving practice. Uh, I work alone. My wife is my business partner, but she works back of the house. I work front of the house.

I work with clients. I do my marketing, I do all of that kind of stuff. Uh, so there's that piece of it. I have sort of a f. A small support operation. 'cause I do a lot of podcasts. I also help other people with their podcasts. Um, and that's a, a sub. Section of that business. But for about 15 of those years, I also had a web marketing business within Flourish Press.

Weirdly, that was one of those rooms I walked into that came outta my consulting business. So I was working with a guy named Norm Brodsky, who was an ink, um, ink, a magazine columnist for many years, and he had a record storage business. So in um. In New York City, he had the largest record storage business where they store the physical and uh, physical documents, government, healthcare, business of the world.

Um, and I had been brought in to do some consulting work with them related to how they marketed themselves in the world. And after I suggested and recommended an approach to take, he said, would you build a website? And I go, no, I won't build a website. I'm not in the web business. And he goes. He, he took me aside, he gave me a blank check.

He had a CFO sign and he said, I don't care the number you put on that, get me a website. And I went, okay. All right. Well, I, I walked through that door and then he started writing about it in, in Inc. Magazine.

[00:10:40] Simon Vetter: Interesting.

[00:10:41] Tom Adams: now what starts to happen is people you know now within that industry, which I had some experience in history, and all of a sudden people said, can you do our website for us?

Can you build our way? You did it for Norm Brodsky. Can you do it for us? And I went, uh, okay. And I built a web marketing business out of that. Uh, and that one came along for the ride for almost 15 years. And, um, a number of years ago I sold that business, but that came around along for the ride and built a team and had a really kind of cool thing there.

And it was a part of my practice, but it wasn't my full, my full practice. My focus has always been executive coaching and advisory work.

[00:11:20] Simon Vetter: Yeah. So when you advise business owners and companies, what are the problems you help solve? What are the big issues people come to you for?

[00:11:31] Tom Adams: the, the general premise, a lot of times that I start with, and that I have a lot of conversations around is most business problems or personal problems in disguise. And so a lot of times when people show up to me, um, or come into my world, one of the reasons they come into my world is because they've got a problem that consulting or traditional meth methods don't solve.

And, uh, where I go to work is on a fundamentally deeper level than the p and l or the marketing or things like that. I go. What's happening in the CEO owner, uh, founder of this business that could be contributing to an issue in the business. So this thing in me impacts this thing in my business. So I have a belief it translates into something happening in my business.

And a lot of times we don't make that connection. We think there's a business problem, but in reality, a lot of times it's a personal problem hidden as a business. Thing, and we keep looking at the business thing and we circle around the business thing, and we try and solve that. In reality, it ends up being a actual thing in me as a human, a belief thing.

I have an unwillingness to face conflict. A uh, a belief about money, a belief about debt, uh, a a, um, a potentially a, um. Some kind of, um, addiction that I have. All of those things, cart start, you know, there's, there's a lot of stuff that happens in an owner, A DHD, which is, you know, a clinical, and I'm, I don't clinically diagnose anybody, but entrepreneurs are notorious for, you know, shiny object, shiny object, shiny object.

And we're really good at going down.

[00:13:17] Simon Vetter: Yeah.

[00:13:18] Tom Adams: Rabbit holes and we, we birth bunnies and now we got bunnies all over the place. And sometimes that's the work. So a lot of times that's sort of the, the first one. The second one is why people come into my world is they are communicating with somebody that has worked with me and they get referred.

And now that I'm 25 years into this game, um, a lot of my business is referral. And now I'm dealing with all kinds of different challenges, issues, complexities, um. We eventually always get back to, uh, personal problems in disguise. I always lead from that premise with my clients. Um, but, but they come in for a whole bunch of reasons now.

[00:13:57] Simon Vetter: Oftentimes when I work with leaders, we talk about the vision for the team or the company, and I have this belief like you is, you cannot have a vision for the company if you're not clear about your personal vision because they go hand in hand. And the challenge is about creating a vision for the companies.

How do you create a path that people are heavily invested in?

[00:14:21] Tom Adams: Right.

[00:14:22] Simon Vetter: So how do you help people find that inner compass, that North Star

[00:14:27] Tom Adams: Uh, I actually take people through a very vigorous process, and in fact, I will not work with them if they haven't gone through this process with me. And I'll, I kind of give away a little bit of the secret sauce, uh, not because it's secret sauce, but it, it speaks to how I work with people, which is before I will ever take on a coaching client, uh, for a minimum one year term engagement.

We go through a series of questions that they have to answer, and those questions are about. Not their business, but what happens if they had unlimited success? What would their life look like if they were told they had, uh, only a certain amount of time to live? What would their life look like? Um, if they were gonna die tomorrow, what were the deep regrets?

And so I go through a process whereby I don't explore their business before I explore their personal world. Um, um, once we go through that process and then we have a conversation around that process. Uh, and if they agree to go forward, I don't even move forward in my coaching process unless I get to spend time in their personal habitat.

And that requires them to allow me to have conversations with their wife or their husband, depending on which, uh, to look at how their desk looks, to sit in their chair, to see how many post-it notes they have on their desk to see the complexity of their computer screen, to look at how many piles are on their desk.

'cause I live mostly in Zoom calls. But a lot of times I don't understand that. So I start really clearly back in the beginning, which is what do you want? What is it that drives you? What matters to you? What do you care about? How do you live in this world and what, what you, what are you as in service of?

Like, what are you trying to accomplish with your life? Um, and that to me is the early work, so that when it gets passed on to their teams, to their companies, if they're not clear on that, then everybody's, nobody knows. You're just spinning on a hamster wheel.

[00:16:26] Simon Vetter: Yeah. I love that approach because you really, uh, uncovered the deep, preceded, uh, drivers of a person and bring that out. And ultimately it's also you help them uncover their vision. What's their path and what's, what gets them excited about the future. Yeah.

[00:16:45] Tom Adams: Yeah. And I, and I think without that you're always flying blind. It's like, well, what, what's this in service of? Because generally speaking, unless even in big corporate, I don't work big. Corporate, I only work with, with private companies. Uh, I only work with, uh, owners of companies who can write checks. I, I don't go through buying committees and things like that, but, um.

It, uh, unless in those kind of environments, generally speaking, we built a business to serve our life. And so what, what life do we want? If we don't, we're not clear on what life we want. How do we get a business to support that life? So it so many times, and this is to me a personal problem in disguise, so many times we built a business to serve our life.

And now what we do is just serve the business because we haven't figured out what our life want, we want our life to look like.

[00:17:35] Simon Vetter: I see that

[00:17:35] Tom Adams: some of the work, yeah.

[00:17:37] Simon Vetter: work in, in, uh, smaller. Private whole companies with business owners, and I work in big corporations and it's interesting when I coach people personal is what you said, they serve the business and they don't ask themself what serves my life.

[00:17:57] Tom Adams: Right, right.

[00:17:58] Simon Vetter: And I think even as leaders in BigCommerce, we have to have both.

Okay, what's the business? And we have to understand and, and what does serve me and how do we integrate those two elements or those two um, levels.

[00:18:16] Tom Adams: But, but I, I find too that it, even in asking that question, a lot of people have never asked that of themselves. Like they don't know what they want. They just go, well, I have to make money. Well. And or I, I one that shows up in a lot of times in small businesses, I just have to make a million dollars. Well, what's that in service of?

What, what happens if you make a million dollars? What then? What if you made 800,000? Would that be okay? Well, yeah, that'd be okay, but so what? What's the number related to? But a lot of times it's never been asked. And so what I find is we're serving an external definition of success instead of an internal one.

Right. So what's it in service of? Why that number? What's, what are we, what's the target we're reaching for? And if we're not clear on what we want, how do we, how do we then connect the dot between what our business is doing, let alone craft vision for our teams to get somewhere?

[00:19:10] Simon Vetter: Yeah. Yeah. To your point, again, a lot of, uh, business owners, they put out numbers

[00:19:16] Tom Adams: Yep.

[00:19:16] Simon Vetter: without giving that number, meaning and thinking, what does that really mean? Instead of coming with, what kind of lifestyle do I wanna live? How do I wanna live a life? How do I, how much do I wanna work and how much do I give for?

Personal relationships for family, and how do you integrate all those different elements of life? So how do you apply that to your own life? How do you make sure you apply all those great insights to your own life?

[00:19:48] Tom Adams: Well, I think, yeah, I, I, one of the things I've learned is I have to eat my own dog food, right? So when I tell

[00:19:55] Simon Vetter: I mean, the same boat? Yes.

[00:19:57] Tom Adams: yeah, I mean, in this world that we live in, one of the things that's been really helpful to me is to recognize, uh, I can't tell somebody that I haven't, I can't tell somebody to do something that I'm not willing to do myself.

So that's the first thing. Uh, so, um. You know, for years I not only provide coaching, I buy coaching, right? If, if I don't buy coaching, what the heck am I selling? Right. Because to me that that's a flow through. And it, it's so interesting because now having done this for so many years, I get many coaches who walk through my door who say, how do you do this?

And I do initial calls, and a lot of times I'll say to them, who, who are you buying coaching from? Um. They go, well, I don't, I got my certificate. And I go, well, good luck getting a coaching business off the ground. If you're not buying coaching. It's really hard to sell coaching. So the first thing is, I eat my own dog food.

Uh, I'm very clear on, and now that I'm 60, uh, I have done enough life to know that, you know, I don't have a perfect life. I just have a life that I've created, um, and that I've been lucky enough to achieve. But a lot of it comes with a lot of. A structure built around that. So I'm very clear on what my values are.

I define those, I review those. I live by those.

I I have an un

[00:21:17] Simon Vetter: What are those values,

[00:21:19] Tom Adams: What are some of those values? Yeah. Yeah. So one of them is, um, do I, and, and I have a, kind of an interesting way that I, I couch it, uh, which is I know I'm being successful when.

[00:21:33] Simon Vetter: Hmm.

[00:21:34] Tom Adams: Right, so I can be in or out. It's not just nebulous. I can go in and out of those values.

Um, and so one is I know I'm being successful when, uh, I wake up every morning and do the work I wanna do. That's, and so the value behind that is, um, is a meaningful life. Like I, I want a meaningful life, and to me that means is somebody thriving or flourishing? And the one person could be me. Am I thriving and flourishing?

And the second is, is the person I am intersecting with, thriving and flourishing. Right. Um, uh, I, another value is I wanna work with people that I, I know I'm being successful when I work with people that I liked being with.

[00:22:19] Simon Vetter: Mm-hmm.

[00:22:19] Tom Adams: And so I have a rigorous process whereby. I only choose to work with people that I want to work with.

I, I don't ever feel like I am obligated to work with somebody, and I, I do a lot of fit work to make sure that that works. Um, the next one, the, another one is, and I've got a number of them, but another one is I know I'm being successful when I get to explore my curiosities, which is another. Right. Uh, if I'm not exploring my curiosities, I die.

If I'm just doing repetitive stuff every day, I've gotta be able to explore curiosities. And one of the things I know I've told you about, and you see I'm, I do an AI podcast and I'm deeply involved in teaching ai. Uh, just this last week I did a lovable workshop with two a hundred people in it. So I taught people ai, how to build, uh, apps for themselves.

Um, but that's a curiosity that I've explored recently because my clients kept coming to me and go, what do we do with ai? And I go, well, I can't. Talk about it unless I've experienced it, so I've got to experience what I'm talking about. Um, another, another value for me is I know I'm being successful when I am not in an adversarial relationship with myself.

[00:23:34] Simon Vetter: Mm-hmm.

[00:23:36] Tom Adams: So many people I talk to live in adversarial. I'm the bad guy and I've gotta beat myself up to get to be a good person. I don't live there. I live as if I am somebody that I am deeply committed to supporting, right? So I'm not adversarial with myself. And do I make mistakes? Absolutely. I make them all the time.

I'm, I'm constantly surprised at how many stupid things I did yesterday, but I, I realize that I'm not the enemy here. I, I am connected to myself, and I am willing to support myself in the journey I'm on. And I'm okay where I am today.

[00:24:14] Simon Vetter: Yep. So besides the values, and thank you for those examples, uh, I love them. What are some other ways you make sure you stay clear and accountable and authentic to your own path?

[00:24:28] Tom Adams: Uh, I think I, I, I generally, um, e every year try and review everything I'm doing. So, uh, while I do that externally, I also do it with my wife and business partner. Every year we kind of go through a process of reviewing. We have a, a model which is often, where do we wanna be in 25 years? And so we have sort of a goal target.

What's our life look like? So I'm 60, 25 years from now, it'll be 85. That number resonates 'cause my dad's 85 and I kind of know what that looks like and I go. Am I aiming for 85 in the right path?

[00:25:06] Simon Vetter: you describe, can you describe where you want to be at 85?

[00:25:10] Tom Adams: ab Absolutely. I've worked really hard at it. Right? And the interesting thing is, 25 years is 100 quarters,

[00:25:20] Simon Vetter: Yeah. What's that picture In 25

[00:25:23] Tom Adams: right. So 85, uh, first thing is physical right? Is I want to be able to get up and down and play with my kids. My grandkids, not my kids, my grandkids. And, and that to me means right now I'm doing work to ensure that at 85, instead of sitting on a chair not moving, I, uh, I, this morning I did 150 squats.

Right, because that work gets me there. So I'm constantly reviewing what's my 25 year target. And so it's, it's my physical self. It's my relational self. So at 85, I wanna have relationships with 20 year olds because there's something about being in relationship with people that are not your same age. I don't wanna be surrounded by 80 year olds.

That's fine. I want to be surrounded by a whole bunch of young people that I'm taking their data, their information in. Uh, I want to be healthy. I want to be fit. Um, I wanna be doing interesting things. I wanna be involved as an advisor. I want people to come to me. I see myself as a village elder, right at 85.

I want people saying, Hey, what, what's Tom? Gotta think about this. That's, so I'm building towards that 25 year target. Uh, and that's a really important thing 'cause it's not like that doesn't change, but it keeps me focused. 'cause uh, one of my coaches used to say to me, Tom, quit running madly in a direction you don't wanna go.

[00:26:51] Simon Vetter: Yep, yep. And we

[00:26:53] Tom Adams: and that,

[00:26:54] Simon Vetter: in a

place where we.

[00:26:55] Tom Adams: is so powerful,

[00:26:57] Simon Vetter: Yep. Yeah, we all run fast. We better make sure we run in the direction exactly where we wanna go. And I love the 25 years because it's far enough

[00:27:07] Tom Adams: Yes,

[00:27:07] Simon Vetter: us a sense of like timing and also it helps us, how do I prepare today? So in 25 years I arrived there.

Yeah.

[00:27:21] Tom Adams: Have you heard of Dr. Peter's? Uh, centenarian Decathlon And, and that concept for me rings true fit 'cause his is very much around health. But that concept for me rings true around life, right? Which is, uh, you know, the concept is if you're 60 and you're aiming for, if you are, you are, uh, what he calls the fractional decade or the, um, whatever that last decade of your life is.

If you're gonna get there every 10 years, you exponentially decrease your capability. So you've gotta be high enough in capability that when you hit 85. You're at that zone. And to me that's about relationships, that's about health, that's about all of these pieces and parts. So there is this sense of now I have to be at a certain level so that when I hit 85, I'm functioning in that way.

[00:28:11] Simon Vetter: Yeah. Yeah. I'm looking at the same way. Uh, I focus on my health and it's, okay, good. How do I stay healthy today? And, uh, I'm working on my handstand. Because it's a way for me to be balanced and strong. My shoulders and my arms. So, um, a friend of mine, Scott Evelyn, he's 65 and he did post, uh, handstand on LinkedIn and he's inspiring me to do the same

[00:28:34] Tom Adams: Oh, that's beautiful. I

[00:28:35] Simon Vetter: And it's a, it's an interesting concept because I, I do it when I go to the gym every time I put it to my feet, to the wall, and every time I have to touch the wall a little bit less, but it's been so small progress,

[00:28:50] Tom Adams: I love it. I, that's, that's fabulous. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:28:53] Simon Vetter: Yeah. So, um, I love your concept. I love your clarity. Uh, I love you do that for yourself.

Now, you work in technology, you work in ai. If you had to predict or look into the future, the next 10 years, what would you see? How does AI shape our world, our work, our life? Any ideas?

[00:29:21] Tom Adams: Yeah, I mean, I have a lot of ideas 'cause I'm constantly thinking about this. I did a presentation last week on how to be a leader in the world of ai, right? Not, not how to employ ai, but how to become a leader who is function, you know, comfortable there. And one of the, one of the major, uh, things that I'm starting to see already is, um.

I think fundamentally a unit of work will change. A unit of work historically has been an hour or a half, an hour or a day where we give ourselves to a thing, whatever that thing is. But now already I'm doing the work of five people. Like I have systems and structure built around me. I have agents working for me that make my unit of work infinitely more effective.

And so I think units of work will fundamentally change over the next five years. I, and I see them changing already. Um, so that, that's one thing. I think, uh, another thing I'm seeing is because the unit of work is changing, then, um. We as leaders have to FI, I think start to see work as not what a person does, but what a consolidated group of both humans and AI can do in coordination.

Um. Which also means some of your humans aren't gonna do as well as others. Some know how to leverage it, right? To create better outcomes. Others are gonna kind of be stuck. But I I, the cat's outta the bag now, I don't think we're going back. Um, and, and I mean, I've got agents running, I've got about 35 agents who work in my business and they just hum away and they do tasks for me all the time.

And that changes how my work unfolds. And so I think that's, that's the first thing I think, you know, and maybe not in this dystopian way, but I, I fundamentally see jobs being transitioned, whether it's lost, uh, I think there's new opportunities coming, but historic jobs, and I call it the laptop test, which is if you do, if you work on your laptop every day and you just repeat stuff over and over again, your, your job will not last long.

[00:31:39] Simon Vetter: I have this sense that there will be new jobs created that we don't even know that they can exist. Yeah. So

[00:31:48] Tom Adams: Yes.

[00:31:48] Simon Vetter: there are new opportunities and we have to kind of adapt and kind of morph towards that future.

[00:31:55] Tom Adams: I call that new collar work. So there's blue collar work and there's white collar work and I now call it new collar work, which is what, we don't even know what collar's coming. We don't know what color it is, but there's stuff coming that we're not fully aware of. Um, that I think is gonna be really interesting to observe.

[00:32:12] Simon Vetter: Yeah. So talking about looking into the future, planning for the future, um, what advice or what tips do you have for listeners to help them be better prepared for the future and craft a plan that they're excited about and motivated about?

[00:32:34] Tom Adams: Yeah. Um, the first one is I think, be open to the fact that you don't know, right? So I, I, I think so many of us want to know what the next step is,

[00:32:46] Simon Vetter: And being in

[00:32:47] Tom Adams: I don't

[00:32:48] Simon Vetter: Being

[00:32:48] Tom Adams: being in

[00:32:49] Simon Vetter: of the answer.

[00:32:50] Tom Adams: right? And, and for me it's more about am I open to what's gonna emerge? Which is why I have always loved the, the, there's a room that we're gonna walk into and we don't even know what that looks like.

But am I gonna be mad that I mucked into the room, or am I gonna be, what's in this room? What could unfold? So for me, that means curiosity, interest, intrigue, um, what, what's here, man, what This, this is cool. Like, you know, you and I met a couple of months ago and I, and I went, oh, who's Simon? What's going on with Simon?

Right. Because, 'cause as soon as you meet somebody and you explore, all of a sudden a new world opens up to you. And to me, that's, that's a part of what we have to be in a world that none of us know what's coming. We, we don't, we can't ex I, I don't think, you know, from yesterday to today. Like in the AI algorithms, things have changed and you know, a new things have popped up and,

uh, all, all this and if, yeah,

[00:33:52] Simon Vetter: I use this approach when I meet someone new, I say, Hey, what can I learn from that person? What's their background? What's what's interesting about that person? That can enrich my life? And with that, it makes the other person feel more valued. And there's always something. And sometimes we have to dig a little bit deeper to uncover that because it's not always right there.

But I

[00:34:14] Tom Adams: But I, but I think that relates to people, but it also relates to what's unfolding and when new stuff unfolds. Are you gonna be mad that the thing that you had is gone? Or are you gonna go, Hmm, what new is unfolding here? And be curious about it and be open to what it is because. I don't think we're going back.

I, I just don't see us going back now. So be curious. And I think the other part of it is, is learn to trust yourself. That's another part for me that so many people give up on. Right? Because I said adversarial relationship with yourself. And so part of it for me is learning to be quiet enough to listen to my own voice.

I take it all in, but I have to find moments where it's just me. All by myself and I'm listening. Uh, it's finding presence. When the world is demanding, I rush forward. It's slowing things down so that I can hear what it is I'm saying. What, what's my gut saying? What's my instinct saying here? And not just depending on everybody else to tell me?

Uh, I think there's both. It's like, wow, what's happening up there? What are people saying? What's new? And. Am I being quiet enough to hear my own voice and trust my own instincts and, and so often I feel like that gets lost.

[00:35:35] Simon Vetter: It is also challenging because there's so much demand, there's so much pressure. Sometimes we forget to do that. How do you practice that to connect to yourself and listen to your gut?

[00:35:47] Tom Adams: So, uh, the thing that I learned, I did a lot of work on, uh, have you heard of equine therapy?

[00:35:54] Simon Vetter: Nope. I.

[00:35:55] Tom Adams: So equine therapy is often used with PTSD survivors, um, uh, people who've been through rape, uh, uh, people who've been military and they go and work with horses.

[00:36:06] Simon Vetter: Ah.

[00:36:06] Tom Adams: so you don't ride horses, you work with horses and you are in presence of horses.

And the concept there is horses have big hearts and big guts because they're not much in the way of brains, but they are. They're really in their bodies. And what's really interesting in that environment, I did this for six months with a coach who teaches equine therapy and she goes, why are you coming to me?

And I said, I gotta figure out what you know, 'cause I don't know it. Uh, and one of the things I learned there is you have to be in your body. And it's really interesting. A horse will just walk away and I don't know anything about horses, but when I did went and did this work, what happens is. The horse connects to you when you're in your body, the soon as you start thinking about things like, and, and I know it's hard to distinguish that, but it's, it's a, it, it's kind of a really interesting concept, is eventually that horse connects with you when you are in your body, which means breathing.

And so how I do it is, are my, is my butt in a seat? Is my feet on the floor? Am I breathing like I'm in my body? Get in my body. And that's how you start to hear your voice.

[00:37:14] Simon Vetter: I did one workshop many years ago in London at, at, with, with a horse trainer, and we had to bring a horse, lead a horse through a little, uh, obstacle course. And I remember, what did I do in my head? I knew exactly where to go, and I was all in my head and tried to bring my horse, the horse along. What did the horse do? Nothing because I didn't connect. I wasn't in my body. I was in my head.

[00:37:45] Tom Adams: Well, and what was interesting when I did this work for an and, and the cool thing was it wasn't like this one horse got used to me. She, she used many horses so that she could show you. It's, uh, but one of the things eventually, uh, I led a horse through a course with my stomach, not with a lead.

[00:38:04] Simon Vetter: Wow.

[00:38:05] Tom Adams: I, I went, how do I do this?

And she just kept going, be in your stomach, like, feel your stomach, feel your breath. Now walk forward. And it, the weirdest thing, this horse comes with me and I was going, what just happened there?

[00:38:18] Simon Vetter: this is powerful. How do you apply that in your business now?

[00:38:22] Tom Adams: I literally sit at this desk, this is my coaching studio, uh, and in my conversations with people. The first thing I do, even though we're in remote locations, is I start first with presence. Am I connected here? So are my feet on the floor? Is my butt in a seat? Do I feel it? Am I breathing? Am I here? Am I present in this moment?

Right? That's a really important thing for me. Um, the other thing I do is I use a BOSU ball. Do you know what a Bosu ball is? Which is that hat? It, it's like a, you know those big balls you have in the gym?

[00:39:01] Simon Vetter: Yep. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:39:03] Tom Adams: but this is like a, a third of a ball and it's got a flat bottom on it. It's got, and um, one of the things I do as practice, 'cause I do practice, is to help this, um, live in me as I stand on that ball and I try and find my center.

[00:39:19] Simon Vetter: Ah.

[00:39:20] Tom Adams: Right. So am I falling forward? Am I falling back? I lift one foot up as a way to keep working on. Am I connected, balanced in this particular place? Um, I do yoga, I do meditation. I do things that keep me in my body. Uh, yeah, I work out at the gym. Yes, I do those kind of things, but I'm also working to make sure I have practices that keep me present so that I don't lose that sense of being in my gut.

Because my gut needs to speak. I can have vision and plan and direction, and I know where I'm going in 25 years. But if I'm not connected in this moment, you and me in this moment, and if I'm looking at my email or if I'm doing something else, I'm not present. And if I'm not with you, I'm not present. This moment is where all life happens.

[00:40:07] Simon Vetter: Alright. Yeah, I can totally relate. Uh, early my career I was very headstrong and everything will power. And now really when you wanna make important decisions, it's, you also need to connect to that intuition

[00:40:24] Tom Adams: Yes. Yeah.

And that, that to me is such an important piece of the puzzle. 'cause so often as owners, as executives, as leaders, we're running fast, really hard. Like we're running fast towards a goal that we're not often connected to internally and then we're not connected internally and you know, it feels just, we're out of we're, we're outta sync.

And so that's where I see a lot of challenges show up.

[00:40:50] Simon Vetter: Do you have any kind of, before we finish the conversations, any low uh, hanging. Advice that people can apply right away based on what we discuss.

[00:41:02] Tom Adams: Yeah, and it might be it, it might be kind of coming from a different angle, but. Um, it's all connected somehow. And, uh, one of the major messages that I have with, in conversation with my clients is this, how am I complicit in getting the conditions I say I don't want, it's not my line. It came from Jerry, uh, Jerry Colonna.

Um, Jerry Colonna is a, uh, a executive coach in Silicon Valley, but he's been extraordinary that that line has been extraordinarily helpful to me, but also helpful to my clients. And it's often in the, the frustration of not getting what we want. Um, the question I poses to myself and my clients is, well, how could you be complicit here?

Not how are you at fault, but how are you complicit? And so often when we're trying to reach a target and we're not reaching it and we're frustrated and we're, uh, and we become a victim to it, we often don't stop and go in presence. How am I complicit in getting these conditions that I say I don't want?

[00:42:10] Simon Vetter: What's my part in contributing to this outcome? I don't want,

[00:42:15] Tom Adams: Right. And so often we don't wanna have that conversation. And so related to all of this stuff we've talked about 25 years, what's your values? All those kind of things to me always comes back to, and this came to me in a, uh, I was going through, uh, I was working with a therapist 25 years ago, and he had this line that has never left me.

And he, he was a little Yoda like guy. He was a little bit older. He was tiny. And he'd sit in his chair and he'd go, Tom, Tom, Tom, Tom. Anytime you hit a wall, it's a mirror. Anytime you hit a wall, it's a mirror. And he would, and I hated him for that. I went, uh, you drive me crazy, buddy. Like, I don't wanna hear that.

Um, and yet what? What you know Jerry Colona's, I love Jerry Colona's statement, which is, how am I complicit getting the conditions, what my therapist used to, because I was complaining about my wife. I was going, ah, my wife drives me crazy. She's this, she's that. She goes, and he goes, Tom, Tom, Tom, Tom. Anytime you hit a wall, it's a mirror.

So stop blaming everybody else for what's going on in your life. Hold the mirror up and go, where am I? Where do I need to make changes? Where do I need to be different? How do I need to change? That to me, became such a powerful part of this, and to me that's the advice, which is if you're on this really cool journey and you keep running into walls, well.

Look inside, how are you complicit? How's my personal life impacting my business at the challenges of my business? What's the mirror I need to hold up? And that's a lot of times the work I do is hold a mirror up. I just hold the mirror up and go, Hmm, this is interesting. Here's what I'm seeing. Are you seeing this?

And a lot of times you don't see it 'cause you haven't had that question ever.

[00:44:01] Simon Vetter: we often do that as coaches to our client. We hold up a mirror, help them see themselves, and we can do it for ourselves. Awesome. Great. Any, before we finish any, where can we find you? How can we learn more from you about you?

[00:44:18] Tom Adams: I'm easy to find Tom Adams is my name. And Tom adams.com is my domain, much to the sherin of people for 25 years. 'cause Tom Adams is a pretty standard name and, uh, I've owned that domain for 25 years and, uh, people hate me for it, but tom adams.com is the easiest way to find me.

[00:44:35] Simon Vetter: Awesome. Tom, this was awesome. Thank you for your insights, your advice, your stories be well,

[00:44:42] Tom Adams: It was a pleasure, Simon. Thank you for, uh, having me on. It was delightful.