#3: Tina Marie Talks With Consultant Jim Adams
Tina Marie Talks With Consultant and Entrepreneur Jim Adams
About Jim: You may have heard the saying “Numbers don’t lie” but if that’s true, why do so many entrepreneurs avoid them? Jim Adams believes that in order to effectively DRIVE your business from STUCK to SCALE, you need to know your numbers to actually SEE what’s out in front of you. He’s helped literally hundreds of small and family-owned businesses around the U. S. and Canada understand THEIR numbers to DRIVE their teams to the next level.
Before running his own business, Jim was a top consultant with an international business consulting firm. AmericanLandscapeStructures.com -the pavilion sales business he founded 9 years ago - is up 80% over last year and during a pandemic. Nowadays, you’ll find him traveling around the country with his wife Cara and two German Shepherds Buddy and Hannah in their RV Trailer - (“hotel room on wheels.” ) When he’s not looking for the muddiest scariest obstacle course race he can find - he’s visiting his clients, and leading his “ProfitSpeak” online workshop.
Websites
www.JimAdamsConsulting.com
www.americanlandscapestructures.com
Tina Marie (00:00):
Hello and welcome. It's so great to be with you today and sharing the life of an amazing soul who has gone through the changes of life and lit his life on fire. We get to learn today about Jim Adams and that is going to be so fun. So let me tell you a little bit about Jim. This is what I know he is a mild-mannered Clark Kent kind of guy, but underneath there, there is this adventurous dude that we're going to get to know more about today and his life journey. Let me tell you a little bit, look at this. He does obstacle courses and once the muddiest scariest one, so we're going to find out why, what in gym made that happen. And then also he was a hundred percent travel consultant at one season of his life. He was working for corporate America and decided to launch out on his own and help people just like us. So we're going to find out where did that courage come from, or maybe life just put them in that place. So thank you so much for joining us today, Jim, I can't wait to have this conversation. You're such an amazing soul and I always love all the conversations we get to share together.
Jim (01:08):
Yes, I have. So enjoyed getting to know you over the last few months here. I'll look back to my calendar. I think we first had our first conversation one-on-one back in may and, and I just always look forward to it. So I've just been, you know, looking forward to this very much as just maybe a more focused intentional conversation just really, really excited to be here and share with you guys this morning.
Tina Marie (01:32):
Thank you so much. And so take us first, you know, there's this place in our lives where we, we start out, right? We start out, we go on a path and we think it's going to lead us to those results. And yet there can be this part inside of our soul, the saying, Hey, there's more, there's more to life. And it, it like dribbles or sprinkles, these longings and discontents inside of ourselves. So you were a consultant at one point and that led you to a hundred percent travel schedule. Take us back to that place in Jim's life
Jim (02:05):
With the a hundred percent travel consulting. Yeah. So that was like such an amazing adventure, like even to begin with. I was so excited that they even considered me because I had just been a salesman. You know, I had some interesting experiences as a military officer in the artillery, you know, traveled around the world.
Tina Marie (02:24):
Thank you. Yes,
Jim (02:27):
Thank you very much. It was my privilege. So anyway, I got to do some pretty cool stuff and lead some wonderful soldiers and be really, really challenged. And so I remember the guys, the, the gentleman's name, Jack Giles, he was a carnal a tank Colonel in the army. And, and so he assured me when I talked to him about my sales experience that my leadership experience will be all that I would need, that I could pick the rest of it up along the way. And just cause I was just used to, you know, having to be very, very observant and dealing with, you know, challenging conversations and setting standards and things like that, that you find in a challenging leadership environment. And so I was able to apply that very early on. It took me, you know, an assignment or two to get my legs underneath me. And then I mean, I, I clearly remember this, you know, one first assignment I was in like just in the middle of nowhere in Tennessee, like literally smack dab in the middle between the two major airports, I think at airports, I think it's movement Memphis on one side and Knoxville on the other, other, it was just smack dab in the middle. There was like one little diner in town, one little dingy motel that we stayed at and
Tina Marie (03:48):
Dingy motels, like I've done that and you just wonder, Oh my God, like, what am I going to see on the inside of this room anyway? Well, those were different times.
Jim (03:56):
It's back then, you know, when, you know, when smoking was more of a thing, you know, we just weren't as, you know, sensitive smell wise. And so, you know, anyway, different times, like my project manager was a big smoker. I started smoking again on that job anyway, different story for a different day. Thank God I'm smoke free today. So yeah, so anyway, it's a poll mill of all things. Like I had no idea there even was such a thing, you know, the yeah, the guardrails that are on the side of the highway, those metal guard rails, they have poles that go down on the ground totally. And depending upon the state to Tennessee or high or whatever, they have different specifications. And so this mill took pine logs and different material logs and turned them into poles or just plain old farmer fence poles.
Jim (04:48):
So they made different diameter poles at a different diameter logs, and that's what they did. But what I found was it didn't really matter what the industry was. I could just dig into numbers talk to people, look around, you know, occasionally, you know, check times on things. And, and so in just, you know, like the first couple of days you know, I was a really young guy at that time. I was like 39, you know, these old timers running this poll mill, you could tell when they first met me, you know, they were you know, they didn't think much about college boys and I definitely
Tina Marie (05:24):
Have this guy, right. Yeah,
Jim (05:27):
Really. Like I definitely had that just college boy vibe going on, you know, the suit and tie and black shoes and all that. And so here I am jumping from semi dry, less muddy spot to the other, trying not to get ankle deep in mud. Oh my God. Which I think I was successful. I had a little bit of mud splashed up on you're a strategist. You knew how to do it. Yeah. Yeah. And and you know, so I had to clean my shoes off every night cause they'd be all muddy. But anyway, I was to just watch a little bit, and again, I knew the numbers and I knew, you know, how everything worked and come up with a recommendation that was you know, it was been a long time. I don't know what the exact numbers were, but it was six figures.
Jim (06:11):
And that was just by simply just two little things, moving some things around. And then they were milling these smaller diameter poles that was costing them money. So anyway, just, just right out of the gate I, I I went to a, a deli and Boca Raton, Florida of all places and worked there for three or four weeks in a restaurant. I was able to help that gentleman a great deal in his cashflow. So those were just a couple of experiences early on. And so I was able to take off relatively quickly with really not any, a lot more aptitude, not a lot of like hard executives.
Tina Marie (06:53):
Yeah. Have you always been passionate and interested in the numbers behind the scenes for business? So that was
Jim (07:01):
Something that I discovered in the consulting field. So I was I was a math major for a while in college. I didn't like going to class. I'm sweating
Tina Marie (07:07):
One second. Hold on a second. I was a math major for a while. I'm getting ready to explain
Jim (07:14):
Things about being a math major is so I'm not you know, the brilliant mind guy you know what's his name? John Nash. I'm not that guy. Like I needed to go to class to pass these classes. I had a hard time going to class back then, so I had to switch to political science to graduate, but I did get exposed to a lot of high level math. I, I, I didn't flunk all the courses when I went to class, I did really well and I really liked it. It was kind of I was going to say fun. I don't know about fun, but liked it more than most people. It wasn't terribly difficult for me. So if you look at accounting and business math, it's actually relatively easy. But the cool thing about the math background, there's a class that I talked to called calculus of several variables.
Jim (08:08):
And so that's kind of what carried over for me as you're dealing with situ in business problem solving, you're walking into scenarios where, where you're trying to solve problems with all of these different variables. And it's not just X, Y, and Z, like in math, it's X, Y, Z a, B, C, D E F. Right? There's all these different dynamics and things can change. Yeah. You got, you got numbers. Yeah. But you got people and you've got psychology and you've got leadership and you've got whether, you know, you got all these different variables and it's a lot, I mean, it's a lot to keep up with. So I was just able to sort through some of that. And then after awhile, I kind of developed what the help is. Some of the training I had, I developed more of a process that I was able to repeat over and over and over again in each job I went on to get to consistently help my clients.
Tina Marie (09:01):
Beautiful. So what had you jumped from going that was more of a corporate job? You know, somebody else's paying your paycheck there. Right. And, you know, there's a number of our audience. You know, our followers here that listen to this awesome podcast that may currently be in that, and they have this longing and discontent and maybe a seed for something new. What had you jumped from that, you know, maybe a little bit more safe environment for income to starting your own gig.
Jim (09:32):
Yeah. So there is an intermediate step in there before I started starting the Jim Adams consulting and that is American landscape structures. So I got exposed in the consulting business to this Amish community. This Amish would work in community. And so back in in 2013, I started American landscape structures. And so that's, what's paying the bills, been paying the bills since then. And so I used a lot of the different tools and tactics and different things you know, along the way to build that business. Another thing that I did is I experienced some of the same difficulties and frustrations and made some of the same stupid mistakes that my clients used to make. You know, like, you know, like for example, you know, making making a bunch of money and going out and spending it, you know, I made, you know, I try a bunch of stuff, which I think that's good, but sometimes if you spend, right.
Jim (10:30):
Yeah. But I've paid some pretty expensive tuition and I, right. I survived job. Yeah. But it's not guaranteed, you know, as you, as you very well know you know, the failure rate in small business is very, very high. We won't, like, I don't want to waste a lot of time going through all the numbers, but it is a strong, strong, well, and you gotta be, honestly, you gotta be a little lucky too. I mean, there's just so many different ones market. Yeah. Yeah. There's so many different you know, pitfalls along the way. And then, you know, getting a break here and there. So like in my case you know, 2019, we look very, very hard at the numbers. We wanted to do better 2019 was kind of a tough year. And so from the amount of traffic to our, our lead conversion rate, you know, the number amount of traffic that's turned in leads to the number of leads that are turning into sales to the dollar value of sale. So we found we, in that, we identified there a couple of major opportunities, and that was the conversion rate on the site. So we focus really heavily on landing pages and then also the the sales conversion rate. So we invested a ton of time and upgrading our sales conversation and and that just paid off in a way. So
Tina Marie (11:56):
So with that, as a clause with that, as a pause, the so you did, you started your own business. So it did at one point, take some courage to say, I'm, I'm leaving the, the nest of a corporate job, and I'm going to start my own business. I'm going to be that entrepreneurial spirit. And what I heard is that the Amish community enlightened you, or gave you some insight in the possibility. And I know that ALS the American landscape structures as a pavilion gazebo and pur pergola, how do I say that? As I said it, right. You got it. I got it. I'd never known what that was. I've learned it from you. It's awesome. Cool. I've seen them now. I know what they're called. And so you went into that business, was it because you saw the numbers of the possibility of that business? Cause some people, I mean, like really let's take a pause, some people fine. I'm going to go do this business because I love doing it. Or I want to be that because somebody showed me that I could be that. But there are some entrepreneurs that are, look at the profit margins. They'll look at the numbers, they'll look at the possibility, the marketing, the, the market potential, right. For a business and choose that. What was, what was that seed of energy for you to jump into the pavilion business?
Jim (13:07):
So it was a couple of things. One is woodworking, I've been around woodworking. I'm not like a great woodworker. That's not me, but first of all, I love seeing how stuff is made. Right. I've been in a lot of factories and plants in my time and I just absolutely love that. So just being a part of the process and being able to have a solution for people know, it's a pretty big challenge to just start from scratch, to end up with a pavilion in your backyard. So to have a better solution where, you know, we've already thought through everything for it. You're not reinventing the wheel. I just thought that was really cool. And then the other side of it there's, you know, more than two sides, but the main other side was the numbers. And so and so I knew there was somebody else doing this online that I knew they were doing it and spending money on Google ads.
Jim (14:00):
And so I had done Google ad tests in the past and, and had some knowledge. I got a lot of knowledge on internet marketing, working in my wife's business. I knew how to sell on the phone guy. So I had some of the things I had sold on the phone before. And so I had some of the things in place. And so, yes, I was able to put together a business model that said, but it wasn't like I had to jump in with both feet. I could, you know, spend a little bit money a little bit. This month, basically put 15 grand on my Amex to get started on Google. And then, and then we fill the funnel with sales and, you know, before we knew it, we were you know, we were off and making money.
Tina Marie (14:47):
It's amazing. I love it. The opportunity came your way and you took advantage of it. And it sounds like with an open mind and definitely the numbers, that's what we're talking about today is these numbers are showing us which way to go with our business. Now, how many, you know, just, if you were to, you know, figure, you know, how many entrepreneurs do you believe actually have a good handle on the numbers that they need to look at on a daily, weekly, monthly, annually basis for their business? How many do you think out there? Know what to look for?
Jim (15:20):
Yes. So I'd say it's a relatively small percentage, maybe, maybe 10% so highly successful businesses. Like no, this going in, maybe they have a business degree, although that's no guarantee, you know that very well. We'll talk about that in a minute. I'm sure a business degree is no guarantee for anything because they don't teach you the skills that you need to be an entrepreneur. Right. and so it's yeah, yeah. And so I've asked around and the people that I've met, the clients that I've met. Definitely. So that's one of the reasons why, if you look at my website and, and, and what I focus on is numbers. So, I mean, I know sales or I wouldn't be selling $2 million a year worth of pavilions. And I saw most of those, I know operations, you know, from, you know, you know, I could run a woodshop if I had to, I don't have to, I've got somebody else that does that.
Jim (16:11):
But but I chose numbers because I saw the biggest, it's just really so challenging to know as an entrepreneur, how to use your numbers depending upon what kind of business that you have, traditional financial statements really, truly don't serve you very well. You don't have a staff of financial staff to keep up with doing all the accruals properly. If you even know what the word accrual means, right? It means a lining, just a short answer. It means aligning your, your, your cost of sales with the sale in any given time period. That's a lot more challenging than people think and realize with your, with your labor and with your materials, getting that takes expertise and takes time. And most entrepreneurs don't have that time. So they need that. They need to have a way to that is within their capability to, to have numbers that serve them. And so that's one of the things that I do. It might take a year, maybe two, if their financials are all screwed up, it might take them a year, maybe two to get them unscrewed. And even then the accrual picture is going to be very incomplete.
Tina Marie (17:23):
So let's give some energy to that because I, you know, if I'm an entrepreneur listening to this knowing, yes, I need to get in touch with my numbers. I know I need to do this, but it's, it's like the ostrich, you know, put your head in the sand and hope it all works out. Right. And the biggest numbers that many entrepreneurs pay attention to is the IRS numbers because they go, okay, those people have power over me, right? So if you're an entrepreneur that has been doing your own books maybe I know some entrepreneurs using spreadsheets for their bucks and they haven't gone into a formal system like a QuickBooks or something like that. And they need to get started. They know they need to get started. However, they're hearing, you know what? It's going to take me like a year to get unstuck and where I am, there are the first steps that we could give them a breath, like give an exhale into their system of this is where you can start.
Tina Marie (18:11):
And the truth is if we want to be successful business owners, we need to, this, isn't a ignored and it's going to fix itself. This is let's get started now and make your life easier, make your life more effortless. Because what I know, Jim, whenever we look at the numbers and they're rocking and rolling, because that's what happens. If you ignore them, it's going to be arduous. If you ignore them, it's going to be painful. As soon as you get into those numbers, you need to start loving them and loving what they're showing you. And you get to participate in the growth of your company. It's like game on it's game on. And so what are some of the first steps that business owners could look for and say, just start here. So you can start feeling that you've got some ground under you whenever it comes to your numbers.
Jim (18:56):
Yes. So, absolutely. So like, I'm working with somebody right now and his name's Travis, he's running a shed company and he and I were working together. We absolutely crushed it while they were working out their financials. And so I can give you a couple of examples and I can tell you specifically the tool that we use, you don't need your financial straightened out. It's just, I just really, I feel their pain about how frustrating it is. Like, how do you get a handle on this? It's just, it's just so challenging. And where do you go to learn? And so and so, yes, my favorite, favorite, favorite solution. Well, first of all, just a simple thing. So you've got a tax return. Okay. I have a business model template on my website. You can take your tax return, you can pull off six numbers, you can dump it in there.
Jim (19:44):
You can get on a call with me and you can get a lot of really powerful information out of those. The, the spreadsheet does some calculations. The input is six numbers. You get the, you track down their six numbers off of your tax return from last year and boom, you've got it. And so that's one thing it's just, it's just a very, very simple income statement. And you know, even if your financials, you have, don't have a tax return, you could find that information somewhere. So, yeah. Yeah. So there's some percentages that you need to know, you know, but my favorite favorite favorite thing to do is to get into a lot of people, call them key performance indicators. So that's a lot, so, yeah, so I just use the term metrics. It's lot less syllables, you know, metrics, metrics, metrics are.
Jim (20:36):
And, and so you know, metrics can be daily, weekly, monthly, and annually or quarterly. And so like financial statements tend to be, well, no sooner than monthly, right. And we already talked about monthly. The thing about monthly is in most instances of really trying to drive a business as far versus just looking at history, what your performance is historically, it's too late. Like the 15th of the next month, when you reconcile your bank statement is too late. You can use that. There's some use for that information, but the what's absolutely killer is the weekly metrics. So that's what Travis and I did. We were tracking his sales, his backlog, his production, one of the first things that we focused on. And again, we use the business model. We took his financials from again from the previous year's financials that were tied to the tax return.
Jim (21:34):
Right. And so we knew some numbers and right out of the gate, we knew their profit that previous year was 120,000. And we showed like immediately that they could double that with one solution and they did it. So they had been putting out about $40,000 a week in sheds. Okay. They had the sales, the, the, had the sales, but they weren't getting the workout. And so their scheduling board was the size of a desk calendar. The one they had desk calendars. Yeah. I haven't seen a desk calendar in a couple of years, but it was not very big. So the first thing we did is we bought the biggest whiteboard that we could find at staples and put it up on the wall and started scheduling more intentionally. And then, so when they did that, they discovered what was holding things up in the process.
Jim (22:28):
And so the result was the short answer is they went from within two weeks, they went from 40,000 a week to $60,000 a week by using that scheduling board and being more intentional in working together as a team. And then they put together an incentive plan and the, the guys from the shop were standing, they put in, they put the scheduling board in the shop and the guys in the shop were standing at the board trying to figure out how they could get more work done before. Yeah. So before, if, if like five o'clock came and they were tired and sweaty and you know, wanted to go home, you know, they would just come back. What does come back tomorrow and finish it tomorrow. So now everybody's fired up and now, you know, if they're there, they want to get it done. I love it just completely, completely changed everything.
Tina Marie (23:14):
I love that you're able to share these stories of your clients that you're able to help transform. I mean, going to, you said 40,000 a week to 60 that's, that's phenomenal. And so how did that how does that reflect in his profit margins and actually the money that he gets to keep in his business? Because you know, sometimes entrepreneurs and business owners look at the numbers coming in and they think, Oh, that's my money. And we know that there's op ex there's operations. There's, you know, that isn't all your money. So how did that translate in that amount of growth for what perceive the profit of the company to be
Jim (23:48):
It doubled it doubled the first year. Yeah. And, and that was not, I mean, they had some other setbacks too, so it wasn't like it wasn't all good. You know, Travis inherited a lot of baggage you know, things that they're trying to sort out. And so, yeah, we, we did an analysis and that solid double and their, their position right now where so their sales were a little over 2 million in 2019, and they're they're on pace for they're on pace for easy 4 million.
Tina Marie (24:21):
Beautiful, beautiful, thank you for helping people like that in the world and bringing your genius. Cause you could have easily kept your genius to yourself. And I love that you've created this way of helping business owners and entrepreneurs find that growth. I mean, that's what we want. We want to have freedom in our business and it does take cashflow. It does take understanding our numbers. You mentioned if people go to your website and so that's Jim Adams consulting.com. Correct. Right. And what will they find@jimadamsconsulting.com?
Jim (24:51):
Okay. So first of all, there's lots of free content there there's blog posts. You can go there and, and download a very simple business model template. There is a inexpensive suite available for $97 that you can also get a breakeven tool and a sales trend analysis tool. These are two tools that I use usually like day three or four with a client. And then that $97 includes a free 30, 30 minute coaching call to help you implement some of those things.
Tina Marie (25:21):
That's awesome. $97 resources and a 30 minute coaching call with Jim.
Jim (25:27):
Yeah, it's crazy. That's not going to last long. I'm not, I'm not going to do that for long, but I wanted to to offer that to your, your people here today. And and I really, really would wipe to be able to to help more people as they get ready to go into 21, 2021 would just really love to be able to chat with a few folks and, and help them get these really simple, powerful tools in place.
Tina Marie (25:56):
And we need them, you know, I don't know. If you ever had these places in your business, I know I have it where we stay up at night or we wake up in the middle of the night and the numbers are haunting us, or the lack of cashflow is haunting us, or they're trying to figure things out and, and doing it from this perspective and this angle and, and just feeling overwhelmed. Right? And so if you can give some level of advice you know, words of advice to those people that may be in that place where the anxiety, and I've got to figure it out on my own, a mentality of a business owner is more prevalent than the asking for help and opening up and saying, this is the truth of my business. As we do, when we work with somebody, we need to be very truthful of where things are, numbers don't lie. And so what, what advice could you give to the people listening, going, okay, I know I need to ask for help help me do it in a, in a energetic way.
Jim (26:53):
Well, first of all, I have absolutely been there, right? When you're running your own business, you can't see the forest through the trees. It's just very, very common. And so it's everyone. So one is you're not alone. Okay. I will tell you that when I reached out, there's two things that I did late late 2019, that absolutely turned things around. One is I completely up my game, who I was hanging around with. Okay. I started reaching out to one more. I started reaching out for help myself. I, myself actually had a very, very difficult time asking for help. When I was with a consulting company, I had a whole crew of people in Chicago that I could ask for help that were just like way smarter than I was, or in their own, in their own way. Right. And and I rarely, rarely ever, you know, took advantage of that. And so in 2019 that change and that, that lead it up to me, meeting you and then several other people you, and I know in a lot of other people that have just, I mean, I could just go on and on. I won't, but there's like 600 people that I met that it's just been game changer.
Tina Marie (28:01):
Yeah. We need to hang around with what we say the Eagles. Right, right, right. All those are really cool too, but we need to fly if we want to fly, we need chits or with other Eagles.
Jim (28:12):
Yeah, exactly. And so, I mean, I remember, you know, just being around here in my, and sometimes you have to, and so I went national, like I reached out nationally. I mean, I'm sure there's some people who are in my community, but so that's what I did. So just developing a professional.
Tina Marie (28:27):
Yeah. You can't be a prophet in your own hometown, you know, I've had that place. Yeah. I mean Houston and yeah. There's some people here that realize, Hey, you know, go to Tina, Marie, she can definitely help you. But other people like, Oh, I know her she's like a local, but whenever other people come into the community, they're like, Oh, it's like some kind of guru just walked in. So I know that the prophet in your own home town really fits. I don't know why, but it is. Okay. So increase your circle. What other advice do you,
Jim (28:55):
Yeah, so definitely develop a professional network. And I don't mean, you know, where you're going to a meeting and swabbing business cards. I mean, other high-level people that can help you, like maybe one person, like in our group, you know the numbers and AdWords guy, you know, we've got somebody else that, you know, all these different people. So, you know, the other, guy's like really high on mindset, you know, your areas. I mean, you kinda, you cover a lot of different areas, but anyway,
Tina Marie (29:24):
We have a lady that does the part-time help and understanding how to find the right resources for your team. And yeah, we've got a great group of people.
Jim (29:33):
Yeah. And so the there's kind of two parts to the second thing. One is is I started getting up early in the morning. I mean, everybody does it their own way, but you need to have time to think and reflect and just be quiet and just listen. So I would get up at five. I would read my devotionals and I would just sit there and just be quiet and then wait and listen. And then the thoughts would come. And that, to me just really up my game, a lot that answer started coming. The second thing I want to say about that, that's kind of on the same subject. You you recently turned me on to this thing called Pomodoro about taking 25 minute sessions and setting a timer and focusing on one, one thing. And so, you know, looking back you know, when that makes such a, such a difference now, I've been more intentional about it since you really shared that specific thing with me last week.
Jim (30:36):
It's absolutely huge. But one of the things that I discovered when I looked at that is something that I have absolutely applied over and over and over and over again, it is so key. So it's a quote, I won't, I won't get the quote a hundred percent, right. But Einstein said something to the effect that if he had an hour to solve a problem, he would spend 55 minutes focused on the problem. And five minutes on the solution, because what we do is we go from this, to this, to this, to this, to this, and we do all this stuff and all these different areas and hoping that something makes a difference. And I mean, there is room for, you know, trying a lot of things. There's not saying that's completely wrong, but if you stop and take the time to think. And so my practice is very much been built around understanding what all of the problems are. Right. because I realized recently, like I was meeting with this other business owner locally, and I asked him what's your biggest problem? And 45 minutes later, like we still weren't any closer. And so the bottom line was like, he really had no idea. And that's just the way it is, isn't it?
Tina Marie (31:54):
It is. We think it's one problem here. And then it's another problem in the next five minutes. And if we needed really, and that's a beautiful perspective, we need to hone in on what is the one, and there will be biggest challenge within yourself or your business, or how processes, operations, people maybe working. And once we can bring remedy to that, it has a flow effect into the rest of things. And I'm so glad you have that consulting background because they give so much breadth of experience toward everything you bring to your clients. And so I am going to take an invitation for everybody to go to Jim Adams, consulting.com. And now I'm going to ask you some personal questions. Can I, Oh, right. Oh, right. So we did hear around the office, people got to read your bio. I printed out your, your, your bio, your one sheet.
Tina Marie (32:46):
And it got picked up by my assistant and she just read it and just became your biggest fan. And she's like, he asked Jim some questions and she was bragging about you to the rest of the team here. And so everybody can not wait to get to know these answers. So part of where you are in the freedom as a business owner in your lifestyle is that you and your beloved wife get to go on the road many times a year and travel. And so this is Michelle's question. What was the catalyst that made you want to live on the road with your wife?
Jim (33:22):
Well, for one thing, we like to buy nice stuff. So we we had, we had an RV and we went on a trip. It was a classy RV. That's like the big van RV. And so we went on a photo tour up in the North. And so we were on the road for like four or five weeks taking photos working on the RV, but we just didn't feel like we really had enough space. So I got this idea in my head too that I wanted to go actually call on contractors in Northern Virginia. And so basically we justified buying like $200,000 RV to say, Oh, we'll use it for business. Honestly, like whether that was a good decision or not, you know, remains to be seen, but that was the decision that we made. So we enjoy it. This, now this was Kara's choice. So, you know, we looked at some different you know, some different type RVs. And when she saw this one that had an office in it, like she wanted that for me. She wanted me to have my own office. They're kind of rare, actually. They're hard to,
Tina Marie (34:23):
I've never seen one. So, and so is it like an office? Cause I've, I'm also in the market for buying an RV or a trailer that, you know, third, fifth wheel. Right. And so it has an office. Is it next to the bedroom in the back? Like give us a visual there?
Jim (34:37):
No, it's it's right there next to the main living area. It's got a it's glass, it's like a big fishbowl. It has like a fully finished desk and cabinets and it's got a slide out to, you know, open up the space. I've got a regular office chair in there. It's actually very comfortable working space. And then it gives us a little bit of room and separation because in the other RV, we were like sitting across the table from one another and there, you know, one, there wasn't much space and two it's, it's hard to work, you know, because, you know, we will keep interrupting each other and you know, I'm talking on the phone and she's, you know, doing her thing. And so so yeah.
Tina Marie (35:17):
So you have your own office in your RV and where do you go with this beautiful machine or toy? We're going to call it a toy. Where do you go with it?
Jim (35:26):
Well, we went this time, last year, last September, it was not this past September, but a year ago we spent two weeks in Virginia visiting Travis and his grandfather that owns the shed company. And so we work out of the RV there. We visited with them. I would go there like three days a week to the shed company. And then two days a week I'd work on my pavilion business. And so we just stayed there for, for two weeks and then, you know, had dinner at their house on the weekend. And and we had the dogs with us. That's another big part of the equation is that, you know, you've got two big dogs. I think our dogs actually liked the kennel, but, you know, we like having them with us. So it was a way for us to travel and work and and then have, you know, one of them's a full-blood German shepherd and the other, one's a half German shepherd and they're quite boisterous. And so we get to we get to take them on the road with us that not too many hotels would want to have two 85 pound dogs.
Tina Marie (36:32):
Wow. I love the vision of your lifestyle. You know, just being able to go and work from an RV and keep the businesses going with such style. And it sounds like it's right up the alley for your wife as well. That's, that's amazing. Amazing. And so the next question is tell us about the obstacle courses, what obstacle courses, and, you know, the, the person who asks the question, Larry's like, okay, we get to a certain age in our life where we do not want to break and hurt things. So what in Jim's psyche has him say, I want to do obstacle courses, scary, muddy obstacle courses.
Jim (37:10):
Well, I'm actually evaluating what Larry said right now, honestly. So cause it is a little crazy. And the last one I did, I did get beat up a little bit. Didn't get really hurt, really bad, but I was in pain for a couple months. So anyway, I mean, just going way back to when I was getting ready to join the army. I mean, I remember, I don't know. Do you remember the movie stripes with bill Murray? And
Tina Marie (37:33):
That was hilarious.
Jim (37:36):
So I remember watching that movie thinking, man, there is no way in hell I will ever, ever want to join the army. And then like a year later, my, my girlfriend broke up with me. I was just absolutely devastated, a big puddle of goo. And so I ended up like in, in the span of one week signing up for everything like ROTC, Virginia tech core cadets, the national guard. And so a couple of years later from, well anyway, so that summer I spent the summer at Fort Benning and you know, the first couple of weeks are kind of intense and, but I mean, college was a tough experience for me. It was just really a lot of pressure at that age and everything. And this was like a vacation, it was physical. I got to play with lots of stuff that was really loud and made loud noises, which I love that.
Jim (38:27):
And I remember they had two different things. They had the obstacle course and then they had the confidence course. The confidence course was more about climbing really high, which I love. And and then the obstacle course was going through swamps and mud and Barb wire and jumping on things and things like that. So I got pretty out of shape in my mid fifties. And and so back a few years ago, I started doing high intensity interval training. People know of orange theory, fitness. This was like a knockoff of that. And I lost a bunch of weight and was getting in pretty good shape. And so I got it in my head. I wanted to do an obstacle course race and I finished, I finished my first one. Now the one that I did is chose to do is Spartan. And one of the unique things about Spartan is that if you don't do it obstacle, you have to pay a penalty. If you don't just get to just keep going, you have to do 30 burpees, which if you've ever done 30 burpees, that's a lot of burpees, a lot
Tina Marie (39:29):
Of burpees. So that,
Jim (39:31):
That first race I did, it took me about two and a half hours. And it was very, very muddy, which I loved it, wore me out. I didn't get to the top of the, I almost got to the top of the rope, not quite, I was like 220 pounds, so that's saying a lot and I almost got to the top of the rope and slid down.
Tina Marie (39:53):
What was the one other thing I wanted to say about that?
Jim (39:56):
Yeah. So anyway, I know what it was. I did 120 burpees on top of that, like four mile race with 23 obstacles,
Tina Marie (40:04):
Man, dude, woo
Jim (40:07):
Took a long hot bath after that, but I, I completed it.
Tina Marie (40:11):
And is this still in your desire and wants, or are you going to do more?
Jim (40:16):
I have one scheduled for the spring, but with COVID I'm not really wanting to take any chances. I say I would probably not do that. Until after the until after the course, the case rate goes way, way down. Yeah. and and then, and then we'll see I'm doing CrossFit right now, which is
Tina Marie (40:35):
That's hard. Yeah. I love it. And I love that you have found this part of yourself that it's saying, you know, don't say die and you know, I've got it in me and go for the glory. Right. It's awesome. It's awesome. I found that there's definitely a connection between our physical, mental, emotional aptitudes and belief in ourself and the success and perseverance that we will find in our businesses. Could you also, you know, agree with that? How's that been for you? That the marriage of our physical mental with our money?
Jim (41:12):
Yeah, so absolutely. I mean, I was actually, you know, the, what brought me to working out was my back started season up. I had been so sedentary for a number of years. Yeah, I was really in a lot of pain. So I got to the point where like, I literally had to do something and it was either go to the doctor, which I had already heard that route did not want to do that. I have, if I could help it, it wasn't an injury. It was just, just not taking care of myself. And a few months later that back pain was pretty much gone. So obviously I'm able to function a lot better. And so, you know, with COVID, I backed off and I definitely noticed, you know, definitely you know, I miss the, I miss that you know, the endorphins and all of that. Maybe I'm a little crankier. Yeah, definitely. It's definitely definitely adds energy to get like that really good sweat on, you know, whether it's I used to do these workouts on Saturday that were an hour and a half and my heart rate. I'll be 60 in December. My heart rate will average about one 50 for hour and a half up and down between one 80 and one 40 it's an hour and a half. I don't think I could do that right now.
Tina Marie (42:29):
You'll get back there. I know it. So yeah, I've heard this quote that we either are going to come out of a pandemic with a prison body or a pot belly. I'm going for the prison body. How about you?
Jim (42:43):
I need to get, I need to get back to it. I went last night. And so I went last night and I got to get ready to get moving again.
Tina Marie (42:50):
Good job. I have found that the more we pay attention to our own health and wellbeing, the money flow absolutely comes into our business like magic. It's like this total connection that is unseen, but definitely known. So thank you so much for spending this time together with us today. And I can't wait to see how many people are going to reach out and find that courage inside themselves and say, yes, I need to look at my numbers. Yes, it's scary. Yes. I don't know where to start. However, this is how you're going to do it. You're going to start by going to Jim Adams, consulting.com and downloading the wonderful gifts that he has created for you to understand your numbers and not be so scared by them. And then Jim, you've said this 30 minute consulting with them and that's not going to last forever. I agree. You know, that you're worth so much. And so let's start let's let's own our businesses. Let's really get our numbers going. Let's have fun with this and a liveliness with this and get our head out of the sand. So thank you so much for being our guest today. It's been amazing and I can talk to you all day long every day. Wish you a wonderful rest of the day you have there, Jim. Okay.
Jim (43:58):
Yeah, absolutely enjoyed it. Tina, enjoy the rest of your Saturday today.
Tina Marie (44:03):
Thank you. Bye bye. Bye.
