How to Make Your Business More Robust for the upcoming Cycle with Adam Wainwright

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire. are brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like Content is Profit. Today, we'll be breaking down how to make your business more robust for the upcoming cycle. To drop these value bombs, I am brought to Adam Wainwright and to EO Fire Studios. Adam is an investor, soldier, accountant, Ironman triathlete, 747 pilot, two-times founder, and three-times CEO. He's built more than$400 million of enterprise value and is determined to make business better, improve the quality of lives, and help the next generation find success and solve the hard problems.

0:42And today, Fire Nation will talk about how to use AI to make everything more effective, the importance of accurate inventory. We'll also talk how to solve all of the hard problems in our business, and so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Adam and our sponsors. Imperfect Action, hosted by Steph Taylor, is brought to you by the HubSpot podcast network, the audio destination for business professionals. Imperfect Action is a bite-sized online marketing podcast for business owners who want to get straight to the point. Join Steph Taylor as she answers all your business marketing questions.

1:14Recent episodes include five must-knows to sell your online course, program, or membership, and four steps to grow your email list for your next launch. Listen to Imperfect Action wherever you get your podcasts. Ever thought about giving a TEDx talk? It's one of the most powerful ways to share your message with the world. And four-time TEDx speaker, Taylor Conroy from Thought Leader can help you get there. Visit thought-leader.com slash fire to join Taylor's free training where he teaches you how to land a TEDx talk and spread your message to millions. Adam, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

1:54So Fire Nation, I genuinely believe that one of the things that you can see coming ahead is almost certainly that you can be disagreeable. You don't have to be agreeable. And I think most people think that being agreeable is something you have to do. But I think that it's very common that people who are disagreeable change the world. And that can be you. Fire Nation, I love these words. I think so many entrepreneurs struggle by being people pleasers. Your goal in life is not to please people. Your goal should be to find a real problem in this world, not just a problem, but a real problem and create the number one solution to that real problem.

2:43It's probably going to mean that you're a little polarizing. It's probably going to mean you're a little controversial. Both of those things are good because Adam, one thing that I love and live by is love me or hate me because there's no money in the middle. Like there's just, that's it. Like I just am going to crush it for a small percentage of people and I'm going to win because of that. That's right. And I think especially now where we have the exponentiality of technology all around us, there's, there's just the winners are going to win bigger and then there's going to be everybody else. And what's amazing is you have the tools right in front of you now to be those winners.

3:20We're going to talk about some of those today, actually, because we're going to talk, Fire Nation, about how to make your business more robust, specifically for this upcoming cycle. And there is a cycle upcoming. Be prepared, Fire Nation. And the reality is, Adam, a lot, and I mean a lot of people, ignore the boring parts of their business because it's boring. They ignore it. But you think we should be examining these boring parts closely and then be thinking about how AI, artificial intelligence, can be used to make everything more effective. Tell us more. I think that one of the things that it's really easy in any business, in anything really, is we go and examine and we look at all the flashy stuff and all the boring back end things that happen.

4:05The garbage gets taken out. We don't really think about those things on a daily basis. And something that I think is really important for every entrepreneur to think about is when they're carrying inventory, especially inventory is a huge part of most balance sheets. There's 2.4 trillion of it sitting on shelves in the United States right now. And when we look at that, everybody knows every business owner listening to this podcast, they know that it's a challenge. They know inventory is hard to deal with. I've seen, and everybody's seen all these inventory optimization. How do we make things better with AI and machine learning, all these things.

4:42And something that we found is that actually just counting inventory correctly, this was the place we thought, you know what, this is where we can start. And this is what I'm talking about. I tell people it's boring software and it's the boring things that get done. But everybody who's been an entrepreneur for some time and seen the game played, they know that it's the boring parts of the business that make the whole thing run well. And that's where I do want to dive into next, because you believe greatly in the importance of accurate inventory and, you know, how we can boost the bottom line specifically and use that accurate inventory to do so.

5:21I mean, I'll tell you, it still blows me away. It happens actually on this show all the time. Like I'll ask somebody like, oh, like how many people are on your team? And they'll be like, oh, like nine or maybe 12, like somewhere between like 10 and 15. And I'm like, really? I'm like, you have less than like 50 people on your team and you don't even know the exact number. And then these are people, these are humans that these individuals are paying. I mean, think about how they probably treat their inventory. I mean, they probably have a ballpark of like, you know, plus or minus a hundred thousand a lot of times.

5:52So let's talk about what you've seen as the importance of this accurate inventory. And then again, how we can specifically use this knowledge to boost the bottom line? Yeah. So first of all, that's the exact point is how many businesses can actually say with a high degree of confidence, this is exactly what we have in our inventory. Because when we look at, you know, we're coming out of an interest rate environment where interest rates were zero and having extra things that we needed to finance wasn't that important. But now we've seen the fastest interest rate rise ever and off the lowest base ever.

6:29And we still don't know how that's going to play out. What's really important now is we have to figure out what that inventory costs us and what does that inventory actually cost to carry and how is it impacting bottom line? You know, we tell people all the time that just counting your inventory and being aware, if you can reduce that carrying cost, right? If we think of millions of dollars of inventory, It's not free, right? It's not, it doesn't just sit there with no value. It loses value all the time. And, and we, I tell people all the time, we think of, you know, we count cash in the cash register every day in most businesses.

7:06And then we count the inventory once or twice a year. And that's crazy if you think about it, because the inventory is hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands of times more valuable. So how do we boost the bottom line? We figure out what we have, we figure out what we need and we figure out how we can sell what we don't need and this is we just all we want to see is people counting more often and and really really getting these numbers right because it's not a big business problem small business problems every business struggles with this and we've talked to every business from your you know the number one retailer in the world all the way down to the one person retailer everybody struggles and counting accurately is really the That's where it comes down to.

7:51I think you've done a pretty good job thus far, letting Fire Nation know the importance of accurate inventory. But now let's get really detailed on the ways that we can achieve this. Because of course, there's more than one way to skin a cat. So what have you found to be some of the best ways to achieve accurate inventory? So the first thing is absolutely frequency. So like any, we're measuring something. And if we measured the temperature once a year, we would say, well, that's the temperature the whole year. But we know that the temperature is getting measured every minute. Realistically, we want to measure more often.

8:28That's what's really important. And, of course, you know, we have built a software program that does that using computer vision, machine learning, you know, kind of revolutionary product. but I would be very happy if people also used a spreadsheet and counter the same, uh, in the same interval because it really is making your business better and more accurate. So we built a very, very cool product that, that really changes the game and, um, getting time savings of 15, 20 X in a lot of cases. And what does that allow people to do to reduce this inventory buffer? They've got, and they don't have that excess inventory and they reduce the amount of capital tied up.

9:12Often our customers just have, you know, they're paying for the, they're paying for the service many times over by reducing the amount of inventory they have. So that's how we do it, but we're very happy for people to be enhancing their business in any way possible. I mean, think about a Fire Nation. Think about all the money that most companies have needlessly tied up in this abundance of inventory that just frankly doesn't need to be there. And I mean, if you're talking about a product that potentially has an expiration date, I mean, there could be like just absolute waste as well that's happening because of this incorrect inventory.

9:47So man, it just seems to me so obvious that you keeping your finger on the pulse of this aspect of your business is so critical. I wanna talk about some real specific ways on how to do that. when we get back from thanking our sponsors. If you're a startup with big goals, then it's important to find a CRM that can keep up, but I get it. When you're in startup mode, it can be tough to know which platform is right for you and your business. Here's the good news. From marketing and sales to supporting content and everything in between, HubSpot's all on one customer platform has startups covered. And with the HubSpot for Startups program, you can save 30 to 90 % on a platform that scales right along with you, increase leads, boost revenue, improve your customer experience.

10:31HubSpot for Startups helps you do it all. Plus, they offer 24-7 customer support, integrations with more than 1 ,500 of today's most popular apps, and a constantly evolving library of resources and articles created to specifically help startups scale. HubSpot is trusted by some of the world's most successful startups and more than 100 ,000 companies around the world. To see if you're eligible to join the HubSpot for Startups program and take your growth to the next level, visit That's hubspot.com slash startups. This isn't the first time and definitely won't be the last. You hear me talk about how important health and fitness are.

11:04And for me, nutrition is a huge part of that. So in addition to eating real whole foods, I take supplements to make sure I'm fueling my body with the right nutrients. And one supplement you should definitely check out is Field of Greens. Just one scoop a day and you'll be getting in loads of fruits, veggies, herbs, and spices all at once. Field of Greens tastes great, and I'm feeling more energized, and my hair and skin are loving it. This is nutrition the way nature intended. Field of Greens is radically different. Each organic fruit and vegetable was medically chosen to support heart and vital organ health.

11:38You're going to love this product, but if for any reason you don't, they're offering a 100 % money-back guarantee, plus I got you 15 % off your first order and free rush shipping. Visit fieldofgreens.com and use promo code FIRE. That's promo code fire at fieldofgreens.com Fieldofgreens.com Do you have a message inside that you know is meant to be shared with the world? Giving a TEDx talk is one of the most powerful ways to share your message with the world and Thought Leader can help you get there. Thought Leader is a speaker coaching company that has helped over 550 and counting coaches, speakers, entrepreneurs, authors, and experts land TEDx talks.

12:17Thought Leader is not affiliated with TED or TEDx but they're able to get these results because their founder, Taylor Conroy, is a four-time TEDx speaker himself and past EO Fire guest. You might be thinking a TEDx talk sounds great, but where do you start? Taylor has put together a free training that's going to teach you how to land a TEDx talk in as little as 90 days. Join Taylor to learn exactly what TEDx organizers are looking for in their speakers, how to write a talk that goes viral once it goes online, and more. Visit thought-leader.com slash fire. Join Taylor for this free training and get your message out of your head, out of your heart, and out into the world where it belongs.

12:56That's thought-leader.com. Adam, we're back. And as you've mentioned, frequent counting has many, many benefits. It's so obvious to me after just hearing a little commentary from you on this topic, it must be very obvious to Fire Nation, our listeners. If it's so obvious to us, why don't companies count more often? Well, I think it's one of those things that's just hard. I mean, most of the time we react and interact with systems that we're used to interacting with. And if it's not easy and it's not seamless, then we don't do it. And I think people can probably liken this to exercising or something else that they know is good for them, but they maybe struggle with and then they get into a routine and it's very obvious.

13:45One of the big things that we've tried to do is make this easy so that people do it more often. And that's actually where the big value is. If it's hard and you've got to print out pieces of paper and you have to close your shop or close a warehouse, obviously it becomes a too hard problem. Our thinking is that if you make it an easy problem to solve, then it's an obvious thing to do. And so why don't companies count more often? Because it's too hard. And so I think that it's really a matter of, do you want to capture a couple percent extra on your bottom line? And how important is that to you?

14:25I think for a lot of entrepreneurs, they're just not aware and they're working hard and some of these problems are not immediately obvious to them. And so that's why we're, you know, we're trying to talk to customers and educate people and, and help out. And, um, it's really exciting to see when our customers come back and they want to help us, they want to give testimonials and, and just to see the real impact and the positive changes that we make in their businesses. that's really exciting that's that's definitely the best part i love talking about specific examples you mentioned a few companies we don't have to actually use names or real numbers i mean only as detailed as you want to be but give us an example of what that looks like in the real world yeah so in the real world uh one of my uh one of my good friends actually he runs a business um And they're carrying a couple million dollars in inventory.

15:28This is like a good community business. And they were able to reduce their inventory in the first year by almost 12 % by counting. They went from counting annually to counting weekly. And it became a part of their business flow. And what was really exciting is they gained a lot more insights into how the rest of their business ran. And not only that, they're able to reduce that sort of top line number of inventory they have. But then they were also able to clear out a lot of the other inventory that they'd had sitting around for a long time. Because rather than it just sitting in the corner and creating dust, they were able to find other retailers who were looking for it.

16:12and overall I think we're 18 months in and they are directly attributing a 3 % increase in their bottom line and you know that's tens of thousands of dollars for them and it's an incredible thing where just this boring process has made such a change. We have other bigger companies as well and with similar results. But it's often in the small and medium businesses where we see the biggest numbers the fastest. Adam, we all have problems in our own businesses. I mean, that's just what running a business is. It's finding problems, solving problems, identifying new problems, solving those problems.

16:57But you believe that we can actually solve every single one of our hard problems with growth. Tell us more. I think that as a generation now, we have millennials or they're in their 40s with kids. And I think that when a lot of us look around to the systems of, say, government or that we would have, or maybe our parents' generations would have looked to to solve the problems, I think a lot of us don't see the hard problems getting solved. but when we look at how we how can we improve our communities how can we improve our families how can we improve the world we live in we can solve problems with growth and it it sounds like one of those completely obvious things to say but if we can get the economy growing at four percent we can solve all these problems it solves all problems all the health care problems all the challenges we have as a society.

17:56And a lot of the time we're blocked by believing that it's not possible, believing we can't do it. And I think that, you know, people who are spending the time to invest in, say, listen to a podcast like this, if we look at the impact they have on their communities, the impact they have on the economy broadly, and if we multiply that, that solves so many of our problems as a society. And the end of the day, that's where the solutions are going to come from. We can't look to anyone else. So it's us now. Now the ball is thoroughly in our court. And I'm excited because I see a lot of entrepreneurs who are succeeding and they're succeeding and also really excited to be a positive force in their community.

18:45And I think that's such an incredibly beautiful thing. And that's actually what I want to dive into next, because you believe strongly that as business owners, we actually have a societal responsibility to grow our communities, to foster civil society. Share more about this and where actually you can see this applying in a real world example. Yeah, I think it's a really interesting thing where if you look at today, we have, you know, the wealthiest society that we've ever had. and no matter what we sort of see on a day-to-day basis with news and media, we are wealthier, healthier. We have access to more than any other generation ever had before us.

19:31And if you look back 100 years, if you look at Carnegie, there's still hundreds of Carnegie libraries all over the world. And if you extrapolate forward, Carnegie wouldn't have been the richest person around today. We have much more wealthy people. And so I think it really falls to us as business owners and not just those who are, you know, right at the top of the list, but all of us to really look at our communities and ask, how can we grow? How can we grow that civil society? How can we be the force of change for good? And I think this comes down to, I think, really understanding what your community needs.

20:12So in my local community, we have an incredible force of talent, super well-educated young people, but not a lot of entrepreneurially-minded people. And so we've made it a priority on our business to essentially mentor and bring in for internships really highly qualified young people who maybe wouldn't have had the opportunity through sort of normal social channels to interact and be a part of a company like ours and to really just give them that exposure because really it is that first step. So I'm a big fan of two things. Number one is exposing people to entrepreneurship and exposing them to entrepreneurship as a force for social good, number one.

20:59And number two is reading. Because it's kind of close to my heart that reading was the way that I learned. reading was the thing that opened up all the opportunities in my life and i was able to learn and grow and let's say uh you know i i learn and grow every day actually and it all comes down to being able to read and being literate and i think that most of us who have had good privilege in life or maybe haven't had some of the struggles that other people do we we disregard some of these basics. But if we were all able to take in new information, new ideas, and think through them, and have an exposure to entrepreneurs and an entrepreneurial culture that was strong, hardcore, and loving, I think that would make the world a much better place.

21:56And when we come back to our 4 % GDP. This is completely possible. And we did it for many, many years. And I think we're going to get there again. Fire Nation, we will get there again with people like Adam, with people like you who are listening right now, who understand the importance of this. And I mean, Adam, I am kind of curious, like, what are your thoughts with people like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and other incredibly high net worth individuals giving that billionaire's pledge, which I believe is pretty close to something like 99 % of their wealth, will be transferred to the general public and to philanthropic causes at their death.

22:33What are your thoughts on that? My opinion is it's critical. I mean, if you look at the amount of good the Gates Foundation, for instance, has done in solving problems, right? I mean, they have almost eradicated malaria. area. They have made huge impacts on HIV and AIDS in Africa. And if we can, we can apply the same kind of thinking, the same sort of rigorous business-minded thinking to being philanthropic. And maybe it's in your own community. Maybe it's, you know, giving to a charity you really believe in. But I think that as entrepreneurs, we have to see that we have had a unique opportunity.

23:18I think that most of us are not here for the money. It's an outcome rather than the reason. And I really think it's incredible what we can get done. And I would just give the example very broadly. If you look at everything that's like, if you look at, if you look at China, for instance, 800 million people came out of destitute poverty in the last 30 years. That has made people healthier, wealthier, and better. Something like the giving pledge, where people are signing over a certain percentage of their net worth. This is incredible, actually. And it's incredible, the list of people who are doing it, too.

23:57So I think that that's just a symbol of people who realize that they're giving back to the system that's given them so much. And I love it too, Fire Nation, because I think that we as humans and specifically as entrepreneurs who find the financial success need to start looking at money a little differently. Because to me, and this has been the case for years now, I've looked at money as energy. And money being energy is meant to be released into the world, to help other people, to facilitate great give and take, value exchange. It's not meant to just sit and essentially melt away in a bank account somewhere doing nobody any good except, you know, that person that's like, well, I have X million or billion in the bank.

24:43It's like, yeah, but you've actually taken that energy out of circulation, out of the world. It's helping nobody and it could help so many people if applied in the right way, in the right manner. Of course, we're all going to make mistakes when it comes to philanthropy and our money, etc. But Fire Nation, have a different mindset around that. And Adam, take us home with the one key takeaway you want to make sure Fire Nation gets from our conversation today. Count your inventory. You don't need as much as you think. And run that business. It's time to tighten up. We're coming into an unknown time.

25:22time and if we can tighten up these businesses just in case there's a big storm then if I can if this conversation hits one business owner and they think great that's the perfect outcome from this if fire nation wanted to connect with you learn more about you your company what do they do what is your call to action today yeah very simple it's uh zupan.ai z-u-p-a-n.ai it's our stands for abacus, or it means abacus in Korean. So our sort of, our thinking, that's my co-founder, my wife. And so that's our, that's how we think about a system for counting. Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

26:05You've been hanging out with A-dubs and JLD today. So keep up that heat. For links to everything we talked about, just visit eofire.com. Type Adam in the search bar. The show notes page will pop right up. And Adam, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thanks, man. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Adam for sponsoring today's episode and Fire Nation. Over the last decade, I've interviewed more than 4 ,000 of the world's most successful entrepreneurs, and I've created a revolutionary 17-step roadmap to your financial freedom and fulfillment.

26:42I put it all into my first traditionally published book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, personally endorsed by Seth Godin and Gary Vaynerchuk. The Common Path to Uncommon Success is the step-by-step guidance that you need to achieve the lifestyle of your dreams. Visit UncommonSuccessBook.com and I'll catch you there or on the flip side. Imperfect Action, hosted by Steph Taylor, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Imperfect Action is a bite-sized online marketing podcast for business owners who want to get straight to the point.

27:16Join Steph Taylor as she answers all your business marketing questions. Recent episodes include five must-knows to sell your online course, program, or membership, and four steps to grow your email list for your next launch. Listen to Imperfect Action wherever you get your podcasts. Ever thought about giving a TEDx talk? It's one of the most powerful ways to share your message with the world. And four-time TEDx speaker, Taylor Conroy, from Thought Leader can help you get there. Visit thought-leader.com slash fire to join Taylor's free training where he teaches you how to land a TEDx talk and spread your message to millions.