The Scalability Code
Get out of the sh*t show and start growing your business. A few times each month, you’ll hear stories and commentary from visionary entrepreneurs, EOS implementers, and fractional COOs on how you can get your business out of the shit show and into growth mode.
Hosted by Matt Haney, founder of Sinclair Ventures: Fractional COO & Leadership Coaching services that free you up to focus on what’s next.
The Scalability Code
For Love of the Game: Follow Your Career Passions With Adam Goldschmiedt
As a kid, Adam Goldschmiedt learned discipline and excellence performing with the Miami Boys Choir. Decades later, those same lessons guide him as an EOS Implementer, helping entrepreneurs bring order to chaos.
In this episode, Adam joins Matt Haney to talk about:
• His journey from journalist to project manager to visionary leader
• How EOS helped him turn a failing agency into a profitable business
• Why so many entrepreneurs resist delegation — and how to finally let go
• The hidden power of systems, process, and perfection in moderation
• Why inspiration, not motivation, is what drives real change
Adam’s story reminds us that mastery isn’t born overnight — it’s built through structure, repetition, and the pursuit of excellence.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Welcome
00:20 Introduction
00:37 Background
13:03 Red Sox Vs. Yankees
16:29 Switching Gears
23:43 Becoming An EOS Implementor
32:04 Similarities And Synergies
39:02 Time Management
47:06 Hardest Thing About Managing People
50:54 Rapid Fire Wind Down
53:07 First Beer Ordered In A Bar
56:04 Conclusion
Contact with Adam:
adam.goldschmiedt@eosworldwide.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-goldschmiedt/
Books Mentioned:
Get A Grip By Gino Wickman: https://tinyurl.com/5t5en3eh
The E-Myth By Michael Gerber: https://tinyurl.com/26wssm4z
Radical Candor By Kim Scott: https://tinyurl.com/yck2pzcr
Feeling stuck in your business?
It’s ok. We’ve all been there… You simply don’t have time for vision and growth. You feel frustrated, anxious, and stuck because goals aren’t being met, processes aren’t followed, and your team isn’t on the same page. Time after time, you’re putting out fires only fast enough for the next one to pop up.
Let’s build your team and guide them to the next level.
Welcome to The Scalability Code, the podcast that helps you get out of the sh*t show and start growing your business. A few times each month, you'll hear stories and commentary from visionary entrepreneurs, EOS implementers, and fractional COOs about how they've taken businesses to Level 10. And now for your host, Matt Haney.
Matt Haney:All right. Thanks for joining us again for another episode of The Scalability Code. I am joined today by my new friend from West Hempstead is Adam Goldschmidt. Adam, thanks for joining us. I appreciate you jumping in today and having a conversation.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:gonna be awesome. Excited. I've been waiting all day for this.
Matt Haney:All day, the entire day. All of it. Well, what we do is we start off with a little bit of background'cause uh, it's fun to hear people's story when, whenever we talk about background, it's very rare. I'm sure you've given an introduction about yourself a hundred times, but this is actually one of those times where you should take more than 90 seconds because the information that got you to here, we actually have the time and the medium to talk about it. So my goal is to, go back as far as you want to go with your entrepreneurial journey and to get us to today and fill in some of the gaps in the middle so that we understand how you got to this place.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:I'm gonna roll back really, really far'cause I'm gonna think back and there's relevance to this a little bit later.'cause I was, uh, you know, I did a lot of child labor when I was a kid, um, from the age of nine to 13. So from 1989 till about 1993. I was a member slash soloist of a group called the Miami Boys Choir. those of you who are listening to this who have never heard of Miami Boys Choir, they're probably, we were, I mean, there's been plenty of people since me there. once the voice changes, they don't want you in there anymore. but it's really one of the, the longest running, most famous Jewish music acts in the world. Um, so anybody who follows Jewish music, almost a hundred percent knows who. The Miami Voice Choir is, it was a very, very cool experience in my life. I was performing in front of thousands of people I was, you know, before I reached puberty. Um, so that was a lot of fun for me. and I really like, that was my first experience really working because it was hard. Like we had, I had a good voice. I could dance a little bit. I was always theatrical. I wasn't really scared in public, but there's this element of perfection. When you have 40 people who have to sing a song together with various levels of harmonies. So we practiced very, very rigorously. it was almost a job for my parents too,'cause they had to get me into practices in Brooklyn every Sunday from Long Island, which was not fun. but we worked our tails off. and it was to a degree work and honing a craft and getting really, really good, you know, using perfection as the goal. Realizing that if you're never gonna get there, but at least to see that excellence. and I learned that at a very, very young age. I took what I did very, very seriously, like. Even at my bar mitzvah when I did my, my reading I know that there were three parts where I was flat on a note and everybody else did a great job. And I hit that note. In that note, in that note.
Matt Haney:Give yourself some grace.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:Yeah, that's just the story of my life. I don't like to do that very much, but I'm getting better at it now that I'm almost 46 years old. so that, that was, you know, my, my first experience really working, because we really, really worked, like those practices were three, four hours and, you know, drilling things in and practicing them over and over and over again until you get it stage ready, album ready, et cetera. Going to the recording studio and recording a song maybe 15 times before it's right. it was really, really cool experience. It, it, it helped me tap into, little bit of competition, right? There was competition for solos, um, that that was there, which was healthy, I think. and really just that striving for, for excellence. It, it really, really helped me. when I got to high school, I started working in the neighborhood pizza store. so I was just, you know, I was there a couple days a week after school and on Sundays, and I was just always hustling. I always liked to have my own money. I didn't like to ask my parents to buy me stuff.'cause a lot of times they would gimme problems. So I'm like, okay, if I have my own money, I can just do whatever I want.
Matt Haney:I'll just earn my own. If I earn my own. You can't tell me no.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:Yeah, exactly. I wanna buy a pair of$150 Jordans. That's on me. I wanna buy a guitar and decide to play guitar. That's for me to do. So I always liked that independence, um, that I had from working and I always enjoyed working. when I worked in the pizza store, I had a, a boss named Richie, who to this day I'm friends with. Common theme. I'm, I'm friends with all my bosses to this day. I value them greatly. Um, and Richie was like, if you ever met him, he was a tough cookie. He was a tough boss, but if you performed and you did what you were supposed to do, he loved you. So he treated me like I was the manager of the store. I was a 16, 17-year-old kid after a couple years, you know, when I was working there. gave me a ton of responsibility and he empowered me and he would call me out when I wasn't doing well and he appreciated hard work. And the thing that I think he appreciated the most, was systems, right? Uh, I act, I've learned over the course of my life that I'm a little bit OCD. I'm very, very orderly with certain things in general, but like when I go food
Matt Haney:Gimme an example. If your wife were to walk in, what would she say?
Adam GoldSchmeidt:She would say, Adam loves folding laundry. Adam loves going grocery shopping. Maybe more than grocery shopping is making the list in the perfect order so that you can execute your trip efficiently in the order of the aisles. I love washing dishes, like nothing, like a perfectly clean plate or glass to me. Like these are just things that I find therapeutic, most people find weird, um, but it makes
Matt Haney:This is fantastic.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:Yeah, so, so one of the main jobs when I was starting in the pizza store was yet to load the soda case and all these soda was in the basement and you would load it up and put the free rotating stock and all these things. And I would create my list. Like it was a perfect list. Like I had a, a different process. Everybody else would go up and down, okay, we need coke, I'll go down and get Coke, bring it up, and I'm. This is silly. Why do I need to go up and down the steps 15 times? Let's make a list of everything I have, everything I need loaded up on the box. And that became the way that we did things. And that was like, I learned it years later. That was my first process that I ever built.
Matt Haney:such a fantastic story. Why do we need to bring 12 if we only need four? Count the holes. Fill the holes. Bring what you need to fill the holes.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:That's it. That's it. You know, and, and Richie was a very system oriented guy. He had like a little poem that he had. If we had like a catering job and you had to pack up the truck with like all the paper goods and everything, I don't remember it exactly, but it was hot cups, hot cups, cold cups, sugar, sweet and low forks, knife spoons, doilies. Like he had this whole poem that you had to memorize of all the things that needed to get, so whenever I would go downstairs to load up for a job, I knew exactly what I needed to do as long as I memorized the song. So
Matt Haney:Adam, I have to tell you the fact that you can remember the rhythm to the song, yes, you're very musically inclined, but all the songs in your head, you remember one from 40 something years ago, 30
Adam GoldSchmeidt:30, 30 years ago. But yeah, still it's, uh, it definitely rings true.
Matt Haney:that's so rad.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:Yeah, it's pretty cool. I, I, I, I have a deep appreciation for all my life experiences, so, uh, so that's, you know, that was just a really, really cool moment. I was there for a while. I, I stayed, I worked there through college. I was running the store, you know, when I was in college. And once I graduated, it was time to quote, unquote get a real job and enter the professional world. So I, I stopped working there. still go into that pizza store to this day and I still get VIP treatment, so that's awesome. and then, uh, let's see. So I start, well, I was in college, another little wrinkle of something that happened along the way. Um, I was studying to be a journalist. That was actually my real passion. I wanted to be a sports writer. Um, in my junior year of college, my father passed away, so I was 20 years old. Um, and when Thank you, I appreciate it. Um, I think I've. Dealt with it. Okay. Since, um, it's been a long time, 25 years, 26 years almost. and you know, when I started looking, I was, when I was in my senior year and I was starting to look at jobs and journalism and I wanted to be a sports writer. Anything that was somewhat appealing that I wanted to do would've forced me to relocate. It would've forced me to move to Texas. Actually, I had an offer to go to Dallas for Worth star Telegram. Um, there was something in Indianapolis, they weren't paying great, it wasn't exciting work, but that's the way the industry is. You have to really, really cut your teeth before you get like that, you know, New York team beat reporter type of gig. but I, I just felt like my heart wasn't in it anymore and I didn't wanna leave my family. I didn't wanna just pick up and move at that point in time. It just didn't make sense for me. So what did I do instead? I went into sales.
Matt Haney:I mean, absolutely.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:Yeah, of course. Um, I had a friend whose brother-in-law ran an agency that sold advertising in like professional and college sports yearbooks. So I did that for a couple years. I was actually really good. I remember about three months into my first job there, um, was nine 11. And I have such a clear memory. I was thinking about it last week. Last week was nine 11. I
Matt Haney:yeah, it was last week.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:but I remember I was in Elmont, which is on Long Island. We could see the smoke. From, from, from Elmont, from Long Island, you know, 25, 30 miles away. Um, so that was like really, really one of those moments that stuck out to me. And, and I had a lot of fun working there in the beginning. and they had an interesting training philosophy in this company. And it was called Get'em Good or Get'em Gone. Where they would bring in anybody. Yeah. So it's like a highly leveraged commission based structure and we'll bring anybody in. And if they're not good and we try to train them and we invest the time and we realize they're not gonna be good, what better thing to do than to make them absolutely miserable so that they quit. We don't wanna fire'em, let's let them quit. And it was, uh, it was the way that things were done, it was, again, a highly competitive environment. I've always played competitive sports, so I did enjoy that part. It was a very young, youthful organization, so it was almost like a frat house vibe where we had like, you know, a bunch of 21 to 25 year olds like hitting the phones like a boiler room. and I was doing well and I enjoyed it. but after a couple years, it started to drain on me and I started to realize like, this is not. What I wanted to go into business for. This is not the type of, you know, I didn't even know what a business culture should be at that point in time. But this isn't, this wasn't for me. and I was coming home, I was recently married. Um, I was coming home and crying like I was crying. I was saying to my wife like, I don't know what the heck is going on here. Why am I doing this with myself? it was really, really hard period of time back in 2004. I was 25 years old. Like I, I just felt like this was not where I wanted to be. And we were at a dinner party and I was talking to a couple friend of ours, uh, Ari and Brooke. And Ari mentioned to me that his development agency was a, a programmer. They were looking to hire a salesperson. Let me introduce you to the bosses and see if it clicks. Um, so he introduced me to the owners of this company called Blue Switch, and they decided to bring me in as employee number nine. This was in August of 2004 to be their first ever salesperson.
Matt Haney:Wow.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:Cool stuff, right? Great culture. was a small little office. Then we grew obviously, and, and moved into bigger cooler offices. but just like a very relaxed vibe. Like we had a dart board, we had like a Nintendo and people would like take breaks. And this is like something that I had never experienced before, like
Matt Haney:that was pretty cool back then, by the way.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:Yeah, yeah, totally, totally. Like, and, and people were having fun and it didn't even matter too much to me because every time I saw that going on. I'm like, I shouldn't be in the office anyway. I should be out there on sales calls. and I spent about nine months trying to land my first sale. I didn't close anything. I was not good at it. My approach was terrible. I thought that I could go door to door in Manhattan selling websites the same way that I would sell advertising. And it just, there was no credibility and I didn't know what the heck I was talking about. I didn't, you know, I didn't know what people wanted yet, so we had a very, very difficult conversation. Um, we're going back now probably to like, may of 2005 at this point. my wife was pregnant with my first son at the time, and we had a difficult conversation in that, Adam, we love you. It's like a classic right person, wrong seat situation. you're not selling and your job is to sell, and we can't keep paying you a draw and a commission if, if nothing's coming in. Um, so we, we had this idea, right? It was either leave the company I, I had interviewed at a couple places. Nothing was really for me. and. We had this idea that let's turn Adam into a project manager. Let's see if maybe by him working with some clients. And we had taken on some bigger name clients that we were starting to do some big projects for. Um, and they needed some support. There were no project managers in the company. I was the first ever project manager at Blue Switch, and they said, okay, we need somebody in this role. Maybe this will work for you. Maybe you can do this for a little bit. Learn about the industry, learn about what we do, learn about what the client needs, and then go back out into the world and start to sell. I said, okay, got nothing else going on. I have a kid on the way. I better keep my job here, so I'm gonna become a project manager. Um, and what I didn't realize is that if you think back to some of the things I was telling you about my processes and my systems and my little OCD organizational nature, everything just clicked. Everything just clicked. I, I, I joke and say I became the greatest project manager of all time. Maybe a little bit facetious. I thought I was pretty good. but I, uh, yeah, honestly, you know, honestly, like I, I just, it was something that resonated with me and all of a sudden, you know, I was a journalist and then I was a salesperson, and now I realize my job is to help clients. To, to figure out what they need, to figure out how much they wanna pay, to figure out how we're gonna manage that budget and manage their expectations, meet those expectations, liaise between the client and the team doing the work, create the plans, create the execution models. And everything just started to come together and, and I really, really took a liking to it. The other thing happened too, I did start to sell more as a result.
Matt Haney:Of course
Adam GoldSchmeidt:But then I worked myself out of a job and the sales side because we really needed full-time project management. So I think in 2007 we decided no more sales for Adam. If you bring something in, great. But the focus can't be on sales. We need to build out our project management team.
Matt Haney:Okay. Hold on. I want to, I wanna jump in. So, uh, you, you mentioned something you tried to gloss over. I'm not gonna let you, sports writer obviously very into Sports New York, guy Mets or Yankees.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:Yankees. My
Matt Haney:I'm gonna hold this up.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:though.
Matt Haney:Just gonna hold this up here.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:Okay, that's fine.
Matt Haney:I process across the thing and then, and then, you know what? I can't make this up. This is on my desk right next to it.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:Yeah, listen. Sick people do sick things. No.
Matt Haney:It's okay. It's a healthy, healthy, healthy relationship. And for once. It's gonna be an incredible end of the season because we're, we were, well, we won last night. I don't know if you guys did one game behind you in the wild card coming into, uh, you guys won too. So we're two games back. Son of a bitch. We're coming.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:it pains me to realize that my kids have grown up in a world where the Red Sox have won World, world, world Series than the Yankees. Like
Matt Haney:Yeah, because you didn't get to see it.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:I, I mean, I, I used to wear my Boston Suck shirt. I used to have a hat in 1918 that I would walk around with. I had to burn it after 2004. I was at the bloody sock game. Uh, that was, you know, yeah, I'm, I'm a pretty big Yankee fan. I had, I had season tickets from 2000 to 2002 outta college and my first couple years working, me and my buddy
Matt Haney:So, wait, oh 2 0 2 is when Aaron, um, not Aaron, judge Aaron Boone hit the, yeah, it was.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:2003.
Matt Haney:That was oh three. Dammit. You're
Adam GoldSchmeidt:Okay, it's fine. Sorry. 2002, we didn't win. 2001, they lost to the Diamondbacks. That was the nine 11 year, 2002, they lost to the Angels, I think in the first round. And the Angels won the World Series that year. And then, uh, we beat Boston in 23. In 2003, lost to Miami in the year, the Florida, whatever they were called then. And then 2004 is when everything changed
Matt Haney:Yes. Uh, what a great memory. I haven't been able to get in touch with. I, I just haven't had a chance to share my nerdiness. Um, but I love that you love the Yankees and I, I love the rivalry and, and truth be told, I did get a little teary-eyed when Rivera, that, that famous last, at last, at bat when he and was a judge and who else was out there on the mound with him when he, his fir his last out.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:Yeah, it was Jeter. Pada.
Matt Haney:and,
Adam GoldSchmeidt:Pada, I think was still on the team. Petit,
Matt Haney:there was one other guy, Petit, that's who it was. And when he grabs, when Rivera grabs him and, and weeps, it was like this, one of the sweetest sports memories. I
Adam GoldSchmeidt:If you wanna go walk to my closet and show you the only Yankee jersey that I own.'cause I don't really like to wear the jersey just like I just like would rather wear a t-shirt. Um, but my, my jersey is my Mariano jersey. That guy was, was the
Matt Haney:He, I'm telling you, I want to spend, I want to spend, I, I wanna meet him. I want to know everything about him.'cause he is one of the most classy, incredibly talented killers on the baseball diamond you'll ever meet. Like, I hated him, but now I have this found obsession with him
Adam GoldSchmeidt:a couple weeks ago, he tore his Achilles During old timer's day.
Matt Haney:No, on the field.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:On the field. In the middle of the game, he was playing outfield. And he, uh, was sprinting for a ball and he like fell and they announced the next day, oh, by the way, he tore his Achilles. He's like, I'll be fine. It's fine. I don't
Matt Haney:That's a terrible one to recover from, bro.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:Yeah. But, but at least it's a few years after he's made the hall of fame, so he doesn't have to rush back and, you know, hopefully he doesn't have to push himself too much. But
Matt Haney:Well, I'm glad we got that outta the way. Let's get back to operations and let's fast forward to your implementer world.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:So, so the implementer story actually starts at the end of my last stop. So fast forward to 2017, I took over an agency called Pixify. It was the COO of Blue Switch. At the time, we were about 50 people. Pixify was about two years into an acquisition. They had been acquired by a larger parent company, and it was a complete failure. Things were falling apart at the seams. And I got a call, Hey, you wanna try to save this thing? And I said, okay, I'm a glutton for punishment. Um, so I came and spent about two years trying to fix it. We had to do layoffs, reductions of force. We had partners kicking us out until the summer of 2019. I. I felt like I was probably ready to move on that I've given it my all. And we were getting ready for our annual leadership offsite and corporate sent everybody who run the business units a copy of Get, get a Grip, and they basically announced us that, uh, six months ago, our executive team started running on EOS. And now you all have to bring this into your practices. Reason why I mentioned Miami boys choir earlier, other than, other than the fact that it was some light child labor, is I made a very good friend at that time when I was 10 years old, a guy named Svi Schwartz. Um, and s and I, you know, we stayed close for a few years and then we disappeared from each other's lives for a few years, and then we moved into the same neighborhood. So from the time, you know, for the last 16 years or so,
Matt Haney:Wait, you were, you were in choir with sfi.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:That is how we know each other.
Matt Haney:That's so badass. That was 30 something years ago.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:And we, we come back together.
Matt Haney:really cool connection.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:So like two weeks after I got the book, he's in my house. Like our wives are friends, our kids are friends. He is now. He is like, why do you have this book? And I said, our company is, you know, doing this. We have to put this into place in our business. He's like, I just became an e os implementer. I'm doing this. I put it into place in my other business. And I said, cool, let me see if I can hire you. Um, so I, I had budget for it in my, in my p and l. Um, I asked, you know, the corporate, I'm like, can I get approval? I wanna bring in my own implementer. I read this book, I, I think I need help. And they're like, no, no. Even though, even though you have budget, we wanna keep it consistent. It's a little bit of a bigger company, probably outside of the EOS target market, more of an enterprise. So they wanted to do it their own way. They wanted it to be consistent between all the practices. And if I had budget and somebody else. Didn't, they didn't wanna have one person with an implementer one. And it made some sense, I guess, in the moment. Um, but I'm really good at taking advantage of people. So I, I, uh, I used see a lot. I used them as a free resource. I would call'em with questions. Um, I was a real student of the game. I love to read. It's really one of my favorite hobbies. If I was doing this call in my office, I had to move upstairs'cause there's a dog and a lot of kids running around downstairs right now. But if I was doing this call in my office, I would show you, I have a wall of books. Those are my trophies and I'm constantly reading. I just went all in. I read all the EOS books. I really, really became a student of the game I tapped into. And within a year we turned the business around. We took a business that was failing where nobody wanted to touch us with a 10 foot pole. And all of a sudden we were able to remove all of our distractions, gain, focus, and understand exactly what types of products and solutions we should develop, leveraging our partnerships with the parent company. and then, uh, yeah, we, we turned it around. We, we did a million in, uh, revenue with a half a million in profit, year one, um, of running on EOS. Doubled it the year after we had, we had gotten really lean also where we were, where we were only like three or four people by this point in time. So I brought in an amazing integrator. The first role on the accountability chart for her was not LMA. It was keep Adam away from clients. I needed to focus on being the visionary and the strategy. Everything just fell into place. We, we launched our product in March, 2020. The same time that, you know, somebody else decided to launch COVID-19. Um, so all of our shows I was gonna do like a road show and, you know, give the demos in public and they all got canceled, everything got converted to Zoom. but the good thing was, at least for us opportunistically, was that because of all the travel restrictions we had a B2B focused solution. So all of these B2B sales reps that were traveling the country, doing in-person sales meetings that couldn't do it anymore, everybody needed a quick to market B2B E-commerce solution. So. Again, this is not my doing. This is, uh, I believe in higher power. So, uh, you know, God put us in the right place at the right time and, and the business really, really took off. we had doubled it a couple times and then at some point in the middle of 2022, to no fault of anybody's, it was just, you know, a prioritization issue. But we had a certain element of our strategy that wasn't working out, and I started to realize like we needed to, we needed to make some plans. Make some changes to the plan for the rest of the year because what we thought was gonna happen wasn't, and we can't keep depending on that. so I called up naturally. My first call in those situations was, um, see if he can help. He's like, yeah, I'll come to your house tonight. We'll sit, we'll have a couple drinks, we'll talk it out, we'll figure it out. And we're sitting and we're talking in the backyard and I'm getting really frustrated, getting really, really frustrated. And I say to him, I feel like I'm not even doing my job anymore. I was the visionary. I feel like I'm not doing my job anymore. I feel like I'm doing your job. I feel like I'm an implementer at this point with what I'm doing. And he says. You know, I've been waiting for you to say something like this because I actually think you should be an implementer. And then all of a sudden like light bulb and at the same time, shut that light down. No, I'm not an entrepreneur. I run businesses for people. I'm not gonna start my own business. I don't wanna put myself out there. I don't see myself as a coach. But then as I started to peel back the onion, I started to realize like, what are some of the unique values that I brought to a business? Like when I was at Net at work and I was running pixify, in addition to launching ERP Commerce at the beginning of COVID, I also launched an initiative called the What Makes Me Happy Program. And it was a 15 minute call. We had about 400 people in the company where anybody in the company, if you said, I can't take a call, it's what makes me happy. 15 minutes, three o'clock every single day. We would get usually about a hundred and 150 people from would join in and somebody from the company would just share something about their lives. Like I did a demo of a board game with my family. Some people read poetry, some people showed their family, you know, heirlooms and history, and we just started to learn about each other. It created this like, new cultural revolution in the business. Um, I got a lot of recognition for it, which made me uncomfortable because I really just did it.'cause I needed something to pass the time and I miss seeing people in the office. but, but it really made a huge impact and, and I started to realize through that and, and through becoming a visionary and, and kind of being the face and the voice for ERP commerce, I, I started doing a lot of public speaking and speaking at conferences. My, my friends would joke in the business. I had a, you know, some of my colleagues would, would call me Gary v. That was their joke that I'm garvy. Um,
Matt Haney:Oh, those are good, good friends that could call you Gary V.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:Yeah, because they're like, you're like Mr. Motivational speaker. And then what was cool is we were actually at a Sage convention in November, 2021, and Garvy was the keynote speaker, and I got to actually meet him and spend some time with him, which was really, really cool as well. So, uh, you know, it, all these things started like pointing me, I'm like, you know, maybe, maybe this is for me. You know, maybe, maybe I, I have some type of inspirational quality that I maybe never tapped into or something before.
matt-haney_2_02-06-2025_192447:You are listening to the Scalability Code. I'm your host, Matt Haney, founder of Sinclair Ventures, and we help visionary entrepreneurs like you get out of the shit show and focus on growing your business. We offer fractional COO and leadership coaching services that free up that brain of yours to focus on what's next. Learn more about us at SinclairVentures. com. Now back to it.
Matt Haney:So, how, what year are you in? So, so where, where, where are, we're in September of 25 now. Where are you in the, in how many?
Adam GoldSchmeidt:So on October 1st, 2022, I told net at work, the the parent company that January 1st I'm out. I'm giving you three months notice to wind things down. I'll help you find a replacement. I'll do whatever I need to do, but I'm gonna be chasing this passion of mine. I'm starting my own little entrepreneurial jersey. I'm gonna be an OS implementer. They completely understand it. When they heard, they're like, that makes a lot of sense. They realized, you know, maybe, maybe it was a little dicey in the beginning and it was a little uncomfortable when we first had the conversations, you know, but at the same'cause I don't think they saw it coming from a mile away. I've always been the most loyal employee. Like, that was the only, the second real company that I worked for. I was at one company for 13 years and this one for almost seven. And, and to people say like, wow, that was a long time. And I'm like, really? I was only there like seven years. That wasn't such a long time. But, uh. We got over it and they were extremely, extremely supportive. You know, we, we helped wind things down towards the end of the year the right way. And then on January 1st, 2023, I, I became all in EOS implementer. I had about a month and a half till end of February, till bootcamp. So what better way to learn and study it than apprentice around one of the best in the game. So I rode shotgun with C for about a month and a half. Um,
Matt Haney:Oh, how many sessions did you get to see? Do you
Adam GoldSchmeidt:Probably about 20. Probably sat through about 20 session days, a bunch of nineties, a bunch of annuals, quarterlies, and I got to see a lot of,
Matt Haney:so badass.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:yeah, there was one client I remember that asked me to disappear during the team health stuff of the annual. and looking back, I completely understand why. Um, but it was really a tremendous learning experience. It got to the point where they were, they were getting me involved even a little bit in the sessions'cause I was starting to like, contribute and he's like, speak up, like, you know this, you can help here. Um, so it was really, really cool. Just like a cool experience.
Matt Haney:What a cool experience. Shout out to SPI for, for bringing someone in and, and the trust he has in you to. Bring a stranger into a session room that is next level. Adam, I know you know this now, and obviously at the time you probably did or didn't, but think of all the sessions you've had since then and bringing a stranger into them is a really, really
Adam GoldSchmeidt:done it twice. Uh, yeah, I've done it twice. I'm trying to pay it forward a little bit. I, I think it was a great learning experience for me. I don't mind it if the client doesn't mind it, but at the same time. You know, now I understand why they threw me outta that team health because if I'm sitting in the room and you have this observer stranger there, people aren't gonna say what they really need to say. So, so I get it. Um, but you know, for a quarterly or something like that, like it, it, it's very helpful for the person, the implementer in training. But either way, we, we also started, uh, svi and I started, he had some larger clients that had like a few layers of management underneath the leadership team that needed some extra training. So we developed a program called Infuse, which was a six month EOS training curriculum for middle managers that started to take off. We, we, we, we, we did a bunch. I started working with a bunch of his
Matt Haney:So, so hold on a second. So you started your journey and as you were building your book, you worked with SVI to work on some of his clients', lower level folks below the leadership team.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:built this, uh, this business model. We had our own like manuals. We taught it a little bit differently'cause it's not the leadership team. and bring'em along in a little bit of a different order. But it was really, really impactful and, and really, really cool. Um.
Matt Haney:very cool.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:At the same time I was, you know, I went to bootcamp in February and I was building up my practice. And, you know, again, it just, everything like worked. You know, I, I, I had, uh, I had a great mentor. I, I started making some great friends in the community. you know, my, when I was at bootcamp, I'm like, what the heck is going on here? First I was, what the heck is going on here? Literally like, calling my wife. Like, what did I get into? Right? Like, I, I, you know.
Matt Haney:the cult.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:Yeah, I was just like, no, forget about the cult part of it. Like I forgot everything that I knew from the three years of implementing it into my business. All of a sudden I show up at bootcamp and like my mind went blank and they like, they break you, they call it bootcamp for a reason in a good way because it really, really puts you, you know, your feet to the fire. And if you really, really want to do this, this is gonna be one of the easier things you end up doing. Um, because it's not an easy job that we do. Um, people think it's easy sometimes because they see what I feel like in a session and things like that. Biz dev is hard. Maintaining your energy level is hard. You know, keeping EOS outta the house to a degree and not coaching your kids and your family all the time is hard. There's a lot of little interesting things that I've learned about myself along the way. but that's really, really been the, uh, you know, the primary driver and that, and that's it. You know, I'm, I'm about two and a half years since bootcamp now. between my infused sessions and my leadership sessions, I'm approaching 200. Right now, which is really, really some accomplishment as far as I'm concerned. Um, definitely a lot of peaks and valleys, ups and downs, revenue wise, emotions wise. But, uh, I love what I do when I'm in that session room with a client. I'm in an elevated place. I'm not, I'm not in this planet when I'm there. It's, it's not, I can't really explain it other than me completely understanding that this is what I'm on this earth to do. the work is what goes on in between the sessions and, and, and earning those sessions and keeping those sessions
Matt Haney:That's so crazy. I was in, uh, one of my clients is in the middle of negotiating two acquisition opportunities, one by Accenture and one by another company. and I'm, I'm meeting with a couple guys from London, um, and we're going around the table and we introduce each other. We do a full day session and then we go to dinner and the, and the visionary of this company that's looking to acquire us says. I'd like to ask each of you a really hard question, or I'd like to get a little deeper, and one of them was like, Matt, you know, like. Some, I don't remember what the thing was, the, the actual prompt, but I looked at him and I said, I've never felt more comfortable in my own skin than I feel right now doing what I'm doing. And I said, I have felt the other side of that and I've never had more confidence in my abilities and my path and my journey than right now. Um, and that sounds very similar to where you are in your journey, which is when you feel it. Um, it's, it's imp It's, it's so empowering. But then again, you and I both want to turn around and go, how do we help the people that we are dealing with get to that place? And that that's the sauce, right? Is to help someone else unlock that.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:Yeah. To find, uh, you know, to coin the Dan Sullivan terms to find your unique ability, right? And, and this life is, is, you know, people ask me like, how do you do what you do? How do you stand in front of a leadership team and orchestrate an entire day? Make sure that, like, aren't you exhausted? Isn't that a long, like eight hour meeting, nine, 10 hour meetings? Like, how do you do that every, I'm like, I love it. I'm not working. Like I turn around, I'm like, crap, it's five o'clock already. Shit. Like, sorry.
Matt Haney:Yeah. I, I, gotta get outta here. No,
Adam GoldSchmeidt:I mean, I don't hard stop my sessions. It's just like, where did the day go? Like, I can't believe, like that was seamless.
Matt Haney:it's.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:into the room.
Matt Haney:You know, I've, I've had the pleasure of sitting through, sitting through, sounds negative, but it is a pleasure. I don't know, maybe a hundred, maybe, maybe 150 sessions, maybe 200, I don't know, with probably 15 different implementers and, and it is so fun to be on this side of the table. And watching you guys at the board do the deal while we as a fractional integrator get to sit there and partake and participate. And I don't have to be EOS on'cause you're EOS on, you're the one that's delivering and doing the do, I'm being a part of the leadership team. But, um, I can, I can totally see what you're saying around how you get that feeling, that, um, performer feeling that you had as a kid and that you ultimately had in sales. And it, it's.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:Yeah. Yeah. It, it not to cut you off, I mean, even though I did cut you off, I had a really funny incident last week. I was in a session with a client. We, we did the session in like a, a WeWork type of, uh, you know, like a, like coworking facility. Um, it was their conference center. So we were in this big conference room with like a glass door wall, so anybody walking down can look right in and see everything that we're doing. Which is fine, like not a big deal. Doors are closed, you can't hear us and whatever. Um, and there was like a, a conference, like a mini conference going on there that day. So I think it was like the Suffolk County Dental Association or something. So a bunch of dentists and like a bunch of dental vendors and the sponsor tables were right outside the session room and there was like three people sitting and most of the time nobody was at their tables and they're just watching. They're watching through the glass, like I'm waving to them every once in a while because they see, like, they're watching the whole session. And during one of the breaks, I walk in, I'm like, what the heck are you doing in there with these people? Like, you're having so much fun. I'm entertained just watching you, and I don't even know what the heck you're talking about. And I'm like, thank you. Yeah. This is, this is what I do. I kind of explained it to them a little bit and you know, it was just funny. Like I, I felt like I was putting on a show for people who weren't even at the table like, like, you know, it was weird, but it was fun and it
Matt Haney:That's fantastic. Alright, let's jump in a little bit to, um, I just, one of my favorite things that I, I like to jump into, which is. You know, as an implementer, you guys see so many different businesses, um, and, and walks of life and people and sizes and leadership and, and we as fractional integrators do see something similar. But, um, think back over the last 200 sessions you've done and is there any, um. Synergies. Do you find yourself dealing with a certain client type A certain personality, men, women, blah, blah. Is there anything that kind of jumps together as a nucleus?
Adam GoldSchmeidt:Um, my clients, I, I do have a, a pretty, you know, wide spectrum of, of the types of clients that I work with, but for some reason I have a lot of contractors like that. That seems to be, you know, where I've happened into business. And I guess that's part of how it works.'cause that's where your referrals come in from and things like that. Um, but I just happen.
Matt Haney:what types of contracting?
Adam GoldSchmeidt:Plumbing, mechanical, electrical, uh, hood and fire suppression for restaurants like, you know, spray foam insulation, solar.
Matt Haney:I love it. I love it. I can't love it. That is so good. And they're all, uh, I, you know, it's so, that's so fabulous. I, I, too have an overlap in contracting as well. And, um, I love the blue collar business. I love watching the tradesmen turned, leader turned, manager turned, visionary, like that progression. I love building up people, taking'em out of the field and, and teaching them the, you know, the, in, in Texas, we have this joke, uh, at this one contractor. He said, well, I'm more of an outside dog, not an inside dog, because you have dogs that live inside and outside and he is like. I don't want to become an inside dog. I live on the outside. I was like, I got it. We're not gonna try to bring you into the, into the inside, but, um, contracting's awesome.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:Yeah, I just think that, you know, the reason why I think it's a lot of fun, first off, I just, I, I really have a tremendous amount of admiration. I think that those are some of the finest entrepreneurs, right? And, and if you think about where this world is going and you think about how maybe 10, 15 years ago everyone was telling kids go out and, and become programmers and developers. And now looking at what AI has done to those fields. You know, nobody's really telling people to go into that as much anymore. And now what I'm hearing, and I, and I love it, is that they're telling people like, go out and become a tradesman. Go out and become a plumber.
Matt Haney:Adam, I walk in my backyard today. I'm not bullshitting. I walk in my backyard today. The guy that cleans my pool, I know very well. He's a veteran. He owns his own business. Incredibly hard worker. We're talking about this exact same thing, and he said, I'm leaning into investing my time into trade schools to help kids be as a mentor and as to be, to help these young people understand the value of a trade program and how much opportunity there is, and it, it hit with me, my dad. Uh, was a vice president of a local bank for 30 years, but his passion was with underprivileged children and working in trades and the value they get and the return emotionally that you get from investing in young people in a trade is, I think it's, it's the best, one of the best things out there.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:Yeah, and so, so aside from the fact that I just have a tremendous amount of admiration for the hustle that goes along with running one of those businesses and growing and scaling one of those businesses, is that when you think about the backgrounds of a lot of these people that start these companies, they're not coming from the traditional college education MBA backgrounds that. Maybe we are used to, like, I, you know, I'm, I'm educated. I always focused on my education. Whether it helped me today, I don't know. Um, but like, I, I do believe that, yeah, not everybody has to go to college. Not everybody needs to, you know, do the Ivy League stuff and get their MBAs. Like there's plenty of knowledge. But what EOS brings to the table now is your ability to simplify your business, your ability to slow the business down a little bit, to speed it up. The biggest benefit I think for the blue collar companies is creating the common language. you're bringing in people, right? If you think about like Michael Gerber, the E-Myth, right? And the progression from craftsman or technician to manager to entrepreneur. Well. These, these technicians need to learn the entrepreneur language because they need to understand what this visionary, crazy guy is talking about. So by having concepts like rocks and issues and understanding what these things mean, right person, right seat two very, very different things, and being able to use these terms throughout an organization to create that, that common language where when I say something, it means the same thing to you as it means to me, and there's no room for misinterpretation whatsoever. I think that that's really. It does is that, you know, a lot of these businesses, maybe even still, some of them run on pen, pencil, and paper. That's okay.
Matt Haney:Sure. Oh.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:that way. Um, but you need to have processes. You need to have systems. You need to make sure that there's free flowing, open, honest, vulnerable communication. Um, and EOS really, really provides that, uh, you know, provides those types of companies a great framework.
Matt Haney:Yep. It's so interesting that you say these things and I get such a refresher of the commonality of language because, there are a lot there. Removing the room for interpretation is important, and it's one of those things that you, as I pull back from what I do every day and go back into what you're saying and process the fact that like. the commonality is very important. So much so that like when you add a new person to the team after they'd read what the heck is EOS, and if they're willing to read, traction, all this stuff, like you see them, the stranger, the new leadership team member. Really jump into the fact that they understand the commonality of the nomenclature and how that breaks down so many barriers and allows for so much clarity. Um, giving that to oh an operating team is, is really special. Uh, when you see it, you know, kind of hammering out together.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:And it also makes, makes the work that we're doing bigger than the job, right? Because when you're in these crafts and trades, you know, the focus tends to be on, let me be the best plumber, I can be the best electrician. Lemme get the job done. It's all about what the customer wants. Land the job, do the job, don't make mistakes, get paid. And. Now we have a context to start thinking strategically. Now we have a context to, to bring everybody else, even if it's a guy in the field who maybe not even speaks a word of English, right? To still have that common language, to still be able to bring them in to what the company vision is, that they feel that they're a part of it, and to drive them and help motivate and inspire them. I like to use Inspire, not motivate. Motivate has an expiration date. Inspiration lasts forever. Um, and if you can inspire people with your vision through these tools, and all of a sudden you have a guy who might just be a plumber, now all of a sudden is a representative for your company and he's somebody who is helping you get from point A to point B, not just doing the job. And I think that that gives that greater sense of purpose to people in an industry or industries where that typically the case.
Matt Haney:Love it. Okay, let me dig in just a little further. you have unique, uh, relationships with several, many different visionaries. I like to talk about time management because I do know in trade specifically. Um, I wouldn't say all, but I'm gonna guess most of your clients as the visionary, were a trades in the, were were picking up the hammer at some point. Proverbially. And, and at that time they had to work harder to do more and to get better, they had to work harder and harder and harder. How, um, difficult is it for you kind of on the coaching side, forget the session room as much, but how hard is it to get them to, to really slow down and take that? Um, clarity break and to take the time to be present in something else other than their 60 hour a week, 70 hour week. 80 hour a week grind. They've done their whole career.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:You, you hit the nail on the head that a lot of this comes down to time management, right? And, and when we think about the EOS toolbox and a level 10 meeting time management tool, how much time should we spend talking about things so that we have the right amounts of times on the right things? and one of the things that I, I teach my leadership teams and actually posted, uh, in my newsletter, I posted like a little bit of a video about this. So. Sign up for my newsletter if you wanna see some cool content. Um, but I believe rock setting is a time management technique because when you think about it, what's the model, right? Why do we call them rocks? You have to fill in your big rocks and let the, you know, the sand and the pebbles fill in around the sides. The sand, the pebbles, that's distractions. That's your day-to-day activities. The client calls, the things like that, that you have to do. But then the rocks are the big strategic priorities that you're doing to work on the business, build the business that you want to have. So if we're looking at that analogy and we're talking about how we fill our vessel. With the rocks, the sands, and the pebbles. Well, as a business owner, what's your vessel trivia question for you. I'll give you one guess. What's your vessel?
Matt Haney:What is my vessel? I uh, I think it's time, hours in the day number of like, yeah. It's like my unit of is time. Yeah.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:Your calendar is your jar. Right? And, and we as leaders, we as workers, we as entrepreneurs, we have a limited amount of time. Even if I'm working 70 hour weeks, there's still a whole bunch of hours that I'm not working and I better make sure that I'm spending the right time on the right things, right? So what I always like to teach my leadership teams, after we finish setting rocks and we figure out what's going to do, my biggest piece of advice I can give them is once we're done. You're gonna take your clarity break'cause all great leaders do, and you're gonna sit and you're gonna marinate over what your rocks are. And you're gonna say, okay, in 90 days, these are the three to seven end results that need to come up. Well, what do I need to do to accomplish this? You know, rock one, well, I have to hit this step by this day and I'm gonna start to create my milestones, right? And those will be the, the process that I use to achieve my rock and, and get it done. And I'm gonna create my milestones. And then the next thing I'm gonna do is think about very strategically, how long, how much time do I need to invest? What meetings do I need to have? What activities do I need to do to make sure that that milestone gets hit? And once you have all of that together and spend an hour, two hours, really,'cause this is your most important task of the quarter. Fill them into your calendar. Your calendar is your glass. Literally before your quarter even starts. Have a plan for what days and what times you're working on each one of your rocks. Now you're gonna have to get really good at saying no to some things and not being always on for some people, and that takes a little while. But if you can get really good at that and master that and realize my. My one hour every Monday for the quarter to work on Rock One, and every Thursday and Friday I'm working on Rock two from, you know, nine to 12. And the guy that I'm working on Rock three with, he's only in on Wednesdays in person, so I need to meet with him every Wednesday. And you literally block off this time plan every single rock activity into your calendar before the quarter even starts. And now all the fire drills and the emergencies and the client calls and the networking dinners and the sales opportunities and all these other. Things that you have to do, whether you should be doing them or not, but you have to do them, whether it be a distraction or picking up the slack from somebody else. They fill in around those cracks, fill those in around those cracks at four o'clock. I'm working on my rock today. I could take your call at three, or I could take your call tomorrow.
Matt Haney:right. And the accountability piece of that, man, it's so hard.'cause as you know, we get back into the weeds. We get back into the do and. It's easy to say, you know what, that four o'clock I just push it till next week, I'm not gonna do it. You keep doing that, you keep doing that. I find myself saying, let's, if I'm in the meeting with you, you're gonna do it.'cause I'm gonna call you and heckle you if you don't show up to the meeting that I, or you push me for something else. But I do find that helping that visionary stay accountable to the fact that we blocked off the time to do the work, rock work. you know, hold it, keep the time. don't blow me off.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:Yeah, I had a specific client that actually was struggling. They're struggling with rock completion for a couple quarters in a row. They weren't getting rocks done, and we realized it was a time management issue. And I talked to my, my concept of the managing the time. It's up to them to ultimately implement it and take advantage of those suggestions, but their integrator. shout out to Gabby from Stone Lane. She did a great job.
Matt Haney:there you go.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:She made a suggestion, that when we start, when we take our rocks from this point forward, our rocks are off track, day one. And then in order to for your rock to be on track, you have to earn it. Most companies, most people, most, you know, the EOS way is your rock is on track until it's off track. It's on track, on track until that event happens, that throws you off. They have a reverse concept of no, earn it. Earn your on track, show the leadership team, you have a plan. Make sure that everybody knows what their roles are in getting those things done. And then after a week or two into the quarter, then your rock is on track. Now you have a plan and those rocks will stay on track. And thankfully, I would say that their, their rock completion percentage has gone up dramatically since that, since implementing that. So, um, that's another little nugget that I, uh, I encourage people to, to try.
Matt Haney:Look, on the screen. I'm taking it. I'm taking all these that I just set and I'm changing them all to off track.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:it, baby.
Matt Haney:Because that's, that's a fantastic point of just, I didn't even think about that. You're right. And, and we just, I was gonna jump in on that. We, um, we just started or just finished a quarterly with that client. And for me, the week, the two weeks after the quarterly are the hardest weeks to just get focused because we did all this work. We had this great moment, we ranked it, we did all this stuff, and then it's like. Fuck, now we gotta go do it. Fuck, what do we do? What do we do? What do we do? So I immediately, the, the L 10 following the, uh, the quarterly, all the rocks are up, issues are clean, you know, long-term issues. I, I like. So it takes me two full weeks with every client to. Post session to get Rock smart and I, I, but now we're two weeks in, right? And there, you know, I end up having to work one-on-one with a lot of the clients to get the rock smart. But I've started to build this template to really help make sure that we're getting us to where we need to be. But after that, then we're like, on week three, things start hitting and we start getting our milestones set in. We start making sure they're tangible. sometimes I feel like it's hard to, to, to, to make a rock. Smart in the way that we mutually can agree what success and done looks like.'cause it's like there's always something that you could say, well it is 95% done. And I'm like, I don't want to do that anymore. I want to know. Let's write it where we know it's done.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:Um, a line that I'm gonna credit for this'cause I'm fairly certain I heard it from him. There's no such thing as, you know, 95% done. There's no such thing as half pregnant. You're either pregnant or you're not. It's
Matt Haney:Oh yeah. I use it all the time. I. Yep. And you've gotta be really intentional about framing it that way, because I find myself wanting to say it's done. And my current visionary, the one who's actually negotiating the acquisition, pushes me on it. He's like, Matt, that's not done. And I'm like, I love it. Everyone needs that mutual feedback and accountability to understand, you know, what done looks like. So, um, you, one, one thing I want to ask you something. So, and when we. When we, when you filled out the, the information about the podcast, um, I, and I don't know if you remember this, I'm gonna test you. in your mind, what's the number one hardest thing about managing people? I know your response, by the way, and if you give me a different response, I'm gonna give you the one back that you gave me.'cause it's incredible the number one response, the number one hardest thing about managing.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:You have to care about your people. Is that, is that what I said?
Matt Haney:It is in that layer, the vein you said was people think they're being nice by not addressing issues directly.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:Yeah. Yeah, so we talked about my affinity for reading. You know, we talked about my affinity for reading and maybe one of the highlights of my last two and a half years since I've been an implementer is at the 2024 EOS conference where the keynote speaker is the author of my favorite book, radical Candor, Kim Scott. Um, and I'm a, a big time fanboy Kim Scott. I've been talking about this book since it came out. I wanna say it came out in like 2018, 2019, maybe. Maybe even a little earlier, but, um, it, it's just the Bible for me because I've always struggled. I've always been very, very direct by nature. And what I learned through reading through that book is how to dial up the care and making sure that people know that you're caring about them when you're, when you're being as direct. So it totally clicked with me because I could have been the ob, you know, the obnoxious aggressor. Um, and there's many times in my life where I've been manipulatively, insincere, uh, or ruinously empathetic, like those are things that everybody struggles with at a time. But it created this perfect context for like, what's the right way to communicate with people. And if you care about them, you really should be able to address them directly. I conver, so I ended up like stalking her a little bit after the keynote. had a little like moment talking to her. Yeah, yeah. No, I was talking to her off to the side. There was a bunch of other people and I like, didn't care, like I was talking to her. And then we had to walk from the venue, but then we walked from the venue to like the night party at the, the gas lamp district. Um, and. And she's like, why don't you just walk with me? And we literally took like a 15 minute walk. Me and Kim Scott and like her daughter and her daughter's friend were like following us. And I just got to pick her brain and it was, it was awesome. It was so cool.
Matt Haney:so fantastic. So that's one of, I mean, I mean that's one of her. Um, I have read the book Adam, but it's been forever. Is that one of her famous kind of. Points is that that point that people think they're being nice by not being direct
Adam GoldSchmeidt:Yeah. Yeah. Like.
Matt Haney:being nice? Yeah.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:The example they give in the book is if somebody flies open, right? If you care about a person. Right, and you wanna address'em directly, you'll tap'em on the shoulder and you'll whisper in their X, Y, Z, so that they don't have, they could turn it into the corner and not embarrass themselves and, and zip up. Right? That's perfect. That's exactly what you're supposed to do. If you're obnoxiously aggressive, if you don't care about them, but you're gonna address'em directly. You're yelling out across the room so that everybody knows that they flies open. Oh, your flies open. You're making fun, and you're making them feel like a jerk. Right. Then there's, what I think most people would do in this situation is most people see the person with their fly open and they think to themselves, it's gonna be so embarrassing for him if I tell him, so let me just like keep it to myself.'cause I don't want him to like be self-conscious.
Matt Haney:right. right. Instead, we let him walk around with his fly open
Adam GoldSchmeidt:Right. And then the worst part is sometimes the people will say, well, I don't want him to know. Like I was looking at his crotch, right? Like, like that's where I didn't say it, not because I don't want him to feel uncomfortable'cause I don't wanna feel uncomfortable. And that's where that manipulative insincerity comes in. Um, and I have a boss ri, I've had a lot of bosses named Richie over the course of my life. So Richie at Blue Switch, um, he always said he prided himself on, I'm the guy who will tell you that you have something stuck in your teeth. And, and I just think back to that and I'm like, yeah, that's who I've become. Like, and, and in, in the most, and every, everybody appreciates it.
Matt Haney:but for the right reason. For the right reason. Because you want to help someone. You want to, you want to
Adam GoldSchmeidt:that's good.
Matt Haney:from some point of embarrassment.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:you have no idea how many times I come home from like a restaurant and I've got crap in my teeth and nobody said anything to me.
Matt Haney:You are like, all I wanted was for you to save me from the embarrassment. All right. I'm gonna wind us down by asking you a few questions that you gotta answer in, nah, not rapid succession, but you can give us one sentence around the question. Um, we already covered sports. I know it's the Yankees. Um. Favorite book. Oh, and if you, we just talked about it, so it's probably what we just talked about. All right. Fine. Favorite band music?
Adam GoldSchmeidt:Evolved with time these days. gonna say Goose right now, I'm like really into Goose. I've always been a jam
Matt Haney:ready for this.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:was my thing for a bit.
Matt Haney:I'm on and I'm coming back for more. I love Goose.
Adam GoldSchmeidt:That song is ridiculous also, by the way, like yeah, so I, so I saw them in concert for the first time this summer. I've been listening to them for a while. They're like really at the top of their games right now. So I'm just super into Goose. But I have like a history with the Allman Brothers, with the Dave Matthews band. I love Led Zeppelin. Um, the Beastie Boys have been an important part of my upbringing. Um, my kids love the Beastie Boys, and there's a very famous act right now. They, they intersect between Jewish music and like techno dancing, and it's a band called Zha. And it happens to be that one of my cousins is in the band, and they're like, they're, they're huge. They're massive. Um, so I really, really enjoy them too. Um, so I listen to a
Matt Haney:I have to show you this because I was just texting with my buddy. You can't, you may be able, oh, I'm gonna try to find it. Hold on. This was Mount Joy and Goose in Wisconsin and I was like, that would've been a show. Uh, I love, I love,
Adam GoldSchmeidt:depends on who, like my favorite concert recently is, usually drives what I listen to the most. Like I've been just listening to a ton of goose since June. I love it. Um, but like two summers ago I went to an amazing, like slightly stupid reggae concert and stick figure, and I was listening to like reggae for like a year. My wife, my wife before I met her, um, was a huge Phish fan. I, I, we do like Phish. We're not like at every concert like some of my friends are, but we try to go once a year. Um, and my wife also is a huge fan of the band Sublime. Um, and that's been an important part of our marriage. Our, we, I love Sublime too. And, and we know the words to every single song and like, you know, like that's, uh, that's, that's like our, our joint favorite together.
Matt Haney:Adam Don, practice Santaria. I know'em all too. Okay, last question. I'm gonna let you go. Uh, you walk into, Adam walks into a bar. What's the kind of beer that he orders? What's the, what's the first beer? Just immediately
Adam GoldSchmeidt:If you had asked me that question again, because this is how we grow and we become bigger, more evolved people. If you had asked me this question six months ago, I would say, I want an IPA, whatever I, whatever foggy, cloudy, IPA, you've got, that's what I want to drink. But when I started to realize is first off, they're very, very filling and I'm trying to keep my weight down. Secondly. Um, I, you know, when you're traveling and you're at a baseball game or you're in an airport, you don't really, I've become a little bit stuck up with the types of IPAs that I was drinking. Um, you can't really get something that like equals and like, you know, like the basic IPAs that they have at your airport bar, it doesn't cut it for me. So I, I recently, um, about six months ago, decided that I'm gonna start drinking pilsners because anywhere you can go, you can get an ice cold, Stella. And, and I, and that's usually the way I start my night with, with the beer side, right. I'll usually have a shop before that, but beer, I, I work my way up to IPAs, but I've learned to really, really appreciate like a nice Chris Pilsner a lot over the days. And
Matt Haney:that's so good. Cold mug, borderline freezing. There's nothing better than a pilsner. Um, I am, I am a pilsner logger guy, but
Adam GoldSchmeidt:there's a brewery a few blocks away from my house that opened about three years ago. Um, and I've become very, very good friends with the owner'cause I spend a lot of time there. Maybe too much time there. I don't have beer in my house anymore'cause I just drive to the brewery and, and grab a beer there. Um, and they make the best pilsner. Um, it's so good. And that's really what turned me on. So shout out to Manny and Summerset Brewery and we did a really cool project together. This summer I'm involved with an organization called Hesc. Hebrew Academy for special children, and they run a camp, uh, summer camp, sleepaway camp program for kids with special needs where, um, in a way it's, it's amazing for these kids to have that opportunity, but it's also really amazing for their parents to have two months off where these kids are taking care of and have the time of their lives. Um, it's a tremendous organization. They do tremendous, tremendous good. I have a very good friend who's, you know, whose son goes there and, and it, it means the world to them. This summer, he, every summer my friend does an event, some type of alcohol tasting men's night out type of thing. So we did tequila a couple years ago. We did bourbon last year, which was my second love. Um, and this year was beer tasting. And I was able to convince Manny, who's my good friend to, we did a special batch of Pilzer and we canned them up. It was called Pills for a Purpose. And we did a limited edition run just for that night. We got like 12 cases out of a keg or something like that. And it was just such a cool thing to be a part of. I was involved in the, the, the brewing process, involved in the canning process. It was just a cool thing to be a part of and it supported a great cause. It was a hugely successful night. And when you go into the brewery now, he is got labels from all the beers he is ever made and, and pills for purpose is up there too.
Matt Haney:Oh, what a cool story. I need to meet this guy. I might have to have a few pints at his place. Somerset
Adam GoldSchmeidt:And he come, come, come visit Somerset Brewing in West Hempstead, New York. They're about to open a massive, massive, expansion in about two months, three months.
Matt Haney:That's fantastic. Well, Adam, I'm gonna close this down by, uh, expressing my gratitude and growth for coming, um, for, for spending this time with you. Um, I have to tell you, I've done this a few times and this is probably top, top five for me in terms of just having good conversation with somebody who's, um. Full of experience and full of life and humility, um, and, you know, just gratitude. So thank you very much for, for your time with me and uh, I appreciate you
Adam GoldSchmeidt:Thank you. Just
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