Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Edwina Adams. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Edwina, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We love asking folks what they would do differently if they were starting today – how they would speed up the process, etc. We’d love to hear how you would set everything up if you were to start from step 1 today.

I started one of the first (automated/eco-friendly) trash can cleaning services in America in 2014. I learned so much the hard way. Mostly because there were no forums or groups of operators to learn from. I jokingly tell people, “Never be the first to do something”, but it’s kind of true.

When you have people to learn from – learn from them then do it better if you can. Get a mentor, pay for a mentor. It’s worth it. I wish I could have done that and now I understand the importance of mentors.

What has been rewarding is, I have become an industry leader. I initially established one of the first groups for trash can cleaners in America and it was amazing to teach others and learn from others. I’ve written three different industry e-books over the years and have helped thousands of people understand the industry before they invest their time and money and provided them with some best practices and useful advice. The advice given to them has helped many grow their businesses much faster than I did – being that I didn’t have the help I gave to them. And I’m very happy for those who had help and didn’t go through some of the struggles I did.

I’m still the majority owner of my business but becoming more hands-off and slowly moving away from that industry and into some other things. One takeaway is I will always be a mentor of some kind and always have a mentor of some kind.

Everything comes full circle. When you give happily, willingly, and from the heart (even if it includes paid knowledge of yours), you win too. It’s just how you should live. Give to help others. Don’t horde your knowledge and never try to be the smartest person in the room. There is enough pie for everyone.

Edwina, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I founded one of the first automated and eco-friendly trash can cleaning services in America in 2014. This industry is now a booming industry with thousands of operators nationwide with a service that communities love and need.

I’m proud to have not given up even when I didn’t have a lot of helpful resources for myself. I’m also proud to have become an industry leader, writing three different industry e-books and helping thousands of people to reduce the number of problems or challenges I had.

Through this journey, I learned that I am an encourager at heart. I’m “Edwina the Encourager”.

In 2023 I started a podcast called Let’s Make Some Noise that highlights turning adversity into positive noise. NOISE is my acronym for a Narrative Of Inspiration, Strength, and Encouragement.

In my own life, I’ve experienced some crazy adversity. My first marriage ended up being to a con man, then the adversity of being an entrepreneur since 2008 and nearly dying in 2020. I’ve come out of all these things with my own Narrative Of Inspiration, Strength, and Encouragement, and want others to know they can do the same.

I enjoy hearing of how others have turned their adversity into positivity for the world and I love continuing to inspire others with my vulnerability related to my prior adversity.

Have you ever had to pivot?

The times I’ve had to pivot in my business are many but the biggest pivots involve partnership. Partnerships can be a great thing or a bad thing. I first began my business with one of my sisters. She ended up not being very interested in the business and that is ok – it’s not for everyone. In 2020, my heart suddenly was only functioning at 15% and I was told I would be lucky if I lived a year. I made a miraculous recovery and decided I had to get a business partner who did want to grow the business with me but it needed to be someone who would also take some of the burden off of me (for stress reasons related to my heart).

I thought I found the right partner. I was very honest about what kind of partner I needed and why. He was ready to fill the gap and a new partnership began. Then it never happened the way we talked about it happening. Matter of fact the next year and half would be doubly stressful for me and now I am back in heart failure. Although I know I will recover again, it was shocking and frustrating to be in this position. In an effort to finally “help me” my new partner then tried to do a hostile take-over knowing I wasn’t feeling well. Instead of falling for that, I found someone to buy him out. So now I’m on my third business partner but it’s already like a new world. The new partner is super happy to have my knowledge and expertise on board and they are more than willing to take stress off of me by taking over the operations that I’m not wanting to do or able to do. It’s a huge blessing and it highlights that pivoting in business is something you always need to be open to. To grow, you must be able to pivot even when it’s super hard.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

In 2014 I was new to using social media for business. My prior businesses hadn’t relied on it and I didn’t use it much on a personal level at that time. I ended up doing a fairly good job as my business social media quickly became the fastest way others learned about my service.

What I did do well was 1) good branding, 2) consistent posting, and 3) education of the service. I now know that I lacked vulnerability though. At that time I had this new business that no one had heard of, my husband was in school full-time so it was my business and only me doing all the work on it and I had a (barely) two-year-old and a 4-month old baby at the time but no one ever knew that part. I didn’t think people would care about me doing my business while doing all the mommy stuff. I was wrong though. I missed an opportunity to also show I was just a regular woman/mom doing what I was doing. I could have highlighted that even if I didn’t want to show the kids online.

With my new ventures, I have learned from this. Months before starting my podcast (before I even knew I’d have a podcast) I started a brand new TikTok, with zero followers – posted my first video and was very vulnerable. It took off within minutes and went viral. Authenticity and vulnerability are the most powerful things we have. So powerful it’s felt through video. If you are building any kind of social media that is the #1 key to your success.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://edwinaadams.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/official_edwinaadams
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/letsmakesomenoiseprivategroup
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwinaadams/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@letsmakesomenoisepodcast
• Other: https://linktr.ee/edwinaadams https://www.tiktok.com/@edwinaadams