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[Voiceover]: Welcome to the Checkout. We catch up with previous add to cut guests and ask them five quick questions to get to know them better and leave you with a little extra inspiration to get through your Friday.
[Ad]: Here's Your host, Bushy Today's checkout features Adam Finesse, Managing Director of Impact.com APAC. Adam is a leader in the world of partnerships and marketing automation and he is transforming the way that big brands collaborate with influencers, affiliates and other businesses. In this episode, Adam shares some fun insights, including his favorite tools for keeping his team connected, the weirdest thing he's ever been gifted, and his biggest challenge when it comes to balancing tasks and relationships.
Nathan Bush: Adam Furnesse, welcome to the Checkout. It is brilliant to have you here after our main conversation with Roger Frank from Brand Collective where we discussed all these partnerships including some of the exciting things that are coming down the line from impact.com and it was brilliant to get your thoughts on circles versus Funnels. Didn't we have some fun with that, mate?
Adam Furness: How many times did we mention circle? I reckon 10, 15?
Nathan Bush: Better than the amount of times you mentioned perky@ipx. I have five quick questions for you and I want to learn a little bit more behind who is Adam Furness? Number one? What is the weirdest thing that you've ever bought online?
Adam Furness: Okay, I'm gonna give you two things here. I'd never really bought a weird thing online, but I've certainly been given a weird thing that was bought online. So every year we've got a group of friends, we get together, we do our kk, you know, Kris Kringle. And the weirdest thing I've ever been given in that was a gimp mask. And so, yeah, that was the weirdest thing I've ever been given.
Nathan Bush: It was weird that it was on your wish list.
Adam Furness: That's good, Nate. That's good. That's good. Definitely coming from you. Okay, so that's the way to see that I've ever been gifted or given. I haven't actually bought anything weird online, but one of my favorite things is I bought these. It was during COVID these authentic Greek skewers that I could cook, like kebabs and chicken skewers and that sort of thing on the barbecue. And the reason I love them so much is they're stainless steel. So when you cook with them, it cooks like the meat from the inside out. It's like they were like game changers. Game changers. And they're my favorite thing that I bought. So not weird, but you know my favorite.
Nathan Bush: No, but I like that because I bought some dodgy ones and I used them once, and they're a nightmare to clean. I was like, no, not happening. There you go. I'm going to get a link from you. You're a true influencer. Adam.
Adam Furness: Yes, man. I'd prefer to be called a content creator, but, yeah, sure, Pick your line.
Nathan Bush: All right, number two, which retailer has most inspired you recently?
Adam Furness: I love July luggage. I don't know. There's just something about it. I. I got an impact.comJuly luggage. We did pay for it. Nice. So there wasn't any dodgy deals going on there, but I just love it. I prance around the airport. It goes really well. I feel good about the luggage that I've got. I put it up there and my. You know, I just. Yeah, I love it.
Nathan Bush: So.
Adam Furness: And I just think they do really cool stuff and the brand and the way they've gone about it and the way they, like, connect community and leverage their community. And I don't know, I just have. I just have such a good feeling.
Nathan Bush: Yeah.
Adam Furness: When I'm interacting and engaging with that. With that brand. So, yeah, July luggage.
Nathan Bush: I love it. I agree with you. Zoe was at the E Commerce social the other night, their gm. And we had a little corner of the room where we had everyone leave their backpacks and their luggage for people who were traveling, that there was a good portion of July luggage in there. And I said, zoe, come have a look at this. And I showed her the bag pile, and she was like. And just genuine excitement that there was so much July there. So, like, I just love it from the team here locally as well, that there is just so much Excitement about seeing it out in the world and then, you know, advocates like us of who are so happy to share and promote July because it makes you feel good. So great brand, mate.
Adam Furness: Totally. And I love Aussie brands that are doing, doing well. I mean, one of my core passions is helping Aussie brands be successful all around the world. Like, I just, you know, want more of that.
Nathan Bush: Love it all. All right, number three, name a piece of tech that you or your business couldn't live without.
Adam Furness: I listen to sales calls via a tech, which is called Gong. And now that we've got such a distributed workforce, the ability to be able to listen to how our people are talking to prospective customers and customers and be able to coach them no matter where I am in the world. I love that. So Gong is this piece of technology that sort of sits behind any call that our team is doing records, and then it's got AI which picks out like keywords and does summaries of the calls. But I can actually go into each call, listen to any part of the call, make some notes, respond to a way that something was being done, and actually coach them, post the call anywhere in the world. So I love that piece of technology. It's called Gong.
Nathan Bush: That's very cool. What would be your number one tip for young salespeople in our industry who are on calls all day? What do you see the most common thing that you coaching your team and other teams that you've been working with on? When it comes to sales, the tip
Adam Furness: I would give is review. So review your calls, review what worked, what didn't. How do you improve? Just ask yourself those sort of three questions and then apply that moving forward. And just do that consistently and unrelentingly day in, day out, and you win.
Nathan Bush: Great tip. Thank you. All right, number four, can you recommend a book or a podcast that our listeners should immediately get into?
Adam Furness: So this is podcast add to cart. I highly recommend that. And then I'll give you. I'll give you another podcast and I'll give you. Give you a book as well. So my daily routine is I get up pretty much I'm boring. I get up the same time every day. I'm up at 5:30. I meditate, exercise, and I listen to a podcast which is called Fear and Greed. And it's my daily kind of business news. And they talk in pretty simple terms. And I like the guys there, Sean Elmer and Michael Thompson.
Nathan Bush: Adam's the producer from Umbrella. Yeah, yeah.
Adam Furness: Adam Lang. Yeah, yeah, Adam. Adam Lang, who I used to work with, actually. So but anyway, that fear and great. I listen to every, every day, the business news and then there's typically an interview as well with a CEO or someone of, of note. And it's just kind of my daily routine. So I like that. And the book is called Consciousness Business. I highly recommend, I recommend it to everyone. It's by Fred Hoffman. So it's called Conscious Business and it's all about creating success beyond success. So, yeah, it's doing business with that in mind. It's not just about the win. It's about long term value. It's about long term partnerships. It's the attitude of an individual to be a player, not a victim. And I just, you know, I really love, love that book. So Conscious Business, great tips.
Nathan Bush: Thank you so much. We will check those out. Last one I've got for you, Adam, what is your biggest challenge today?
Adam Furness: I'm challenged by this every, every single day. And I really need to get my head right. Whenever I'm thinking about it is task versus relationship. So I'm wired to get shit done. I'm wired to, like, you know, act. And so quite often I find myself favoring doing a task over building a relationship or really connecting with a team member or my wife or my, or my kids on a personal level. So it's that friction and conflict that I have in my own head. And it's a challenge for me every single day. And so for me, I'm trying to favor more relationship than task or at least get the balance a bit better. So that's probably the biggest challenge, the biggest challenge that I have on a daily basis is that. And then there's focus. There's just so much to do. It's like, what, what should I be focusing on? What's going to make the biggest difference? The biggest impact is I try to calibrate back to that.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, I love it. And it sounds like you're aware of it, right? I think everyone struggles with it at some point. It's how aware are you that it's happening. And I definitely hear you on that task. First relationships, especially when you go in your position going from being a leader at work, you've got a, you know, a significant team there, to being a dad at home, to being a husband. Like, they're all different types of relationships that you've got to nurture. So I loved hearing that from you because definitely something I resonate with. Adam, thank you so much for joining us on the checkout. We had a great conversation back on our main episode where we had Roger from Brand Collective, talking about partnerships and what's coming down the line, how brands can make the most of partnerships in their marketing mix. Go check that out if you haven't already. But Adam, thank you for joining us on the checkout.
Adam Furness: Always love chatting to you, Nate.
Nathan Bush: Thank you.
[Ad]: If Adam's insight sparked your interest, head back to the main episode where Adam talks about the future of partnerships and how automation is helping brands like Reebok and Hushpuppies scale their efforts. From influencer collaborations to affiliate programs, Adam shares valuable strategies for making partnerships a key part of your marketing mix. Thanks for listening. And until next time, keep adding to cartoon.
