On "Get It Done" Mindset and Heidi Adams Show Notes
What's under this? What's behind this? What keeps this going? Who do I need to meet? How can I map out the path to meeting them?
All of the Who, What, When, Where, How really came to the fore in my amazing conversation with BaseStud.io CEO, Heidi Adams. And, it feels like that is the way with many of the people I interview or amplify. They don't settle for "this is just the way it is," but they dig IN.
For me, the WHY is the really fascinating part. As in: But, why did you keep on going!?
The get–it-done mind cannot stop, and Heidi's kicked in almost from birth, as you'll find out in this episode of Name & Fame. And, with so much of the not-good that is happening in our world these days, it feels like the GOOD innovation in clean tech, in democracy, and in running cities and states, is at the Hollywood point Heidi mentions, where there is no failure option. If you need to figure out how to safely blow up a building in a week for a movie, you just do. If climate change demands we make our cities more resilient, we just DO.
From where so many of us sit right now, there is no failure option.
I'm guessing you see yourself in this. I'm guessing you also see some of the leaders around you in this.
Let's keep this rolling. Cheer them on. Amplify their work to new communities (and your own followers). Love UP the amazing humans doing incredible things you see and the social norm (and our expectations for what is possible) will shift!
In the meantime, here are extended show notes for the incredible conversation I had with Heidi. As ever, I'd love a follow or share, and a rating/review on Apple podcasts if you are inspired. It really helps guide new listeners our way. (Thank you!)
From the Ground Up: Heidi Adams and the Streetlight Built for Now
Heidi Adams sees what most people walk past. She spent 25 years as a production designer in film and TV — building worlds from scratch and solving the unsolvable, all in an industry where failure simply isn't an option. But that's the backstory. What she is, at her core, is a design thinker who tears problems down to first principles and builds them back up for what's needed in this time. .
The streetlight she has reimagined as CEO of BaseStud.io — climate-resilient, wifi-enabled, EV-charging, grid-independent, self-financing in two to three years — came from that mind. And so did her approach to the communities the LA fires hit hardest. Heidi doesn't just show up with a product. She pulls people together around solutions — hers, and everyone else's, doing the work of hardening landscapes and neighborhoods for what comes next. Andrea dials in on Heidi’s community-centering as leadership, and why it's the part of the innovation story that usually goes untold.
The Opening Question
I've been wanting to introduce Heidi Adams to you for a while. Not because of her resume, but because of the way her mind moves — she looks at something that hasn't changed in a hundred years and asks, simply: what does it need to do now?
We talk about — the joy in the design problem, the intuition she's learned to trust, the thread from a MacGyver father and alternative-fuel upbringing, to RISD and 25 years of impossible film and television production challenges.
The Woolsey Fire and What Came After
In 2018, Heidi was dog-sitting in Malibu when the Woolsey fire tore through. She and her husband joined a six-hour traffic standstill on the Pacific Coast Highway, and that experience didn't leave her.
Two years later, Los Angeles held an international design competition to reimagine the streetlight. Heidi entered and her company, BaseStud.io, was a finalist.
Streetlight Details
The BaseStud.io streetlight is a microgrid node. It runs on solar energy with a battery backup that keeps the lights and wifi on when the grid goes down. It has an EV charger integrated into the pole.
The revenue model is notable: between solar generation, wifi accessibility, and EV charging, the streetlight can pay for itself in two to three years, making it accessible to frontline communities that have never otherwise been able to afford upgraded infrastructure.
Community-Centering as Leadership
Heidi doesn't just show up in a fire-affected community with a product. She pulls the community together around solutions — hers, and everyone else's. She's organized resilience expos in Altadena, Pacific Palisades, and more, to bring together engineers, elected officials, oak tree experts, housing advocates, and neighbors who haven't seen each other since the evacuation. She works with each community segment — the churches, the schools, the neighborhood groups — not to market to them, but to make sure they find each other.
We looked at the leadership philosophy underneath this: elected officials as boots on the ground more than keynote speakers, and how a designer thinks about convening the same way she thinks about a set — every detail intentional, every element earning its place.
On Intuition and Who to Call
Heidi figured out who to call when she knew nothing about streetlight infrastructure at the very beginning of this journey. She works from intuition. One conversation opened another.
Name & Fame It Forward
Heidi's pick: Estelle Reyes at LACI — the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator — where she leads community engagement and workforce development for the clean energy transition. Find her on LinkedIn.
https://basestud.io/
@baseStudio_io
linkedin.com/in/heidi-adams-base-studio
laincubator.org (Los Angeles CleanTech Incubator)
https://climateresolve.org/resilience-hubs/
Follow Andrea between episodes:
Andrea Learned 🚲 Ⓥ 🎙️
Name & Fame is created, produced, and hosted by Andrea Learned. This episode was edited by Syd Gladu and Kristi Taiwo-Makanjoula. Show art by Nancy Bolen. Music by Adam Captured.
