Start With A Win

When facing a challenge, the enemy is not what's actually in front of us, it's how we FEEL about what we have to overcome. What is the solution? Make a plan, execute that plan, and overcome that enemy!

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Dave Liniger started RE/MAX in 1973, and it has become the largest real estate company in the world with a record year in 2021. He also runs a private equity company, Area15 Ventures, focused on emerging franchisors and high-growth businesses.

Dave’s experience in business and leadership is extensive and diverse—from four tours in Vietnam to owning and running a NASCAR team to building dozens of companies over the years. So he understands what it takes to start and grow a successful business. He believes that may leaders are arrogant, believing that they were the ones to create the success. But the truth is that it’s nonsense. Success isn’t about “me,” it’s about “we.” It wasn’t just Dave who made RE/MAX happen, it was the many people around him and in the company who made it was it is today.

Dave shares about the mistakes he’s also made along the way and how he overcame them. You can make mistakes, but don’t let mistakes make you. And he believes that a leader has to be transparent to his or her team. If you make a mistake, you should own up to it and commit to not doing it again. “We’re human beings, and we make mistakes. Just don’t make the same mistake over and over again.”

Dave provides insight on the importance of creating the right environment in a company. He shares that one of the major functions of a great leader is to create an environment where the individuals on the team can collectively succeed better than they can by themselves—and to achieve their personal goals as well as team goals. And it’s more than just being a good motivator. He believes that motivation is superficial and doesn’t work in the long-term. Instead, create an environment of self-motivation where people can achieve what they want to achieve. Because not everyone has the same goals. 

The conversation shifts to cultivating confidence and courage in the people you lead. Courage comes from experience, and experience comes from confidence—or vice-versa. Dave shares stories of how he learned to cultivate that confidence in the leaders around him, and part of that came by being an encourager. Part of the job of leading is encouraging and praising others. You lead by example, but also by heaping praise on your people. If your employees know they have someone who cares for them personally, they pick up on that.

“I wish I could buy people for what they think they’re worth, and work with them for a while, and then sell them for what I know they’re worth,” said Dave.

Adam and Dave round out this part of the conversation by talking about the difference between a family environment and a team environment in a company. RE/MAX was built as a team, with people relying on each other and their leaders to contribute and make the team better. But Dave shares that you can have team accomplishments with family values. A team that’s accountable to each other but also there for each other when it’s needed most.

Episode Links:

http://www.daveliniger.com

https://www.area15ventures.com

Order your copy of Start With A Win: Tools and Lessons to Create Personal and Business Success:

https://www.startwithawin.com/book

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Monty Moran is the former co-CEO of Chipotle Mexican Grill. Prior to joining Chipotle, he was head of litigation and CEO at a Denver-based law firm for ten years. 

Most recently, Monty realized his lifelong dream of becoming a pilot, and flies his airplane throughout the United States to pursue his interest in better understanding and serving Americans, a quest he documents through his startup, Old Tale Productions. 

He is also the author of the book Love is Free. Guac is Extra: How Vulnerability, Empowerment, and Curiosity Built an Unstoppable Team.

In our world, most people are uncomfortable with using the word “love” when it comes to business. Monty helps us understand that love doesn’t have to just be a “fluff” word but that it can mean truly caring about your people, empowering them, and bringing the best out in them. 

Monty shares about his time at Chipotle and how he worked to build a culture of empowerment. We all know what it’s like to feel disappointed after a lack-luster retail experience where the staff appear less than enthusiastic to be there. Monty believes that often comes from a culture where the employees are not empowered. He defines empowerment as feeling confident in your ability, encouraged by your circumstances, such that you feel motivated and at liberty to fully devote your talents to a purpose. And when you have a culture of empowered people, you can then feel that energy across the counter.

In order to create that culture, Monty knew he couldn’t spend all of (or most of) his time in the corporate office. As the CEO, he spend most of his time in the restaurants in one-on-one conversations with employees. In this conversations, he got to know who they were as people as well as how they felt about the company and what was going well—and what wasn’t so great.

Monty also shares about the importance of vulnerability in leadership and being your real, genuine self. Because he believes the only source of power for a leader is the people who choose to follow that leader. So we have to ask ourselves as leaders: Why would someone follow me? People won’t follow you if you’re not worthy of being followed—or if they don’t believe you’re being real or genuine. He shares the story of leading his first meeting at Chipotle and how a moment of true vulnerability set the tone for how he was perceived as a leader.

Monty and Adam round out the conversation by talking about Monty’s “controversial” view of work-life balance: He doesn’t believe in it! Work-life balance implies that life and work are completely separate, but we don’t stop living when we go to work. Everyone wants something different from our work and our life, and the key is to determine what amount of overlap is going to fulfill us.

Episode Links:

Order your copy of Start With A Win: Tools and Lessons to Create Personal and Business Success:

https://www.startwithawin.com/book

Connect with Adam:

https://www.startwithawin.com/

https://www.facebook.com/AdamContosCEO

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Why are some people terrible at sales? The truth is they skip the first, and maybe most important step: Building relationships. People don't want to do business with someone they don't trust. And relationships are the conduits to trust. So build those bridges, build those relationships, and the sales will happen.

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Tony Giordano is a top real estate agent, business consultant, renowned international speaker and owner of four successful businesses. He is a national and international best-selling author of the books 'the social agent,’ which teaches clients, and sales professionals the correct ways to integrate online presence and grow their business. Tony is also passionate about helping others find success through his company, R.I.S.E. Coaching.

Adam and Tony talk about overcoming adversity and why we should even welcome setbacks in life. Because extraordinary success doesn’t come without a lot of failure. Tony even says, “I hope you fail so much in your life because that means you tried." Tony encourages listeners to not become the people who never try because they’re afraid of failing—or who immediately quit after a setback. “You just have to be willing to get back up and take the hit.”

Overcoming adversity begins with mindset. You must always have the mindset of being willing to accept setbacks. Having a positive mindset like that is what gets us through the setback. Tony also warns of the “naysayers” in our lives. Most people are afraid because they have people in their life who are always telling them they can’t or shouldn’t do something because it’s too risky. When we let these voices live in our minds, they compete against that positive mindset we’ve worked so hard to cultivate. “Anyone who tells you you can’t succeed in something is never anyone who has succeeded,” says Tony. He encourages us to surround ourselves with people who have succeeded and who will propel us toward our own success.

Tony walks listeners through his method to overcoming adversity called the Five Rounds to Success. The same way a UFC or MMA fighter faces an opponent in the octagon, we face adversity in life.

1. Size Up: How we’re tested
2. Mind Set: How we respond
3. Accountability: How we learn 
4. Heart: How we overcome
5. Finish: How we succeed and win

Every day we get another opponent—or three. If you follow these steps, you will succeed.

Episode Links:

RiseMastery.com 
Discount code: TGVIP

https://www.giordano.global

https://www.facebook.com/GiordanoIntl

https://www.instagram.com/tony_giordano/

Order your copy of Start With A Win: Tools and Lessons to Create Personal and Business Success:

https://www.startwithawin.com/book

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In this episode of Start With A Win, Adam Contos and Producer Mark dive into the subject of change and how to decide what’s next when life presents you with new opportunities. 

Adam is in the midst of his own season of change after making the decision to leave his role as CEO of RE/MAX.

Whether change happened to you or you’ve made the decision, change is an opportunity. But that doesn’t mean you should jump at every single opportunity that comes your way. Adam shares his own process for avoiding “shiny object syndrome” and how to decide on the best opportunity for you.

Start by writing down your “what’s next” list. Write down all of the opportunities that are available to you and begin to make a pro/con list. Then, on a scale of 1 to 10, how excited are you about each opportunity? Pretty soon, you’ll be able to start crossing off opportunities that aren’t right for you in this season! Once you get down to a handful of them, rank them from most important to least important, which will help you to see whether or not your “what’s next” will take you beyond what you’ve already accomplished.  

What’s next also doesn’t have to be a massive, wholesale change in your life. Maybe is small pivots you can make in your life or in your business that could have big results. If you’re a real estate agent, that might look like finally deciding to go after a $1 million listing instead of another $200,000 listing (do those even exist anymore??).

Adam wraps up the discussion by sharing three questions to ask yourself when you’re thinking about what’s next:

What do you have?: What are you good at or what can you bring with you to the next opportunity?

What do you want?: What are you trying to get out of this change you’re about to make?

What do you need to get?: What are the skills, knowledge or resources you need to be successful?

Episode Links:

Order your copy of Start With A Win: Tools and Lessons to Create Personal and Business Success:

https://www.startwithawin.com/book

Connect with Adam:

https://www.startwithawin.com/

https://www.facebook.com/AdamContosCEO

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What's the best way to get things done in your life? Focus on what you can control and control what you focus on. When you make a conscious effort to control your focus, you can control what we get done!

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In this two-part episode of Start With A Win, we are joined by Ryan Stewman, the CEO of Hardcore Closer, an online learning resource for salespeople, including topics like advertising, marketing, funnel, sales and social media. His online courses have everything you need in order to start marketing your business online and crushing your competitors.

Part two picks up the conversation between Adam and Ryan where he talks about the importance of not only leading in the business world but even more so in your family. Just as you do for your employees, you have to lead by example. By consistently working hard and being the best that he can be, you are laying down a foundation for a legacy that will far outlast your lifetime.

Part of leading by example includes establishing systems and habits. Ryan shares how consistency in many areas of his life has led to long-term success, even if that success hasn’t come right away—one example being his podcast that is now nearly 1,000 episodes strong! One of the keys to being consistent is not only having a to-do list, but assigning a time to every single time. Let your calendar be your boss!

Ryan and Adam dive into the topic of sales and marketing where Ryan coaches listeners on how to write and speak to potential customers. Start by finding who you want to do business with and learning the insider’s language of your audience. Make sure that you’re conveying that you know them and you speak their language. Then, authentically communicate your story and/or services in language that will resonate with them and their industry. 

Once the leads start coming in from your marketing, it’s crucial to capture their information, because data is the biggest asset you can have as a business. It’s the one asset that can be monetized over and over again. Ryan shares how his service, Phonesites, can help your business communicate with leads on auto-pilot until they’re ready to become full-on customers.

Episode Links:

https://www.hardcorecloser.com

http://jointheapex.com

https://www.facebook.com/realryanstewman

https://www.instagram.com/hardcorecloser

https://twitter.com/ryanstewman

https://phonesites.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVJ_MRugU0Q

https://challenge.dailygcode.com/

Order your copy of Start With A Win: Tools and Lessons to Create Personal and Business Success:

https://www.startwithawin.com/book

Connect with Adam:

https://www.startwithawin.com/

https://www.facebook.com/AdamContosCEO

https://twitter.com/AdamContosCEO

https://www.instagram.com/adamcontosceo/

Ryan Stewman is a genius loan officer turned rogue Internet marketer. He is the CEO of Hardcore Closer, an online learning resource for salespeople, including topics like advertising, marketing, funnel, sales and social media. His online courses have everything you need in order to start marketing your business online and crushing your competitors.

But his success did not come easily.

Ryan likes to say that he is a prime example of what’s possible in America. He was adopted as a baby but grew up in a rough neighborhood. He dropped out of school with only an eighth-grade education, his “business success” began with selling marijuana and cocaine. After spending two years in prison, Ryan went to work at a car wash with a goal to never go back to jail. One of the regular customers noticed his hard work and offered him a job in the mortgage business. Within two years, he was a multi-millionaire at only 26. But after a federal gun charge led him back to prison for 15 months, he lost everything. And it was far from the last hurdle Ryan would encounter.

After overcoming so many hardships in his life and yet still finding his way back to success, Ryan has a simple question for you: what is your excuse? He believes it is all about the mindset plus the work ethic. We always have to have the mindset to work harder. Once we adopt that mindset in our lives, we really can be unstoppable.

Ryan believes it is also important to establish a mission for our lives. His personal mission is to help as many people as possible to become the best version of themselves. He also has three words he lives by: Fuck Your Excuses.

Ryan and Adam round out the conversation by talking about accountability. Ryan’s accountability is found in God and knowing he will have to give an account for how he stewarded his life and talent here on earth.

Be sure to join us next week for the second part of this interview!  

Episode Links:

https://www.hardcorecloser.com

http://jointheapex.com

https://www.facebook.com/realryanstewman

https://www.instagram.com/hardcorecloser

https://twitter.com/ryanstewman

Order your copy of Start With A Win: Tools and Lessons to Create Personal and Business Success:

https://www.startwithawin.com/book

Connect with Adam:

https://www.startwithawin.com/

https://www.facebook.com/REMAXAdamContos

https://twitter.com/REMAXAdamContos

https://www.instagram.com/REMAXadamcontos/

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888-581-4430

One of the biggest challenges faced by those who are running a business is that they are often spending more time working in than business instead of on the business. You should be hiring people to do the day-to-day tasks of the business while you are scaling the results of your business—finding more markets, more price per transaction or more customers. Work on your business, not in your business!

Connect with Adam:

startwithawin.com/

facebook.com/REMAXAdamContos

twitter.com/REMAXAdamContos

instagram.com/REMAXadamcontos/