Start With A Win

Latest Episodes:

200th Episode Celebration Jul 20, 2022

Show notes

Happy 200th Episode, Win Nation! Join Adam and Producer Mark as they reminisce on some of their favorite moments and favorite guests of the last couple of years!

Adam’s Top 3 Favorites:

Producer Mark’s Top 3 Favorites:

Honorable Mentions:

Episode Links:

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Quick Win: The Two Most Important Times of the Day for Business Leaders Jun 17, 2022

Show notes

The two most important hours of your day are actually the two most important things you can work on in your business: Client Hour and Content Hour. So build these into your calendar, and stick to it!

Connect with Adam:

https://www.startwithawin.com/

https://www.facebook.com/AdamContosCEO

https://twitter.com/AdamContosCEO

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

Let’s Not Do Normal Anymore with Patty McCord, Former Netflix Chief Talent Officer Oct 27, 2021

Show notes

This episode of Start With A Win features former Netflix Chief Talent Officer Patty McCord. During her 14 years with Netflix, Patty was the co-creator of the Netflix Culture Deck. Since it was first published online, the Culture Deck has been viewed more than 15 million times. She is the author of the best-selling book, Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility, published in 2018 and translated into 12 languages. Currently, Patty is a consultant and executive coach for CEOs and their teams to help in defining leadership and company culture. She also speaks to groups and teams around the world.

During their conversation, Adam and Patty dive into all of the change that has come about in the workplace since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Within 48 hours, leaders went from believing that remote work could never work for them to being fully remote companies. And it worked.

Patty believes the pandemic has also transformed the way leaders should view work, enabling them to pay closer attention to final results and the work that’s being done rather than solely on effort and productivity. It’s shown them that their employees can do the stuff that needs to get done without having to be watched, and it’s instilled a greater sense of accountability into their teams.

Adam and Patty also talk about the importance of note forgetting the lessons we’ve learned in this season. As the world begins to return to a sense of normalcy, Patty warns that we will lose it all unless we pay attention and ask ourselves the questions: What have we learned here, and what is working?

Episode Links:

https://pattymccord.com

https://twitter.com/pattymccord1

https://www.amazon.com/Powerful-Leaders-Culture-Freedom-Responsibility/dp/1939714095

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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Delivering Happiness with Sugarwish CEO, Elisabeth Vezzani Nov 27, 2019

Show notes

Elisabeth Vezzani, CEO of Sugarwish, joins us on this episode of Start with a Win. Elisabeth and her co-founder noticed a paradigm shift in gift giving when sending e-gifts started to gain traction and the mentality switched from the giver choosing the gift to the receiver having the power to decide what they wanted. They started Sugarwish as a way to provide the receiver the joy and satisfaction of choosing their ideal candy box which has already been paid for by the giver, featuring over 80 different types of candy and over 50 types of popcorn to choose from.

The magic of Sugarwish is that there are multiple touch points that feel magical to the receiver and that also serve the purpose of keeping the giver top-of-mind. Elisabeth says that 80% of Sugarwish’s clients are business professionals who are looking for a creative and fun way to send gifts to their own clients for various reasons. Many business professionals wonder if they are striking the right note in their interactions with customers and leads, but by sending them something from Sugarwish which they get to pick out themselves, you can rest assured that your interactions will always end memorably.

Elisabeth speaks to building and maintaining a startup, emphasizing the importance of prioritizing your next tasks and steps, and realizing that you can’t do everything. She also talks about the impact of a good culture by investing in your human capital while your financial capital is still getting where you want it to be. Like many other successful people, Elisabeth starts her day with a win by making her bed and setting her mind on the priorities of the day.

Connect with Elisabeth:

https://sugarwish.com/

http://instagram.com/sugarwishgirl#

http://www.facebook.com/sendasugarwish

https://twitter.com/Sugarwishgirl

http://pinterest.com/sugarwishpins

Connect with Adam:

https://www.startwithawin.com/

https://www.facebook.com/REMAXAdamContos

https://twitter.com/REMAXAdamContos

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

Using Instagram to Grow Your Business with Ed Stulak Nov 20, 2019

Show notes

On this episode of the Start with a Win podcast, Adam talks with The Millennial Realtor, Ed Stulak. Ed is a RE/MAX agent based in New Brunswick, New Jersey, who is an Instagram and branding expert, and he shares some of his main insights with listeners during this show.

While working in the marketing industry, Ed had the opportunity to work with and learn from some of the best and brightest on Instagram. Along with his own personal experience using the platform and seeing the potential for building community and providing value to followers, Ed was able to translate what he had learned into the real estate space about 3 years ago. Ed believes strongly that authenticity is the key to success on Instagram from a personal and professional branding perspective, so he doesn’t abide by any set of guidelines or rules about what he should be posting, but he rather posts what is most true to himself in the most engaging way.

Ed has been using Instagram since 2012 and he has worked hard to amass over 44,000 followers who are interested in his content and engage with his posts. Perhaps one of the big ways that he has built such a community is by taking a step back and considering the most engaging way to present each post. Instead of just posting a picture of a house he is showing, he aims to elicit an emotion by including something like him holding a puppy in front of the house that will make people stop scrolling.

He has found that just by providing authentic and valuable content to his community, he is cultivating and converting leads without ever directly asking people for their business. Ed is constantly responding to comments on his posts, reaching out to new followers, and informing people of new deliverables he can send them if they are interested. These deliverables are items of value to the consumer and they are a way that Ed collects email addresses for his CRM. He is a big advocate of not putting all of your eggs in one basket, but having a presence on all social media platforms as well as old school media and methods.

Ed approaches each new day with the mantra “Today is a great day to be great”, and it is clear that he wants to help others do the same.

Connect with Ed:

https://www.instagram.com/edstulak/

https://www.facebook.com/Edstulak1181

https://www.facebook.com/edstulak.realestate/?ref=br_rs

Interview with Nate Martinez Nov 06, 2019

Show notes

Our guest on this episode of the Start with a Win podcast is Nate Martinez, co-owner of RE/MAX Professionals in the Phoenix area. Nate wears many hats as an owner, broker, team leader, and agent, and he is fortunate enough to have his wife and two of his children on his team.

With over 33 years in the industry, Nate has overcome plenty of challenges and has learned many beneficial lessons that now point him in the direction of success. Even with everything he has going on, he prioritizes his team by setting aside several hours every Wednesday morning to talk through the issues of the week and also provide a collaborative space. Nate’s keys to success are being committed to learning, being coachable, and being a mentor.

When it comes to continual learning, Nate doesn’t understand why some people make a conscious decision to just give up and stop improving when there are so many mountains left to climb. By being committed to learning, you are truly living life to the fullest and you are able to enhance the lives of others. Part of this also is the willingness to be coachable, recognizing that you don’t know everything and that a coach could help you improve yourself in all areas of life. Finally, Nate encourages everyone who wants to be successful to take the time to help others as well. This mindset of giving over gaining and abundance over scarcity is rare in a world where so many people are primarily focused on themselves, but this will make all the difference for you and those you are pouring into.

Nate’s advice to up-and-coming real estate agents is: (1) find a mentor, (2) find a coach, and (3) invest in yourself. He starts his day with a win by visualizing his day and focusing on the “Miracle Morning” principles.

Links:

“Trillion Dollar Coach” book: https://www.amazon.com/Trillion-Dollar-Coach-Leadership-Playbook/dp/0062839268

“Miracle Morning” book: https://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Morning-Not-So-Obvious-Guaranteed-Transform/dp/0979019710

Connect with Nate:

natem@remax.net

Why Do Customers Leave? Interview With Expert David Avrin Oct 16, 2019

Show notes

Our guest on this episode of the Start with a Win podcast is David Avrin, speaker and author of several books, most recently “Why Customers Leave (and How to Win Them Back)”. David says that the answer to why customers leave is a simple one: they leave because they can. There are so many choices out in the market and many channels available to customers, from real estate to retail to services to groceries. Business owners are often trying to operate under the assumption that they can control what their customers will buy, but customers don’t always want to do business that way.

Consumer behavior is a complex field of study these days, and while business owners don’t have to be experts in predicting what their customers will want or when they will want it, they should have a basic understanding of their customers and what motivates them to purchase. Businesses do not have the luxury of just waiting for customers to walk in their doors, but rather they need to recognize how to meet their customers where they are and meet their needs there.

While the primary focus of businesses in the past has been producing an exemplary product that people will want to buy, they must now combine this aspect of the buying process with the wants and needs of the customers. A good starting point for gaining competitive advantage in this realm is to re-examine the points of contact with the customer and make adjustments based on their observed needs and wants. Since there are so many channels for purchasing very similar products, building a relationship with your customers will likely make all the difference in you receiving the business over your competitors.

David believes in leading with authenticity, relevance, and in a way that educates the consumer. This also involves a willingness to continually adjust your approach based on shifting expectations and feedback from your customers. David starts his days with a win by spending intentional and uninterrupted time with his kids, getting his priorities aligned before starting his workday.

Links:

https://www.amazon.com/Why-Customers-Leave-Them-Back/dp/1632651513

Connect with Adam:

https://www.startwithawin.com/

https://www.facebook.com/REMAXAdamContos

https://twitter.com/REMAXAdamContos

The Alter Ego Effect With Todd Herman Sep 11, 2019

Show notes

Todd Herman, entrepreneur and coach to performance athletes and CEOs, joins Adam for this episode of the Start with a Win podcast. Todd has developed tools to help unlock peak performance at the highest level, which he has recently outlined in his book “The Alter Ego Effect”.
Growing up on a farming ranch outside of Calgary, Alberta, with two older brothers taught him an extraordinary amount of mental toughness, which he realized as a college athlete. He had found his mental exercises and tools so helpful that he began to volunteer with high school athletes to teach them about mental toughness as well. Soon, parents of some of those athletes were asking Todd to mentor their kids to further develop their resilience, and Todd knew that what he had was unique.
He started speaking at every opportunity to any group who would have him, and when he had worked with enough clients to have a data set, he realized that the main barrier to mental toughness is people getting in their own way by believing they are not capable of more. Todd began building out the idea of a performance-based persona that people could adopt for competition, which would allow them to remain true to their everyday self while also providing them with an outlet to exponentially increase their capabilities.
Todd is able to quickly achieve results with performance athletes and leaders by activating traits that already exist within them and helping them create a new identity to break down the barriers that they had put up for themselves. He wakes up every morning saying “come and get me” to any challenges and adversity because he knows that he has the mental toughness and grit within himself to face anything that comes his way.

Connect with Todd:
https://toddherman.me/
https://www.facebook.com/toddhermanconnect/
https://www.instagram.com/todd_herman/
https://www.amazon.com/Alter-Ego-Effect-Identities-Transform-ebook/dp/B075WPWMSK

Connect with Adam:
https://www.startwithawin.com/
https://www.facebook.com/REMAXAdamContos

Episode 1 of 3 Live at RE/MAX BOC 2019 With Sandy Hancock Aug 28, 2019

Show notes

Sandy Hancock hails from RE/MAX Results in St. Louis, Missouri, where she oversees 190 agents among all of her brokerages. She is very committed to making sure that all of her staff and agents succeed by setting up clear goals and expectations for them. By planning the vision for each year, Sandy wakes up each morning knowing what her tasks will be that day as well as what her staff are to be doing and how she can support them. She believes in providing her staff and agents with the tools and resources that they need and them empowering them to go about their business in the best way they can. Sandy exemplifies “tough love” by balancing tolerance and flexibility with holding her employees accountable, and she has found this culture to be beneficial for all involved.

Links:

Sandy Hancock: https://www.homestlouis.com/

Connect with Adam:

https://www.startwithawin.com/

https://www.facebook.com/REMAXAdamContos

https://twitter.com/REMAXAdamContos

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

13 Steps For Success by Benjamin Franklin Jun 19, 2019

Show notes

When Benjamin Franklin was 20 years old, he wrote Thirteen Virtues for people to live by. Adam and Mark discuss these virtues, their relevance today, and how they relate to the world almost 300 years after Ben Franklin wrote them.
Temperance – Not overindulging, but partaking of an optimal level
Silence – This emphasizes the importance of listening and recognizing that you have two ears and one mouth for a reason; You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with (and, consequently, listening to)
Order – Have the right interests in mind for your self and your daily routine
Resolution – Do what you planned to do
Frugality – Waste nothing and spend less than you make
Industry – Time is money, so be generous and provide value to those around you
Sincerity – Think before you speak and speak the truth, particularly on social media
Justice – Do what is right and recognize how your actions impact others
Moderation – Be reasonable and consistent, seeking balance in all things
Cleanliness – Take care of yourself and your environment
Tranquility – Don’t get upset about little things and do your best to be at peace with everyone
Chastity – Be smart and careful
Humility – Keep your pride in check, be honest, be grateful, and imitate Jesus and Socrates

Links:
http://www.thirteenvirtues.com/

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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