Start With A Win - 200th Episode Celebration

Episode Date: July 20, 2022

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:Ep. 183 Excuses are the Killers of Leaders with Don YaegerEp. 163 Life is Not a Spectator Sport with General Martin E. DempseyEp. 129 The Journey to Self-Awareness with Dr. Tasha EurichProducer Mark’s Top 3 Favorites:Ep. 165 Transform Overthinking From a Super Problem to a Superpower with Jon AcuffEp. 114 Real Talk and Thankfulness with Adam and Kelly ContosEp. 111 Prioritizing the Process Over the Prize with Apolo OhnoHonorable Mentions:Ep. 155 How to Lead Your Team During Uncertainty with Seth MattisonEp. 146 You Have Permission to Dream Big with Bob GoffEp. 180 Developing Habits to Achieve Your Dreams with Colonel Chris HadfieldEp. 182 Leveling Up with Vernice “FlyGirl” ArmourEp. 197 How Technology is Driving the Future of Franchising with Dave LinigerEpisode Links:Download Adam’s free guide: 3 Key Leadership Secrets to Leading Your Business Like the CEO of a Multimillion-Dollar CorporationConnect with Adam:https://www.startwithawin.com/https://www.facebook.com/AdamContosCEOhttps://twitter.com/AdamContosCEOhttps://www.instagram.com/adamcontosceo/Listen, rate, and subscribe!Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts

Yeah. Can I get into the mood? Hey. All right. We've got a party here at the Start With The Wind studio. It's a celebration. That's right. Episode 200. What the heck? 2-0-0. How long have we been doing this? This is several years at least. Yeah, we started in 2018. Dang. So four years. Coming on four years this fall, I think. I love it. I know, me too. It's so much fun.

It's been a fun journey, and we've gotten to meet and connect with a ton of amazing people. And learn a lot. I think we've both grown as well. I think so. Yeah. And I think you and I are very similar in the sense of, I think we always love learning. Yes. And so I think there's this element of not only do we get to provide access to people maybe our audience wouldn't have access to, but then we also get to learn ourselves. And so it's like a win-win, like we're helping other people and we're helping ourselves. There you go. I can't tell you how many leadership, personal development, marketing, whatever books I've read from our guests, as well as going out listening to their

podcasts, some of the other interviews. Being on their podcast. Yeah. We had John Acuff on our show, and you also went on his show. Yes. Same with Don Yeager. Don Yeager, yeah. Yeah, so there's a lot of good. So I wanted to, we were on our 200th episode, 200 episodes, which is crazy.

And so we kind of ended, I remember way back in the day, our 100th episode, we had Gary Vaynerchuk on. Yes. And that was a fun, you know, our 100th episode, we had Gary Vaynerchuk on. Yes. And that was a fun 100th episode, really cool. And obviously, he's a celebrity in the business world. So it was fun to have him on. But I was kind of looking back at the last 100 episodes that we've had and who we've had on.

And I've kind of picked my top three that I have really enjoyed. So do you have a couple? I have three also. Oh, okay. Look at this. Three and three. Look at that. All right. So one of my favorites from this past round of 100 episodes was episode 110 with Apollo Ono. The Olympian speed skater. You guys remember him, right? I was actually listening to that episode on the way to the gym this morning.

Oh, were you really? Yes. It's a good one. It really is. It wasn't clear to me at all times that this was something that I was going to do for the rest of my life. So luckily, my father was there to kind of provide those guardrails as I was this ping pong ball just going back and forth towards that end goal, which was eventually to make the Olympic team. He had such gold to offer. I feel like every time he started talking about something,

it was inspirational and motivational. Because you think about something that an Olympian has to overcome mentally, physically, spiritually. It's like you've got to do a lot of growth in order to compete at that level. Well, especially in the single-person arena where you're the gladiator out there. It's you against the world. Yes.

And he's just in that speed skating. That's really intense right there. You've got these razor blades on your feet, and you're zipping around this track, like you're leaning into the curves at some ridiculous angle that you're like, physics doesn't allow that, but somehow it does. And he looks at it, he just takes it apart as a very calm, collected human being, yet the guy is like super intense when he's out doing that. Yeah.

You can see the focus there, but a great guy also. Totally. And I think there's a lot to be learned from those athletes who compete against themselves, especially in the sense of, as us as business leaders, you know, my niece is a swimmer, and, you know, she's really just competing against herself, right? It's like her last time, like she's trying to beat her last time. I think as an entrepreneur, right,

we have to battle ourselves of our thinking, our mindset, you know, our motivation, all these things that we're constantly in competition with ourselves to say, all right, like, can I be 1% better this next day? So that was my, one of my favorites from this past year. What about you? What is, what's on your top three list? Okay. So I started, and I loved this past 100, like you mentioned, starting with Gary Vaynerchuk, a great guy. In fact, it was funny because when we were talking to him, he was laying in bed on his laptop and just sitting there shooting the breeze with the guy.

We had a great conversation, talked a lot about awareness and emotional intelligence and things like that. But when you go back, I really fell in love with episode 129, which is about self-awareness with Dr. Tasha Urich. And it really had become a management buzzword. And, you know, at the time I had been coaching senior executives, CEOs, C-suite teams for, you know for 10 plus years. And I really wanted to know if my anecdotal evidence was actually scientifically true. And what I mean by that was the leaders who were willing to look at themselves in the mirror, to question the assumptions they were making about themselves, to get sometimes very humbling feedback from the people they live and work with.

They were always more successful than the people who, if I say this somewhat jokingly, but also true, lived a life of blissful ignorance. Oh my gosh. It was so cool to talk about really what is self-awareness, where does it come from, things like that, and how so many of us feel that we're self-aware when in all reality, it's like 10% or 12% are truly self-aware, but like 95% of us think that we are. Some ridiculous offset there. But then how do you develop that self-awareness? And truly, what does that mean to leadership? Yeah. And I think being self-aware is key to being a good leader. Oh, big time. Right. I mean, I'm sure we've all had bosses,

right, that were not self-aware and that you would, they would just do the most ridiculous stuff or they self, they seem so self-absorbed and you're like, what do they not realize? You know, you're always like, how is this person, the person in charge? So I think, yeah, if you want to grow as a leader and develop, you need to grow in your self-awareness. That is very important. It's totally important. It's important for us to teach self-awareness to our kids. It's important for us to have self-awareness and to exhibit that to others, because it is something that when people see us reflecting on our actions, it causes them a lot of times to hold up the mirror and create the self-awareness internally. You know, like when you just ask yourself the three questions, what went well today, what didn't go well today, and what can I do to be smarter tomorrow?

I thought she really, really nailed it on explaining how we can reflect internally in order to be better people. Yeah. Great, great episode. All right. My number two, and this is a little sentimental. Okay. Was episode 114. It was me, you and Kelly on Thanksgiving. Oh, yeah. And we just hung out. She came into your home studio and we, we did like the, um, like the dating game, you know, show that was really fun. What about, uh, you know, who's a bigger baby when they have a cold? Next question. The man cold is a real thing. It's a real thing. So enough said,

I don't like, I don't like that question. Yeah. But I mean, if I get a splinter or something like that, it's for her, it's like, ah,

don't get new it. Pain. Yeah. Yeah. But the cold is, oh, I can't do it. I can't get out of bed.

I can't do anything. I don't get out of bed. I can't do anything. I don't get sick. Hardly ever. Hardly ever. Hardly ever. Okay. Hardly ever. But when you do, it's not good for anybody. Okay. Fair. Yeah. It was just cool to, to, uh, you know, get a glimpse, uh, into your relationship with her and, you know, she's awesome. Clearly.

Uh, you gotta be tolerating me. I mean, yeah, it's like, you know, so it's cool to, I just love that episode because it was fun to hang out with you guys and look back on all the things that we're thankful for and just get a peek into your relationship. Yeah, well, we had Maggie on this year also. That was also a great, great episode. That was fun. She has great episode. That was fun.

She has developed into such an amazing leader. I mean, she's 20 years old and supervises an outdoor staff of people, but her emotional intelligence is beyond, many, many decades beyond her years right now. It's really cool to watch her. And she listens to Start With A Win, so hey, Maggie. Another shout out to you. That's right. You're a blessed man. I really am. I mean, I have a wonderful family. I love them all to absolute pieces. I mean, there's Maggie, Ashley, and Jack, and of course, my wonderful wife, Kelly. So we're very happy.

And I'll tell you what, though, Mark, Every great thing comes from a lot of great work. And that's something that I've truly realized in life. I mean, we've all neglected certain things in our lives that we look back on and we can regret or we can realize and learn from. I don't regret it, but I realize and learn from where I can be a better person, and I pour everything I have into my family in order to be the best I can be. Yeah. So it's just, again, self-awareness.

That's right. All right, your top second episode. Okay, my second episode, I'm going to say episode 163 with General Martin Dempsey. Oh, you were excited about that one. I remember. You're like, oh, this is a big deal. It's a totally big deal. This guy was the 18th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I mean, the guy was in charge of the military for the United States.

That's a big deal. That is a big deal. We're all in this together, the leaders and those who follow them. We all have something to contribute. And in fact, if we don't both contribute, we're not going to get done what we need to get done. And even if we get it done, it's not going to make the organization better. So I came up with No Time for Spectators, the idea being we're all in this thing together. And, you know, the old Teddy Roosevelt man in the arena. Well, we're all in the arena now. And so you think about it, how many people are sitting there just today as they listen to this episode 200 going, whoa, I've just been watching. And how do you get more involved in that? And it's fascinating because we dug into the leadership aspects of him going

through West Point, really him commanding some of the largest wars on this planet and being in charge of the United States military while these wars are going on, Afghanistan, Iraq, things like that, and having to make decisions that impact lives and countries and economies and just unbelievable amounts of work. And then I asked him about the impact of leadership, and he gave me a John Madden quote that I remember very well, and that's that leaders have to look for the things they don't want to see and listen for the things they don't want to hear. That's good.

Oh, it's deep. That is. And this guy is so humble, though. But at the same time, you look at him and you're like, like if you had Thanksgiving dinner with the guy, you talk about Thanksgiving with Kelly, you think about it, you go, all right, I hope I don't take the wrong piece of turkey. Yeah.

Because this man will like. He had that presence about him. Even on the podcast. Yeah, it was like, it's just like, you know, like this really like powerful dad, you know, like a good dad, but he was like a strong dad. It was like, yes, sir. I just

wanted to say yes, sir, to him. I mean, he's like the ultimate dad. Right. Yeah. Of all of these sons and daughters that volunteer to die for this country, and he gets to make the ultimate decisions on them. So you're like, whoa, powerful. But an amazing human being all across the board.

Just a great man. Yeah, I agree. All right, that's a good episode. All right, my number three was 165, episode 165, and that was with John Acuff. I commissioned a research study with a PhD named Mike Peasley. We asked 10,000 people if they struggle with overthinking, and 99.5% of them said yes. And that was before 2020. We did that in 2019.

2020 was catnip for overthinking because right now, everything is a thing. The joke I've been doing is like, the other day I met somebody new and they went to shake my hand. And right before they did, I thought, should I refuse? Should I fist bump? Should I twist at the waist and give them an elbow? Because the hips don't lie. Should I shake their hand but then put my entire arm into a vat of hand sanitizer as if to say, excuse me, while I scrub off this deadly pandemic you just tried to murder me and my grandparents with. And then I looked around the room and was like, are other people shaking their hands here? What does that say about us politically? Do you know what I thought about

two years ago when somebody tried to shake my hand? Nothing. I shook their hand. 99% of your life, Adam, you've never thought which aisle do I walk down in which direction in a grocery store, but now everything has extra thought. And so that's when overthinking gets in the way. And then I went to the marketplace to check it and said, well, there's a lot of resources about overthinking, but most of them say, stop it, stop it, stop it. But why would I ever turn off this thinking machine? I'm good at thinking, what if I thought good things, not bad things? Because you and I have the benefit of growing up in the age of neuroplasticity, which is the science that teaches us you can physically change your brain by changing your thoughts. So if we know that's true, it means if you can worry,

you can wonder. If you can doubt, you can dominate. If you can spin, you can soar. What if you could turn overthinking from a super problem into a superpower? And that's, once I had those three things in place, I knew, okay, I'm going to spend years of my life exploring research and writing this idea. And then I'm going to spend years of my life exploring research and writing this idea, and then I'm going to spend years of my life talking about it. I had started reading John's books years and years ago. When I had this idea to start my own business, he has this book called Quitter, and he has another book called Start. And so it's like, it made me think back in the day, I'm just showing up for work every day and being like, I want to do my own thing, and I want to start my own business and do all this stuff. And so it's like, it made me think back in the day, you know, I'm just showing up for work every day and being like, I want to do my own thing and I want to start my own business and

do all this stuff. And, you know, his books really inspired me to be present where I was and not just check out to go do my own thing. And then really to evaluate why am I doing my own thing and whatnot. And so I was always, you know, inspired by his books that, that he had written. And so to have him on the podcast and he was a great guest and, you know, his book that, uh, had come out recently was just great. And so it was just fun to kind of, to have him on the show and, uh, he's just a funny guy and, uh, I, I and I loved it. Awesome. Yeah. I'm going to go back to one that I, not that I've mentioned yet, but I talked about in one of our other episodes earlier today.

But I really loved episode 183, Excuses Are the Killers of Leaders with Don Yeager. So then it's my turn, and I decide I'm not going to let him dunk on me. So I back off and Jordan looks at me and he goes, are you really going to give me this shot? And I looked back at Michael Jordan and I said, I don't think you have it in you. And everybody starts going, oh, and he, he goes up, takes a shot and he misses and I get the rebound. And I go back outside the three point line and Jordan looks at me and he goes, and I get the rebound. And I go back outside the three-point line and Jordan looks at me and he goes, and I look back at him and I said, aren't you going to return the favor? Like be a bad defender like I was, back off. And he said, I know you don't have that shot in you. And as he said that, I jacked it up for 26 feet, nothing but net, became only the sixth player to

ever score on Michael Jordan at the event. And yes, I tell the story every day if I'm allowed. My children are so over it. My wife has made me swear never to tell it at a dinner party again. But yes, thank you for the invitation. Don is just a super cool dude. Yeah, he's so cool. And then freaking the story about him scoring on michael jordan i know like really like what a great you know i got american idol to add to my life bio you know

like that's pretty cool you know but he's got freaking i scored a point on michael jordan he didn't score one he scored three points that's right three points he scored a three-pointer nothing but net from 20 i think it was like 26 feet or something like that, he says. But yeah, it was interesting because, and the story behind it, I encourage everybody to go back and listen to it. It's just a phenomenal episode. By the way, Don is the author of 11 New York Times bestsellers. And he's a champion.

The guy is full of wisdom and stories. He's a master storyteller. In fact, speaking of that, he says his storytelling is the currency of kings and queens. And the way that the man orates is incredible. Yeah. So he goes back and tells these stories about the Michael Jordan piece, where Michael Jordan has an old man basketball clinic that he puts on. He gets like 100 people in.

And then at some point, he picks like, I think it's 20 or 25 people to go one-on-one with him. And he says, look, six people have ever scored on me. And here's the rule. Michael starts with the ball. And Michael Jordan is not just the best basketball player on this planet. He's the best trash talker on this planet. Yeah. So the guy gets in your head and just talks trash the whole time

just to get you frustrated. And then you basically have to defend against Michael, and then you have to try and score on Michael. And it's first one to one wins. The first one to score a bucket wins. Michael missed his against Don. Uh-oh. So Don said, I asked him, or he was telling me, he goes,

well, Michael could rush the basket, or Michael could take a shot. He goes, I backed off to try and get him to take the shot from the three-point line. And Michael's like, piece of cake. He puts it up and it misses. Boom. Boom. Off the rim. Don rebounds it and goes back to the three-point line. And it was incredible to hear Don tell the story. He goes, I asked him if he was going to repay the favor. And he hesitated, and he shot. And Don, nothing but net, scored those three. And he was number seven to ever score on Michael Jordan.

Yeah, great, great story. Great story. So Don also had another lesson for me. I mean, this episode is full of leadership lessons and talking about failure and things like that. And I loved it. Because he said that extreme high performers don't compare themselves to others. They compare themselves to their own potential.

Let me say that again. Extreme high performers don't compare themselves to others. They compare themselves to their own potential. I love that. So we talked about Apollo Ono. We talked about, was it your niece? Yeah. That swims. And the single person sports that we're all involved in. Maybe you're a single real estate agent. Maybe you are a insurance salesperson. Who knows what business you're in? Maybe you're a CEO someplace. But I love that.

How do you compare yourself to your own potential as opposed to comparing yourself to others? What a happier yourself to others. What a happier place to be. My wife always says, comparison is the thief of all joy. Oh, wise. We need to have your wife on the podcast. But it's that idea of when you're comparing yourself to another person, you can be like, oh, well, they have this or they have that, and I don't have that, and then it robs you of your joy. But if you compare yourself to your greatest potential, like what I could be,

it just pushes you every day to be better. Totally. And here's one more from Don. And this is from Michael Jordan. A loss is not a failure until you make an excuse. Yeah. A loss is not a failure until you make an excuse. I wrote that one down.

I remember that. It's in my quotes. I love that. It's on my quotes. I love that. In my journal. That's awesome. So great episodes. I can't go through this without, and I have way more than three of my favorites. I got honorable mentions here.

I got 155 with Seth Matheson, 146 with Bob Goff, 180 with Chris Hadfield, the astronaut. I mean, come on. And then 182 with Vernice Flygirl Armour. Remember her? Flygirl. I talked to her the other day.

Oh, did you? She's doing awesome. That's great. That was such a fun episode. You know, she just has a great energy about her, and just what an amazing woman.

What a rock star. Totally. And I have to also list, I mean, Dave Linegar. Of course. My mentor is on two episodes. And to listen to him talk about franchising and business growth and the early years of Remax and just his life is unbelievable. So I encourage you to go look at those.

And the way that that man can tell stories, I want to get Don Yeager and dave linegar together to watch what happens yeah with the storytelling because the two probably two of the greatest storytellers i've ever heard from are those two guys well dave was on our first one within our first 100 yeah he's within our second 100 so we'll have to get him back on for our third 100 well he's going to be starting a podcast that's right also and you're going to be helping i will be helping with that so and i i'm excited it's going to be starting a podcast here pretty soon also. You're going to be helping with that. I'm excited. It's going to be

amazing. I can't wait. Well, again, I feel so blessed. I want to give you a hug, Mark. A virtual hug? Well, we're in the same studio. I'll give you a hug after we're done recording. That's right. We'll hug after that. But yeah, it's just been

amazing. So I'm excited for the next 100 episodes and to see what that's going to bring. I can't wait. And the people that we're going to meet and the conversations we're going to have. And we've already had some great ones. We have some in the can that are going to be coming out past 200. So we've had some amazing conversations already. So I'm just like, all right, this is the start of episode 201 and beyond. We're in for a treat. I love it. Looking forward to it. To all of our listeners, thank you so much for spending your time with us on Start With A Win. Hope you get

something out of this. Please reach out, let us know what we can do for you. Yeah, that sounds good. Hey, thanks so much for listening to Start With a Win. Are you wondering how to grow your business? It might be something you're missing and it's not sales and marketing. It's something most people don't even think about. And that's leadership. Whether you're leading yourself or a team, leadership is the key to next level growth. And you're in luck. Adam's put together three of the techniques and ideas he used as the CEO of Remax to develop himself and his leaders to produce amazing growth. And he's put that into a download that you can get over at adamkontos.com slash leadership. So head over there. And until next time, remember, start with the wind.

Mark got some new sounds on the soundboard. Woo! 200. Thank you.