Start With A Win - A Coronavirus Message from Adam

Episode Date: March 25, 2020

Adam and Mark discuss the recent changes in our world as a result of the coronavirus and talk about ways that listeners can continue to start with a win even when everything seems so different than normal. The response mandated by health officials and governments all over the world is significantly more stringent than the typical response to influenza, and this is likely the only pandemic any of us have ever lived through. Everyone seems to be dealing with these changes and restrictions differently, ranging from crippling fear to careless abandon and anywhere in between.Adam’s advice is to listen to the doctors and government officials and see this as an opportunity to reconnect with your loved ones and be more intentional about spending quality time with them while practicing safe social distancing. He asserts that if you are stuck in a cycle of fear-mongering or doubt, take a step back and evaluate what you can do with what you have, doing everything you can to protect yourself and those around you. For business leaders, the most important thing you can do is be visible and available to your team. Send out daily emails, videos, or texts to encourage and check in on them.In the real estate realm, house showings are still feasible through virtual tours, and if you do meet with clients in person, don’t be afraid to ask them if they are feeling well or if they have been in contact with anyone who has COVID-19. It is in everyone’s best interests if you are honest with yourself and others about how you are feeling and that you demonstrate good hygiene practices to those around you.Take heart that while the markets are rough right now, they will bounce back in time. Do what you can to support local businesses in your community by ordering takeout or patronizing them online when possible. With all of this unexpected free time, be active and create a healthy routine for yourself and your family. Pay attention to those around you and do what you can to reach out while practicing social distancing. We are all in this together.Connect with Adam:https://www.startwithawin.com/ https://www.facebook.com/REMAXAdamContoshttps://twitter.com/REMAXAdamContos https://www.instagram.com/REMAXadamcontos/ Leave us a voicemail:888-581-4430

So in our virtual studio, because we are practicing our social distancing today, it's me and producer Mark. How are you doing, buddy? I am keeping my social distance six feet away. Are you staying healthy? Yes. Me and my family are healthy and making the best of this time together and just finding ways to entertain. I have three kids that are 12 to seven, so we're doing all sorts of fun stuff. So they have a very short attention span is what you're saying.

Yeah, they do. Last night, the weather was nice. So we got outside, I made a fire and we roasted marshmallows and we've just been making the most of this being together time, having dinner every night at the table together and just talking about different things

and just doing fun crafts and just all sorts of stuff. So it's actually been really awesome for our family because we've been able to spend a lot of time together watching movies and enjoying each other's company. So it's been cool, man. That's awesome. So you know what's interesting about all of this? It's a tragic situation. And what I figured out is we have to be human. We have to understand that we're going to have crazy stuff happen. Now, this one, the response has been massively different than what we typically see for the flu season because the government shut down, businesses have shut down, people are quarantined essentially to their houses. There's a voluntary two-week quarantine if you've had exposure or secondhand exposure. Businesses are on work from home.

Grocery stores now have hours. They're not open 24 hours a day. Costco's out of toilet paper, whatever it might be. This is an interesting way that society is looking at this one because it does have a different perspective, I guess you could say medically, as well as even economically in society this year. So let's talk a little bit about this. How do we cope with this? Marky, you think we have this polarized coping mechanism? We got some people that are really freaking out, a lot of fear, a lot of overwhelm. And then we also have those that are kind of calm and working their way

through this. What do you see happening with that? Yeah. Well, I definitely see there's definitely a polarizing. I feel like there's, I would say there's three, right? There's the far side that is just in complete pandemonium. Then there's the people, I would say like yourself, who are like, let's offer some good advice. Let's encourage people. Let's see how we can grow during this time. And then there's just the party kids at the beach, just ignoring the whole thing altogether and not keeping their distance. So I would say there's actually three. All right. So let's talk about the third one for a second. If you're one of those party kids or, and I have, I have three teenagers. I have two college students and

a high school student. Unfortunately for my high school student, she should be graduating here soon. So she's missing out on senior prom, the senior sunset or sunrise or whatever it is, the senior breakfast, the senior prank, the senior car wash. They do everything. Senior this, senior that. For us, it was a senior prank and he graduated. That's tough because they have a lot of these social norms as do, we have spring break going on right now for crying out loud. And you're right, people are going to the beach and they're ignoring some of the things that the government's saying. My advice, listen to what the doctors and the government are saying. They're saying that for a reason. It's because they don't want you to get sick and they don't want you to

spread the germs so we can actually get our arms around this thing, get it under control. But at the same time, we don't need to be paranoid. We need to just be understanding and cooperative so that we can get past this and move on with society the way that it normally is, unless this is the new norm. You never know. But the reality is, first of all, let's follow the rules. The CDC rules, there are some smart people at the Center for Disease Control. And I think we need to do what they're saying. Secondarily, I look at kind of what you're talking about, Mark. This is actually an opportunity for us to get back to loving people, loving each other, participating in relationships and community,

as opposed to us getting lost in society in this super fast realm of everything going on with electronics and iPhones and people going to the mall all the time and stuff like that. Because frankly, I think we've gotten a little overwhelmed in society. So how do we... You look at it and go, all right, let's take a breather, relax, take a step back, reconnect with our relationships, follow the rules of social distancing because we need this thing to go away. Okay. First of all, it's not 100% going to go away. It's always going to be out there and it'll flare up every now and then, but hopefully we'll have a vaccination at some point. I know today

they were talking about even a malaria vaccination seems to be like, call it 90% effective, whatever it is. We don't know for sure. That was a small test in France that they did, but ultimately it looks like they're working hard and they're getting closer to a vaccination, which basically would be like a flu vaccination every year. So you get one of those and try and fend this thing off. But ultimately it's going to also evolve just like the flu virus evolves to fight the vaccination itself. So fend this thing off. But ultimately, it's going to also evolve just like the flu virus evolves to fight the vaccination itself. So it's this thing we can't see. But let's talk about the chaos that's going on.

Not necessarily chaos. People aren't looting stores. There's no burning down neighborhoods or whatever it might be. There's no civil war going on. But what there is, is a lot of fear and overwhelm, a lot of doubt, a lot of fear, uncertainty, and disruption, or fear, uncertainty, and doubt.

And we need to put our heads and our hearts around that and understand that, look, just take a look at the way that you are right this moment. That's what you're working with right now. If you have a cold, do what's appropriate. If you don't have a cold, do everything you can not to get a cold and do everything you can to support everybody else in your life safely and kindly.

And that's, what's going to get us through this. So, you know, let's talk about business in general, one business leaders. If you run a business or you are a leader of some sort, maybe you're one person in business. Maybe you are a CEO of a company. I'm a CEO of four companies. We have five to 600 employees. We have 130,000

real estate agents in 110 countries and territories. And that's a lot of people. And some of them have some doubt and some fear. And that's okay. It's human nature. Human nature is when we don't know the answer to something, we default to fear. Why? Because we want to find an answer to something. And that is our survival mechanism. It's okay to be afraid, but take a deep breath and understand there are solutions to this. And the solutions are, let the people that are working on this work on it. And you need to take care of yourself and your community because that's what's going to be best for us and the outcome of this thing. So how do we do that? One, leaders, be visible, be present. So I put out a video every day.

We're creating one right now, Mark, aren't we? That's right. Yeah. We are making a video. Yeah. In my handy little home studio here. I've learned some amazing video skills from producer Mark there. So thank you, my friend. That video goes out to just give people a little bit of a mindset check. Okay, where are you at? Today, we talked about the success formula, which is E plus R equals L. It's a Jack Canfield concept. He wrote Chicken Soup for the Soul. He also wrote a book called The Success Principles. E is the event.

It's happened. The coronavirus. COVID-19. There's a pandemic in society. R is your response. This is what's important. So in the real estate space, we've recommended everybody cancels doing open houses

because we don't want a whole bunch of people walking through somebody else's house. Then you have to disinfect the whole house. You don't know who's bringing what in there. So it's best do virtual tours. We have this great technology that allows for virtual tours. In fact, we even have the capability of people, they sign up for a virtual tour and they'll send you a camera to use for it. So you just walk through the house with the thing in your hand and people can see what the house is like. So don't do open houses. Also, ask people that you're dealing with, are they feeling okay? Are you feeling well?

I don't want to meet with you if you're not feeling well. Have you been to a foreign country lately? Or in the last two weeks, have you been exposed to anybody that's been diagnosed or exposed to the virus? Simple questions. Usually, we don't ask those things because they're kind of personal, but ultimately we need to find out for our own wellbeing and the wellbeing of those that we serve. So this is a community ask, okay? A community ask. This is what we all need to be considering in order to make sure we're taking care of each other and preventing this thing from blowing up on us even more than it is. Simply those questions. And be honest with

yourself. If you don't feel well, be honest with yourself. If somebody with you doesn't feel well, tell them to be honest with themselves and with you so we're not putting each other in these compromising situations. Ultimately, that's kind of how we need to look at this. We need to be patient with each other. We need to understand change is going to happen. Lots of change is going to continue to happen. I mean, the stores are closed. You're not allowed to leave your house or you shouldn't. Nobody's stopping you from it, but follow the rules. Don't leave your house. Keep yourself away from people. Practice the social distancing. Wash your hands a lot.

I've gone through a lot of hand lotion because my hands are getting dry from all the washing. But frankly, practice good hygiene. Remember what our moms used to tell us? Mark, remember our moms would say, don't touch your face. That's right. Wash your hands.

Wipe up your mess after you make it. Wipe off the counters, the sink. clean up after yourself, things like that. If you sneeze, don't like sneeze into your hand and then go grab a doorknob, sneeze into your elbow, go wash your hands. Make sure you're, you're keeping track of your germs more than anything, right? Don't rub your eyes. Remember when you walk around, you rub your eyes, your mom's like, don't rub your eyes. You'll spread germs. Listen to mom. That's what it's about. I saw my mom. She came over yesterday for coffee and she's like, are you washing your hands? I'm like, yes, mom.

That's a good mom there. Yeah. Keeping you healthy and safe. Yeah. So I mean, it's, you know, when you look at COVID, the business is rough right now. The markets are rough. Reality is they will come back. This too shall pass. Okay. Some companies are going to struggle if they haven't prepared for this and are not being really, really intentional with their leadership and maintaining their customer base. Again,

companies, leaders, you can't disappear. You have to maintain touch with your customers and customers maintain touch with your companies. For instance, restaurants, restaurants are closed in so many different states right now by state order. They don't want gatherings of more than 10 people. And you know, that's,

that's an environment where germs can spread easily. What a lot of restaurants are doing is they're offering takeout. Go use the local restaurants for takeout and tip them like you're sitting in there. Give them a 20% gratuity. Help them. They're financially suffering. They're going to be the first ones to leave business in the neighborhoods if we don't help these people. So I've been patronizing different local food establishments to pick up takeout. So I encourage you to do so as well. Yeah. And you know, I think too, what's awesome to add a silver line to all this is that in society, we always say, we just don't have enough time to do anything. We don't have enough time to get to the gym. We don't have enough time to read that book or do that course or whatever

it is. But I feel like now I have more time than ever. It's like, I'm in charge of my own schedule where it's like, okay, our office is closed. And so I'm like, all right, well, let me just get up and focus on my self-care and let me catch up on this book that I wanted to read. And so it seems like I have more time now to focus on myself, focus on even business planning and some other things I've kind of put off because I've been too busy. And so I feel like we can also see maybe an opportunity here as well. Oh, totally agree, Mark. And really what's more important than anything ever, you talk about time. How do you fill that? So you can't fill it with mindless things. Don't sit down and eat a bag of chips and watch Netflix.

It's not healthy for you to become sedentary. You've got to be active. All the gyms are closed right now. So how do you exercise? Well, you can go for a walk. In Denver, we're having a blizzard right now. So we're not going for a walk today, but I might go out and shovel some snow. That'll break a sweat. That's a good exercise. But really, you need habits and routine. Set yourself a routine. What are you going to do that at the end of the day, you're going to look back on and go, this made me better today. And it might be... Right now is perfect time for spring cleaning. I've already cleaned out the garage. I've cleaned out my workroom. I've cleaned out the cabinets to take an inventory of our cleaning supplies, things like that. And guess what? Right now, my college student kids are cleaning my house. You got to build up some habits and you need to live by your habits every day. Those will help you be clean. They'll

help you stay sane. They'll help you stay happy. And they'll help you reach out to others in order to help them with their happiness. Because what are the two things we can't give ourselves? Attention and recognition. So recognize somebody and pay attention to them. Those are the things that will help heal the soul when it hurts. They'll help make the soul happy. They'll put a smile on people's faces. And you know what? When you smile, your anxiety level goes down. When your anxiety level goes down, your cortisol level goes down. And guess what? Your health goes up

because anxiety reduces your immune system. We don't need that right now. We need you to be happy, healthy, and do some great things in society. So that's how we at Start With A Win wanted to catch up with you and share some ideas on the coronavirus. Yeah, and we're going to keep releasing content.

If you aren't following Adam on social media, he is diligent at putting out a video every day and encouraging people. So definitely get on Facebook and follow him because you'll get some invaluable education and motivation and inspiration. And yeah, I mean, we're, we're here. We care about everyone who's listening and, um, you know, we care about your wellbeing and so we just hope that you stay safe and we're going to continue to keep an eye on things and we're going to release content that's appropriate and

timely. And, um, thank you so you so much and remember start with a win