Start With A Win - Become a Lifelong Learner with Dave Liniger - Part 2

Episode Date: May 25, 2022

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 and Adam pick up their conversation from last week by talking about the importance of being a lifelong learner. Dave shares how the early days of building RE/MAX began a pattern of lifelong learning that he’s carried on throughout his entire career.The only constant is change, and the world is changing faster and faster as we’re sitting here. And Dave believes that one of the worst things a leader can do when a learning opportunity comes their way is to assume they already know everything they need to know on that topic.Another aspect of becoming a lifelong learner is taking full advantage of personal experience. Dave shares that no one is born a leader. It comes from a cumulated lifetime of experience. And getting a college degree gives you a great head start, but that can really only give you theoretical knowledge, not practical experience with people. Leadership comes down to how you influence and control and encourage the team. And you can only learn that through personal experience. Dave addresses the importance of having a coach in your professional life. The purpose of a coach is to get more out of you than you can get out of yourself. Using their wisdom, their job is to analyze you and make suggestions on how you can improve. And the money spent on a coach almost always will multiply your financial benefit. Dave recalls that nearly all of the most successful RE/MAX agents utilized professional coaching.Lastly, Dave and Adam discuss the benefits of participating in masterminds. Dave defines a mastermind as a group of people that support you in where you want to go and are going in the same direction themselves. Masterminds are an incredible opportunity for like-minded people from different backgrounds to encourage each other.The two round out the conversation by talking about the importance of establishing good habits in your life in order to achieve your goals. One of the best ways to develop good habits is by establishing the right systems in your life. These are systems and processes that set you up for the best chance of sticking to your habits. And, if you have the right systems, the goal will accomplish itself.Episode Links:http://www.daveliniger.comhttps://www.area15ventures.comThink and Grow Rich by Napoleon HillAtomic Habits by James ClearOrder your copy of Start With A Win: Tools and Lessons to Create Personal and Business Success:https://www.startwithawin.com/bookConnect with Adam:https://www.startwithawin.com/https://www.facebook.com/AdamContosCEOhttps://twitter.com/AdamContosCEOhttps://www.instagram.com/adamcontosceo/

Hey, welcome back to Start With A Win. This is a two-part episode, and this is part two of that two-part episode. So if you haven't listened to part one, make sure you go back and listen or watch part one on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcasts, and come back here and listen or watch part two. I hope you enjoy. Welcome to Start With A Win, where we give you the tools and lessons you need to create business and personal success are you ready let's do this I want to ask you about learning because you are one of the most prolific lifelong learners I have ever met. I mean, you're a speed reader. You'll put away a huge business book in a couple

of days flat, no problem. And you're always looking for more knowledge to not just absorb and take into your head, but to give out to others. Why is learning so important? And how have you delivered learning through your business ventures? It's obviously a key aspect of what you do. Well, the College of Hard Knocks is a hell of an education. That is an expensive education. And so you need to learn from the mistakes of others. You can't possibly make all of them that I've made. Okay. So when we were broke and we were struggling to make Remax go and the industry was against us, I knew my limitations and I tried to find every bit of learning I could get. Some I got from my managers and agents. Some I took the CRB courses and the CRS courses

and tried to get the skill level up. I took probably two dozen American Management Association meetings, seminars. And so I read voraciously. I just had to find out how to do things. I did a lot of looking at biographies of very, very successful people and tried to pick up, you know, ideas from it. And so it started a pattern of lifelong learning. And it's fascinating to me that I gave a speech one time to the Marriott executives. About 400 of them had flown in all around the world. And you know who was in the front row taking notes?

Who? Marriott. Bill Marriott? Bill Marriott. Wow. And so I got to talking to one of these men, Roger Dow, one of our friends. Yeah. And he said, he's the first one in the conference room, and he's there with his mouth shut, and he wants to learn.

And he knew that he had lots of people in there you could learn from. And so we tried to do the same thing. upset the best management team in the world. It's go to a convention and don't go to the sessions because you don't need that anymore. And you just go to the cocktail party or you're out in the hallway talking to your buddies. And man, that makes me so angry. We spent a lot of money to bring you here and there's a lot of talent on that stage. You should be listening. Wow. Yeah. So for our listeners, you and I just went to Georgetown University to, I mean, you're like the leader of franchising in the real estate industry and you're back at college learning more. And by the way,

for everybody's knowledge, Dave has two PhDs that he's been awarded by colleges. So, I mean, you're back in college and I noticed, I walked in the room after you did and you were sitting front and center. And I'm the front row, the first seat closest to the professor to go to this franchising course that was being put on. And I mean, you're in the International Franchise Association Hall of Fame for crying out loud. You know a lot about franchising, but you're out learning some more. Why did you go to that? I mean, it's fascinating. And by the way, all you did was sit there and take notes and participate. It was awesome to watch you. It was amazing. The thing that was really fun was all the different lawyers and professors knew who I was. many of them i had one came up

put his arm around me and told the audience he says you don't know this but mr leniger gave me my first job as an attorney doing his fdd and that was 20 some years ago and he is now a renowned expert on M&A. And so the thing that's interesting is there's this thirst for knowledge. I totally understand franchising in the real estate sector, but I'm not sure I understand franchising in the food sector or in the exercise sector or whatever it might be. And so probably 80% of what I got reaffirmed what I already knew and 20% was eye opening. So do you find a struggle in keeping that hunger or do you just, is it just naturally in your heart where you, you don't know what you don't know and you want to go keep looking? No, I, I think it's, it is a part of my personality that after 50 years of trying to do this and do better all the time, that it's just stuck with me. So we see a lot of people who are like,

oh, I don't need to go to that. I already know that. What do you have to say to that? The only constant in the world is change. And the world is changing faster and faster and faster as we're sitting here. And there's an old saying that if you're older, slower, tired, always remember there's a whole team back there that's trying to overtake your position. And they're younger, stronger, and more enthusiastic. And so if you don't keep learning, you can never catch up with their physical ability. You can't regain the youthfulness of being a 20 or 25-year-old. So you have to push yourself in the area where you can succeed at.

And that's knowledge. Knowledge. Okay. All right. So this takes me into my next topic. And I love discussing this topic with great leaders like you. Are leaders made or are leaders born? lifetime of experience. If you go to college and you get a marketing degree, a management degree, you've got a big head start on somebody that doesn't. However, that's book smart. That isn't people smart. And so I would rather look at a C student that was the quarterback of the football team, because that's a leadership position.

And if he was there in college for four years doing that, well, he got the degree, but he got all those years of experience leading these other men. And so when we interview, I could care less whether you went to Harvard or Yale, or if you went to a community college. It means nothing to me. I know that some of the smartest people do those things, and that gives you a leg up. But basically, leadership is going to come down to how do you influence and control and encourage the team? And you learn that through personal experiences. So leaders are born,

and I'm sorry, leaders are made, they're not born. So just to be clear, leaders are made and they're made every day with the education, the experience, things like that, that you're talking about. The reality is a lot of people take their foot off the gas of making themselves a leader

because they think they've made it to the top of the mountain. But it seems like there's always another summit that's higher or another thing that they can do. And that's kind of how you look at your adventures. You're like, okay, I got that one done yesterday. I'm going to go do another one today. And you have that drive and motivation every day. And you've told me that that is from a combination of different factors, your environment, the people you surround yourself with, which let's get into that real quick. Tell me about this factor of the people that influence

you. Because I want to talk about leaders, mentors, and masterminds next, or coaches, mentors, and masterminds, if you will. But it's about the people that you interact with, right? Sure. Jim Rohn, in one of of his speeches and he've read it repeatedly is he said that you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with now that is a profound statement so i thought give you an example um if you're in the lower income of, let's say you're a ditch digger, you will be surrounded by other ditch diggers. And that when you finish the day's work, you'll go to the corner bar and you'll drink the same beer that the other guys do.

You'll use the same language. You'll tell the same jokes. And then when you go home and you got the weekend, you'll do what they do. That is you'll mow the lawn and then you go fishing or whatever. And that's who you surround yourself with. And that's who you're mimicking. If you're a cardiologist, you went to college for at least four years, then medical school for three years, and then residency for two years. And literally as you progress, every single person you're dealing with is a college-educated individual. And so if you're surrounded by other cardiologists and other doctors,

you will drive a Mercedes or a Cadillac like they do. You will go on vacations to Europe or to South America or wherever you want to go. You got the financial resources. You'll join the country club where you'll be surrounded by another group of 400 very successful people. And so you're rubbing shoulders. You mimic what other people do. And you'll buy the same cars.

You'll drink the same wine. You'll do everything. You're just so impacted by these five closest people to you. It's fascinating because you and I are part of several masterminds. And you introduced me to this concept of coach-mentor-mastermind. And you've mentored me for many years. I've had six coaches because every time I start working on something, you say, get a coach. Quarterback has a coach. The receiver has a coach. The kicker has a coach.

Everybody on the team has a coach that specializes in what they want to learn at that point. Why does that work so well? And why does... I mean, obviously a mastermind is all these people that are that influence. Um, you're to this day, you're doing that. I mean, we have a mastermind scheduled here in another month that we're going to be in and you're, you've climbed the mountain many times. I mean, why, why keep doing that? And what advice do you have for people who don't have a coach mentor or mastermind the purpose of a coach is to get more out of you than you can get out of yourself by yourself you're using their wisdom and their job is to analyze what you do and make suggestions of how you can improve usually by asking you, how do you think you could improve on that? And all of a sudden it makes you think and say, well, to be honest with you, I, you know,

I'm not living up to my potential. I'm a little tired or whatever it might be. And so I totally believe in it. And if you look at our most successful REMAX agents, and I mean, you're talking $500,000 a year, a million a year in commissions, almost all of them use a coach. The money they spend on the coach reaps 10, 20 times the financial benefit. Wow. And you mentioned potential. You've always told me that coach unlocks your potential. They're like the gatekeeper for that. Tell me about masterminds.

What's a mastermind? Why should people on here join a mastermind and what should they look for and something like that? Yeah, Napoleon Hill, back in the depression days, came up with Think and Grow Rich because everybody was broke. And he had a very interesting life, by the way, but read his book because the books are good. And he said that there's seven steps to accomplishing any goal that you want. And the first thing is you got to figure out what you want and write it down. And then you have to write down a plan, a blueprint, how am I going to get

from here to there. This building we're in, this didn't just pop up. Architects worked on it for months and designed it to the square inch and figured out where every light bulb was going to go, where every electric fixture was going to go. And so you create the blueprint. Life is a blueprint, but it's continually changing. And then what you need to do is get yourself a mastermind group. And that is a group who supports you in where you want to go. Now, for instance, let's say you want to lose some weight

and you go to your friends and you tell them, look, I really have to get serious about this. I need to exercise. I need to lose some weight. And if you've got a couple of friends that look at you and just say, Dave, give it up, man. You've tried this over and over. You've lost a ton of weight. You just get it back.

Don't even bother. You're not going to make it. That's killing you. That's killing your drive, your ambition, embarrasses you. No, what you want is somebody like you that's healthy and goes to the gym seven days a week and you work hard at it. And so you've got to get a mastermind group that's going to encourage you in what you do. And often mastermind groups have very varied backgrounds. You don't want 10 realtors getting

together and talking about how to be a better realtor. What you need is eight or 10 experts. And the one mastermind group that we're in that's coming up in June is the most fascinating group of people that I've probably ever met in my life. And when I started it, I obviously was the whale in the room to speak of. Follow up eight years later, nine years later, we got one of the guys has become a billionaire, a multi-billionaire, and his family started with a $30 million business. One of them has started dozens of businesses, taken five or six of them public.

He's building health centers and rehab centers for injuries all over Texas right now. You start going down the line of these individuals. They're fascinating. And we all look forward to being together. And we don't have an agenda. We just start someplace. We talk. We brainstorm.

What's the most exciting thing you're doing? What's the best book you've read? Who have you heard speak? And it's a group of people who are encouraging each other on. And it's amazing. I'm honored to be part of that group and just love the guys that are in it. It's fascinating, though, because there's no holds barred in this. And that was probably one of the biggest eye openers for me comparing, you know, say, uh,

the politics within a business meeting versus the vulnerability in a mastermind. But the thing's also interesting along the same line is we don't let just anybody in our mastermind group. It's pretty well settled now. There's 10 or 11 of us. And we've been together now for many, many years. Everybody's encouraging. But nobody puts down anybody. It's just like nobody's bragging.

Oh, look at me. Look at me. It's just we're best buds. How did you accomplish what you just accomplished? That's an important part of it. And then on the thinking and grow rich, make it an obsession and analyze what you do, et cetera. But mastermind groups is an incredible opportunity for like-minded people with a different background to encourage each other. Wow. Yeah, it so much is.

So, Dave, I mean, this has been quite a ride on leadership that we've taken. This is the closing of this second half of this two-part show. I have a question for you, though, when it comes to how we accomplish all of these things. So this last segment, I want to talk to you, and I know you've done a lot of study on habits. In fact, I remember you and I were on a speaking tour across the U.S., and we were kind of racing each other to read different books about habits

and creating habit forming aspects of our lives and how to reinforce those things, how to stop bad habits, how to start good habits, things like that. It was funny because you would text me one night and you go, I just finished this book. Where are you on it? Here's the next one we're reading. And we would go back and forth, but talk to the listeners about habits. What is your perspective on habits and their importance in finding success and being a great leader? Well, if we're going to talk about habits, let's talk about goals and goal setting.

And the best book I've ever read is Atomic Habits. And so I've read hundreds of books on goal setting and accomplishment, writing down your goal, step-by-step plans and all that stuff. And in the Atomic Habits, he was talking about all the people that train to get an Olympic gold medal. And it's tens of thousands worldwide set off for the same thing of, I want to get that gold medal. There's only going to be one gold medal in one division.

And most people drop out because they can't handle the drudgery of six hours of training a day, seven days a week, year after year. It's mind-numbing. Some people can do it and in the atomic habits he talks about everybody has the goal to be number one but only a few people get there and the questions how did they get there and he it makes a lot of sense he says the ones that have the best systems are the ones that will achieve the goal. In other words, set your system, and that's what you work at. Stop thinking about, oh, I want to be number one, whatever. If you have the right systems, and you go through the drudgery, and you do this day after day after day, month after month,

the goal will accomplish itself. Incredible. after month the goal will accomplish itself incredible so let's say the system is that let's say you want to lose some weight and so a lot of people say okay count your calories and that's important uh cut back on sweets and stuff like that, get a balanced diet, you have to exercise or whatever. If you change your environment, you can change your systems. So for instance, it's raining out and you get up and you think, oh, it's five in the morning. I'm not going to go out and walk for an hour. I'll save it for another day. And you roll over and you go to sleep. If you had created your environment right, it is that you lay out your sweatpants, your sweatshirt,

your shoes, your socks, and whatever exercise equipment you're going to take. And it's sitting right there. And the first thing you do when you get out of bed is don't say, I'm tired. Just go over and put your uniform on. That's the system. As your environment is right there within five feet of you, you don't have to go look and say, I wonder where my tennis shoes are. And so the system to going out and exercising is it's there. And once you've suited up, you can't, your psyche won't let you lay back down and say, I'm going to sleep for a little while longer.

It's suit on, out the door. That's the system. They give an example of cafeterias and they were looking at how much soda pop was being sold and how little water. And they changed the environment. they never told anybody about it but they set up bottled water in refrigerators with glass doors at about eight or nine different places in the cafeteria before you would pay for your food and so all of a sudden

that's the only thing they did was they changed the environment and put more emphasis on here's all this water that's available. And people would start passing up. No, I don't want to diet coke. I'm going to get a water. And they changed the water consumption. It was up like 10 times. And the soda consumption went way down. So they changed their environment.

It changed their systems and their habits, and then obviously after time it changes results, which those habits become subconscious so that we can't resist them. Yeah, habits are like a thread or like a small wire. And the longer you have the habit, the more small wires you build until you have a cable that you can't break. Oh, nice. And you build up this amazing word that you talk about a lot called momentum. Yes. Mother Mo, Mother Mo is a bitch. And so she's either on your side or she's killing you. And a perfect example, several years ago, the Broncos went to the Super Bowl. And the first pitch up of the ball from the center went over the quarterback's head. And he's trying to scramble to get to it. And the team totally was demoralized.

The other team scored, scored again, scored again. And so the one team, Mother Mo's there, and they're excited and patting each other on the back. They know they got one. And our poor Broncos just fell apart. And by halftime, they were so far down, there was no miracle that was going to bring them back, and nobody tried hard.

So the momentum, I mean, it's interesting because momentum crushes somebody's spirit when the momentum's against them. And it just completely inflates their enthusiasm when it's with them. Well, when you came up with the title of Start With a Win, that's actually brilliant. That's very brilliant. Thank you. If every day you had a win, that starts the momentum for the day. So like yesterday we came in and with this beautiful, beautiful office and we got these gates and so on. And we've been here five months and the gates keep stopping to work. And there's

some kind of a manufacturer's problem. Well, here we were and I couldn't get in the office. And I don't have the ability with my disability to climb over the fence and then get to the office through the door. And so fortunately, one of our assistants came in behind me and she got out, crawled over the wall and went to the back and undid the gates so that I could drive in and get to the office. Well, that started the day off in a very, very bad way for me. I started with a big loss and I'm angry. And then I had a couple of phone calls I did not enjoy. And I went in those phone calls angry and that didn't work very well for me. And it was middle of the day before I got my head on straight to say, get it, get past it. It's okay. That's in the past. Let's make today worthwhile.

But this concept to start with a win, man, that's great. Well, thank you. And Dave, in closing out this show, I do ask every one of our guests this question, and that is, how do you start with a win? What recommendations do you have for our listeners? Well, I think I have very high goals, and I'm methodical in creating the systems behind those goals. And so it's all in your mind. I used to teach a concept to real estate agents about opening night electricity. And the opening night electricity is a true phenomenon. Broadway has a new show coming.

And it's the talk of the town. And the actors and the dancers are chosen. And this is going to be the hottest new deal. Let's say it's Cats. And so everybody's fighting to get the first tickets. And it's hard to get the tickets. You can't just go to the box office. And so you have this opening night.

You have people arriving in limos. You got spotlights on Broadway on the outside. And you've got this thousand-some people coming in, all pleased. I've got tickets. And this is going to be a great play. And of course, behind the scenes, all the actors and actresses, they're keyed up. They've been practicing for weeks. This is live in front of the audience. There's an opening and an electricity in that building. It's from the viewers. It's from the actors and the musicians. And it sizzles.

And it ends. And you get a standing ovation. You get four or five curtain calls. Everybody's ecstatic. And they rush home to tell everybody, this was the greatest play we've ever seen in our life. Well, the cast changes. It moves on.

And one by one, they leave this play for the next big play. And they have to keep replacing them, usually with not so famous a people. And the question then is, everybody's seen Cats, and maybe they go back to see it again, but there's no opening that electricity anymore. After 2,000 times, it's gone. And the problem is,

it's in the actor's head. It's in the audience's head. They don't expect it anymore. And so your expectation is every time you make a presentation, it's opening on electricity. This is my chance to shine. And for a real estate agent, oh, you've already made 2000 sales in the last, you know, 20 some years. How do you have the excitement with this prospect who wants you to be excited about, I'm buying my first house, this is the most wonderful thing in the world, and you fail them if you can't come up with the enthusiasm level of,

well, I've sold a million dollar houses and I've sold a hundred thousand dollar houses and I'm tired of this. You're not pleasing your consumer. It's all within. It's heart. Heart. Opening night electricity. I'm going to write that on a note and stick it on my monitor so I see opening night electricity every morning.

Dave Linegar, co-founder of Remax, one of the most prolific business people I've ever met, a huge philanthropist. You've given so much to our communities and you're just a great guy in helping build leaders. Thank you so much for being on Start With A Win. Thank you, my friend.