Start With A Win - Five Key Principles for a Successful Business

Episode Date: July 8, 2020

In this episode of the Start With A Win podcast, Adam outlines the five key principles critical to the success and future of your business, which you may consider common sense. Are you focusing on these principles as much as you should?Emotional leadership – Part of your job as a leader is to truly care about your customers, employees, shareholders, stakeholders, and the community. To listen to them and make them feel safe. Without this, you are not using empathy or a true understanding of your interactions.Digitization – Most businesses have transitioned into some form of digitization over the past few months. Perhaps you have found the benefits of this method in communicating with your customers more directly. By systematizing your processes a bit more, you can attain higher levels of efficiency and measure your goal progress along the way.Agility – Be open-minded and aware of the changes going on around you. Do not stick your head in the sand and insist your way is best.Presence – Presence creates trust and builds relationships with your customers and stakeholders. The race for market share starts with the race for mind share.Kindness – Be intentional with how you treat people and genuinely demonstrate caring, goodness, and a concern for the health, safety, and welfare of others. Choose empathy and deploy love wherever you go.BONUS – Video – Video is a great platform for tapping into all five key principles. Publish video content daily and get in front of people with a concise and valuable message. It demonstrates emotional leadership, agility, presence, kindness, and accomplishes the goal of digitization. If you haven’t started yet, consider this the sign you have been waiting for!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

Five key principles critical to your business's future and a bonus. Every day is filled with choices. You're here because you're choosing to start with a win. Get ready to be inspired, learn somethinganto, CEO here in the remote studio. I've got producer Mark. How you doing, buddy? Hey, I am doing so good. We had some serious dance moves on that roll. Oh yeah. That's, you know, the special start with a wind dance. I like to start with a wind dance. It was funny. It kind of got me warmed up here. Yeah, exactly. Get some blood flowing and get your mind in a right, happy, positive place. I like it. And I mean, there's no one here to look at me. It's just you because we're on zoom.

Exactly. So no worry about the peer pressure of looking like an idiot. I look like an idiot all the time, so I'm good with it. I'm good with it. Hey, Mark, I got an idea. So I get asked these questions all the time. What should we focus on right now in our businesses? Because our businesses now are different than they used to be. So what should we focus on now and tomorrow and the biggest opportunities presented the business? So I have a little list for us to share. Who doesn't love a good list? It kind of simplifies things and solidifies things. I love it. There we go. And I have a quote to go with that also, by the way. So who doesn't love a good

quote to go with a good list? Yeah, let's do it. You ready? Yeah. All right. It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that right. It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change. That is a great quote. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody quotes that to Darwin, but he actually didn't say that. But when you look at the evolution that he studied and the things that he came out with in all of his writings, it kind of summarizes that. It says it with that one quote. So basically, you don't have to be strong. You don't have to be smart.

You got to be able to adapt to change. Not stuck in your ways. Oh, hello. Yeah, able to move on from how things used to be done. To how they're done now. That's right. So let's dig into this five key ideas here. The first one is emotional leadership. Emotional leadership. So this has to be emotional leadership of the customer, of the employee, of the shareholder, of the community. Because you're a leader. You're an emotional leader.

Businesses are emotionally driven. Business decisions are made emotionally. Everybody's like, oh, they're like 90% emotional, 10% logical. Everybody has in their mind some ratio that they divide up of emotion and logic. But here's a reality. We are 100% emotionally driven human beings. And if we want to go back and justify something, then we look for logic to do so. Your emotional leadership has to be solid, solid. And there's a lot of writing out there now on this, particularly now when you look at the business roundtable went from being shareholder based to stakeholder based. Why? Because of the emotion of the internal parts of the organization drives the profitability of the organization. So if you don't have a business that is committed

to being amazing and the employees and the customers having great relationship together, shareholders don't benefit. You take a step back and you go, how can we emotionally charge this organization with emotional leadership in order to create higher levels of success for the organization? So can you give me some examples of some emotional leadership? Sure. So let's take COVID for instance. Let's just take the COVID situation. What was the number one thing that customers wanted to know during COVID? They didn't want to know that you had great benefits and services for them. They didn't want to know you had a great product. You know, they wanted to know that you cared about

them and they felt safe. That you were listening. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You'll notice on the marketing, everybody stopped feature dumping in marketing. I mean, granted, 75% of businesses stopped marketing because they needed to save the money. But what did that do? That kind of cleaned up the airwaves a little bit. There wasn't as much feature dump noise going on out there. And then businesses started coming out saying, hey, we care. We care about you.

We care about your family. We want you to feel safe here. That's an emotional bond there. That is emotional leadership in an organization for not just the customers, but the employees. Because if the employees aren't willing to come to work, you don't get customers. Right. So it's kind of interesting when you look at it. If you can reverse engineer consumer emotion into a business plan, that's a win.

100%. All right, so one, emotional leadership. One. Do we get a sound for one? I don't think we have a one sound. Do you remember on Sesame Street when Count Dracula would count? One. Yeah.

Didn't you hear like thunder and stuff? Two. Yeah. All right. I'm not quite Count Dracula. Oh, there we go. All right. We're getting some fun sounds in there.

There you go. All right. What's number two? Number two. Digitization. Digitization. It's kind of fun word to say. It is a fun word to say. It's a long word. It is. What does it mean? What does it mean? It means, can you do what you need to do with my business digitally? Take for instance, let's take a real estate transaction. We've seen a fair amount of digitization movement in a real estate transaction during COVID. Most of it had to do

with, okay, what happens in person versus what happens on video? And then how do we combine this entire chain of value, the customer experience chain together to create this flow of digitization for communication, for marketing, for the transaction itself. How do we do all that virtually where any information flows over the airwaves to an iPhone, to a laptop, whatever it might be in order to complete the transaction? So when you look at how does your business work? Obviously, if you have a product, a hard product, consumer product, goods, something like that, let's see, toilet paper was a big seller during COVID. If you need some toilet paper and you're not going to drive to the store to put your hands on it and take it home, how do you get it? Well, this guy named Jeff Bezos made that possible through digitizing

that purchase. So how are other things being digitized both for the consumer experience as well as how employees are working? Because there's a lot of work from home now too. Yeah. I want to say, would you say to like maybe systemization within that digitization? Because I find too, like I use, I've been taking like say a manual process that we've been doing, right? And I digitize that and systematize it. And then it allows us to be more efficient with less people and gives us more time. I think anything you can build into a system and then keep it in the palm of your hand, you're going to speed up the process.

You're going to create efficiencies with. So absolutely on your digitization, because we're able to measure things quickly as well. Anything that's digitized, we're able to measure. Anything that's a hard movement, hard goods, it's hard to measure. But digitization, you can measure how long it takes to do it, how long it takes to get there, how long it takes to get back, how long does it

take to read something, how many words, can you minimize number of words, things like that. So yes, I mean, as far as the ability to create massive efficiencies, but ultimately when it comes down to it, it was created to give the customer experience, the feeling of safety and convenience, the feeling of safety and convenience in order to do that. So it makes the consumer's life more efficient also. So how do you digitize your business? I mean, you and I used to get together and sit face to face and set up lights and cameras and all sorts of stuff in order to do this podcast. Right now, we're looking at each other over the airwaves. I think you're in your basement. I'm in my basement.

We're all good, man. We're digitized. We are digitized. Okay. So then the third, what do we got for number three? All right. A third principle critical to your business's future. This is really interesting because a lot of businesses have always been stuck in their ways of, oh, that's how we've always done it, things like that. That's not being agile. When you think about the word agile, you're able to quickly move in order to adapt. So the third one is agility. And it's not extensive, but it is very, very concise in what it means.

So third concept, third principle for your business needs to be in your business plan. How am I being agile to adapt to the changing environment? Because I got news for you. It's going to continue to change. Are you agile, Mark? Yes, very agile. I think too, in order to be agile, you have to be essentially open-minded to things that are coming down. I think one way that I do that is I'm always kind of keeping a pulse on what's going on in the world, right? Like for instance, I think TikTok,

right, is a good example for me right now if I think about it. I've been monitoring it, you know, and I've been kind of just keeping an eye on it, seeing how things are going, talking with my team about, all right, there's another thing here. Do we jump on it or do we just continue to see how things are coming along? And then at some point, be ready to jump on it and get on it. Some people are super early adopters, but I feel like there's some people who missed the boat completely because they're not agile enough to just pivot and start creating content specifically for a platform or something like that. Totally agree. Yeah. I think both being educated, open-minded, and willing to make the change

are huge in this because so many businesses, they get comfortable and they get complacent. And as a result, they lose their agility. Yep. So certainly something that everybody learned. I think everybody learned this once COVID smacked them in the face. And we had to be agile. You look at restaurants, they massively had to shift what they're doing. Any sort of retail establishment that did not sell anything that was essential,

massively had to change. And we saw a lot of businesses adapt very quickly to that. So number three was agility. Number four, presence. Presence. Not the kind you get from Santa Claus? Not presence with a T. Presence with a C, my friend. So this principle. Presence, I mean, being present, not putting a bow on your head, but being present, not being a present.

This is a big one because, let me give you a quote here, Mark. A quote that you've heard me say this before. Presence creates trust. Presence creates trust. And that's important when you think about the business-consumer relationship. Because what happened when COVID rolled in is 75%-ish of businesses stopped marketing. They stopped putting their voice out there. And consumers immediately forgot about them. A good test for this is, what was the restaurant you went out to eat at before COVID, before the lockdown? And most people can't tell you. Yeah, that's true. It's because they didn't stay present in your mind. You got overwhelmed.

You got overrun with noise. All we were looking at was numbers. How many deaths? How many new cases? Whatever it might be here, there, wherever. Is it going up? Is it going down? What's going on with the stock market?

What's the news got to say? It overwhelmed us. We have the ability to block out things that are not immediately concerning to us in our brain or immediately desirable to us in our brain. And if you left the conversation and you didn't maintain your presence, you got forgot about. So in the reemergence from COVID, there's going to be a race for mindshare. There is a race for mindshare right now, by the way. It's not market share. Mindshare leads to market share. So this presence has to get there.

We've always heard in sales, the KLT, no like trust process, right? So we have to go through this. Okay, you got to go through no, they have to get to know you. They have to learn to like you. And then they have to trust you in order for you to do a transaction with them because you're their trusted advisor for this transaction and this product, or they can go find somebody else. There's a speed to trust right now. Presence creates trust. Bottom line. If presence is not one of the principles your business is heavily engaged in right now, be it through video, because people want to see you digitally present, digitally transparent, you're missing out. So presence. Presence. I think that's super powerful. And just one of those things that I think people forget about when they get caught up in their businesses, when they get caught up in the day

to day and they're just trying to survive, they don't think about like, how can I be present for my customers? How can I be present for potential customers? And I love that one. Exactly. So that's number four. Number five. Number five. This one is big for me. I love this. In fact, it's written on your shirt right now, Mark. Kindness. Kindness. Kindness, the fifth principle that needs to be deployed in your business. What do I mean by that? What I mean by that is nobody cares about your to-do list. Nobody cares about you feature dumping on them. They don't care about the features and benefits of your business, product, or service until they know that you are a kind organization. We've made a massive shift in society.

There was a lot of noise. There was a lot of advertising. There was a lot of race to the bottom going on in different places. This is a race to kindness now, race to kindness. And that's important to society in inequality, in caring, in being good to people as a human being, would you treat them how you would treat your baby with kindness? Because we're kind to babies. We're kind to babies. Have a place in your heart for your customer too. And care about them, care about their family, care about their safety, care about their health, their welfare, their families, because if you don't, they don't care about your business. And I mean, genuinely, I mean, genuinely, don't be fake with this. Be a good part of your community where your business is. I don't care if you're in, I mean,

we're in 110 different countries, but I care about our customers as a human being. I wear that on my sleeve. I put it out there all the time. It's in our values. People, I'm going to use another quote here. They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. I mean, that's the reality there. I think too, it's just like, find ways that you can learn empathy. I think that's a big thing too, right? We get so caught up in our bubbles and our little echo chambers That we don't ever think to maybe step out of that in order to see the views of somebody else And change the way that we view those things, you know, and I think that's one thing having little kids

You know, I think it's one of those things like how can I teach them how to be empathetic, you know? When they see a homeless person they say, that guy's homeless and dirty. Or, hey, do we go to a homeless shelter and feed some of these people so that they can start to see, oh, wow, like they're a human being. They're having a difficult time in life. How can I love them? And it really humanizes them. And I think getting out there, trying to find ways that you can show kindness and relate with other people,

I think is very powerful. I agree. And when you look at it, what is kindness? Kindness is deploying love. It's deploying love. Love is an intentional act. You have to be intentional with it, meaning you have to look at somebody and go, I want to be kind to that person. When you think about that, when you see another human being, you have to look at somebody and go, I want to be kind to that person. When you think about that, when you see another human being, you have to think, I want to smile at them. I want to do something for them. I want to hold the door for them. I want to greet them. I want to give them something, a hug, lunch, or just a conversation of caring. But I mean, the reality is you got to be intentional here. Your business has to be intentional. Love is a verb. Oh, I love that. I need a shirt that says that, man.

Love is a verb. Love is a verb. Yeah, you have to love them. And people always, they always use the word love. They were like very guarded with it. Why do we have to be guarded with that? I don't know. It's a good question. That's the fifth one. So let me recap these then. I have a bonus for you. Whoa, a bonus.

So principle one, emotional leadership. Principle two, digitization. Principle three, agility. Principle four, presence. Principle five, kindness. And here's the bonus, the bonus drum roll, please. Video. How did I know you were going to say video surprise, the two things, kindness and video. It's your trademarks. There you go, man. There you go.

If you don't have the video built into your business immediately, you're not present. You have no way of showing your kindness. You're certainly not agile. You're not digitized. I mean, come on. This like pulls all these things together. Okay. Bonus is like the, yeah. If you do the, if you do the bonus, you encompass all the others. Wrap it up. Yes. So that's, uh, that's the bonus. And people ask me how much video should I be doing? Well, if you haven't been doing video, you need to do one a day. They're like one a day. I can't do that. Yes, you can. And you know what? They're going to suck. They are going to be horrible. And you got to be in them because nobody wants to just see words flash across the screen. They want to see a human being

because they want to see your smile. Here's a pro tip. Start your video with a smile, end it with a smile. Start with a smile, end with a smile. Why? It is emotional currency. Your smiles are emotional currency. Yeah. And you know, listen, if anyone out there is listening and you want to see how that's done, Adam leads by example. So go onto Facebook and follow Adam because you could see a lot of different ways how to incorporate doing a video a day or whatever that looks like. So if you need that inspiration, Adam, dude, thank you so much. I think this podcast was great and I think it's going to hopefully inspire people to take a look at their businesses and then give them the tools and keys they need to succeed. I love it, buddy. Yeah. Hey, thanks so much for listening to Start With

a Win. If you'd like to ask Adam a question, you can always call our hotline [phone] and leave a voicemail. We may or may not play that on our show, but hey, you can always call our hotline [phone] and leave a voicemail. We may or may not play that on our show, but Hey, you can put in a question there. Hey, go on iTunes, subscribe, write a review and rate the show. It helps us get the word out and reach more people. And we also have a lot of great content over at startwiththewind.com. Adam has other things he's doing like mind, body, business, and some other things like that. You can get some great resources over there and head over to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and follow us. We thank you so much for your time. We hope you're staying healthy and

sane. And until next time, remember, start with a win.