Start With A Win - Getting to Know RE/MAX CEO, Adam Contos

Episode Date: July 22, 2020

In this episode of Start With A Win, Producer Mark becomes the host and interviews RE/MAX’s leader, Adam Contos. In all areas of his life, Adam has a keen interest in understanding people, frequently asking himself, “How is this person or group of people?” and “How can I help them?” Adam has found that using emotional intelligence (understanding the feelings of others) and emotional maturity (an ability to make the most emotionally intelligent decisions) is the key to authentic leadership. Another way to describe his outlook on being a leader is that he attracts, diagnoses, and prescribes the fixes for the problems of others.In his mid-40’s, Adam was encouraged to get his MBA to progress his career at RE/MAX, which he did through the University of Denver’s Executive MBA program. As a lifelong learner who didn’t always enjoy formal education, Adam was surprised to find how much he learned through the program. He found that the curriculum emphasized how you learn more than what you learn, so by adjusting his choice management and creating some beneficial structures in his life, he was able to manage his career, family, education, and grow in the process. To his 18-year-old self, Adam would emphasize the importance of keeping better track of relationships and being more intentional about understanding the people around him throughout life. If Adam were able to have dinner with any three people, his list would be Steve Jobs, Aristotle, and the Pope. The episode ends with a lightning round of questions that you don’t want to miss!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

Every day is filled with choices. You're here because you're choosing to start with a win. Get ready to be inspired, learn something new, and connect with the win nation. And what's up everybody? Producer Mark here with Start With A Win in our Start With A Win bunkers. Here we are. And hey, you know, today we got a special guest. Today we have none other than the CEO of Remax, Adam Kontos. Welcome him to the podcast, everybody. Adam. Hi, Mark. Woo! Adam. Hi, Mark. How are you doing?

I'm good. This is kind of awkward. Well, you know, hey, we've been talking about podcasting. We've been talking about creating solo casts. We have a lot of great interviews on this show. And you and I thought we said, you know, hey, why don't we just interview you? You know, we don't ever get to hear from you on this side of the mic in the sense of, I never get to ask you questions about certain things. We kind of discuss topics and we talk about those topics, but I actually just wanted to interview you, get to know you a little bit better. A lot of our audience who maybe has tuned in in the past, you know, few few months maybe don't know you that well.

And so I would like to get into Adam's brain and understand who he is, how he ticks. And maybe we'll even do like a lightning round of some of your favorite things. Oh, wow. This should be fun. I'm looking forward to this. This should be fun. Or it's going to be a complete train wreck, one or the other. That's right.

This episode may never make it to the air. This might not happen. We may be recording again after this, just so everybody knows. That's right. This episode may never make it to the end. This might not happen. We may be recording again after this, just so everybody knows. That's right. We may redo this episode. So if you're viewing this, you're lucky. Yeah, this is take one. If everybody's still on and you hear take one, I'm here. That's right. This is it. This is it. Take one. Here we go. Okay. So you are a leader. You have to lead all of your team members at the Remax World headquarters. You're a leader to brokers, people who are buying franchises.

You're a leader at home, doing it with your family. And so I want to know what's the biggest area related to your role that you're curious about and why? Or what are some of the things you're researching the most right now? It's a deep question. You just went straight in. It is because I think, what the heck? We go through the guy's head? Yeah. I mean, you and I have been friends for several years.

And when I think about the pressure, when you really think about, man, when you have the CEO title, you don't get to sleep. Your brain turns on at two in the morning and you start thinking about stuff. And it's like, oh, crap, I need to write this stuff down or I need to make sure I do these things. And I think that a lot of people might be encouraged by some of your answers to these questions and then be able to implement those things into their own businesses and with their own teams. Okay. So I'll jump right into that one. You're right. First of all, running a business, running a company, and I actually had this conversation with somebody on a phone call right before I got on this recording. We were talking about being a leader and being a CEO. I get to coach and mentor and mastermind with a lot of different people who are business leaders.

And it's not easy because you generally don't get somebody to talk to. You've got to kind of work your way through the who, what, where, when, why of everything. But ultimately what you're looking for is, what's down inside? What's in their heart? If you can harness the heart

of the people that you work with, if you can understand their feelings, have an extreme amount of emotional intelligence and an extreme amount of emotional maturity, and I'll break both of those things down here in a second, to understand what they need, what's going on inside of them without them telling you, then you can act appropriately in order to help them find greater fulfillment. There's so much psychology in leadership and so much emotional intelligence, so much emotional maturity in leadership that that's what I really, I look at so much, you know, every time I talk to somebody or when I'm laying there with my eyes wide open in bed thinking, okay, how is this person? I mean, that's just, that, that really

more than anything is what goes through my head is how is this person? And you kind of bounce around amongst different people or how is this group of people? Because if you can harness the head and the heart together, you can create your messaging. You can say things that people appreciate instead of things that people either discard or distract them or they don't like. And you can gain that, that influence to get things accomplished. Cause that's really what your job is. Your job is to help people find that internal energy, that fire burning inside their heart in order to get things done that make them better, that build the business, that help other people, things like that. So that, that's probably, you know, when you think about it conceptually, that help other people, things like that. So that's probably,

when you think about it conceptually, that's what I think about more than anything is, where's this person? How are they? And how can I help them go deeper into those emotions in order to create great things for themselves? Right. And I think that's so powerful. That's something that I think about as the owner of a business with a team, because we're only as strong or we're only as good as our team is, right? I mean, so if we can motivate our team members and our leaders so that they can motivate the people under them, then we have a strong company, right? We have a strong bond and we have people who are loyal to the brand and want to spend their time and energy to grow it and make it into something great. And so I think that makes sense to me that you're constantly thinking about the individual, the team, the group, and to seeing what you can do to put a fire in their belly so that they can do great work. Yes. I heard it put really well in this training program that I'm going through right now, where what we do is we attract, we diagnose, and then we prescribe. It's just this simple

process we go through. It's vague and it gets more specific as you apply it to a human being and their challenges, but you attract their attention. You attract their being and their participation and things like that. You diagnose their challenges and then you prescribe something that that's not a bandaid. It's a painkiller. You look at it, you think about like, you know, when you're a kid or something or your, your, your children or whatever, if they slip and fall and skin their knee or whatever, um, they come in and they're like, I want a bandaid. And, and really what they, they don't want a bandaid. They want a fix for what's going on. But the only thing that people know is to put a bandaid on it, which is very superfluous in, in solving people's challenges and helping them. And what they really want is they want the entire

problem to go away and there to be a massive fix for it, but they don't know how to ask for that. And that's our job as leaders is to, to get as deep as we possibly can in order to create the greatest amount of fulfillment instead of a superfluous, you know, appearance of a solution to things.

And that's ultimately where businesses grow is when you can attach deeper into people than not what they say they want, but what they truly need. Yeah. What were the two things I wanted to go back real quick? You said it was emotional intelligence and what was the other one? Emotional maturity. What are those? Explain those to me. Emotional intelligence is essentially your ability to understand other people's feelings, to recognize and understand their feelings. That's huge. I think a lot of people lack that, especially leaders. And the reason for that, Mark, is most people think inward. They think

towards themselves instead of outward towards others. Wow. Okay. So that's emotional intelligence. Emotional maturity. Emotional maturity is essentially your ability to make decisions. So what you decide you need to do at that moment, what you need to say, what you need to ask if you need to dig deeper, ask good questions, but ultimately, it's your decision making. So you're recognizing their feelings, you're recognizing their emotions and their being, and then you are making decisions based upon what needs to happen. And you don't have to have somebody on the other end of this transaction in order for that to occur. Because ultimately, your time management is emotional maturity.

How you choose to go through the day, let's say you're by yourself and you don't see another human being, but you have to accomplish things. You have to make decisions. That decision management process is emotional maturity. So it could be, oh, I'm going to just sit down and watch a movie as opposed to go and get my work done, that's emotionally immature because you're not making the decision to go and accomplish the things that you know need to get done. You're taking the easy way out and doing the things that don't show resistance in your world. Dude, we're going to have to do a whole podcast on those two topics. So I'm going to make a note here that we're going to do a whole show on those two topics. So I'm going to make a note here that we're going to do a

whole show on emotional intelligence and emotional maturity, because I feel like we could really dive deep on some of those things. And I know a lot of my real estate agent friends, they struggle a lot with emotional maturity, especially being their own boss, doing whatever they want to do. And then they have to decide like, oh, do I do research and understand this contract better? Or do I go get coffee and hang out with a friend? And so, they're always fighting those things. And so, I love that. And I think we should do a show on that. So, I'll make a note about that and we'll come back to that at a later episode. Another thing I want to chat with you about, and I think that a lot of people may not know

this, is that you went back to college to get your MBA a few years ago as an adult. You chose to go back to college. So, I have a few questions. One is, why did you do that? What did you learn about doing something that seems difficult to do as an adult? And then three, how has that experience benefited you? So let's start out with, let's just explain why did you do that? Why did you go back to school as mid-40s to get your MBA? All right. So I was kind of working, progressing in leadership positions throughout Remax. And I

was sitting there talking to Dave Linegar, the co-founder of the company, who's also been a mentor of mine. It also was the, he's Mr. Remax. And I was sitting there talking to him and he said, look, Adam, your leadership is really developing well, but really, truly, we're a public company. There's a high level of sophistication that is required in order to run a public company. So if you ever want to do this, you probably need to have a college degree because I dropped out twice. I probably had enough credit hours where I'd go back and finish up my degree, but ultimately I never finished it. And he goes, I think you need to go accomplish something

like that. And I said, well, go get my bachelor's degree. And he goes, no think you need to go accomplish something like that. And I said, well, go get my bachelor's degree. And he goes, no, no, no, go get your MBA. And I go, oh, great. All right. You know, I always thought that was this huge hill to climb. I mean, it's, you know, you go to business school and you're like, geez, this is, this is crazy. I can go do the, I can go sell stuff and do marketing and all the rest of that all day long. And I've been through a bunch of leadership institutes and whatever it might be. But ultimately, he goes, go do that and see what you can find out about yourself. And I thought, this is a very wise man telling me this. And I'm not one to overlook good advice. So sure enough, I went out and I did that. And truly, he wanted me to do that so that I had the opportunity

to be in the selection process to possibly be the CEO of the company. And I'd gotten to the point where if I don't have that, then okay, well, I'm obviously up against other candidates who do have that. How do I go and make myself the best I possibly can be? So I went and I got my MBA. And it's easier to say it that way than it was to actually go do it. So I just picked up the phone and called around and said, hey, I'm here at Remax. And they're like, okay. And I had enough leadership experience and business experience where people are like, absolutely, you can test out of your bachelor's degree, not finishing that. You'd write an essay and things like that.

And then the school says, sure, we'll put you in the business school for the MBA program. So I applied to DU, which was close. It's a very reputable school. And I did a lot of research on the different schools. And I thought that that one would be fantastic for an entrepreneurial program. They have what's called an executive MBA program. So I applied for it. And next thing I know, they said, yeah, we're starting in like a month and a half. Can you do it? And I go, yeah. So I went and I got a partial knee replacement right before then. So I'm hobbling around on a cane and nothing like cramming a bunch of stuff into a very short period of time. And then I went and started the MBA program while I was running marketing at REMAX headquarters. So during that time, I'm sure you were pushed further than you'd ever been before. I mean,

I'm sure doing something like that, you're working a full-time job, you have a family, and then you're doing this MBA program. What are some things that you learned about yourself? And what are some things that you would encourage somebody who is maybe thinking to themselves, oh, I'm too old to do that, or that ship has sailed? What would you say about that? Well, I guess it depends on how you view yourself right now or how you view yourself before doing that. So I've always been a lifelong learner. And I believe, in fact, I just put out a video the other day about being a sponge. And that basically means that you take in information, but you also wring yourself out and you deploy that information where appropriate. And I've always taken and done that. And that was a piece of advice that I had gotten decades ago,

is if you want to continue to grow and continue to get better in society and in life and help more people, you need to be the best sponge possible and learn. So I became a lifelong learner. So the whole MBA thing for me was like, oh, all right, I'm just going to go learn something else. I'm going to spend my hour or two a day that I normally spend learning working on business school. And then I'll go one day a week and you spend 10 hours there on that one day during the week. And then they give you, call it, I think it was like 20 some hours of homework a week, whatever it might be. So I just adjusted myself through, we talked about emotional maturity, my choice management, but I was really, really good at managing all my projects and all my choices for two years.

And that was when I participated in the MBA program. Wow. And I'm sure during that time, I'm sure you probably had to create a lot of systems and a lot of processes in order to stay focused and do those things. And so, I mean, hats off to you for that. And you're just a great example to anybody out there, anybody listening to say, listen, if you put your mind to something, there's nothing that you can't achieve. No matter how old you are, it doesn't matter. If you put in the work and you set your mind, game over. You can do it. So I think that's cool, man. That's it. Life and success, obviously there are certain physical things that you can and can't do based upon your current condition. You've got the ability to put yourself in a situation where you accomplish pretty much anything you want to do, including going and finishing a college degree.

Or maybe you didn't even finish high school. Go do it. Go accomplish something. But ultimately, I have to tell you, learning is not that hard if you want to learn. If you take and you put these systems in place, and it's really, you go get an MBA, probably about 40% what you learn, but 60% how you learn. You're learning how to benchmark,

how to do program and different project management philosophies, how to deal with other people. There's a lot of leadership principles in it, presentation skills, things of that nature where you're actually doing things. So it's not necessarily what you're learning. It's learning how to do that you get out of these. And I look back at even like a bachelor's degree or an associate's degree or something like that. And they don't tell you that when you walk in the door. Okay. We're not as much interested in what you learn. We're interested in how you learn and getting you used to doing these things that society needs you to do in order to progress yourself, your career, your family, your lifestyle, whatever,

and find a greater level for yourself of where you want to get to. Because that's what opens doors, is your ability to do things, not necessarily what you know. Because if you could do things, you can go figure out what you need to do. That's right. So it was fun. But the hard part is I like to challenge myself. You know, I, I was like, all right, let's see, let's see how good you can do with this instead of just, I just want to pass. Nope. Let's see how good your GPA. I got a 4.0 and I'm proud of that because I got to tell you that this was, if I can, you know, two time college dropout, if I can go get a 4.0 at one of the best business schools around for crying out loud, why can't

anybody else? And it's the simply put it's, are you applying yourself the way that you need to? And you can do anything you want, anything you just got to do. Yeah, dude, that's so encouraging. That's so awesome. All right. Hey, this is another question. If you could turn back the time and talk to your 18-year-old self, what would you tell him? Wow. I have a lot of lessons for him. A lot of lessons. But you know what? I have to say this. Regret is a powerful thing. And I'll just start with, I don't regret anything in life. What I would tell myself though, is keep better track of the relationships that you have right now and those that you move forward with. Because we have so much that comes and goes in life. And it took me a while to figure out that

the foundation for your experiences in life that you end up with, life is not about tangible items. Life is not about what can you buy. Life is about what can you experience. So to look at it that way and understand the value of the human beings that you get to spend time with, I think it took me a while to figure that out. Because you just kind of go through life and there's just ants in the anthill and you're another ant in the anthill and you're like, there's other ants. But if you stop and actually go, hey, Mark, how are you today? Tell me about you. I'm interested in you, in learning about you and caring about you and things like that because I want to get close to other human beings because they're amazing. They're truly amazing. And I think I always like to help people,

but I never really got to understand people as what, what did you go do? Where did you grow up? Why did you grow up there? What, what was that about? Things like that. And I think, I think, you know, that's, that's a period that, or a period of life that we miss is understanding that, that deep connection and reflection that we can have. So I would tell myself that. That's powerful. That's really good. All right. If you could have dinner with any three people dead or alive, who would it be and why? Wow. Double Eagle Steakhouse, calamari appetizer whoa that's a good one all right all right so i i would have to say um steve jobs would be one of them okay that's a that's a good one

that is a solid one yeah so you know because that guy when you look at how he thought, and his maverick attitude, but genius, just genius. I certainly think he would be amazing to sit down with. Another one, I would say, is Aristotle. Ooh, look at you, the philosopher. I just, I'm blown away by why Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle were able to take and understand human nature the way that they did and talk about how humans think,

the brain, the philosophies, our habits. Such long time ago. Oh, yeah yeah the profoundness that those guys had hundreds and hundreds of years ago is amazing number three i i could probably list another 10 now that i'm just kind of racking my brain on this okay those two are dead do you have anybody living? You'd want to have somebody, you know what I would like to, I like global perspective, just absolute global perspective. I think probably I would say the Pope. That'd be kind of an interesting one. I grew up Catholic, not necessarily currently practicing Catholic, but realistically, you look at the transformation that that man has taken the Catholic church through and to sit

down and say, because he broke loose from a lot of philosophical arguments that that organization has had over centuries of, okay, we're going to live, we're going to, we're going to run our organization this way. And he's kind of said, nope, nope, we're going to move on and we're going to do things differently now. So I think that would be, that would be fascinating. Yeah. I could, I can name a whole bunch of different sports figures or artists or whatever that I think would be amazing. But just, I like to get in people's heads and listen to why they say what they do. You know, I like Warren Buffett to be a good one to have sit down and have dinner with

Elon Musk. Fascinating, fascinating thought. Maybe we can get Elon on the podcast here. Yeah, there you go. See what you can do, Mark.

All right. I'll look into it. All right, man. Well, hey, I want to go into a lightning round real quick. So I'm just going to ask you a few questions about things that you like so we can get to know you. What's your favorite color? Favorite color? I like this burgundy that I'm wearing right now. That's a good color on you. I was going to say, it matches nice with your background today that brown burgundy shirt i'm kind of fan of the burgundy you know it's you can call it like a merlot or something like that that's right i don't know uh what's your favorite food steak steak steak a favorite adult beverage uh i don't drink adult beverages okay straight edge i like it i will i mean i had a beer last

weekend but okay that's because i had a cigar and i was like i haven't had a cigar forever so i might as well have a beer i haven't had one of those forever either so all right your first car uh it was a ford fairmont i think oh first, first job. Uh, I washed dishes at country kitchen, which was a breakfast place when I was 14. I remember the country kitchen favorite candy. I'm going to go with the cookie guy. I know you're a cookie. I like a good cookie, Mark. You, you've seen me sample a cookie or two. Okay. What about a favorite workout? Favorite workout. Yeah. Are we doing upper body legs? What's going on? Abs? You know, I like the whole body at the gym. I'll do a whole body. If I have like an hour and a half,

just get it all done. Just get it all done. I'll do large muscle groups. I'll start with legs and then I'll go to chest back and then arms. Boom. Okay. Favorite music? I like classical. A little Baroque? Get your mind? I do like some Baroque. Yes, absolutely. Love the Baroque.

Awesome. Well, hey, man, thanks so much for being on the show today. We like to wrap up every show with asking our guests this one question. Adam Kantos, how do you start with a win? Mark, I get up every morning at 4.45. It used to be 4.30, by the way. So now, you know, COVID is 4.45. And I start my day with a German shepherd nose in my face.

When my alarm goes off, Seymour comes over and greets me and says, hey, dad, time to get up and go to the gym. Grab a cup of coffee. Kelly's up by then. We head out the door to the gym and get in a great workout. So, you know, get moving. Love the ones you're with and hit the day hard. Well, hey, man, love producing the show with you.

Thankful for who you are and just what you offer to everybody. And thank you for listening to the show and being a part of our community the win nation um hey make sure to head over to itunes and subscribe to the show write a review and rate the show and head over to startwithawin.com you can follow adam on instagram facebook and twitter and remember start with a win win.