Start With A Win - How to Lead with Vision with Mick Hunt

Episode Date: April 2, 2025

⚡️FREE RESOURCE: 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘞𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱?  ➡︎ https://adamcontos.com/myleadershipWant weekly leadership content? Go here ➡︎ https://adamcontos.comIn this compelling episode of Start With a Win, host Adam Contos is joined by leadership coach and keynote speaker Mick Hunt, who shares a deeply personal journey of transformation that started with a childhood promise. If you've ever felt stuck—whether in your career, finances, or personal life—this conversation is packed with insights to help you break through. Mick challenges conventional wisdom by advocating for a "because" statement over traditional mission and vision statements, offering a bold perspective on purpose-driven leadership. With engaging stories, thought-provoking questions, and actionable strategies, this episode will inspire you to embrace discipline, redefine success, and take charge of your leadership journey. Tune in now—you won’t want to miss this!Mick Hunt is a transformative leader and the force behind Mick Unplugged, a movement that goes beyond motivation to drive real change. His top-ranked Mick Unplugged podcast, consistently in Apple’s top 10 for Self-Improvement, features thought leaders, entrepreneurs, and high achievers exploring ambition, resilience, and character. Mick’s signature Mick Factor—Mastery, Imagination, Character, and perseverance—guides his work in keynote speaking, executive coaching, and custom training programs. His actionable insights make him a sought-after mentor for business leaders, athletes, and anyone striving to unlock their full potential.Why Mick?Because he embodies transformation. He’ll inspire change, foster growth, and guide you to personal and professional fulfillment. In a world hungry for authentic leadership, he’s a beacon, empowering you to transcend limits, unlock your true potential and discover your true "because.” 00:00 Intro01:50 Is success an athlete, entertainer, doctor or lawyer?04:10 Leadership is not that!06:18 Growth is boring, but this is overwhelming!08:28 Mick’s concept…11:40 Leaders should look at this to grow… it’s not judgement.14:13 Bad Leaders do this…18:02 We have this gap, not just a leadership gap.23:40 Not in the morning, I start at this time!https://mickunplugged.com/===========================Subscribe and Listen to the Start With a Win Podcast HERE:📱 ===========================YT ➡︎ https://www.youtube.com/@AdamContosCEOApple ➡︎ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/start-with-a-win/id1438598347Spotify ➡︎ https://open.spotify.com/show/4w1qmb90KZOKoisbwj6cqT===========================Connect with Adam:===========================Website ➡︎ https://adamcontos.com/Facebook  ➡︎ https://facebook.com/AdamContosCEOTwitter  ➡︎ https://twitter.com/AdamContosCEOInstagram  ➡︎ https://instagram.com/adamcontosceo/#adamcontos #startwithawin #leadershipfactory

And so when I talk to business leaders and they work with me, whether it's consulting or they hire me on site or whatever, I always say the first thing we're going to do is get rid of your mission and vision statements. And here's why, Adam, your team can't recite them unless they're looking at them. Welcome to Start with a Win, where we unpack leadership, personal growth and development, and how to build a better business. Let's go. Coming to you from Area 15 Ventures and Start With a Win headquarters, it's Adam Kontos

with Start With a Win. Are you feeling stuck? Like no matter how much effort you put in, you just can't seem to break through whether that's financially in your job or in your life? Today's guest gives us a couple of tools to find breakthrough in these areas. On this episode of Start With a Win, we're joined by Mick Hunt, the host of a top 10 podcast on self-improvement, keynote speaker, and leadership coach.

Mick inspires leaders across industries to push beyond their limits and build lasting legacies. If you're ready to finally find some breakthrough in your career, then this episode is for you. Mick, welcome to Start With a Win. It's great to see you today. Adam, thanks this episode is for you. Mick, welcome to Start with a Win. It's great to see you today. Adam, thanks for having me, brother.

Awesome. You do a lot of amazing work in leadership and personal development, in really growing people as a human being and as a leader. Take us back to the day you started doing this. What got you into the space, and what motivates you to do this? The crazy thing, Adam, and everybody that knows me, my journey started when I was 10 years old.

I made a promise to my mom to change the trajectory of our family dynamic. And when you say that, people always think of the worst environment and all that. When you looked at my home, it was probably one of the nicest homes in the neighborhood, Adam. But inside, it felt like prison. It was dark and cold. And if you asked me to reflect on my early childhood, all I see is that darkness, because that's what it seemed like for me.

And I knew at 10, in order to change my mother's life, my sister's life, and then later my brother, I had to become something different. I had to break the curse of where we were. And for me, that meant becoming one of three things, athlete, an entertainer, right, or a doctor slash lawyer, because growing up, that's what I saw on TV. So success for me meant those things. But then I also found out a few years later that you can be a business owner and a business leader. And that's when the trajectory for leadership really started for me. I was always the kid that was the leader of the football team, the point guard on the basketball team, right? Like the natural leader. But what I realized is that leaders aren't born, right? It's a DNA. It's things that

you work on that you continue to build and strive for. So for me, it started just understanding I had to do something to change lives. And in order to do that, I had to become a leader. I had to be the person that not just people looked up to or look for, but could actually impact. And so for me, again, it started at 10, and it continues to evolve every day. Like I learn something new every day. I implement something different every day because leadership's a journey. Like I said, leaders aren't born, right? Like we know folks that are six foot eight that can't play basketball. So you can't tell me that six foot eight automatically makes you a basketball player, right? I guess the things that you have

to work on in your craft to become that. I like that. And, you know, frankly, we, we work on our leadership every single day. I mean, you and I are working on our leadership right now, having this conversation, the people that are listening to this are working on their leadership, educating themselves about it. Did you know, reflecting back to your childhood, do you think a lot of people feel the same way about where they're at? Maybe even right now as adults where they're stuck in a place? Why is that

and what should they be thinking about to get out of it? Yeah, so I wholeheartedly think that people have that same reflection and or in that place now because the world today and kind of always has been centered on instant gratification, right? Even more so now than forever or than ever. Instant gratification, right? Like I can post something on social media and I instantly get likes or I don't get likes, right? I instantly get comments or I don't get comments. But leadership isn't that. Leadership isn't instant gratification, right? Like, I mean, a lot of leaders work on a three to five year business plan. That's three to five years before you see the result of what you're starting today. And a lot of times, and I speak about this, Adam, a lot

of times leadership is lonely, right? And if you're in that place where you feel stuck, surround yourself with like-minded people because they're there. You know, just like I do, and I know you believe in this, the power of mentorship. If you're in that place today, seek mentors. Seek people that have gone through what you've gone through and heed their advice, heed their wisdom. I have several mentors because I work on different aspects of me as an individual and as a leader.

And it's because I don't want to stay stuck. If I've learned anything, the journey of leadership is always having mentors that have been where you've been that can teach you the shortcuts of where you're trying to go. I like that. It seems like we get stuck up in that instant gratification piece you were talking about. Yeah. And those mentors bring that sounding board.

They've been there. They know the patients. And it almost seems like we're talking about becoming a professional athlete or something like that. Because professional athletes aren't looking for the instant gratification. They're the ones who can tolerate the boredom of repetition and continuing to do it over and over again.

When the lights are off in the gym and everybody else has gone home for the day, they're still there. How does that, you know, when you look at leadership and the lights have been turned off and it's quiet and we want to go do something else, turn on there, you know, a YouTube show or scroll social media for that instant gratification, whatever it is. How do you break your mind away and think about, I need to be working on my growth instead of my gratification right now? Where do you develop that discipline from?

It's the last word you just said, discipline. It's literally practicing that and putting in place the things that you are practicing. The monotony of growth is just that, man. It's boring. It really is. But the gratification of that is overwhelming. The action is boring, but the gratification is overwhelming. You've just got to be disciplined.

I tell people, put it on your calendar, right? Like, like, get that notification of this is me time, this is growth time, because for me personally, Adam, I don't know about you, but if it's not on my calendar, it doesn't happen. I don't care how great I am. I am disciplined to, oh, I've got this time block to do something, then I'm going to do it. So for me, I literally, if you look at my calendar right now, every day, and I do this at night between nine and 10 to 1030, sometimes it's self growth time, because I know that's when my wife is going to go lay down. And so I've been present with her been present with my family. So nine to 10, 1030 is me time. And I use that time for,

for self growth every single day. It's on my calendar to do it. And then it becomes habit. I love that. This reminds me of that that Zig Ziegler quote, the the pain of discipline, weighs ounces, the pain of regret weighs tons. Yes. And we don't realize that regret pain until the discipline time is already passed. You can't get it back. Right. So it's't get it back. So it's fascinating when you take a look at life, when you take a look at how we lay out our days,

just reflecting back on the week. And we're recording this on a Thursday. And when you look back on just Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, what didn't you do? What did you miss? Did you miss your exercise? Did you miss your time with your family, your spirituality time, that leadership growth time?

Because you don't get that back. So we have to invest in that to begin with. I want to change a little bit of a channel here and talk about a concept that you have called because. And we all talk about our why. Simon Sinek is master dad. That's kind of his thing is start with why, know your why, all these other things.

But you talk about because, which you said is, I think, a layer deeper than that. Yeah. Explain that to us. What does because mean to you? If you're going to start with why, and I love Simon Sinek, and start with why is what got me to understand there is something deeper.

When you start with why, and I could probably guess everyone's why, right? Like I get to know Adam, his why is probably his spouse, his children, his family, right? That's probably your why. But the question is, but why? Right? Like what's that deeper purpose that you want to provide that legacy for your kids or that you want to be the best husband or spouse that you can be, right? To me, that's your because. And for me, my because, it started, and it should always evolve and change as you evolve and change, right? But going back to the 10-year-old me, my because was a promise, the promise that I made my mom. And then as I got older, that promise became the promise that I made my kids, the promise

that I made my sister, my brother. As a leader, it's the promise that I make to my company and the promise that I made to my employees. And so my because is always a promise that I'm willing to fulfill. And so when I talk to business leaders, and they work with me, whether it's consulting or they hire me on site or whatever, I always say the first thing we're going to do is get rid of your mission and vision statements. And here's why, Adam, your team can't recite them unless they're looking at them, right? Your company or your customers and your prospects have zero idea what your mission and vision

statements are, nor do they care. But if you have a because statement, we do what we do because everyone matters. We do what we do because we want to be the voice in our community. We do what we do because that's impactful. That's something that your team understands. That's something that your customers can understand.

But more importantly, it gives your company, it gives you as a leader, it gives you as an individual, that purpose and that accountability because, and then fill in the blank. You don't need a marketing agency to give you a mission and vision statement. Trust me, Adam and I have seen them all. They all sounded like we could probably guess what your mission and vision statements are right now. But your because is your because. And to me, that's the most powerful thing. Because if you stay rooted to that because, whatever it is, for me, it's always a promise. I'm going to fulfill the promises that I tell you, I'm going to keep the promises that I say. That is more powerful than anything. I love that. It's interesting with the mission and vision statements

because when somebody is angry at your company, what's the first thing they do? They go to your web page. They look for your mission and vision statement because they want to see if you violated it. Right. That's the first lever. You said you were going to do this,

and you completely did not. And ultimately, make it your because. Make it your promise and stick with it. Because you're right. When we make a promise, we make a social commitment to people. It's a social contract. Mission and vision statement, we really haven't made a social contract out of that. We've made just a statement on our website.

So I love what you're saying here. This is interesting. You mentioned the word accountability in leadership. That's a big word. And a lot of people word accountability in leadership. That's a big word. And a lot of people think accountability means judgment, but it's not when it comes to great leadership. What does accountability mean to you and how should we as leaders be looking at accountability in order to grow ourselves and grow our businesses? Yeah, for me, accountability is

simple. It's rooted in the word of I'm going to do what I said I set out to do. Right? Like it's as simple as that. And I need that mantra. I need that commitment for myself and from others. Right? And as leaders, I always flip it. I want my team to hold me accountable. And it's whatever I've asked of you, you need to hold me accountable for something that can make sure that I'm allowing you and giving you the space, the opportunity, and resources to do those things. And if I can't be held accountable,

then I'm living a lie, right? And so accountability, a lot of leaders get it wrong. You want to hold your teams accountable. No, it should be the other way around. They should be holding you accountable to do those things. So accountability for me, Adam, again, it goes back to I'm doing what I said I was going to do first and foremost. And then two, I'm allowing those that I lead the ability, the opportunity and the resources to do the things that they need to do for the betterment of the company. And that's accountability.

I love that. Mick, you've delivered a lot of positive growth aspects here. I want to kind of flip the script here, because I know you really kind of do a lot of flipping the script in your teachings, in your philosophies. Let's talk about bad leadership for a minute. People struggle with good leadership. In fact, we have a huge leadership gap going on

in society right now, because we've had more management good leadership. In fact, we have a huge leadership gap going on in society right now, because we've had more management than leadership. And we've also had generations skipped, because they have not been educated in leadership. There's been no really growth leadership going on within organizations. HR people, I hope you're listening to this, because training is not leadership development.

Training is checking the box. Leadership development is an all-the-time cultural aspect of your organization. So how do we take these people of today? Let's take Gen Z, for instance, or a lot of the younger millennials who say, I don't want to get into leadership because I have had nothing but bad leaders,

and I don't want to be part of that. What's a bad leader to you? And how can we help these people get past that? And first of all, work for a bad leader in order to succeed that bad leader into turning that into something positive. Ironically, Adam, that's a major part of the book that I'm writing right now. And it's, you know, part of it is how to be a good leader when you've never had one, right? When you've never seen one. And so here's what, here's what bad leaders do that they don't realize that they're doing. That's bad.

They, they disguise delegation as empowerment, right? Like I'm going to over delegate, but they call it empowerment, right? They, they disguise checklist is micromanagement, something you were just talking about. They disguise, oh, well, we've got this process, these procedures. What you're really doing is micromanagement. I think the biggest gap that most leaders have today is not taking the awareness into emotional intelligence. To me, the biggest gap that we have is emotional intelligence because let's just face it, generations have changed.

And I'm not saying that that's right, wrong, and different, but we buy differently now, right? We consume differently now. And so that means that we receive leadership differently as well, too. We communicate differently. And so for the leaders that are out there, you really have to have the emotional intelligence to connect with your team. as well, too. We communicate differently. And so for the leaders that are out there,

you really have to have the emotional intelligence to connect with your team. Because here's the thing, the millennials and Gen Z, it's not about the paycheck anymore. It's about the purpose, right? Because today you can work from home, you can be an entrepreneur on the side, a solopreneur on the side and get almost any amount of money that you want. Right? Like if you were to ask my kids what matters to them about employment, it's about the ability to have purpose and to be valued.

That's what they care about. And I think leadership of the past was, hey, I want Adam to come here. And because we offer amazing benefits and an amazing retirement package, Adam's going to stay here for 30 years. Right? Like that's what we grew up on Adam, right? Right. You go get a job and you stay there forever.

Yeah. Right. Well, now it's all about, you know, what social impact does this company have? You know, what, what purpose do we have? How are we engaged in the community? And that's what people care about. So from a leadership perspective, you've got to be aware of all of that. You've got to have the emotional intelligence to connect.

You've got to have the emotional intelligence to listen. And more importantly, to care. I always tell people cultures of four-letter word, care, C-A-R-E. And that's nothing that you can say is your actions. And that's how you become the leader today. You just have to care. Wow. A lot to unpack there.

And you are absolutely right. I read a statistic recently, and it was something like 61% of the younger generations. And I mean, the younger millennials and the Gen Z don't want a bigger paycheck. They want a better boss. And it's fascinating. When you hear them talk about it,

you say, what are you looking for? I'm looking for my dream job. And they're 23 to 25, looking for their dream job. First of all, they don't know what their dream job is. I think what they're truly looking for is their dream leader, somebody to follow into something that they can find a great deal of inspiration from. Agreed.

So it's really interesting. We have a lot of, gosh, to use the cliche words and things like that we hear coming out right now. You read them on Inc and Forbes and Fast Company, all these different magazines, like the upskilling of leadership. Yeah. How about let's just make some leaders, folks?

All day. Which it comes back to what Mick's talking about here, emotional intelligence. And Mick, just to what Mick's talking about here. Emotional intelligence. And Mick, just like you, I talk about emotional intelligence constantly, which I articulate to be awareness of self, awareness of others, and awareness of the business and how those tie together. So a lot of great information here, Mick.

I want to get into a little bit of legacy, because we don't just have a leadership gap. We have a succession gap. We have a legacy gap in businesses where we're seeing the older generation start to fall off. And I think truly over the next, I don't know, call it a couple, two, three years, we're going to see more of the older generations fall off

in business. Because I think they'll find good maturity in their investments and their 401Ks and things like that. Over the next few years, we're supposed to have a pretty decent run in the markets and with those investments for them. So guess what, folks?

There's opportunity here. In fact, 2025 and 2026 are supposed to be massive upgrade years in leadership. You're going to see a lot of CEOs and CFOs and other C-suite operatives replaced, which is going to create an upward vacuum in businesses. How should we look at the legacy in our business and in our leadership in order to create future leaders?

Yeah, I mean, to me, legacy is important. And I think there's four key components of the legacy that you're building, right? If you go back, the history of all good leaders, I don't care the industry, I don't care the genre, I don't care the time in history. All leaders did four things and they have these four things in common. The first one is they know more about their team than they know about themselves. So when you talk about legacy, it's your team that's going to be the legacy that you're building. So you need to know more about your team members. And that's where emotional intelligence comes into play. Then they know about themselves. If I know how Adam thinks, I can put Adam in the right situations to succeed. And that's a part of legacy, put the people that you're impacting in the right

place to win. Right? The second thing is always be present. Every great leader is present, right? They don't hide behind emails, they don't have the corner office and they sit there, they're present, right? They're felt all the time. And so when you talk about legacy, you can't have a legacy if people don't feel you, people don't understand you. If you're not seen, you can't leave a legacy.

The third thing, and this is important, is they speak less, but say more. Meaning make your words matter. Right? Adam, you remember the Gettysburg Address, right? Yep. That was only 272 words. Wow.

But they were the most impactful 272 words at the time. So think about the legacy of that address, right? And so as a leader, right, you need to speak less but say more because it's those words, it's those actions that are going to carry on in the future. And then the fourth thing that all good leaders do as it relates to legacy, and I'm going to give Angelo Dundee credit for this, Muhammad Ali's old trainer, they know when to move the stool. If you remember the rumble in the jungle, right? Yep. And Frazier was gas was tired. I'll done D made Ali stand up in the corner. He moved the stool. Don't sit down, right? Stand

tall. And as leaders, we have to make our team members or even if it's our children, stand tall, give them the courage when they're about to give up when they, when they're tired, they're winded, they don't see the way. Make them stand up and stand tall and see that because that's going to be the legacy, right? And so for Muhammad Ali, by standing tall, Joe Frazier was done. He didn't want to fight anymore because he was just as tired as Ali was. And when he saw Ali standing in the corner, not sitting down, he was already defeated.

And so that has to be, when we talk about legacy, the ability to do those four things truly impact the legacy that you're going to have. Amazing. Dropping some wisdom bombs there, Mick. That's awesome. Mick, if our audience wants to find out more about you, you've got a leading podcast that they should be listening to.

I know your website is mickunplugged.com. Your name is Mick Hunt. And I love the Mick Unplugged piece. That is really cool. I know you really dive deep into leadership on a daily basis. Where else can we find you online and what should we be looking for from you? Yeah, I would say definitely on social media, LinkedIn, Mick Hunt.

So first name, last name, Instagram. I do a lot of shorts and reels and some leadership stuff there. So I'm Mick unplugged on YouTube. We've got the modern leader, which is all my leadership stuff. And then Mick unplugged is separate for the podcast. So that's where I'm at, man. But really what I care most about is just impacting individuals. And these are things just like Adam does,

right? We give tips, tricks, wisdom, communities for free because we wanted... Our legacy is how we impact others. And so if there's anybody that needs me, reach out. I do communicate. I do engage. So it's not like you're just going to see this page. It is literally me that is responding to DMs and messages and all that. So if you have questions, Mick Hunt or Mick Unplugged. Awesome.

Everybody, I can't stress enough. Take action on these things that you've heard today from Mick. Make sure you check out Mick online at all of his channels and be watching for that book that he's writing right now. It's going to be packed with some great leadership wisdom. Mick, I have a question I ask all the amazing guests on the show. And I know you have an incredible answer yourself.

And that's, how do you start your day with a win? That's a great question, Adam. So I actually started the night before, the night before I write down, what are the three things that I want to accomplish tomorrow? Some big, some small, right? But what are the three things that I have to accomplish? And then when I start in the day, it's okay.

These are the three things, which one do I want to go get the first win on? And so for me, it's literally just writing them down and being so focused on getting that win. I'm against the big, hairy blank goals, right? The B-hacks. To have a winning mindset, the ING to be winning, you have to first win.

To be a winner, you have to win multiple times. So instead of having a big, hairy blank goal, just give me give me one thing that I can win because now I get in a winning mindset. So for me, it's what's that one thing and it could be be present with my wife today, right? Like show my wife, show her, not tell her, show her that I love her, right? Talk to and give advice to a person on my team that was struggling with something like to me, those are wins and I make sure that I love her, right? Talk to and give advice to a person on my team that was struggling with something.

To me, those are wins. And I make sure that I have three that I'm trying to get every day. I love that. And you're turning those micro wins into macro wins. That's how we win, folks. Absolutely. Mick Hunt, amazing leadership coach, author, podcaster,

and a great friend. Thank you so much for being on Start With a Win. And thanks for all that you do. It's great to see you today. Adam, thanks for having me brother.