Start With A Win - Low Tech. Low Touch and Inaccessible.

Episode Date: September 3, 2018

Our topic on this episode of the Start with a Win podcast is the importance of staying current, relevant, valuable, and present with your customers. It would be easy to get comfortable with the systems and processes that you have in place right now and fall behind as new technology emerges, but this makes you irrelevant and pushes you farther away from your prospects and clients. Every time you let a technological advance pass you by, you lose value and become less accessible. Adam’s 3 key ways to stay current, relevant, valuable and present are:Find and deliver value daily – Recognize that every day is a gift and you are never beyond learning something new. Take advantage of the vast resources out there for your enrichment: books, audiobooks, podcasts, and simple discussions about new topics with friends. Having something valuable and constructive to say in a conversation makes you more able to connect to those around you.Contribute – Ask questions of those around you, always trying to glean all of the information you can from the conversation and maintain your curiosity in life.Reach out – Communicate and network with others by developing fun and deep relationships that are mutually beneficial and edifying.Connect with Adam:https://www.startwithawin.com/https://www.facebook.com/adamcontosREMAXCEO/https://twitter.com/REMAXAdamContoshttps://www.instagram.com/REMAXadamcontos/

Atop of the 12th floor of the RE-MAX World Headquarters, you're listening to Start With A Win with CEO Adam Kantos. Hey everybody, Adam Kantos here at RE-MAX Worldwide Headquarters in Denver, Colorado. Up on the 12th floor with Start With A Win. Sitting here with me, producer Mark. What's up, Mark? Hey, Adam. How you doing? I'm great.

How are you? So good. Awesome. Awesome. You can't see through the podcast here, but Mark's sitting here. He's got his awesome white glasses on, white frame glasses. It's my MO now. I'm the guy with the white glasses. Totally. Yeah. i'm the guy with the white glasses totally yeah it's dude with the white glasses what's up you know you

don't ever want to be in like in a police lineup because yeah i'd get spotted out in two seconds pick you out a heartbeat man so hey mark uh today yeah what do we got going on what are we talking about today you know so many people seem to to be getting to be they're falling behind in life and and i'm not saying you got to be like mr cutting edge or something like that but you know so many people become low tech low touch and inaccessible and they start kind of kind of regressing and then at some point like six months passes and they go oh gosh, I haven't gotten any better. And I think that's what today should be about, is how not to fall in that rut of not progressing in your relationships, in your business, things like that.

And ultimately, that's what it boils down to, is at some point, a business wakes up, a person wakes up in business, and they go, I fell behind. And that's what this is about, is not becoming irrelevant more than anything right well i i think uh yeah i shared that that that youtube video with you about under armor yeah and how they kind of came you know became irrelevant they got kind of stuck in there oh yeah we're doing awesome and and then they never progressed. They never innovated. And you start losing value. I mean, it's, and it's not like you're, it's kind of weird because

you don't want to, you don't want to say that person's not valuable, but at the same time, we all start to, to know people like that in life and in business where you go, okay, if I need somebody to contribute to something, I'm not going to them, right? Right, yeah. And it happens that way not just in business relationships, but in interpersonal relationships. You look at your relationship with your wife, and if you're not trying to provide value in that relationship,

then it's starting to deteriorate. So we're going to talk about a few things to keep people on top of their game. And really, just a few tips that I have and a few resources to be better every day and to really look at it from a self-improvement aspect. Nice. Awesome. I'm excited. Let's do this. All right. So really what we're trying to do is we're trying to be really four things,

current, relevant, valuable, and present. Because if you're current, relevant, and valuable, being present, that's fun. That's delivery, man. So that's showing up. That's going to the party and going, hey, I got something for everybody. It's, hey, can you guys come over? I got a fire pit to sit around and smoke a pipe or cigar or something like that, have a cocktail, whatever it is. But it's current, relevant, valuable, and present in life. And if you can accomplish those things in relationships and in

business, then life flourishes. It continues to build upon itself. So the first thing to think about is how do you find and deliver value daily? That's I mean, it is, that's important. So many people go through life. They go through this doldrum of life and they get up the next day and they're like, all right, go to work. Or, all right, go do my sales job. Whatever it is. And they don't get better. They don't gain anything, you know, before they go into life.

Right. So you're not delivering value on a daily basis. So how do you do that? You continue to learn, right? How do you continue to learn? I'm glad you asked. I'm glad you asked. On that, what you were just talking about, though, I thought was interesting because

I feel like so many people just live for the weekend, right? You always hear like, oh, I can't wait till friday and it's like well it's monday right you're just gonna like below this whole week just so you can get to your friday and then sleep in on saturday and you know five days of misery yeah fall out of my one is not so bad because the next day is good yeah i mean really you think about it and you go what a miserable existence right yeah you get up and you go, what a miserable existence, right? Yeah. You get up, and you go, ugh, Monday.

You know, people even write songs about Monday or write songs about Friday. But in all reality, if you're doing the things to win every day, the things to start with a win, name of our podcast, hello, boom. So it's kind of fun, because every day is a gift. Yeah. It's a gift. You have an opportunity to get something, and you have an opportunity to give something.

So you've got to learn every day. So when you look at my daily schedule, I listen to podcasts. I listen to audiobooks. I read books. So it's interesting. You and I were talking before the podcast. How many people, when you look at the statistics, it's some ridiculous number.

I don't remember what it is, but it's, you know, probably at least like 50% or something. People don't read a book ever for the rest of their life after college. It's crazy. Isn't that the dumbest thing you've ever heard? Yes, that is very dumb. For you've ever heard yes that is very yeah for crying out loud read a book people it doesn't have to be you know a science book or yeah you know psychology book or whatever granted that's cool if that's your thing go for it it can be an audiobook oh yeah i love audiobooks i listen to a lot of audiobooks. What do you, okay, so tip for the podcast. What do you listen to them on?

Well, right now I'm listening to The E-Myth. Oh, yeah. Which is a great book about systemizing your business and entrepreneurial endeavors. So I really like that. Listen to that in audible format, audiobook. I travel a lot and I'm constantly going from place to place. And so it's nice to have something in my car. I can read a book, not fall asleep and, you know, be productive.

And then I listen to a ton of podcasts too. So I listen to Business Wars is a really entertaining one. Very educational. Love that podcast. And then I listen to Start With A Win. It's a great podcast. I know this guy who does that. I know a guy. If they're listening to this, they figured out the podcast piece, right? Let's hope so. That's right. Thank you, Steve Jobs, for putting podcasts on our iPhones. And a lot of people, strangely enough, a lot of people don't listen to audiobooks.

And they don't understand the value of that because you can crank through a book so quickly on Audible. Yeah. And if you go to, Audible's owned by Amazon. Surprise, surprise. Yeah. Well done, Bezos. So it's funny, but you go on Amazon,

or you go to audible.com, you log in with your Amazon account. They're not a sponsor, by the way, but we're open. That's right. We're open to sponsorships. Jeff, right here at Remix headquarters. But yeah, it's log into audible.com

with your Amazon account, and you can buy the audio version of these books. And you can see whether or not they're offered in audio version or audible when you go on amazon.com and look up the book that you want to read. And there's some free ones as well. So it's free, people. Go start. Get one going. But I've been through some amazing books.

I've been through The E-Myth also on audible. Great book. Right now, I am listening to the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Oh, interesting. It's a weird one. So a guy named Klaus Schwab, who's the chairman of the World Economic Forum, wrote this book. And there's an audio version of it. But it talks about the fourth industrial revolution. It's like the merging of humans and technology.

Ah, the singularity. Yeah. So it comes down to genetic changes as a result of technology, that app world that we live in, how you augment what you're doing, how you're doing it, things like that, through the emerging technology. Because the third industrial revolution was like the mainframe computer.

This one is, you got a mainframe computer. You have like an entire computer warehouse in your pocket. Yeah. And how does that change your life? From Google Glass to other wearables to you got drones. You can drone yourself walking your dog and have video of it, whatever it is.

But all the stuff that technology is enabling right now is just unbelievable. So that's what they talk about. That's interesting. I'll have to check that out. I like that. Pretty cool book. So that's one way of learning.

You got the podcast. You got the audio books. Another thing, you know, all of our electronic devices come with so many opportunities to gather information. So you've got Flipboard and Feedly and things like that. Big fan of Feedly. Love it. Yeah, you go in and you just punch in a word that you're interested in, and it gives you all these offerings. Yeah, and you can create.

What I love about Feedly is I create a bunch of folders on different industries and then have all my Forbes and Insider, all those things into each folder. And then I can get through them all. Cause I also like food and I like, you know, music and a bunch of other things. So I like food too, Mark. Right. Who doesn't? I'm proud of you. Thank you. You know, some people just see food as fuel. So That's one of my favorite hobbies. Eating? Eating, yeah. So why not, right? Right.

It gives you the energy, the brain power. Eat the right food, I guess. That's true. I had a little lemon cake yesterday. It was kind of good. Really? Yeah. You seem like such a fit, healthy person that you had lemon cake.

I'm surprised that you don't just eat broccoli and lean protein. It's like a bank account. You know, if calories, you put some in, you take some out. Yeah, it's good to hear you're human. I am human. Yeah. I got up at 4.30, went to the gym, and I had some lemon cake. So why not, right?

Yeah, living life right there. Yeah, it's great. So anyhow, you know, that's the first piece to being current, relevant, valuable, and present is you've got to learn. You've got to expand your brain and be able to walk up to somebody and talk about something. We could sit around the fire pit and have a cocktail and talk about the fourth industrial revolution. You go, that's interesting. So if you don't have something valuable to say, people are to go oh here we go again right and you know what the cool part is when you're doing that is you're not talking about yourself right you're you're you're asking

questions going hey have you heard of this i've i've kind of gotten into it lately it's really interesting yeah you're connecting with with someone yeah well and the other thing i find is the uh inspiration right like i feel like when I'm educating myself and learning, that it inspires me and motivates me to do something, right? To go out there, to continue to grow, to push myself. And so I think that if I wasn't constantly feeding my brain and educating and learning, then I'd start to feel, I'd sort of become complacent, I feel like.

Exactly. And you know what, that's a good point, because that leads me to the second thing, you know, about, you know, really, how do you contribute? And contributing a lot of times isn't talking, it's asking questions. It's being curious, right? So, you know, you're out with, you're talking to somebody, whatever, and might have something um you want to talk about first of all don't talk about yourself and nobody likes the person who walks up and goes hey i went and did this today then i went and did that and i have this and you know oh boy it's like i gotta go to the cheese tray yeah exactly i'll be over there. But yeah, you got to ask questions. Be curious. Draw information out from people.

And it's funny because you look at the best leaders, the best relationship masters, if you will, they ask the best questions. So open-ended questions, curiosity questions, interested questions about different people. So that opens the door for you to be present, be current, be relevant to people because you find out what their challenges are. You find out what their likes and dislikes are, things like that. You know what not to say as well. But it's a good conversation. A good conversationalist asks way more questions than anything else. And it's true. So fascinating. So third thing, okay? Yep. Reach out, communicate. You can have all the greatest information in the world. And unless you go out and you get uncomfortable and talk to people,

you never get a share. You never get to ask those questions. You never get to have those conversations where you're going, wow, whenever I talk to this person, this is really fascinating. And it's funny because I love just getting together with friends because I know I'm really into this learning piece. I'm a lifelong learner, super hungry for information. And I love to go sit down with people because they reach out, I reach out, we get together, we chat.

And you come up with the strangest conversations, but they're fun. They're deep. It's like this podcast, right? Yeah, seriously. But really what it boils down to is people are afraid to reach out and have conversations. There are a few people that are not introverts by life, but for the most part, people are.

A lot of people, they'd rather kind of you know go sit by themselves or do you know be in a movie or have a beer and watch tv or whatever it is but have intelligent conversation or reach out and and discuss things yeah ask questions so in it in business in building a business that's the only way to grow your business is by reaching out and getting into that discomfort area of talking to different people, asking questions. Turn around, next time you're in a line at Starbucks and

look at the person behind you and ask them about their shoes or something like that. They're not going to go, I'm not talking to you. But it's because you got your white walls on today, right know I try to represent right on you know they're

pretty stylish man stylish profile you ever have somebody turn around and go sweet glasses oh yeah grandmas in the store

always are like oh I like your glasses thanks ma'am yeah I like yours too ma'am yeah exactly but I mean seriously it's

that is that's the best way to start the conversation. Just break the ice. Got to do that. Yeah. Yeah. Being interested in other people, I think, is one of the most important things when starting a conversation. And for me, I always just like, where did you grow up? You know, are you from here? And I think that always kickstarts a good conversation. That's a great one. It's as fun as riding the elevator.

I talk about that every now and then because, you know, you always hear the term elevator pitch, whatever. Yeah. But you never get to talk to people in the elevator until you start talking. Yeah, that's true. Everyone faces forward awkwardly and, you know, gung, gung, gung, gung. Yeah, exactly. It's like, okay, where is my floor? It's uncomfortable right now.

Yeah. But, I mean, somebody's got to say something. That's right. Might as well be you. That's right, Mark. I love getting in the elevator and people are going, don't look at each other, don't say anything.

Have you ever gotten in and faced the wrong. Don't say anything. And have you, have you ever gotten in and faced the wrong way? Oh yeah. Well, what I love actually, I love when the elevators pack and I have to face in, you know, I'm like looking at everybody. Hello everybody. I'm Mark. Welcome to my elevator. Exactly. I thrive on that, uh, that moment. It's so much fun. And I, you know, and, and and and being able to uh to regurgitate some really interesting information yeah exactly like the average person uh the chance of a failure of elevator is seven to one yeah as the elevator starts shattering yeah that's that's always you know that that is a really good icebreaker is what you think about that i mean it's a horrible

thought right yeah but when like chaos is about to happen that's like the opportunity to start You know, that is a really good icebreaker. Think about that. I mean, it's a horrible thought, right? Yeah. But when chaos is about to happen, that's like the opportunity to start talking. Totally. Yeah, the elevator doesn't... What we need to do is we need to come up with or find some really scary elevator statistics so the next time it's just quiet and you can just blurt out, Oh, I heard there's 10 deaths occur in an elevator every hour in America.

Uh-oh. The top of the hour is almost out, right? Oh, my gosh. Uh-oh. I hope we make it. That's when you get in the elevator with somebody who's like a complete, you know, I don't know what the word is. Elevator phobe.

Elevator phobe. That's it. They're afraid of it. So it's funny. And this is like the most simple stuff. Learn something every day. Get out there and ask questions. And then reach out and communicate. It's simple.

And it keeps you from becoming, you know, irrelevant or inaccessible. And if you're trying to learn, you know, hopefully you're not learning about like the covered wagon or something like that all the time. You know, learn about some technology,

learn about stuff that people have questions about that are interested. So you can help people. How many people walk up to you? I know you used to like always help me with my iPhone or technology or whatever. You're like, hey, try this. Try this. I swear it'll work. Tips and tricks.

Yeah, totally. Yeah. It's fun. And you learn something. You go, hey, guess what I figured out today? It's like I figured out how to turn on my lights in my house with Alexa. Ah, awesome. Something like that.

Yeah, that's awesome. That's the coolest thing. Speaking of, we've done a few Bezos shout-outs today here. alexa oh awesome something like that yeah that's awesome that's the coolest thing i got speaking of you know we've done a few bezos shout outs today here i'm sure he cares yeah but probably not no but i i got one of these new um so i have a ring doorbell okay first of all nice and then i got an alexa the alexa show or something like that which has like this little display i don't they had them on sale on amazon the other day i'm like that's cool because it gives you like a little landscape picture with the temperature and stuff like that on it and you can go hey alexa show me the front

door and it turns on the ring doorbell that's awesome that's so cool that's really cool see hey i stay relevant buddy i'm staying relevant you know, the other thing I like about that, too, is that it doesn't matter what age you are, right? Yeah. Like a lot of people think, oh, well, just young people are relevant. But I think to your point, if you're continuing to educate yourself, if you're continuing to build conversations, if you're continuing to put yourself out there, you're always staying relevant no matter how old you are. You know, I know in the real estate industry, right, the average age of an agent is like 55 years old, right? Right. And so I think that a lot of times people think, oh, well, they're irrelevant or they're

afraid of technology or something like that. But really, it's just some simple things that you can do to continue to stay relevant. It's not that difficult to read, to get knowledge. Totally. All you've got to do is go on the flipbook or the feedly and type in apple if you want to know what's going on with it. Or you can look at produce, too. If you're into produce. Hey, why not?

The produce aisle, apple. How do you like them apples? There you go. Cool. Cool. Well, and a lot of these things lead me to our next podcast episode nice it's uh it's kind of interesting when you look at um what do leaders do to to be better leaders and there are there are three leadership lessons that i've noticed when it noticed when talking to different leaders

and studying the leadership manuals. So I want to get into those on our next episode. That sounds good. So real quick, just recap what today's episode was for us. Recap the things that we need to do to stay in the know. You got it. Find and deliver value daily. Lifelong education, my friend.

Yeah. Learn something every day. And you know what? You learned something by listening to this podcast today. You sure do. And be present. Ask questions. Be present and ask questions.

So you're talking to people. You're asking questions, whatever. You're building the opportunity to deliver that value. And then go out and communicate with as many people as you can. Become uncomfortable. Turn around in a line at Starbucks and tell somebody you like their white wall shoes. Talk to somebody in the elevator, whatever it is.

But those three things will really work together to keep you from just kind of crawling in a hole and becoming irrelevant in life. Awesome. I love it. Thank you so much for joining us today. Make sure to head over to StartWithAWin.com to get more great content. Please subscribe and rate the show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow Adam on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. And remember, start with a win.