Start With A Win - Quarantine Q&A with Adam

Starting point is 00:00:00 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 good day to you, win nation. It's Adam Canto, CEO here with Start With A Win. We are in our virtual studios once again because we're doing everything remotely. So I got in his virtual studio at Brand Viva Studios. We got producer Mark. How are you doing, buddy? I am doing so good. And we were just dropping some beats on the mixer board here. And Mark was putting some rhymes on top of those beats. It was kind of fun, wasn't it? Yeah. I love being creative. I love music, and it's just fun to play around with technology. You and I are big fans of the Rodecaster Pro, which is a podcasting recording studio platform.

Starting point is 00:01:01 If you're interested in podcasting, definitely check one of those out. They aren't cheap, but they are pretty affordable. I don't know if that makes sense. It's a great mixer board and it even has this fun little piece you can drop some of your sound effects in. We've got some fun ones like when I feel really good about myself or I want to feel You are awesome, Adam. You are awesome. Or if I really bomb something here on the program. Get the hook out. There we go. Hey, I'm here all day. If I'm ever running from the... Get to the chopper.

Starting point is 00:01:43 Get to the chopper. to the chopper okay enough of that you know we're here right now mark what is that the ocean of crickets our audience is gone yeah they're like what are you guys doing listen we have been in isolation for two weeks we're a little stir crazy well hey i'm excited yeah yeah you were gonna tell me you're excited about something. Yeah, I'm excited about today's episode because we've had some people call in and leave messages for us. People are calling that phone number you left out there? They're calling 888-581-4430. So if you haven't called that, call that number, leave Adam a voicemail, and then you'll potentially make it on the show

Starting point is 00:02:25 and get your question answered. But yeah, today we're just going to do an episode of answering a couple of people's questions and it should be a good time. All right. Well, why don't you ask the questions and then I'll start answering them. How's that? That sounds good. So here's our first voicemail. Hi, this is Ryan Andrews with Remax Horizon Realty in Douglas, Wyoming. I'm calling because I would like to know what top five books Adam would recommend us to read while we're all just hanging out at home. Thanks. Top five books. Oh yeah, we're going to do some reading. So Mark, you know I'm a big book guy. So, I gathered together five books that I have read. In fact, one of them I'm continuing to read right now. These are some good books, both for yourself as well as for your business. So, let's start with, of course, The Compound Effect by my friend Darren Hardy. I'll tell you what, this book is unbelievable. It really, it goes through

Starting point is 00:03:26 just basically how compounding interest works, but not just in money, but in your life. So all the little things that you do add up, it might be the number of calories that you increase or decrease through the day. It might be how you work on your relationships. It might be what you do in your business. Everything you do in your life compounds to either help you or to hurt you. It gives you a good example of how to, how to deal with those things. So, um, highly recommend if you haven't read the compound effect, this would be the first one I went and picked up. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:03:55 It's, and it's one of those concepts that's super simple. And when you think about it, you're like, oh yeah. Like if I work out every day for six days a week, I'll probably start to see some results in six weeks. Genius. Yeah. It's like simple, but so effective. Yeah. I've seen Darren speak to a few times on, you know, about the compound effect. And it is one of those things where it's like, wait a second, this is so simple, but it's like so true. Yeah. We've had Darren speak at several of our events, a great friend of ours. It's amazing.

Starting point is 00:04:23 The ideas he has, things he comes up with to manage business, especially during the COVID crisis we have going on. He's always looking at it, but ultimately it all boils down to what happens in the compound effect and how do you implement those things in your daily life. Yeah. All right. Book number two. Book number two.

Starting point is 00:04:42 This would be a book that we are actually reading right now at the Fort Contos Family Book Club. We do sit around the fire pit or when it's inappropriate weather here, we sit around the kitchen table and read and talk about Atomic Habits by James Clear. Amazing book. And basically this goes in and takes and refines some of the finer points of how habits work again, like the compound effect either for you or against you, and how you can establish habits, change habits, remove habits, things of that nature, good habits, bad habits. So amazing book. And you want to know the secret to this, Mark? What, Adam? This is one of those realization books that you can sit down and talk about with your kids this is really cool i have i have two college students and a high school senior and you can't tell them anything right you know they don't want to hear it from you you're the

Starting point is 00:05:38 parent dad doesn't know anything yeah go away dad but ultimately if you sit there and you actually talk about these different chapters and the beauty is the chapters are only like 15 pages each. So very, very short chapters. When you sit down and you talk about them with your, uh, with your kids or your family or whatever, they're like, Hey, this totally pertains to me. And you're like, hello, I've been saying this for years, but they have a lot of self-realization and the way that James Clear presents the different principles through stories and examples is just truly amazing. So I highly recommend after you read the compound effect, read atomic habits. All right. Book number three, book number three. All right. This one is called

Starting point is 00:06:21 influence the psychology of persuasion. So once again, parents, this is a great way to get into your children's heads and help them do the things that you want them to do. So this is six universal principles of influence and how to use them to become a skilled persuader. And just as importantly, how to defend yourself against dishonest influence attempts. So ultimately, this is a great book that talks about how and why people in society do what they do. For instance, when you get the check at a restaurant, when we're allowed to go sit in restaurants again, and they bring you the check and they bring candy or chocolate or something with it, that actually has been shown to increase the amount of money that you leave as a tip because it's a gift that they gave you. You're

Starting point is 00:07:10 going to return that particular item with a bigger gift in the form of the tip that you give them. So it has things like liking, you know, what are people like you doing? What are the people doing that you want to be like? Social influence. All sorts of different stuff like that. So great book. If you have anything to do with business, which we all do, or you might have kids, or you just want to learn why does the human brain work the same way or work the way that it is, Dr. Robert Cialdini, who's a professor at Arizona State University, wrote this.

Starting point is 00:07:43 Great guy. We've had him speak and it's a little bit academic at times, but I think you'll find it very entertaining and very insightful. Solid. All right. Book number four. Mark has broken out the roadcaster prowl. This is an oldie but a goodie. How to win friends and influence people. Classic Dale Carnegie. Yes. You can go after the job you want and get it. You can take the job you have and improve it. You can take any situation and make it work for you. These are time-tested pieces of advice that

Starting point is 00:08:16 Dale Carnegie has put together in a great book, carried countless people up the ladder of success in their business and personal lives. I mean, I can't say more about this. This is one that you just need to read. And then every now and then you pick it up and read it again. It talks about certain things. One of the key points that I really, really love, the two things you can't give yourself, okay? Appreciation and attention. Which we hear you say a lot. Exactly. Yeah. I do break that line out quite a bit. And you want to really help somebody,

Starting point is 00:08:49 go give them some attention and appreciation because they can't give those things to themselves. It just doesn't work as well as when you deliver it to them. So that's book number four. To round this all out, book number five. We don't have any sound for book number five. We don't have any sound for book number five. We don't have any sound for book number five. How about the chopper? Can you give me the chopper?

Starting point is 00:09:11 How about harps? And number five. All right. That sort of goes with it. It's called Extreme Ownership. How U.S. Navy SEALs lead and win. By Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. Play the harps.

Starting point is 00:09:29 Or we could do the chopper. There we go. That's more like it. That's right. Jocko, this summer, Jocko will lead you to win in extreme ownership. All right. So I love this book because I come from a military background and SWAT team background, things like that. And it really gets into the teamwork aspect of leadership. What happens on a really tight knit team? How do team leaders think? How do

Starting point is 00:10:00 the team members think? How do people own what's going on? And he has a line in this book that is discipline equals freedom. Discipline equals freedom. And I believe this so much. And if you go back to the first few books that I talked about, they're all about discipline and the freedom that that grants you. So these psychology principles of how we get better at business, better in our personal lives, better in our relationships, things like that, they all play together in these books collectively. And this is a great book. It talks a lot about Jocko's endeavors as a SEAL team commander in Iraq and Afghanistan and how all these principles play into life and death situations and how they handle those situations with deploying great leadership. So check that book out as well. It is a hard one to put down because it has so many really, really, really deep stories that just suck you in until you hear the conclusion of that story, how the team came out of the mission, things like that. So great book. Good book. Okay. Let's move on to our next call. And we have

Starting point is 00:11:07 Gary Kelly from Remax Executive Realty in Massachusetts. I would really like to have your thoughts and vision around the people that are still out working, face masks, sanitizing, et cetera. And the people that are saying you shouldn't do that and stay at home. There's a tension there that is developing, and it's not necessarily a good tension. Both sides have passion, and that's a good thing. But I'd be interested in how you reconcile that. Thank you. Bye. That's a great question, Gary. And thank you so much for asking. And thank you for caring. That's huge. During the COVID crisis, what we have going on right now, we do have a lot of people with a binary thought out there. Some say, we're essential. We should

Starting point is 00:11:57 be able to go out and do things. And others say, you're not essential. Don't go do things. It's not that easy. And I think we need to understand and respect each other's feelings kindly. I think we need to have gratitude and caring for each other and understand that your feelings might not be the same as someone else's feelings. So ultimately, what should we look at? First of all, safety first. Okay. Don't do anything that's going to risk anybody in any safety. Don't go do anything that you might go, oh, well, I don't have it. Well, you don't know that. You don't know that you don't have it. You don't know that it's not where you're going and you don't know the person you're talking to doesn't have it. And ultimately, you don't know that you're going to be asymptomatic or not. You're not going to carry any symptoms, but you

Starting point is 00:12:38 might go deliver it to somebody else. This is the gift that keeps on giving in a bad way. So we have to be very careful. Yes, there are things that need to be done out there in society. And there are certain aspects of a real estate transaction that do require in person, you know, your, your presence. But ultimately, if there is any chance that you're going to give the COVID-19 to somebody or receive it from somebody, I would think twice about how you're doing stuff. But at the same time, if you have to go do something, you're going to make judgment calls here. You're adults, but you got to do it caring and without getting upset. And if somebody says, no, we shouldn't do this, respect that. Don't push somebody. This isn't like you're

Starting point is 00:13:20 handing a drink to your friend who doesn't normally drink. This is you're potentially giving a life-threatening illness to somebody who shouldn't be receiving it. We have to think our way through this. There's no right answer. The right answer is safety, what works best, and have some caring in the process. So thank you so much, Gary, for sharing that. All right, let's move on to our last question. Good morning, Adam and Mark. I have a question for you, Adam, please. Who are your mentors that have shaped your positive personal and professional growth? Thank you so much. I hope you answer that question.

Starting point is 00:13:56 This is Sue calling from Canada, and I am a realtor with Remax Performance in Winnipeg. I hope you guys have an amazing day and take care. Bye-bye. I love this one. Thank you, Sue from Canada, from Winnipeg. I love my Canadian friends. They're just, they're such wonderful people. Eh?

Starting point is 00:14:15 Yeah, yeah. I'll tell you what, Canada is one of the most beautiful places on the planet. Yes, it is. I haven't even explored it all, but I've been to a few places, Vancouver being one, and I was blown away. Ah, it's unbelievable. So anyhow, okay, so let's hop into this one. So who are my mentors? And I'm going to kind of throw a little bit of spin on this and break it apart a little more than just a mentor question. You have three different places, actually four, that you can be gaining knowledge,

Starting point is 00:14:46 shaping your life, your success, your opportunities from. One of which obviously is a mentor, like what Sue mentioned. Then you also have coaches and then you have masterminds. So you've got those three external components of how you learn. It's like an onion. Exactly. Yeah. And then there's a fourth one. The fourth layer. The fourth layer. It's the fourth layer. And this one is actually the hardest one because it's self-growth, self-education, self-coaching, self-mentoring. It's more than just being part of a mastermind, having a mentor and having a coach. And to go back to Sue's question, who are the mentors that have really shaped my life? Well,

Starting point is 00:15:30 I'm going to give you one name that you all know, and that's Dave Linegar. He's been a mentor of mine for decades. Somebody who's been just unbelievably instrumental. And here's the thing about mentors. You can't show up to a mentor and sit there and go teach me. You have to show up to a mentor and ask questions. You have to ask really good questions of a mentor and be willing to hear things that you don't necessarily want to hear. Be willing to hear things that you didn't know you were going to hear. And also a lot of times, you know, we ask questions simply because we're seeking validation of what we think is the correct answer. So you kind of shape your questions a certain way. Don't do that with a mentor, because I got to tell you, mentors are really smart and they can

Starting point is 00:16:13 see right through that. They just look at you. And I've asked Dave a couple of questions like this. I've asked him a particular question. He goes, you just want me to validate your feelings on this, don't you? And you go, oh yeah. Okay. He goes, then why don't you ask me a question that I can give you advice on? Very, very deep response. Dave is just an incredible mentor. I've got some other mentors that I'm not going to name. I've had mentors in SWAT, in the military, people who have given me some unbelievable life advice. You always kind of look for also the mother and father figures in your life. They give good mentorship. You need to be willing to listen to it though. Can't ask a mentor a question and not be willing to listen

Starting point is 00:16:58 and really take heed to what they say because you might not like the answer, but it means something. So let's talk about the other two parts then. Coaches. I believe everybody needs to have a coach. You need to have a coach that can both be your life coach, maybe your fitness coach, maybe your business coach, but you got to have coaches in different aspects of your life. And it's probably not the same person that does all three because those are all very, very specific specialties. I do have coaches. I've had at any given time, two business coaches, a life coach, and also fitness coaching. So here's the reality behind that. The question you have to ask yourself is, are you coachable? Are you coachable? Are you willing to do the

Starting point is 00:17:41 things, be vulnerable, be transparent, be accountable to the things that your coaches tell you? Because if you're not, then don't pay for the coach. And coaching shouldn't be free, by the way. Mentorship typically is free, but coaching is not free. Because if you pay, you pay attention. Okay? Think about that. If you pay, you pay attention. That's really important. And typically, the higher dollar coaches, the. If you pay, you pay attention. That's really important. And typically the higher dollar coaches, the more attention you pay, you got it. Anyhow, think about that. But there's a book actually called the trillion dollar coach that I recommend people read. It has to do with coaching, has to do with basically one of Silicon Valley's greatest coaches ever.

Starting point is 00:18:24 So check that out. I also mentioned masterminds. What's a mastermind? A mastermind is a room of vulnerability. So it's where you might sit in a room with other people who maybe on roughly the same level as you, maybe above you and where you're trying to level up to. It doesn't matter what it is. It could be anything from financial to business to health to who knows, maybe you're a sculptor and you want to learn different new ways of sculpting and you sit in a room with other really, really good sculptors or art aficionados who are into sculpture. So it depends on what you're looking for out of that mastermind. But here's the thing

Starting point is 00:19:07 about a mastermind. There's something called a hot seat. And that's where you sit in the middle of the room and they ask you questions. And you better be willing and ready to hear whatever comes your way. There's no thin skin allowed. You got to take what they say and say thank you and do something with it. Because again, like mentors and coaches, if you're not willing to do something with that, don't waste those other people's time. So that was mentors, coaches, and masterminds. I mentioned the fourth, which is self-education. This is really one of the most interesting parts because so many people learn, but they don't do. They go out and they'll consume, but they don't create. That's my question to everybody out there. And Sue, that was way more of an answer than you

Starting point is 00:19:49 probably were looking for. But the reality is take a look at all those different things and not just what will you consume, but what will you create to help other people? So that's what I got, Mark. Awesome. Well, this was a fun episode. Also educational, which is two things that I love having during quarantine. Fun and education. That's a really good point is when we're all done with this, and I don't know how long this is going to go, but when people walk out the door, what are they going to say? I wish I had, or I'm glad I did. What did they learn?

Starting point is 00:20:26 What did they do? What did they change? What did they create? Or did they just like create calories and pounds and, you know, really make sure that they checked off watching every single episode on, you know, their favorite streaming television program channel, whatever it might be. So, I mean, that's a good question, right? What are you going to do with yourself to make the most of this? Yeah. Awesome. Thank you so much, Adam. And thank you

Starting point is 00:20:49 for listening to Start With A Win. And if you'd like to be on an episode, like you heard our friends call in and leave a message, give us a call at 888-581-. Uh, you can ask anything and, you may make the show and Adam will answer your question on the podcast. Uh, don't forget to go on to iTunes and subscribe, write a review and rate the show helps us get the word out and reach more people. And also for more great content,

Starting point is 00:21:18 head over to start with a win.com follow Adam on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. And remember start with a win.

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Start With A Win - Quarantine Q&A with Adam

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