Start With A Win - The Journey Behind Writing the Start With A Win Book

Episode Date: August 18, 2021

In this episode of Start With A Win, Adam, and SWAW producer Mark, discuss Adam's first authored book, Start With A Win. Adam shares his inspiration and process for creating the book, referring to the project as a compilation of the SWAW podcast and a reflection of his “why” in business and leadership. Adam emphasizes the impact of having a firm grasp on understanding yourself, as it determines the effectiveness of your pursuits in business, leadership, and life. He explains how he views life as a series of missions. Everything we do in life is a mission—working towards goals and executing them. Adam describes how he reflects on every experience to measure and make an intentional effort to make improvements. Consider these questions in your experiences—how is your attitude? What challenges have you overcome? What actions did you take to overcome obstacles? Attitude plays a significant variant in defining the outcomes in all life and business endeavors. It is a matter of choosing between a positive or negative mindset. Adam reveals the book is divided into two parts, with the first section focused on the reader and the second part delivers tools to succeed. He outlines the topics per chapter:Chapter 1: Attitude Chapter 2: Our Mission Sets the PlaybookChapter 3: Party with the BeastChapter 4: Be a spongeChapter 5: Leadership LearningsChapter 6: From Chaos to CalmChapter 7: Presence and PassionChapter 8: Lose the EgoChapter 9: Coach, Mentor, & MastermindChapter 10: Celebrate the WinsThe book is available to pre-order, with the official release date set for October 19. Links:https://www.amazon.com/Start-Win-Lessons-Personal-Business/dp/1119807077https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/start-with-a-win-adam-contos/1138838681https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/start-with-a-win-tools-and-lessons-to-create-personal-and-business-success_adam-contos/28078881/#edition=58850831&idiq=46017298Connect with Adam:https://www.startwithawin.com/https://www.facebook.com/REMAXAdamContoshttps://twitter.com/REMAXAdamContoshttps://www.instagram.com/REMAXadamcontos/ Leave us a voicemail:888-581-4430

Hey, Mark. Adam. Have you ever thought about writing a book? You know, I have thought about writing a book, but I just have never got around to doing it. What about you? I just finished one. You want to talk about that today?

Yeah. All right. 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. Coming to you from Denver, Colorado, Adam Canto, CEO of Remax with Start With A Win. Producer Mark, how you doing, buddy?

So good. Yeah. Hey, I heard you wrote a book recently. Yeah. It's not like some of you sit down and do overnight, but yeah. You know what? This is super exciting, everybody, because Start With A Win, the book is going to be coming out soon. That's right. And if you're

watching this on YouTube, and if you're not, you can head over to YouTube and watch this. You can see the cover right there over Adam's shoulder. Look if you're watching this on YouTube, and if you're not, you can head over to YouTube and watch this. You can see the cover right there over Adam's shoulder. Look at that. Right there. Like, it makes it legit, you know? So let me read this to you. Start with a win.

Tools and lessons to create personal and business success from our great friends at Wiley Publishing. Oh, that's awesome. You know, so we started this podcast, uh, geez, almost three years ago now, which is crazy. Do you ever be friends that long? You're like, Oh my God, how do I get rid of this guy? Well, you know, we were friends before that. That's true. Yeah. For like a decade before that. Yeah, exactly. So, um, yeah, I remember coming into your office and just hanging out and like talking about like Mac stuff, you know, like I was like one of the only guys at

the office that was using a Mac. So yeah. Yeah. We'd be like, Hey, did you know this was like a shortcut? Yeah. Did you watch the keynote? Steve jobs did. Yeah. Good times. But okay, so this book, it's coming out sometime this fall. When is it coming out? October 19th is the current date. Obviously, that could change. Yeah, I mean, anything can change. You never know. I mean, Wiley's publishing group could get hit by a hurricane.

I don't know. Or maybe we just do better than we thought. But October 19th is the date. That's the target date we're going for and super exciting. It's an actual book with an actual publisher. I'm not a self publishing, which I know that's a lot of hard work and a lot of people do that. But, um, I'm going through a publisher who does a lot of great work in education and personal development and things like that. In fact, they have all the Dummies books also. Oh, yeah.

Great series. I love those books. Yeah. They asked me that. They're like, so when you're done with this, do you want to write a book for Dummies? I'm like, I don't know. Do I? You're like, I don't know any Dummies, so.

You know, how to live a Dummies life. I don't know. But it's super exciting. A lot of work went into this, and I know you want to talk about that. This is my chance to kind of put all of those hundreds of podcasts that we put together and the thoughts behind all that, the why behind all that, on paper so that you can go, oh, okay, that's why he's thinking this, and that's what it means in order to run my business, my life, my relationships, things like that. Yeah. So when you first thought about having a book or writing a book, something

that's been on your mind throughout your life, is it something that you've thought about doing before this podcast? Yeah. I've always wanted to write a book. For as long as I can remember, I'm like, wow, I would think it would be so awesome to put my ideas on paper. And I, you know me, I sit down and I write every day. I, I come up with little ideas. We talk about them on the podcast. Uh, but my, like on my Mac, the notes program is like thousands of pages long because I just sit there in the morning and I, I learn and, you know, leadership is about having this insatiable, insatiable desire to learn. I mean, that's, that's what you want to do is you, you are hungry for learning, you know, stay hungry, stay humble. It's right here behind me.

And, um, but you want to give back. So leadership is not taking and keeping, it's taking and giving after you process things to help people. So that's what I do all the time. But, and I got a call from the publisher one day and they're like, Hey, we've, we listened to the podcast and we love what you're doing. We watch all your social media, so on and so forth. Have you thought about writing a book? I'm like, as a matter of fact, yes. And they go, well, can we help you with that? So, um, and that's, that's a weird phone call to get because you typically I'd be calling a publisher going, I wrote a manuscript. Hey, do you want to pick this up? And for them to call me and go, what do you think? I'm like, let me consider it. Send me what you want to talk about. So, you know, of course we started discussing the particulars of having that type of business relationship and what that, what my obligations are, what obviously this day and age people can self-publish and whatnot.

But there's something about having a partner in that that has been through the process that can guide you and help you kind of execute and maybe help you see things from a different angle just because they're in the industry. But it just goes to show that, you know, it's important to start building your audience, whether you're online via social media or something like a podcast or all of those things, a YouTube channel, whatever that is. Because again, it gives you that platform then to be noticed by somebody like a publisher or whatnot to say, Hey, like you have a good audience. Like you should write a book. Oh, totally. And it's, it's interesting. Cause I, I have a friend named David. He, uh, David Averin, he's been on the podcast. Um, I see him at the gym every day. He's a five-time author, public speaker, but I was talking to him about it.

Cause as soon as they called me, I called him and I said, what do you think? I know. Cause I just wrote one of the, um, acknowledgements in his book or one of the testimonials in his book, uh, that he just put out. And I, I was, I was like, what do you think? Should I do this? He goes, this is an opportunity for you to share your thoughts in, uh, in perpetuity to be your legacy to your kids, grandkids, things like that, so that they can, at some point when you're gone, your kids can pull out your book and go, here's how dad thought. Here's how we were raised, our principles, our guiding light, things like that. And I thought, that's really cool to memorialize your legacy. So it was fascinating.

So there's more down deep in this than there is just going, I want to build something to sell. Because, I mean, nobody gets rich selling a book. You don't make money writing a book. Just so everybody's clear on the podcast, don't write a book thinking you're going to make money on it. It's going to cost you money. But you never know. You could be that diamond in the rough, like Bob Goff, who we had on recently and he's a New York times bestseller, but that's not common.

Right. Oh yeah. I mean, there's like 10 people out there on the planet that do that. And I mean, it's chances of me getting on Oprah's favorite things or whatever the heck it is, is probably pretty low. Although Oprah, I'd love it for you to read my book. If you're listening to this, make sure you give us a review and rating as well, please. That's right. The reality is you're, I don't want to say it's self-serving, but you're doing it to give, but it's also something you can look at and point to and go, Hey, go check this out. It kind of unpacks what you're talking about. People are like, okay. Yeah. And like you said, it's like one of those things where it's kind of gathering all your thoughts that you've had throughout the years and putting them down and then having that as like a tangible thing that your grandkids and like you said, like your legacy is out there. You know,

my dad wrote a children's book and it got published and, you know, it never made any anywhere and, you know, he's not selling millions of copies of it, but it is so cool to see, you know, his little illustrated child's book, like on our counter and the kids see it and like, oh, Hey, that's Poppy's name, you know, like on that book. And it's just, it's really sweet. You know, it's, it's, it's really cool. And so I think that I'm proud of you, man. I know it took a lot of probably discipline and work to do this. So I kind of want to hear a little bit about that as far as your process goes. You kind of get this in your mind of like, all right, I need to put these ideas down. And so did you have to create a lot of routines and structure

around sitting down and being intentional with this process? Yes. It starts kind of fun and then it becomes a little bit monotonous in the middle and then it gets to be fun. You like get up in the morning, you're like, yeah, let's write. And then by like the seventh week, you're like, oh, I got to write. Right. And don't get me wrong. This thing is I've got like six or eight months into this thing at this point, call it the COVID book, whatever. And that was one of the motivators to do this is I wanted to be very, very intentional with my time. And I thought that was a great way to do that is to take and say, all right, I'm going to share my thoughts every single day for an hour or two. And then some

weekends, like some Saturdays, I would sit there and I would write for six or seven hours just, but I wouldn't use everything. And there's a caution in there. Don't go edit what you just wrote, just write. But you just can't sit down and start writing. I mean, that's the other confusion that people have is they're like, I'm just going to sit down and write every day. Well, because you have to structure your thoughts. You have to be organized. You have to have an outline. And then you build in your subchapters and your chapters. Your outline is your chapters. And then what does the first half of the book and the second half of the book do? How does it play off of each other?

What points are you trying to get across? What challenges are you trying to fix for people? Things like that. But the reality is you've got to gotta be organized because if you're not organized, you're going to finish writing for several hours and you go, what did I just do? I wrote a couple of outlines and then I moved them all around and I'm like, I know what I want to say, but I just don't know how to say it. So I actually went out and I found a consultant to help me and, and, and got a consultant to really work with me

on doing all this, who's been part of like 60 bestsellers and things like that. And she's like, look, let's get you more organized here. Let's get you aligned with your thoughts so you can make sure you're spending your time appropriately. So, I mean, what did I get? I got a coach.

I got somebody to help me. Yeah. And it was funny because she's like, you might not like some of the things I say to you, but they're going to be nice to you. I'm like, I love you already. Right. Cause the best coaches are willing to tell you the hardest things. I got that going. I wrote 45,000 words and I'm like, ah, all right. Time to go back through this a little bit. And it ended up being a 60,000 word book, 60,403 or something like that. I think. How many chapters is that?

It's 10 chapters. Okay. You know, plus an intro, but it's, it's not about chapter count. It's, it's books are written more on word count. So a business book is 50 to 60,000 words. I went over by 403 words or something like that. Of course you're an overachiever. Yes. So, uh, but what you look at and you're like, that's called, uh, Kayla and I were trying to figure out how many pages would be before we got on the recording here. And I think that was like, uh, 240 pages or something like that. I

don't remember. You're looking at 250 words a page. Nice. That's awesome. Hey, do you have your chapters? Can you give us a sneak peek of some of the chapter titles, at least so we can kind of understand a little bit? And then, you know, my thought is too, is as we get closer to this launch that, you know, we'll dive into some of these chapters as episodes for Start With a win. So the book itself is divided into two parts. Okay. The first part being about you. And then the second part being your toolbox for accomplishment. And I talk in a lot of the podcasts. In fact, I talked in the 4th of July episode about getting yourself right before you can be effective in what

you're doing. You have to understand yourself before you can understand what you're doing. And I talk about that in the first part of the book. So it's your choice. So I talk about our attitude and our missions in life because everything we do is a mission. This podcast is a mission. So we have something we want to accomplish. We prepare for it, we execute on it, and then we look back on it and reflect on it and go, did we do it right? Can we do it better? Things like that. Successes, opportunities, whatever it is. So I view life as a series of missions, if you will, or just instances of life. That last hour, you did something. What was it? How did it go? And I'm always looking back and measuring and trying to make things better. I

believe in incremental improvement. I believe in very deliberate practice and intentional effort to make things better. So how is your attitude? What are the challenges are that you overcome? And what are the actions you take to overcome those things? So, I mean, the first part is it's your choice. And chapter one is attitude. You can. You know, you have to wake up and you have to say, I can. I mean, I have a lot of stuff I got to do today. And I got up this morning. I'm like, wow, I got a lot of stuff. It's overwhelming. Instantly you can lose by feeling overwhelmed because you go into a fear mode or you go, I can do this and I'm excited about it. I can, I can. And what's the first thing that happened

when emotional overwhelm happens? I can't. starts creeping in. Or you get angry or you're frustrated. It's terrible to feel that way. But so many people revert to that every day and they start feeling that way. You're like, oh my gosh. So the first one is attitude, I can't. The second one is our mission set the playbook. Because everything we do is something we can reflect back upon and learn from and adjust. So we have to understand our mission set the playbook. The things that we've done and are doing change how we do the next things. So I talk a little bit about that. And then the second part is your toolbox.

So there's a lot of tools for life and business in this book. That's really a lot of what this is, is how to create those wins in your business and in your leadership and really in your life. So we have chapters three through 10 in here. Chapter three, party with the beast. I'm not going to get into that quite yet. Okay. Yeah. We'll have to have a whole show about that. Yes. Party with the Beast is an amazing concept that really helps you find a way forward when you don't think there is one. Chapter four, be a sponge.

You and I have talked about that a little bit before. Yeah, 100%. Chapter five, leadership learnings. Chapter six, from chaos to calm. Build your action plans. Chapter seven, presence and passion for people and your work. Chapter eight. I love this one. Lose the ego. Lose it.

Lose it and never find it again. We'll creep in every now and then. That's right. Chapter nine, the trifecta. This is gold here. Coach, mentor, and mastermind. And then chapter 10, celebrate the wins. Nice. Dude, I'm excited for this book. I can't wait to get my copy of it. Oh, believe me, Mark. And you are mentioned in it, my friend. Whoa. Okay. Let's go. Yeah. It's all good though. Don't worry. Okay, good. You're not in a party with the beast. Okay. I am the beast.

Oh man. Well, I'm excited. Can people pre-order it and get it online before it comes out? Yeah, it's available on Amazon. I think it's on bargersandnoble.com also at this point. So, Mark, if we can find that and put it in the show notes. Yep. It'd be awesome. But I know it's on Amazon right now. Pre-orders are going on. It's going to be coming out October 19th. And we'll be digging deep into this bad boy because there's a lot of business learnings in it, a lot of personal learnings in it, a lot of ways to start with a win. That's awesome. Hey, thanks so much for listening to Start With A Win today.

If you'd like to ask Adam a question or tell us your Start With A Win story, leave us a message at 888-581-4430. Don't forget to go onto iTunes and subscribe, write a review, rate the show. It helps us get the word out and reach more people. And to get a link to that book, go to startwithawin.com and follow Adam on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. And remember, start with a win. Bye.