Hey so welcome back to the podcast um. I wrote this down thinking about my guess that there's not many people that have a straight line professional path directly into the real estate business or in the mortgage business or the entrepreneurial endeavor that you found yourself in and today's guest is absolutely no different from law Enforcement to ceo of the global juggernaut, all things re max, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the podcast mr adam cantos, adam welcome man. Hey thanks my friend. It's great to see you how you been uh man, i've been super good, very busy uh.

You know i miss. I think we we both do. We miss all the the chances to run past each other. To you know, conference high five go: have a beer hang out.

Have those chats uh think we'll be back there anytime soon? What's your: what's your forecast yeah, you know i i'm hoping shortly after the first of the year. We can actually start. You know unpacking a little bit, but you know we still. We still have to deal with this thing bouncing around the cities called covid and and be careful about it, but i mean i'll tell you.

I've got a. I have a dinner appointment after this with uh another business associate. So it's i think people are starting to understand their boundaries yeah. I agree and you know, for the people that are out there listening.

You know recognize that you know adam. Has you guys said: 130. 140. 000 agents.

I probably should have known that. How many agents now around the world? How many countries are you guys now in uh, so we're in uh, 110 plus countries and which, let's you know bounce around here and there yeah and then uh somewhere between 130 and 135 000 agents love it? I i don't think countries bounce around, but yes, i'm totally with you on that as possible, see you guys for the people that are listening right now, adam and i go way back. We've had we've had lots of fun exchanges, so uh don't take this anything other than just like two guys just being themselves so uh. So a hundred and thirty hundred thirty five thousand agents but 110 countries.

I don't think i don't think adam people get um and i don't i don't want to say the the weight heaviness, the responsibility, the joy, the fun of running, an organization that is represented in 110 countries around the world. Um, that's a lot of different languages. That's a lot of different cultures and we're talking about covet a minute ago, like that's a lot of different experiences of kovid, give give the listeners not that we want to go all ceo nerdy. You know for everybody today, but give give the listeners a little insight in what does it take to run a global company.

Wow i mean, is it you know, and everything changed in march when kova? This is not like one of those regional things like we have a we have a fire or a hurricane or an earthquake, or whatever. This was like everybody, had the same problem so um, so i was kind of zooming around the world doing what we're like on these little boxes right now, um! It's it's interesting because the first thing that struck me was everybody has the same thing in their heart. Yeah - and it was fascinating because when you, when you show up, they want kindness, they want leadership, they want clarity and direction and they want to go help other people, so that's that's. The beauty of our industry is that's why people are here is to help other people, so that was really kind of that commonality of you know they look at me and they go adam.

How can we go help other people and that's what it all came back down to yeah? So i was listening to uh to elon musk talk about uh living through covid through his china operation december january and then his european operation and then his u.s operation. Like literally saying, like i experienced it multiple times the same exact sort of tragic transformation, you you have to have some of that same experience, like you guys saw it early. My my former ceo was from beijing, so we were hearing about it early, but i don't. I don't really think as much as i'd like to say we were prepared for it.

I don't think we were really prepared for it. Like i mean we had laptops and everybody's ready to go remote, but i mean prepared for that first, two weeks, 30 days, 60 days, 90 days. What what insights did you get early? Because you do have this global company that helped you in the north american market or any other markets to prepare for it. It was.

It was fascinating because we heard the same thing that you did so we left our convention in early march and uh and we had 65 countries represented there. 7 000 people from 65 countries. By the way i still have yet to have somebody from there call me and say: hey i got covered at the convention, so you know knock on wood, um and but we had people leaving our convention, who would then be quarantined as soon as they hit the Ground in their countries, so that was really the first blast of it that we had and and talking to them and them going hey. Can you call and say that we don't know of anybody there, so we would.

We would work with them, but of course the government entities are like that's that's too bad um, so it got to what do we do and ultimately, what it boiled down to is: let's communicate as best we can and let's talk to our customers with a relatable Uh, you know capability which turns out to be video, hello, um. You know the best we can so that's really kind of where we went was hey open up with kindness, find out if everybody's okay and let's figure out what we can do together to help each other. So speaking of communication, one of the things i've noticed with you in the last i would say more so 18 months, but it's really gotten more on my radar or in my news, feed uh. The last nine months is you've you've gone hard on content partner.

It's almost like, i was gon na bust, your chops and say: are you starting a coaching company like what's going on here like so so tell us, like you, know, tell tell the listeners like what are you doing from a content standpoint? Why are you doing it? What's the strategy like what are you thinking with all this because you're doing a lot? I i have this philosophy that leaders grow leaders. I mean that that's our job tom, you know my job and your job. Our job is to grow leaders and we grow leaders by giving them information and confidence to execute yeah. So um, you know a lot of people in this day and age.

They go for entertainment instead of information and that doesn't really help much of anything except for to it takes their mind off of some stressful situations or what have you, but ultimately it doesn't give them something to improve themselves with right, so that that's really what i Do is i i look for things that um that i can absorb myself, but it's interesting because a great mentor of mine a couple decades ago his name happens to be dave. Lineage told me, hey adam, be a sponge. I go oh so i need to go. Gather as much as i can he goes.

No, you need to gather and give yeah. So that's that's that philosophy that i've been working under is and you're right. I have been going hardcore on it. I mean i'm in the middle of a uh, a five-part series.

Uh right now on engagement, putting out video every day, yeah yeah exactly so. I broadcast that on six different platforms, because i wanted to figure out okay, where, where is the engagement occurring and - and you know, good leaders measure their impact. So i wanted to see where that was happening. As a result, i'm broadcasting across those platforms varying my times, a teeny, tiny bit and a little bit of what i'm saying, but ultimately our job tom and you're right, i mean it's.

You know call me ceo of we have, i think, six companies now uh or a coach. The job is i'm a leader and i need to influence other leaders, so i think you're you're spot on and i think for you know it's interesting. You know again, you know you and i know so many of the players in the space that you know at your level that are running these huge companies and no knock against anyone that aren't creating content. Their companies are creating content, but it's very cool for me to see a fellow ceo take it on, because i know my team, you know just two of two of my team here know what it means to create this content.

Put it out be engaged, be active. You know respond to people dms and more, and i see you doing that and i just i just want to give you a shout out and say man awesome, work and and keep it up. So let me ask you a technical question with the six different channels that you're on: where are you finding the most engagement and what are you doing about it? So i i think the most engagement right now is facebook. I'm seeing linkedin really uh start to accelerate.

I'm doing linkedin live now. I think that's a really good place to be, and then uh, my social media team's been measuring the impact of of linkedin stories. So that's something that i'm really uh gon na start pushing out here, probably in the next week or two is linkedin stories but um i it it varies, but it's consistently you're getting good feedback on facebook yep. I think you need to you know you do need to throw a few dollars at facebook in order to really uh get your spread out there.

But ultimately, what you're trying to do is you're trying to figure out who isn't just getting, who isn't just noticing but who's engaging yeah and and that's truly, where you're gon na find that deeper connection. And so we we build email lists. We we watch our our impact um, you know just like what you teach your clients, how to do and um, and that's really how we uh how we grow our our touch, our value delivery out there in the uh. You know the real estate industry and and beyond, i'm working in several other industries right now helping people.

So i think it's it's important for people to get like you know, i'm going to leave this meeting, probably like yourself and you have a dinner meeting. My next one is a quick call with my cfo. Then i meet with my ceo to just review sort of okrs and what's going to happen for the fourth quarter and are we prepped and ready to go for you know january, and then i've got a meeting with one of my speakers and i'm going downstairs to Check out an event and then i'm probably going to shoot another piece of content like you know, you live in that world. So how do you? How do you like for the person? That's listening right now? That's like, oh god.

If fairy tells me one more time. I've got to start creating content, i'm going to punch him in the face, but you and i both know it is the way you scale trust. It is the way that you that you build your brand and your identity, so you become that trusted person. They say adam, i want a franchise or whatever you know, whatever the business mechanics are, that they trust you.

What do you say to that agent? That says i'm just too busy uh, i i say that's your problem. I mean i mean realistically that's the right answer. Man for crying out loud, we just - i think we just went through this 110 countries over 130 000 agents. Six companies um tell me i'm not busy, but what i do is is i have uh the emotional maturity to determine what decisions i make throughout my day.

In order to determine what i do by the way, i create my content, so you know i do my research just like you do my friend and i mean and that's something that you find in leaders who deliver value is they're, not just a talking head with Somebody else's words they go out and they actually put their words to what they're trying to create impact with so um. You know i'm too busy. Well, that's because you're making bad choices. Sorry, but that's true and um, and that's that that kind of uh, transparent conversation that we have with people as leaders as we need to just be able to say, hold up the mirror and and take a look at your day and are your priorities where you Need them to be and you'll find a lot of times that they're not.

I literally just had this conversation. I'd love your your input and feedback on i'm talking with a very successful client right. One of your agents - and i say look you know you're on pace to do you know, call it three million dollars in commissions this year and and you're telling me. You didn't call your past clients right that you let it go by a few days and and the the shame is, and i'm not gon na shame the person like publicly on the you know on this podcast right now but, like you know, because you're listening, like The shame is they actually think that it doesn't matter.

They think that not making the calls that day, not creating the content that day not doing the work that day, that it doesn't matter, but you and i both know it does matter that one hour, i loved your your phrase, the emotional maturity to be able to Determine what i'm going to do and what i'm going to give my energy on those of us that understand that one hour matters and in the real estate business it's going to show up 60, 90, 120 days positively or negatively. What like thoughts on that? What would you say to that agent who's? I just i'm so busy. I can't even make my own phone calls. I mean i'm writing offers and i'm doing deals.

Oh right, what do you say to that person? I i think they need to audit their schedule more than anything i mean you know if you it for um, you know grand scheme of things, they're they're, choosing to not do it because it's it's it's all a choice. Does it have negative impact 100 and unfortunately we can't turn back the clock and fix that you have to go back and apologize to those people. I'm sorry. I haven't reached out to you before, instead of just picking up the phone and going hey, how are you i was just thinking about you today how you been and and the person's not on their heels, going? What do you want from me? Why are you calling me now they're actually going? I get to talk to you every now and then, and i appreciate that you're, a kind human being so um.

You know we have this ability to give a gift, and that gift is attention and personal appreciation. It's something they can't give themselves and it's it's like giving somebody a smile, it's hard to smile through your mask right now out in public, but that's a gift that you should be giving people constantly and in all reality, calling somebody for a three to five minute Phone call just to say, hi and i care about you - takes no more time than giving a smile on the line at starbucks. So we don't have an excuse. We just we rationalize an excuse because we're afraid of the fact that yeah you're right tom - i should have done this - i should have listened to coach tom.

Tell me do this and i didn't yeah yeah yeah yeah, i mean you and i both it's no different from going to the gym, loving on your spouse, spending quality time with your kids. It's just it's the emotional intelligence to make the right, prioritization and choice. So let's go a different direction: six different companies, i know of two: what are the well just take us through the cadre of the companies, because i want to talk about managing and - and this would be good for everybody to listen to. So what are the six companies? Okay? So obviously you know remax, and then we also have model mortgage.

So those are our two franchise companies and we have bouge, which is a technology company, that services the real estate space yep. We have wemlow, which is a recent acquisition that we've made during covid, which happens to be a loan uh processing company. So they do. They do all the loan processing for uh mortgage companies and uh.

You know, obviously we have a mortgage company as well sure, so is that an loss? Basically, you guys acquired yes, yeah love it okay, so uh, and then we have first, which is our ai company, that that predictively tells you who, in your contact list in the real estate space you should call because they're likely to sell their houses. I knew i should have invested in that company when i met with it was mike right like he was like he's like fairy. You should do this. I was in san francisco at an animated event and, like he just walked by it's like very quick pitch, and i was like yeah there's a lot of ai companies, but now i know i lost again all right, so you got first.

I love it. I didn't know about that when i knew about winlow. So what's the sixth one first had a great exit for their investors, tom yeah thanks thanks for rubbing that in man a little bit friends, it's all good so and then we just uh. We just acquired a uh, a data a 20 year old data aggregation company that does geo-targeting of rooftops called gadberry group.

So um i mean it's, it's a it's a portfolio of franchising, so real estate and mortgage, as well as data and servicing around that those two sectors but um like gadbury. You know services quite a bit of outside the real estate space uh as well so uh. First of all, congrats on all the recent acquisitions right. We know that that's always a fun experience, folding people in uh, creating trust getting back to speed, so give us some insight on that.

Like you, you acquire a company. What is that? What is that path for people that are listening like when a company gets acquired? You know, maybe the ceo stays more than likely. Some of the executives are now scratching their head. Wondering what's going to happen, you know who is this new parent company? How do you, how do you create that trust with everybody, so you can actually get back to the speed and efficiency of work? Well, the interesting part about a acquisition, especially in this day and age, is it has to work both ways i mean it's.

You know they in and we're not dealing with manufacturing here we're not dealing with supply chain. We are dealing with services and look across the board. All of them are services. So what does that mean your greatest assets? Are it's people exactly so? Do you think tom? Do you think that if i was hiding as a ceo, where people didn't know who i was they didn't see these videos, the podcast things like that that they'd be kind of going? Is that somebody we want to be with yeah? I mean it's, it's the same like what you know everybody that's listening to.

This is doing it because everybody listening to this is in the service space. If people can't look you up on google and watch a video of you and see what kind of a human being you are, they most likely are going to pass and move on to somebody else that they can so um. You know a big part of this was uh. You know we looked for great people and we demonstrated to them that we're great people, because what we do know is that great people can work together to accomplish things so that that's really the foundation for it.

For all of the acquisitions is, is this something that helps people in our space? Is it a service that provides value to people in our space with good people? Yes, and can we roll it into our good people, so i mean fundamentally, you know, there's a lot of financials and review of risk and direction, and things like that on these things, but ultimately it has to pass that test. First yeah, it's the it's the like! It's the likability test right because we're all going to be in this sandbox together so well well answered. Do you have a uh? Do you have a a management operating methodology that you follow, okrs 4dx, something like that and if so like, can you shed some light on it? You know, i i believe you communicate you. You make sure that everybody is.

You know mine, mine's, pretty simple. Are we in alignment yeah? Are we communicating and are we executing yeah? So you know i mean it's it we don't have to over complicate this. Ultimately, you've got a lot of people that overthink things they over plan they over strategize and what you need to do. Is you look around on the battlefield and you go that's the hill we want to take.

Is it worth our effort, our money? You know the the risk, the expense things like that uh and is there a good upside and when i, when i look at something that we need to accomplish back to 130, 000 plus agents, i need to figure out. Is this something that i can benefit them with? Can i benefit our stakeholders? 130. 000. A lot of them are shareholders as well, because we're a public company - and you know i - i have to balance those things, but then you take a step back and go.

Is this the right thing to do yeah so um, you know really, your your north star is your values. Our values are very easily explained. M-O-R-E deliver to the max, be customer obsessed. Do the right thing and everybody wins yeah.

So i mean that's. That's really! Your north star and uh, and then you try and grow every day, love it love it uh. What are you accountable for? What's your job? What's your job, you know what i mean like everyone's like i i put ceos on the show adam and literally i'm like. What's your job and they're like what isn't my job like if i need to pick up the trash, but i'm like, but at the end of the day like and a publicly traded company with a board, though you're on the board, you are responsible to you know The board and then the shareholders.

What are you accountable to? Well i'm accountable for future growth of the company, so i mean really that's what wall street banks on is? Does this company look like it's going to have future growth? So are you investing? You know your your numbers: you're reporting are they're a reflection of what you've done, yeah and then everybody has these forecasts. You do your financial forecasts and how do you get to that point and they go well? We think you can do this and they they don't know the inner workings of your company, they kind of guess but um, you know and they they put their formulas and their their mba students to it and things like that and they go all right. Here's what we think you can do, here's what you think you can do. Why is there a gap or is it an alignment so um, you know really i'm accountable to the results of the organization and the future growth of the organization.

So you look at um past nine months. We've done three acquisitions. You know. Acquisition generally is not a creative.

It's not making money uh for the company instantly, so my job is how do we turn those into a creative assets in the organization and continue future growth? So i've you know, i have a plan. I have a story behind all that and i have a amazing team of people uh to work in that direction. So you know for the people out there listening um if you've never been part of a publicly traded company or or someone at this level as adam is um you're responsible, as he said to so much more, not just the stakeholders, not all your employees, and in This case, all of his agents and everybody owns a franchise and all these other companies, but he's also responsible to the board right and - and ultimately you know, i don't want to call much a propeller has because i got a lot of friends in high finance. But you all know what i'm talking about right, they're, looking at whatever adam said and whatever adam did in the last 90 days and and then declaring what we think his stock's going to be worth in 90 days.

So, do you remember back in 2000, before the before the dot-com bubble, how how often we found agents you know back, then we didn't have a phone, so we were just looking at our computer when we should be making our phone calls staring at the value of Stock right and and watching i was literally, i would do seminars and say agents. You need to turn that off. You need to sell houses right because you got no control over this and yet people like yourself and you know, dave ledger who i also have mad love and respect for as you do, you got ta look at that stock, bouncing because it impacts. You know your your finances, how the world feels about you, like that's a lot of pressure adam.

How do you deal with it? I used to get shot at for a living tom. I mean you know it's, i i look at it and i go okay. It's it's a reflection of the fact that somebody's buying and selling a lot of stock value rides on supply and demand yep. I cannot impact that on a daily basis.

So i have to you know, reside myself to the fact that i'm going to do the best that i can do every day in order to impact that in the future yeah. So it's it's. You know, and that's the discipline that that emotional maturity and the emotional intelligence that that we just talked about of knowing um life is not about instantaneous results. In fact, you look at like michael porter um, harvard business school, professor one of the greatest business professors of all time.

So michael porter said it's not really a strategy, if it's less than three or five years that you're willing to be involved in it. So you can't chase the shiny thing and hope that you're going to make a difference in your business. You got to be dedicated to the grind, because business is a marathon, it's not a sprint, and if you stop every now and then and go all right, i'm going to go. Do this and i need to go to the store and i'm in the middle of this marathon you're, never going to finish and you're never going to see results so um, you know i i look at it.

I'm like nothing. I can do about it. Yay great day, it's green, oh bad day, it's red right life goes on yeah. That's i mean i just i wanted.

I i assumed you were going to say that, but i wanted people to hear it right that that every ceo i know in high level executive. They watch it bounce but they're like i have no control over that. I'm going to focus on what i can control, which for everybody listening right now. What can you control? What are the levers and the dials that you can constantly play with to improve your performance? To get more time back to get higher profits to sell more houses and more um, okay, i'm gon na hit you i'm gon na put you on the hot seat.

This will be really fun. You ready, uh exp is already public. Real edgy is already public. Keller williams is not compass is saying they're going.

What's your take right now on the real estate, the greater real estate landscape? Do you think the public companies are going to do? Okay, do you think the other ones are going to go public eventually and what in the world is going on with all these mortgage ipos just general sense? I know we're talking about your friends and quote unquote competition, but you know talk to me all right tom. I i look at this and there's um, there's always some speculation. There's always some distraction of this person's doing this or that person stock price is doing whatever i mean. The reality is for all of us on the street.

If you're an investor, invest where you think is best for you, but ultimately go. Do your freaking job! Okay, and i mean it's if you're spending all day reading articles about the industry. Thinking that that's going to change what the buyer or seller down the street is going to do you're wrong yeah, what's going to change what the buyer and seller down the street is going to do is the fact that they need to trust you and see that You're an expert in the space and the only way they're going to know that is, if you're putting yourself out there. Instead of sitting there looking at the app on your phone or you know, reading an article on on some industry, you know newspaper or something like that, so i just you know what let them know what they want to do.

If you want to invest, go, do it when they sell stock or anything like that, and and do your job but um. You know it's! It's like hey! What's netflix going to do what's tesla going to do, i mean come on they're they're, big companies there's a lot of factors if anybody actually knew what affected those on a daily basis, that person wouldn't be sitting around trying to figure out okay. What do i buy because they would already know yeah so um, you know the reality is, do your job and do it really well and get to be a better person each day and life will treat you well if we were sitting here having a beer right Now, i'd be like you just diverted away from that question, but i appreciate it because you're right like focus on what you can't control, so i'm letting you kind of off the hook. What do you think about all these ipos with all these mortgage companies? I mean we're in the middle of a refi boom, of course, they're making a fortune.

You - and i both know. They're gon na have to sustain growth as a publicly traded company, or they are d e, a d dead in the water. What advice would you have for those ceos? You know it's interesting because they need to be looking down the road i mean. We've, we've been public just less than a decade and uh i mean the reality.

Is it's it's the long game, so an ipo is a great way for people a lot of times those early investors to take some chips off the table. That's that's really why a lot of these companies are doing that um. Their investors got in a few years ago, they're looking for an exit and it's hard for um somebody who's a now a minority shareholder to come in and and take out those investors. The investors want to see a good return and the majority of time that has to do with an ipo process.

So um, you know. Ultimately, it's it's a function of a healthy economy of people, growing businesses and reinvesting in those businesses, and that's the beauty of this society that we're in is that's how we grow companies is by taking them public and allowing other people to invest in them. So um. It's it's a natural occurrence when you look at when they started and when their ipo is occurring, there's a cycle there that occurs and they're.

You know they're just following that, but you also time it to an extent. Is this the right time and you pay somebody a lot of money to tell you whether or not it's the right time? And you know they read the tea, leaves on the street and figure out. Okay, this looks good, let's do it. Risk is lower or we can wait.

Risk is higher, but you may see a higher return. A lot of people are like no, we want to exit, let's do it. So that's kind of you know what you see happening with with a lot of these startups, and you know what good for them, um, god love them because being a public company. Ceo has a lot of different parameters to it and it's it's a change for a ceo to understand that yeah.

So so, let's talk about that, i mean i want to go back to the early days law enforcement to ceo of all these companies um. As i mentioned the very beginning when we started this podcast like there's not a lot of people that have a straight line path to that, so so, let's just say, adam the person listening right now: she's, ambitious and she's like one day, i want to be ceo, Like what? What does that person have to do to earn the right, whether whether they don't just start their own company and by the way you and i both know, you could start your own company and you could have a title and a business card that says? Ceo and you're, probably not a ceo you're, not really operating at the way you could or should. What do you think is the the most important learning steps along the way to to get to that goal? It's it's a combination of things tom i mean. First of all, you said the word.

Learning learning never stops. If you want to be a ceo, if you want to be a business leader, i i know a lot of ceos, a lot of public company ceos and i'll tell you what they work from the second. They open their eyes, which generally is before 5 a.m. I get up at 4 30 every day and they're learning, they're, improving, they're testing and measuring they're executing and it it's it becomes a lifestyle.

It's not something! You go hey. I want to go, be a ceo, but i'm only going to do it a couple days. A week that doesn't work, it's like being you know, how do you build a super, successful real estate team, real estate, brokerage uh as an individual agent? It's because you look yourself in the mirror every day and go. What did i do to make money for the company and what did i do to grow myself? Yeah and you got to have an answer twice a day before lunch and before you turn out the lights so um you know it's.

It is a unending endurance, sport and it's you know, hour after hour, but you have to learn to love it yeah you got ta, learn to love it yeah have you met uh david goggins, yet no, no i've see i'm familiar with his work. Uh his book - and you know all the physical stuff that he's done. I think he's a machine. He is i've not met him yeah i mean he's like so.

I've interviewed him multiple times and you know, was part of his book launch and actually had him speak at one of our summits and like he just he talks about like hey man, you get there through pain right and it could be. The pain of sacrifice could be the pain of doing the work trying to do 60. 000. You know pull-ups or it could be the pain that hey.

You know what i'm going to get up at 4 30 in the morning and i'm going to listen to a podcast while i'm working out getting in my exercise and then being on my first meeting at 6 30 in the morning. Because i got clients and you know, and customers all over the world like i just think most people aren't ready for that, but but i want people to get just like. I said: there's no natural path to becoming ceo. Well, let me let me say you this way, i'll i'll ask it adam, at the end of the day, be on shareholders right beyond.

You know, revenue growth like what does it really mean to lead? That's i love that question tom. So what it really means to lead is to affect change for good and it you lean in many ways. Like i talked to my uh, i have three college student kids. Now our kids are growing up tom.

I know um they got old, we didn't they got through yeah. I i got younger. I i mean i love, i added the tom ferry glasses and you know um, but it's it's it's affecting change, but it's not change for change sake. It's change for good sake.

Yeah so um and i'll tell you you, you learn a lot of self lessons. First, one is: how do you control your emotions and the second one is: how do you switch from crisis to crisis without bringing the last one into the next one bingo so that, in fact, i mean that's, probably one of the biggest lessons that i brought from My previous career is, you would you'd, go to like a ton of different calls during the day and each one was a crisis. And you can't come from the last one, where somebody's trying to kill you and come to the next one and and allow that to affect how you treat somebody as a human and with kindness, yeah, so um and and that's really what you know. Business isn't quite as extreme there's really nobody trying to take your life, but the reality is there's an extreme emotional overload going on in so many different aspects of life that we have to deal with, especially in the real estate space, because i just i heard the Survey again, number one most stressful thing that somebody deals with in their life is moving and guess what you're right in the middle of that right.

So you know it's about controlling your emotions and helping people affect change for good in this process and that change might be a negotiation process. It might be okay. How do we get through these deadlines? How do we get that loan approved whatever it might be, but um it's? It is dealing with these crisis on a regular basis. Yeah, i i forget who said it first, but i know uh.

You know our mutual friend gary vee really put like he just kept saying it over and over again, like being the ceo being, a leader is just getting punched in the face over and over again putting a smile back on your face and going right back at It because, like that's the game like you, you and i both know it was jim rohn who said like you know the the quality of your business. Is your the quality of your ability to solve problems at scale right like that's? How you make money and every listener knows that? Let me go to totally different direction with you, competition. How have you guys sort of as buffett says, dug the moat to make sure that this business isn't going to be annihilated by a competition yeah? It's it's interesting tom, because that would indicate that there's some sort of a conclusion to digging the moat you're, never done digging the moat. I love it.

I mean you and, and truthfully you know you get tired doing it, but that is getting tired and your own feelings about. It is a bigger competition than what's outside the moat yeah, so uh most businesses don't die from competition. Most businesses die from within and then the competition rolls over them. Yes, but adam right now you know there's somebody listening like man, i just i'm getting my butt kicked right now by you know the discount broker, the you know, eye buyer just came into my my marketplace and i'm in that 250.

You know three bedroom two bath and, and you and i both know it's not everyone, but if they lose one, it's everyone is coming to get me. What advice do you have for people when it comes to competition? People get hyper focused on the challenges that competition brings to their door and instead of looking at competition as being a tailwind form, they look at it as a drag yeah and ultimately i mean you look at it and you guess what tomorrow we're all going to Get up and we're going to be a day older. Are we going to look at that as a drag on us, or are we going to look at it as an opportunity for us yeah? So i mean it's the same thing with competition. There's going to be somebody new in your marketplace in this industry tomorrow i mean guaranteed tomorrow some little fire breather with a you know, a a great business marketing idea is going to get their license tomorrow and they're going to be banging on your door going.

I'm taking you out and you either look at it and go that's just going to incent me to get better and get closer with my customers, and i i need to make a move on part on the part of my business in order to improve that. So you can either look at and go. This is distracting and it's it's a challenge or hey wow. This just refocused me.

This is an opportunity, i'm going after this right right. So so, how do you keep it fresh and then how do you? How do you keep a company because really we're talking about like old school peter drucker? All business is innovation and marketing right you got to keep it fresh and then you got to keep six different brands fresh. How do you do it? You got ta wake up. Every morning, and and really feel that way tom i mean it's, i don't hit the snooze button.

I hate the snooze button, so um keeping it fresh. Is it's not a singular choice in your life and in your day it's a holistic choice in how you operate across the board. You can't pick to what part of your life you want to be successful in and a lot of people try and do that they try and say all right. I'm going to go, make my business really good.

So i can go home and have a pizza and a beer, i'm sorry, but you got to take care of the whole package because, if you're, if your body is in a bad shape, if your mind is in a bad shape, your business is going to suffer. So i mean you just need to resolve yourself to the fact that you're either going to try and be the best or you're not, but if you're not don't complain about somebody overtaking you, because you decided again emotional maturity, it's a choice that we get to make. Whether or not i want to try and be the best every day, um it's okay to go on vacation, be selective about that and say i'm unplugging. I'm done i'm not going to worry about being the best.

Today, i'm going to be the most relaxed today, but ultimately it's go it's hard to turn that brain off. You know you know what time you're sitting on the beach reading the business book and and creating content yep, but um, and and that's when you really know you're you're hungry, for it is when you, when you struggle to turn it off when it's easy to turn Off you need to reflect on it right. I agree. I agree.

100 adam. This has been super rad. I know we both got crazy schedules uh and i'm almost i'm looking at my team like this is another one of those like this could have been like a seven hour marathon of just you know, bantering back and forth um, but as we as we bring this To uh conclusion for the people out there that haven't taken the time or gotten to know adam the way i know him. I hope you got a sense of who this guy is.

We didn't get to talk about wife and kids that we we shed a little light on it um, but you know he's the real deal, he's the real deal and it's been fun to you know you and i go back to sales power in florida and all The you know all these kind of that was very old school uh. You know cool product, uh training we did together, but man like i'm just i just want to say i'm really proud of you. I love that you're putting out content. You know i'm all about that, so as we wrap this just kind of closing thoughts from you, like you know, we're 92 days, i think between now and the end of the year.

This will go out sometime in october. What advice do you have for people that are listening that just one last little nugget to get him to crush the fourth quarter and 2021 um? I first of all i mean huge gratitude to you, my friend um. I mean knowing you over the years, you're a great human being and you care about people, and i mean i i keep my circle small and i'm i'm. I i love to say that that you and i pick up the phone and have conversation on occasion about how great things are and how even better they can be so i'm honored to be uh.

You know that close to you so um the closing thoughts i mean i was. I was talking to an amazing ceo one day, uh bill mcdermott. He was the ceo of sap software and that guy uh he wrote a great book. I think it was called leader soar or something like that um.

It was good book, get the audio because you could hear him talk about it and carrying copiers up the stairs in new york and things like that when he was in sales. But i asked him i said bill. I want to be the best leader. I can possibly be what advice do you have for me and i'm sitting there thinking all right.

What's this guy going to pull out and and what he pulled out was something that i see every day and i reflect on every day and it's this right here. He said adam stay hungry and stay humble, and if, if you look at those two pieces of advice when it comes to creating success in your life, you know the the hunger of like, like we talked about hitting the floor going for. You know going for broke every day and putting it all in you got to do that. You just you, can't go i'm going to coast for a while and see what happens in my industry because it doesn't work.

You can't say i'm going to not call my customers, you can't say i don't like how i look on video if you're crying out loud, it takes you a couple hundred of them and you're like whoa. This is actually working, but i mean it works, for i mean tom called me out on it. You heard me, you heard him say that so um but and then and then humility, you know, be humble, be a kind human being and help people and give out that kindness as much as you possibly can and genuinely care and life will treat you well. So that's that's what it's about just giving giving giving and it does come back.

I can promise you that you don't know when don't go looking for it, but let it do its job. I love it. Man well said my brother, so thank you so much love to the fam and to the whole six company org super proud of you, so my friends as you're listening this uh follow adam on all the on all the social channels, just type in adam cantos and You'll find him everywhere and uh listen brother. Thank you crush the rest of this year and i look forward to talking to you soon and for all my listeners out there give us a share.

Give us a like give us some comments and we love you. Thank you so much for being a listener, and just being in our community, see you guys soon. You.