Breaking Barriers and Bridging Gaps

Adam Contos is a Partner at Area 15 Ventures, a business investment firm. As the creator of the Leadership Factory, he coaches entrepreneurs to build leaders and grow their businesses. Adam served as the CEO of RE/MAX Holdings, where he oversaw its four brands RE/MAX, LLC, Motto Franchising, LLC, booj, and First. Before joining RE/MAX, he ran a SWAT team as a Lieutenant at the Douglas County Sheriff's Office.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

[3:46] How Adam Contos transitioned from a cop to leading a venture capital firm
[6:50] The mental barriers to starting a business — and how to take action
[12:04] Adam’s philosophy on leadership
[16:01] Why RE/MAX franchised companies in the quick service restaurant (QSR) space
[23:35] Adam talks about his leadership drivers in real estate and entrepreneurship
[30:30] What are Adam’s favorite books, and who are his most influential mentors?

In this episode…

Some people want to start a business but are overwhelmed to the point of inaction. Yet strategic action offsets overwhelm. How can you propel yourself to move forward in your career?

Former real estate CEO and leadership coach Adam Contos maintains that you must be held accountable for taking action on your vision. However, less than 1% of people can hold themselves accountable regularly for their entrepreneurial endeavors, leading small businesses to fail in the first year. Instead, you should acquire a coach or leader to develop an accountability system. Exceptional leaders influence and guide you to accomplish a task or vision by building trust and practicing what they preach. With an inspirational leader, you can identify the mental gaps in your personal and professional life and take action for future growth.

In the latest episode of Destination Business Freedom, Pat Mancuso invites Adam Contos, a Partner at Area 15 Ventures, to speak about building ventures through effective leadership. Adam shares some of his favorite books and most influential mentors, his leadership philosophy and personal wisdom, and how he began franchising businesses with RE/MAX Holdings.

Resources Mentioned in this episode

Quotable Moments:

"Ultimately, it comes down to, ‘how can you be accountable for taking that action?’ If there's no accountability, there's no action."
"Leaders influence and guide somebody in order to accomplish a task or change a vision or establish values within an organization."
"People will give way more than that 40% effort if they are so engaged and so inspired by the leadership in that organization."
"We looked for people, systems, and products, and we found it at Port of Subs. It was rock solid." -
"Stay hungry and stay humble. There is no job that is too small for a key leader to go and do."

Action Steps:

Define your destination in entrepreneurial ventures: It's crucial for business owners to have a clear objective; mapping a destination helps bridge the gap between their current state and future success.
Embrace change and lead through transformation: Change is inevitable in all industries; by adapting and leading effectively through it, a business can stay relevant and competitive.
Establish a system of accountability: To ensure action and avoid stagnation, accountability keeps individuals on track with their entrepreneurial goals.
Focus on relationship-building within organizations: Strong interpersonal connections can elevate employee experiences and translate to enhanced customer interaction and retention.
Stay informed and educated about industry developments: Ongoing learning about tools, trends, and changes, such as in AI, enables leaders to anticipate shifts and harness opportunities for growth.

Sponsor for this episode...

This episode is brought to you by the Mancuso Consulting Group, a go-to resource for entrepreneurs, CEOs, and business owners dedicated to personal and business growth.

Our team of experts has coached, consulted, and trained over 15,000 entrepreneurs, C-suite leaders, and business owners in areas of sales, leadership, organizational development, and personal growth. Additionally, Pat Mancuso has launched multiple multimillion-dollar business ventures, giving him a firsthand understanding of entrepreneurs' daily challenges.

At the Mancuso Consulting Group, we are committed to exploring innovative ways to help businesses and leaders grow their people and improve their bottom lines.

To learn how the Mancuso Consulting Group can help you unlock your full potential, visit www.themancusomethod.com, email us at pat@themancusomethod.com, or call 651-503-7355.

Episode Transcript

Intro 0:02

Welcome to Destination Business Freedom, hosted by Pat Mancuso. Join us as we explore success strategies and hacks from leading entrepreneurs helping you bridge the gap between financial success and personal freedom. Your journey starts here.

Pat Mancuso 0:23

Pat Mancuso here, welcome to our show. I'm the host of the Destination Business Freedom podcast, where I interview thought leaders, entrepreneurs and business owners who have either exited their business or on that journey. I also interview advisors and folks that can help in this journey for medium to small to big businesses, and really our goal is to help them close their gap between their finances and their freedom. In order to do that, business owners have to define that destination. This episode is brought to you by the Mancuso Consulting Group, where we use our proprietary Mancuso Method process to help entrepreneurs and business owners dedicated to closing that gap between their finances and their freedom. When you go to www.themancusomethod.com and take our very short assessment, you'll receive a powerful report and a roadmap to your destination. I will then meet with you and share valuable insights and thoughts from my over 30 years as an entrepreneur and over 40,000 hours of coaching and consulting, and in that call, if I don't deliver that, that 30 minute call, deliver $10,000 of value to you in that call, I'll write you a check, no questions asked, for $500 on the spot. That's how much we believe in the process that we've created and working with 1000s of business owners over the years now today, ladies and gentlemen, I am privileged and honored to introduce an individual and bring an amazing talent to our show who I happen to have a business relationship with, but I've also watched for a number of years this individual's trajectory, both in real estate and outside of real estate. Now I'm going to start with he used to be a cop, and my respect for first responders is bar none. I just wish and hope, if you're listening to the show, that no matter when or how you come into contact with a first responder, you appreciate the fact of what they do every day, and so I have a ton of respect for that background, but I also have an amazing respect for what this individual has done in his journey. So ladies and gentlemen, get ready to meet Adam Contos, a force to be reckoned with, once leading a SWAT team where he kicked indoors and saved lives. Adam now shatters barriers and challenges norms as a franchise system, CEO and partner at Area 15 Ventures, formerly the CEO of RE/MAX Holdings, Inc, he's revolutionized real estate, tech and safety with an unwavering mission to empower others. Adam is also an acclaimed author, podcast host and dedicated to cultivating leadership and fostering personal growth. Let's give it up for Adam Contos, Adam, welcome to the show.

Adam Contos 3:11

Pat. It's great to see you, my friend. Thanks for having me on my gosh,

Pat Mancuso 3:14

it is such a pleasure, and I know after the end of our session today, and when folks listen to it, they're going to be grateful that you took the time to join us. So, you know, Adam, I've watched you for a number of years. Obviously, you were very involved at a super high level with Dave liner and RE/MAX. And so I want you to share just your journey. I mean, we go from cop to leading, you know, a venture capital firm. So give us kind of an overview of how that happened.

Adam Contos 3:46

Wow, it was. It was a fun journey. And I started out like a lot of entrepreneurs do. I'm a two time college dropout. I got into law enforcement after I got out of the Marine Corps, very young, and just started working my way up. I was in love with leadership and the way that leadership has an impact on people within an organization and the people that the organization serves. So when you when you take a look at that, I rose in the ranks in the Sheriff's Department. Who was my second agency. I started a police department, went to a Sheriff's Department, worked my way up, worked undercover narcotics for a couple of years, which that's where I learned sales for for those of you in sales, I called it narc marketing, and ultimately I ended up becoming the SWAT team commander. While I was doing that, I was bit by the entrepreneurial bug. I started a online business in the late 90s selling police and government supplies. This is before the internet was a thing. I was I was running an internet company. I kind of wish I'd kept that, because it probably would, would be something big by now. And I also started a security consulting firm doing counterterrorism training. I taught some. Schools and sniper schools, but did a lot of threat assessments and helped employees stay safe on the job. For instance, how to deal with active shooter situations is what we would know it as today. And that got me into real estate, built a real estate agent safety program and got the the got noticed in the industry. The founder of RE/MAX, Dave liner, I had met before in my law enforcement ventures. On a good note, he's big supporter of law enforcement. He would come out and ride around with us and watch our SWAT team perform and things of that nature. And he asked me if I wanted to work it in franchising and real estate. I thought, Well, this looks like fun. I said, Well, what do I do? He goes, Well, you gotta start at the bottom and see where you can get I said, okay, so hung up the the police job. I'm still a volunteer. I still teach law enforcement and started a REMAX and over a period of a couple decades, worked my way from the very bottom all the way to the very top. Wow. Wow.

Pat Mancuso 6:02

So, so, first of all, thank you for not only your service in the law enforcement, but your service in the military. And you know, in full transparency, obviously we have a relationship through a franchise that my business has purchased. And the thing that I love about Dave and the really the mindset is how important our veterans are. So thank you so much for your service there. So I want to, I want to kind of talk to you about this entrepreneurial bug so you know, you, you've gone through that journey, and now you, you know, you talk with people about that journey, and what do you see are the biggest challenges or the biggest ceilings, hurdles, roadblocks, whatever you want to call them, for people who want to own their own business, but never really make it happen,

Adam Contos 6:50

I think first of all, Pat we. We all end up overthinking things to the extent that we are overwhelmed. So once we start overthinking things, we run into this fear factor. And what happens with a fear response? It's fight, flight or freeze. And a lot of times, people just freeze this feared out. And overwhelm overcomes us, and this is the number one reason why business deals don't get done. Also, by the way folks, is overwhelm comes into the story here when we overwhelm ourselves or others, we stop functioning and we don't take action. Action is the antithesis of overwhelm. It gets you past that. That's the key factor that starts a business, is you have to take action in order to make things happen. So whatever that service or product is it you offer you know, you and I are both in the franchising space in sub sandwiches. We've also been in the franchising space in real estate, right? And ultimately, it's business. Is business. It's it's a system and a strategy, integrating people and processes, but without action, nothing happens. And ultimately, that's where entrepreneurs, or people who want to be entrepreneurs, fail, is they, they stop taking action. Maybe it's because that first action didn't work. I got news for you, the first one's not going to work. The 10th one might not work, but it's you got to keep going. I mean, it, you know, would it take, like, 1000 or 10,000 tries to invent the light bulb or something like that, right? But, you know, Thomas Edison kept going with it, and eventually figured out how to light the light bulb. Well, that light bulb is our business, and if we stop without finding success. You know, if you have a tested product or service and somebody else is doing it, you can find success. Also, you just have to take enough action enough times in order to find that point. And once I figured that out, yeah, I was like, Wait a second, I'm not one to give up. So why would I give up? Now it's okay to fail over and over again. And sure, you can pivot, you can adjust. But if you're committed to be an entrepreneur and making things happen, keep taking action. So with that,

Pat Mancuso 9:03

let me ask you a question, if there were, if somebody's listening and they're in that state of fear of taking action, or they haven't taken action, like, what would be one or two things you would point them to? I mean, just do it, obviously is one of those. But I think you can contribute more to that. So what would be one or two things if somebody came up to you and you know was, was hitting that ceiling that you would coach them or lead them to do?

Adam Contos 9:30

Well, Pat, you said a very important word there, coach. And I know you've spent 10s of 1000s of hours coaching people, and really what you implement in coaching is you figure out what what are they capable of, what do they need to learn, and what can they commit to do by a certain date or time, and you hold them accountable to get the getting those things done. So ultimately, it comes down to, how can you be accountable to taking that action? If there's no accountability, there's no action, very few people. Less than 1% of people on this planet are able to hold themselves accountable on a regular basis to entrepreneurial endeavors. That's why the majority of small businesses fail, because people can't be held accountable by themselves very well. That's why people pay a coach. The better the coach, the more they pay and the bigger the outcomes that coach coaches them through in order, you know, via action, if you will, so Pat. I mean, first of all, folks, I would say, look up Pat and find yourself a good coach. He might be the right coach for you. He might not be the right coach for you that I know he's been the right coach for a lot of people, and he will help you drive towards that action with accountability, kind accountability, but accountability, which is us knowing we are committed to somebody else to getting this done.

Pat Mancuso 10:47

Yeah, well, you either pay the price now or you pay the price later, and typically the price you pay later costs you way more. You know that that action that we avoid Now, typically that is not going to go away, and we're going to have to pay more down the road for that so and I appreciate that. Thank you so much for the kind words. We've been blessed in our journey of having an opportunity to impact lives and in people's families and as you have done and there's just nothing more rewarding than than doing that. And so I appreciate that. So I want to ask you, because we, you know, we both kind of live in this space a little bit in our sub franchise Port of Subs, I'm a franchisee. I'm also a regional developer, and you are leading us through that process. And the team, you know, the entire Port of Subs team, has been amazing. And I know that comes from, you know, there's some, there's, there's a lot more than some touch from Dave and the success that he's had, you know, with RE/MAX in the franchise side of it. And yet, you're, you're really leading that team on a daily basis. And so leadership is, you're, like, super passionate about this leadership. I know you are and I love it, so talk about that a little bit. Well,

Adam Contos 10:47

it's interesting, because when you look at what is a leader and what do they do, will they influence and guide somebody in order to accomplish a task or change a vision or establish values within an organization? So ultimately, what you're doing is you're you're molding that organization from the top. Now, what does that look like? It looks like, how do you act as a leader? How do you talk to people? How do you build the relationships? How do you show up as a leader? That leadership presence, any great leader, knows that people are watching what you do all the time and how you do it, and how you treat others, and what you say, you know, versus your execution. So ultimately, it comes down to, you got to have a good leadership system. You got to walk the walk and talk the talk. As a leader, you have got to be what you expect from others. Otherwise they're just going to look at you and go, you're just managing me through this process. Because managers manage processes. Leaders influence people. In order to say that again,

Pat Mancuso 13:04

say that again, we got to make sure that. I mean, I know it's on recording, but, but that's say

Adam Contos 13:10

it again. Managers manage processes. Yeah, leaders lead people to that those processes to get them done. So ultimately, you have forced somebody to do it, but they're living at the bottom of the psychology scale. Then they're doing it out of safety, because somebody's forcing them to do that in order to achieve a paycheck or something, some other outcome like that. You know, if people are doing nothing but doing things out of safety, they're not going to put very much in. They'll give you minimum necessary. We don't want minimum necessary in leadership. We want maximum possible. Why? Because most people show up with 40% of their effort. They just show up at work with 40% effort, but with the right values, the right organization, culturally, people will give way more than that 40% imagine just, I mean, and we're just talking to be great here. Imagine getting 80% that's a B in school, a b minus, no less. But what if we can get 100 or maybe we can push them beyond what they thought they could do and get 110 or 130% because they are so engaged and so inspired by the leadership in that organization that they are willing to, you know, stretch it out a little bit, feel a little pain, get out of their comfort zone. As as you would say, that's where the magic happens of great leadership is, is that inspirational part and it translates to the customer. Customer experience goes through the roof. Employee experience goes through the roof. Employees grow in an organization. They don't leave, they don't leave, they stay because they're continuing to find more themselves and they grow in that process,

Pat Mancuso 14:44

right? Makes Perfect, perfect sense. So let me ask you this question. So you obviously had the relationship with Dave through RE/MAX, and then Dave goes out and he decides he's going to get into the. The QSR space, right? Yes. And, you know, my son, I think, you know, this is a, is a sous chef, went to culinary school, and, you know, I hear the battle scars in in, you know, so when I decided we were going to do the Port of Subs, he's like, Dad, you do understand the the restaurant space, through living through me for nine years, and I go, yes, and yet, what drew me to the opportunity was Dave's a pretty smart guy like, you know, RE/MAX is a really successful company. And of course, you know, I came from, you know, Keller Williams, which is obviously also a very successful company, and a great leader in Gary and and yet, I'm curious. From your perspective, I never asked Dave this, and I probably should, but like, from your perspective, other than the brand, which I you know, obviously there's a story behind the brand. What was the big deciding factor to go into the QSR space?

Adam Contos 16:01

There were, there were three reasons. First of all, we were looking not just in QSR, but in franchising in general. Yep. So QSR is quick service restaurant. For any of the listeners who aren't used to our jargon, we've got fast food, which is, you know, McDonald's, pre made QSR is one step above it'd be like, you know, it's sub sandwiches. It's like Chipotle things like that, where things are made as you request them, the way that you want them. So that's QSR, and then you have casual dining, and then fine dining above that. So QSR is an interesting space. When you look at what causes success and what the fun part is in this whole thing, it, it's a fact that you have great people, yeah, with a great system and a great product, if you have those three things, the people, the system and the product, you can scale this. And what we did was we were just, we were looking at different franchise models. Doesn't matter what it was, QSR, it could have been home services, we were looking at some of those. We're looking at everything from, you know, junk hauling to painting to, you know, hair care, restaurants, you name it, you know, tax services, all these different things there. It's a system that is, it has a business in it. What is your product or service you offer with the system? So do the people enjoy what they're doing, and is there a passion behind that, a culture behind that, that is amazing, and, you know, so we've got, we've got the system, and we got the people. Is that product really good, right? And once we tested that, we ate the product Port of Subs was not in Colorado. Neither Dave, nor I had ever eaten in a Port of Subs. So we went out and we visited the founder. We visited the some of the stores. We had the food. We met the people in the stores. We saw how they interacted and how they treated the customers. What were the customers like, there's a cult movement behind this. I mean, you ask people, you know, have you ever been a Port of Subs? Yeah? Oh, what's your number? Their number is their venue number that their sub sandwiches on the on the menu board? Yeah, it's a kind of a cult following and and then they had market density and a lot of areas that they wanted to grow in. And we're like, wait a sec, you're only in seven states. They go, yeah. We were comfortable where we're at. Yeah. And David, I like to create discomfort in order to create growth. So, yeah, little bit. So we're used to running 9000 locations around the world. We're like, this is 135 oh yeah. We can do this. Let's scale this bad boy, and let's really help our franchisees create, you know, future family wealth. Let's help our customers be able to have this amazing product no matter where they go. And let's see what we can do with this so and it also, Dave has a belief, as do I, that everybody wins. So how do we go find some amazing people like yourself Pat to get in on this and say, Let's build this thing together and we'll share in the profits and the growth of this. Yeah. So that's, that's what it came down to. So we looked for, you know, people, system and product, and we found it at Port of Subs. It was rock solid. We loved it, and we just grabbed onto it and ran from there. And we're excited about, I mean, the growth that we're seeing, as well as the great product and the people whose lives were changing,

Pat Mancuso 19:27

yeah, you know. And I would be remiss if I didn't give you know, some shout outs here. So it What. What attracted me initially was obviously the opportunity, and yet I knew from owning existing franchises in the real estate space previously, how important the system was. And yet, what really struck me, and the reason, there's a reason I'm sharing this, is that, you know, obviously people are going to listen to the podcast, and you know, we talk about destination, business, freedom, and yet this is part of my destination. Business freedom. And from the standpoint of, we saw an opportunity in the the regional developer space, and I had a point in time in the past, and you know this, where I didn't take action on that there goes to that entrepreneur that that fear thing, and that's a what it was at that time. But what I love about what I've experienced at Puerto subs is the people. And you know, a shout out to Danny Johnson and her team down in Vegas, my daughter Ashley, who's a part of our business, as our director of operations. We went down there for two weeks of training, and Adam, I was just shocked by the relationships inside of that operation. You know, Danny and Jody and all the people. I mean, the people were amazing to work with, but was really amazing to me, and it validates what you're saying. Is people walked into that store and they knew their names, they knew what sandwiches and that stuff you can teach. But it actually comes from inside. Here. It comes from that belief. And then the second thing I looked at was when I visited the corporate offices back in September of last year. It seems only like yesterday, but like how many people, even though there was a transition from the prior ownership to this ownership, had been there and stayed, and that says a lot to how they perceived you and Healy and Dave and and everybody coming in. So it's that that validation piece is, is you said cult, and that word has been used in my world for like, 20 years as part of my prior, you know, real estate experience. But it really is a group of people that are on the same page and working towards the same goal. So I love that.

Adam Contos 21:40

That's a that's a great point. Pat. And I'm sure you noticed this, because you pick up on these, these different business moments, quite regularly. But it was interesting for us, because when we went into a Port of Subs, there was somebody who'd been in there, like 2025, years, making sandwiches, right? It's amazing. And there are people in Port of Subs headquarters. It's a small staff. You know, we're talking just a few dozen people, but ultimately, we have people who have spent their entire adult career working for this company, and decades, it blew me away. And now that's always one of the tests for me is, what is the longevity of the talent in the organization, are they showing up and then leaving, or are they staying for an extended period of time? Not necessarily, you know, nobody's really getting rich making a sandwich, but ultimately, what what they're there for is because they love what they're doing, and that says something about a company. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Well, so I

Pat Mancuso 22:40

want to transition, and I want to talk to you about the impact you're having in leadership roles today. So even though you're not you know you're no longer involved in RE/MAX at the level that you were, I still know that you you have impact there, but you're still involved in real estate, and real estate is going through this massive in my opinion, and maybe I'm overemphasizing it, but it's going to continue to go through massive transition. And there's going to be, you know, winners. There's going to be people that don't win as much, and then there's going to be people who, you know, may not be in that industry years from now, but you're still active in that industry in different ways and and so I want to talk to you about the impact you're having, maybe not just in real estate, but overall, I mean, you're you're like, today, what's the thing that's driving you on a daily basis to do what you do? I guess that's a better way to

Adam Contos 23:35

ask the question, I I love forward movement. I love getting better, and I love the risk and the pressure that you face in order to get better. So if we're not trying to do something better for ourselves, be it our health, our family, our finances, and by the way, I love what you're doing with closing the gap between finance and freedom. I mean, that is such a cool concept, and you're, I know you're making a huge impact on a lot of people, a lot of businesses, by the way, folks, if you haven't taken Pat's quiz on that the survey, go do it. But ultimately, you know, it comes down to, how do we find those gaps in our life in order to grow ourselves and help others grow. We have this, this missing component in society now, because we've had some generational interruptions go on in business and in life, development, if you will. A great example of one is covid. You know, we had before covid, we had the, you know, the great financial issues that we all experienced, if you were in real estate, 2007 to 2010 God love you. It was a rough time. And Pat and I can both tell you stories of pulling our hair out over this, you know, the financial downturns. But ultimately, we went through that. Things started to come back around. We hit covid. Things started coming back around again. There's always these interruptions. These pattern interruptions in growth in business and in leadership, and I love to help people close those gaps. The biggest gap we see is these people hanging on in different business concepts and staying with something and resisting change for good. Change happens for good in so many different ways. Change also happens for experimentation. Sometimes change happens for bad, but I consider that bad component as trial and error. We're going to fail sometimes in our change in order to find success in our change. So ultimately, it comes down to, how do we become better leaders in order to better affect this change and this transformation that happens in our industries. You mentioned real estate, space, Pat, you know, between NAR, the state boards of Realtors, the local boards of Realtors, and the MLS is there's a lot of interesting change going on after these class action lawsuits that have happened in the space, that are still going on. By the way, there's still settlements occurring and such. But ultimately, we haven't seen this other component, which is the Department of Justice coming in and making any changes based upon how they want to see the regulatory environment shake out. With this, it's going to take some leadership fortitude in order to accept and move forward with a transformation. This is not just an enhancement to the space, this is a transformation in the space, and the only way we're going to do that is because we have good leadership in this space, and good leadership is accepting of trial and error. It's accepting of new ideas. It's accepting of breaking down those old concepts, like protecting the data so fiercely as a lever against people with the MLS is, and I, yes, I'm a little bit, you know, I'm passionate. Yeah, I'm passionate about this Pat because I think that the industry can serve the consumers so much better if we have freedom of data use and we have less control by 525, beefdoms, these, these invisible, little things that people don't see if you're a consumer. But ultimately, brokers, agents and the consumer and the businesses that are evolving in the industry need to have the freedom to do so and help this business grow. I think the DOJ be like, Wow, this is great. So, um, ultimately, and that's just one concept that you look at, yeah, but it comes down to us as leaders, accepting that change is going to happen, and leading that change in a positive way.

Pat Mancuso 27:30

You know, you, I know you remember this, you know, probably, I'm pretty sure you'll remember this. But when I started in real estate, we still had the MLS books, and it was right at the beginning of computers. And you know, the company that I started with was very large, independent, and we were one of the first companies in the country to build out our own software to take the MLS and put it on computer. And I'll still never forget Adam, one of the very highly experienced real estate agents. He was a sweet lady. She fought that getting rid of that MLS book. I think she was the last one that the board allowed to have the the book, because she just, just bought it. And she was so sweet. She was just so sweet. But the, but I see a lot of that in the industry, and a lot of fear. And, you know, obviously, I'm not actively selling real estate, but I have a lot of clients in the real estate industry and, and you're right. I mean, there's got to be change in in, you know, the at the end of the day, it's about the consumer, right? At the end of the day, it's about the consumer, and it's about meeting their, you know, their objectives, their goals, no matter what side of the table they're on. So, yeah, I, I do agree. I think there's a lot, there's a lot to come in in that whole conversation. And would you say it's fair that the longer that it gets it, the longer people fight it, the longer it's going to take to kind of get to the point where we need to get to? Is that a fair statement? Oh,

Adam Contos 28:50

100% but you're always going to get people that resist change. I mean, that's just, that's human nature. You know, remember the overwhelm Thing? Thing? Yeah, well, so many people were overwhelmed by so much of what's going on. And, I mean, I didn't even mention the two letters AI in any of this. I mean, it's, you know, when you look at all the change going on and how fast things are evolving, I mean, come on, let's hop on the train, because this is no longer just a steam locomotive that we have going down the tracks. This is a high speed train that we all need to hop on and learn about this change and accept it. And there are things that you might go you know, that's not for me, but at least you learned about it, and you can speak intelligently to it, and you can lead people you know, either over, around or through it. So why not embrace the opportunity to get better yourself, gain some knowledge and help people make this some decisions, because you'll see it from a different perspective, that they than they do, and we can all work together in order to achieve it. Well,

Pat Mancuso 29:48

I gained some knowledge the other day, and that Microsoft is pretty smart. They're buying up closed nuclear power plants because they're going to need the power for AI. I mean, think about that like I'm. My gosh, that's a whole different level of thinking on AI. But I guess we got to start investing in nuclear power plants. Is the deal. So, so let's, let's go to people you're working with today. And I know you may not be directly working or you may, I don't know that, but you're doing a podcast. You're super involved in impacting people's lives. So I want to ask you a couple of questions. One, what's a great book you're reading right now that you'd share with everybody, or one that you've read recently?

Adam Contos 30:30

Well, I I always go back and rewrite, reread The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy. Darren Hardy, yep. I mean, it's, it's not a brand new book, but it's one of the best books as far as you know, business books go. I also love again, not a brand new book Atomic Habits. And really what we all need to do, in my opinion, is realign ourselves with how we stay within the framework and systems that give us achievement. And that's ultimately what those two books are about. How do we psychologically and physically continue to do that, as well as, what are the outcomes that are created in and I think the compound effect is a great place to start. I would continuously point people back to that. It is always, you know, one of the best business books recommended, and Darren did a heck of a job writing it. It is timeless in its concepts.

Pat Mancuso 31:19

Yeah, absolutely. Two or three of your mentors,

Adam Contos 31:24

of course. I mean, Darren is one of my mentors. Darren Hardy, the guy who wrote it, I'm part of a mastermind group with Darren and Dave liner, who is another one of my mentors. And I look at all of those guys. There's 11 of us in that group. I look at all those guys as key mentors to me, you know, we'll text or email or pick up the phone on a daily basis and bounce different personal ideas, everything from longevity and how to get in better shape to I have this business concept. What do you think, or I'm seeking funding on something? Do you have anybody to connect me with or just, you know, How's your wife doing? How's, how's the family you've been on a fun vacation. So I, I have a very small circle of people, but I rely on them for a lot of things like that.

Pat Mancuso 32:12

I love it. What's one thing that people don't know about you that you've never shared before?

Adam Contos 32:20

Wow, I try to be pretty transparent in my world, but at the same time, you know, I talk a lot of leadership. I talk a lot about personal growth and things like that. I've burned out. I've reached burnout a couple of times in my careers. But ultimately, I look back at those, and I think those were blessings where I was able to learn about myself. I was learned, I learned how not to be self abusive. Because, you know, a lot of people do get so down in the moment that they just can't find an out. And you know, whether or not it's drinking or another bad habit or something like that, you know, I I've learned a lot during my burnout periods that, you know, they they stop happening very much. Because,

Pat Mancuso 33:06

often, yeah, because we

Adam Contos 33:08

all have you learn how to how to cope and how to function. Stress happens, you know, you get into an argument with your loved one, or maybe you get injured and you can't exercise, or maybe just fall off the bus and start eating, like, you know, all sorts of garbage and horrible things to your body. But ultimately, if you figure out what doesn't work, you can focus on understanding why it doesn't work, and then go after what does work, because you figured out those levers in your life also. And you know, I'll be the first one to say I've hit burnout a few times I've hit rock bottom, I've been broke, I've been sick, I've I've been hurt, I've been depressed, but ultimately, I look at it, I go, I learned how not to be those things also by being well

Pat Mancuso 33:54

in the little personal tidbit is that there's going To be times in your life where either it's going to be self inflicted, which happens sometimes because we don't have the awareness, or life is just going to happen, or it's going to be combination of both. And you know, we're really excited that we just recently signed a book deal with Jack Canfield, and we're co authoring a book titled unlocking success. And the part in the book that I tell my story is to the, you know, the the combining, if you may, the collision would be a better word of, you know, business was going amazing, personal life was going amazing. And then those two things collided, and it really does force you to have an awareness of, I can't let myself get there. I can't I have to make sure that I don't repeat those things. And you know, we're excited about that opportunity. And book should be out, probably. First quarter of next year, and so it just ties into, I'm glad that you brought that up, because that transparency is really important. People look at successful people, and they see all the success, but they don't understand there's a lot of things that happen in that journey and in you know, and you learn from it. That's the whole reason why it's called the journey, right?

Adam Contos 35:19

Totally. Well, congratulations on that book deal. I didn't mention it in my book list, but it is one of my favorite books. Jack Canfield's The Success Principles, yes, yeah, literally, I mean, get that book put on your nightstand. There's 52 chapters, one chapter for every week. Spend a week reading the chapter and putting that chapter into place.

Pat Mancuso 35:40

And they're not. They don't go out of style. It's the it's, you know, that's what's funny about personal success. And you you know mayor, agree or disagree, but you know, when you go back to the, you know the Earl nightingales, and the you know Napoleon Hill and all those folks, all those concepts that they talked about that are still valid today, and people put their little twists on it, but foundationally, they're still valid today.

Adam Contos 36:06

Yeah, you want to hear one of the greatest speaking this is for all your listeners, one of the greatest speaking voices ever is Earl Nightingale. Go look him up on YouTube or something like that and listen to that. Man. Yeah, amazing. Yeah, be he was.

Pat Mancuso 36:19

He was one of my favorites, and then Ziegler was one of my favorites, just because I loved his accent. I love how he talked about his wife. And, yeah, now I'm dating myself, because I found out I'm young, I'm older than you. And like, Okay, I got that, but like, now, okay, we'll talk about that later. That's, you know, what's

Adam Contos 36:37

interesting about that, though, Pat, you know, you look at, okay, these, these timeless mentors and and success scientists, I guess, if you will, you know their concepts. They didn't come up with them. These, these concepts. They're just finding ways to refine them and help redeliver them to us. They come back from Aristotle, Plato and Socrates, and it's fascinating to take a look at the history of how success is creative and mankind has not changed that much. Success is created in a relatively similar way. It's just redefined as the generations change, and these, these key people, have delivered it in a timeless manner. And it's so exciting to hear you say those voices, because those are the things that I go back and listen to in the evenings and read on weekends. So thank you for

Pat Mancuso 37:26

bringing that up. Yeah, no, I appreciate it. Okay, I'm going to give you the last word. Give us one thought that you would share as we end our conversation.

Adam Contos 37:34

Wow. Well, I would say it's right over my shoulder here. If anybody is watching the video here, it's stay hungry and stay humble. I mean, the reality is, I was, I was in a very small mastermind and one of the key leaders in the tech space, one of the top tech companies in the world. The CEO was standing there, and I asked him, I said, I'm a young CEO. I'm trying to figure out, how do I not screw up the CEO thing? What advice do you have for me? And he said, Adam, I will tell you two things. One, stay hungry. You have to learn something every single day, and you have to return that favor to everybody that you lead and that your organization serves. And stay humble. There is no job that is too small for a key leader to go and do, and nobody that is outside of your realm of of help, where you can step in and make a difference for those people. So stay hungry and stay humble.

Pat Mancuso 38:33

I love it. I love it. I love it. If someone wants to reach out to you, get in touch with you, follow you. What would be the best way for them to do that?

Adam Contos 38:42

I simply put my name, Adamcontos.com you can find me @AdamcontosCEO all over the different social media platforms. Have a YouTube channel, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn. But if you if you want to go to my website, Adamcantos.com/leadership you can put your name and your email in there, and I'll keep and I'll keep you up to date on everything I've got going on. I love it. I love it.

Pat Mancuso 39:05

And of course, we have to share if you have interest in building generational wealth. Www.portofsubs.com, because we have amazing opportunities in so many markets across the country, very like prime markets, right? I mean, this is like, you know, I'm thinking maybe I need to go outside of Minnesota, maybe go south, so I can do both times of the year. But port of Saabs, you go there and click on for franchising, because the opportunities are amazing. The team is amazing, and we're just truly blessed to to be in business with y'all so thank you so much for that. Adam, thank you so much for your time today. Absolutely amazing. I appreciate it and all the contributions that you give back to the team and to the world through what you do as well.

Adam Contos 39:53

Thanks my friend, and thanks for all you do. Pat,

Pat Mancuso 39:56

I appreciate it, everybody. Thank you so much for listening. You're so. Org, please find us at your social media favorite social media spot, share it and follow us online at all the social media places as well. Thanks so much. Everybody. Have a great day. We'll talk soon. Take care.

Outro 40:12

Thank you for joining Destination Business Freedom with Pat Mancuso, may the insights and strategies shared guide you towards financial prosperity and personal freedom. Continue to navigate boldly until next time, keep transforming challenges into achievements. Farewell and stay the course.

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