How I’m Thinking Through These Hard Times - Part 2

I'd like to continue now with my next conversation here of fear, mitigation, but also forecasting. And that is my steady 80 rule, right? You've heard of the 8020 rule? Well, I believe in times of chaos, that we need to identify those 80% of things that matter the most in our business or in our life that give us, you know, real certainty or solid sense of our business or life, and stay steady on those. Because here's what happens when there is chaos. Everyone throws out the baby with the bathwater, and they start chasing all these new opportunities all over the place to try to do it right. I literally had a member of our community who I saw on social media saying, hey, you know what? I'm going to quit my business doing this, and I'm going to start a new business right now, you know, selling emergency supplies. And I was like, be careful in times of chaos, of being overly opportunistic. Instead, steady wins the race. What are the primary drivers of your business and your income right now? Stay focused of delivering those with excellence. What are the projects you already planned to the extent possible? Stay steady with those things, right? Whatever moves the needle the most in your business or brings you the most happiness in life, there's probably that 80% rule, right? It's like these few items bring 80% of the result, right? And also, usually it's 20% of everything is only the 80%, if that makes sense. I know that's always weird when people talk about the 8020 rule, but really, there's so few things that actually move the needle in your business or your life or your happiness. Focus on those. Dive deep into those. Leverage those, Amplify those. All right, Even me and Kevin over here, Kevin Richards, my main man, just. We're building some serious stuff down here in Puerto Rico and just been a huge blessing in my life and Denise's life and our team's life. Even we were swapping texts. I can't remember when it was now, 48 hours ago, probably of like, we should launch this thing right now. And everything in both of our bodies, I know, says, do this now, but we already have projects we've been working on and we're behind on. We already know this thing works over here, you know, in chaos. Be careful of jumping into new when there is unknowns and uncertainty, beware of adding more uncertainty. If you're already in a moment of chaos or uncertainty, adding more at that precise moment is usually not the right answer. Usually the right answer to minimize the downside is to really focus on that 80, 20 rule. Really? I say stay steady with 80%. If you're going to change anything, maybe allow these 20% of things to change. You know, in our business, there's 20% of things that's probably just going to be forced upon us to change that we had planned this year. That's okay, because the other 80% is rock solid. And we will dive there, and we will focus there, and we will deliver there with excellence. So here's my question. What are the five things you should absolutely continue doing in your business? I want you to write this down, Team hpx. The five things you should absolutely continue. Don't break that streak.

Don't.

Don't turn your focus away from that, no matter what. Like, dive deep on the things that are really working right now. Yes. Some things are being taken away from you. You might lose some clients. You might have this challenge over here. You know, people are freaking out. But I want you to be steady. Part of the reason I'm so centered amid the chaos is I'm still executing the plan. Let me say it again. Part of the reason I'm still so centered amid the chaos is I know when I wake up, I'm still executing the plan. As the world freaks out, I'm still executing the plan. And I know some people are going to say, well, Brendan, that's so easy for you. This reason, that reason, or whatever. No, I mean, many of you guys know I was sick the last two weeks. I did not have coronavirus, so I want everybody to be cool with that. But I got like the seasonal flu. And I'm 1,000%. I'm okay. Don't worry. But I got sick. My immune system was compromised after doing my event. And, you know, days and days later, I got. Just started getting sick. And I was scared. I didn't feel good. It was the first time in my adult life I ever had the flu, the seasonal flu. And it sucked. And of course, I quarantined myself too. Cause I was like, oh, I don't want to get anyone sick. I didn't know what to do. I was in bed most of the time. It was no good. And I still woke up incredibly confident. How who's still executing the plan? Sometimes the plan gets put off a day or two or sometimes two weeks. Guess what? I'm still going to execute the plan. We're going to get into June, ladies and gentlemen, and we're going to look back at the specific time where we really had to hunker down and close some things. And we're going to look back and go, oh, wow. Because in June, there'll be a new normal, right? No matter what happens, whether the chaos gets bigger where there are more people get sick or more people even die, we will be now, you know, more than two months further along at that moment. And we will be in a place where we go, oh, this is how it is now. I mean, look at how we adjusted to the global realities of all the global change last couple years. Like, it's crazy what we're used to now. The new normal becomes the new normal. And I'm not downplaying or saying anything's not important. I just know in June, Bren Burchard is still executing his plan. Take away April from me. Okay? May, Bren Burchard's still going to execute his plan. The confidence that you will still execute after is something you should hold on to. I am staying steady right now with the things that move the major needles in my business. I want you to know the five things that move it in your career. Whatever works best in your career that has really helped you. Double down on those five things, right? If you can only identify three, great. Double down on the things that are working right now. It will give you confidence, and it will give you momentum. And if you have confidence and momentum right now, trust me, you're emotionally going to be dealing with this better. Okay, next big idea. So I believe I'm on what Number 1, 2, 3, 4. I'm on number 5. Minimize your downside by taking action now. Let me give an example. Minimize your downside. So by taking action now, if you know you're about to lose clients, launch something to gain clients. Right now. If you see the stock market and you're anticipating that there's going to be a downside, reallocate your portfolio, which I hope all of you did in the last 72 hours. We're at a great time, right? Everything that we've ever learned from every great investor, they all say the same thing. Warren Buffett himself, It's like, hey, when everyone is freaking out and running and the thing is tanking and it hits a certain level, that's the greatest time of opportunity. So minimize the downside. So if you're scared right now, we'll still reallocate into more safety. If you're scared right now and you've been taking risks over here, downplay that risk a little bit and amplify what's working. And so just be, be, be conscious of how do I minimize downside. If this is Going to cancel if this is going to happen, if that's going to happen. Okay, what can I set up structure or reallocate right now? What can I set up structure or reallocate right now? I had a very difficult conversation with a friend last night who has 7,000 employees. And he sees the writing on the wall and by the end of the I was coaching him, doing high performance coaching with him last night. And he was like, I'm gonna have to let some people go. He's never let people go in and he's never had to be. That's. He's never had to do that. But in his industry, this quarter will lead to a dramatic loss and he had to be real about it. And minimizing the downside right now is making the tough decision to minimize the losses of the business by changing what they are promoting and investing in. And this person's going to have to let go, you know, quite a significant number of people to protect the business for the long term. It sucks, but what I was so proud of him. He was like, he made the call. You. And I can't guess what the right call will ever be. But in times in which you need to minimize downside. Minimize downside. If you've got some risky bets running right now, maybe you go, you know what? That's not leading to anything right now. Let me focus on the things that are. So I hope that really makes sense. You have to minimize the downside by taking action right now. It's really important. Really important. Okay, keep posting your questions down below, y', all because my team is gathering them up and sending them my way. And I will hop in and do a bunch of questions with you here in a moment and then we'll talk about these questions that I know I get all the time, which is, well, gosh, Brendon, how do you think of opportunity right now? I think of opportunity the same all the time. I have a little formula. We'll share the formula with you. But let's talk about a few things of your questions. I'm going to jump right in right now. Okay. So post your questions down below. My team is compiling them. We'll do a little bit of Q and a with you guys right now. And our first question is. Coming in, Jasmine Lee. Hi, Jasmine. Hi, Brendan. There's this saying that let your faith be bigger than your fear. Would you be able to share your insights on how you approach that or how we can achieve that? Yeah, I think that's really important right now. I think faith is A daily thing. I don't. Here's my perspective. I don't think faith has to be any bigger right now than it was last Tuesday. My faith is rock solid all the time because I chose that to be it. And I tap into it faith every single day. You have to find your way of doing that, because here's that. Either you're tapping into fear more or you're tapping into faith more. It is a conscious decision of where your mental bandwidth is going to right now. You can log in right now and look on Twitter about all the outrage, or you could look at your Bible verses. That's a choice. One is going to lead to one feeling and one sense, and one's going to lead to another. It is a conscious choice of where your attention goes. Jasmine, where is your attention? That is the most important thing right now, because when you can tap into that and take conscious control, everything shifts. And I think faith is incredibly important in times of difficulty. So tap into it more. For those who have faith, in whatever way you define that, tap into it more, period. Tap into it more. Okay, thank you for asking, Jasmine Lee, just for being here and being part of our community and asking great question today for Jasmine Lee. Let's give her our $300 course called the Confidence Course. Marcel, how do you best think about the needs of others when making tough decisions? A risky move might negatively impact people I care about, but maybe I estimate their bad feelings as worse than they'd actually be. Marcel, you answered your own question. We always assume that when we take risk, it's going to ruin other people's lives or it's going to make other people feel terrible. When in reality, almost all the time, even people you deeply care about, they're focused on themselves. They're truly focused on themselves. And by the way, they should be accountable for their own feelings and their own realities outside of your actions. Now, that's super hard to say because, you know, when you talk about parents or you talk about team leaders, you say, no, no, no, Brandon, you know, I am responsible for everybody. You are not responsible. You are absolutely not responsible for everybody's complete reality. At some point, the kid's got to grow up and the team has to own their stuff, too. You can't control everything. What you must do is make the best decisions right now that are decisions of integrity for you and on purpose for you. And when I talk about responsibility to others, service to others, that's huge, important, meaning don't compromise in adding value to others, but also don't placate others, add value to others, don't placate. Meaning I don't bend my future opportunities to the judgments or the concerns of other people ever. Right? If I have a crazy, wacky idea and Denise is like, that's a stupid, crazy idea, you know what we're going to say? Let's test it. Let's prove it to be either a great idea or a crazy, wacky idea. At the end of the day, I'm not going to compromise how I show up for her just because I go do something else. I can still add value to our relationship and our marriage even as I try crazy things, right? And that's the whole thing. This is where fear really gets ahold of people when they catastrophize. They make fears and results permanent things. Marcel, I wouldn't worry at all, because what you need to do is test. See, everyone thinks of risk, as in either win or lose, gain or ruin. I'm like, no, no, no. Real risk is test. Just try the idea in a minimal way and see the impact and see how you feel about that and how you're capable of handling that or scaling that or growing that. Communicate with other people that you are in a test. When I communicate with other people that are in a test, they're like, oh, okay, If I tell people I'm changing our lives and you have to go with me, damn it. Oh, my gosh. Drama, fear, intrigue. No, no, no. I communicate everything as a test. And when you communicate as a test, everyone's like, oh, got it. Okay, I can handle that. Marcel, because you're so concerned about what others might think as you make a tough decision, I would love for you to Enjoy our other $300 course we'll give you called influence course. How do you influence others? I do want to make sure I specifically address her question about the part of how do you best think about the needs of others? I don't think about the needs of others in a sense of Please don't make that a meme. I don't think about the needs of others. Instead, I think about what others value. And what I mean by that is each of us is responsible for our own needs. I think about what do people value and how can I serve that and contribute that and add value to that. Them dealing with what they need, they're in charge of asking for that, directing that, making that happen in their lives or asking it of me. I'm not worried about meeting the exact need of theirs, because I can't. That's their need, not mine. Instead I go, what do they value? And can I give something to that? And when you recognize the difference between those two things, everything really does shift. As an example, you know what other people's actual needs are? There are very few needs. There's physical needs, there's sustenance needs. And basically the sustenance and the safety needs are the primary two needs. There's a desire for belonging, but it is not necessarily a need for everybody. There are a lot of people who are super stoked that they get to self quarantine right now. Sorry for the joke, but it's true. Some people are like, thank God, let me get out of the office and let me away from people and all the stress right now. And so the idea that we all need a certain type of belonging isn't true. We need to know what they value. They value connection with you. Like this. Oh, let me serve that value. They value this amount of their freedom. Oh, let me serve that. They value this, you know, this opportunity that they need to do because it's their passions. Oh, let me serve that. So there's a difference between values and needs. And that's an important thing to know. Let's see. Janet Marshall. What's up, Team hpx? She's from Ottawa, Canada. How are you? As Denise would say, rather than being ordinary, I've chosen to be extraordinary. Congratulations. I'm happy to join you for the very first time. Hey, first timers. If this is your first live cast with us, make sure you chat down below. Tell us where you're from and what you've loved the most so far. Cause we got a lot to go. I know. I'm happy to join you in the world that's gripped by this. It's scary out there. How do I find courage to live my most courageous life? You know what? I love that, Janet. I'm gonna hop to this section as well. So let me kind of change up my order here, but I think that's a really important question. How do you find courage? Courage is always found and demonstrated in initiative despite risk. Action despite risk. And so what I want you to do every single day, Janet, and everyone watching this is ask what would be a strong or a bold or an important action I could take today? A strong, bold or important action I could take today. Just one and take it. I don't need to do 50 things. Courage isn't usually recognized as 50 things. Courage scientifically, the way that we had studied it and we codified it in my book high performance habits was Courage was most often described worldwide as speaking up for oneself, doing something that is difficult or speaking up for another. Really, that's where it usually comes down to being so each day. Can you express your needs to your partner, even when you're worried about it? Can you take that difficult action even though it's hard and you don't know how to do it? Do one thing that's hard every day and courage starts to develop. And everybody, I want you to do this. Listen, too many of you right now are going to play defense. When you should really engage offense, you should really right now engage offense. That means be proactive and take the hard measures right now. Not to protect, but instead to grow. Because courage is always something that strengthens and expands us, right? It makes us better by addressing something that is scary and taking action anyway that is of service to others or service to the growth of our purpose. And so I want you to think about every day, wake up and go, okay, what would be hard that would move the needle forward? What would be hard to admit, to share, to do, to make happen and do it and do it? That's a great question. And thank you, Janet. And thank you for everybody who is new here today. Janet, just for being here, we're going to give you one of our courses called the Courage Habit Builder. The Courage Habit Builder for Janet Marshall for being here. I appreciate you being here. Let me jump back in to some more takeaways. I want to talk about forecasting and then I want to talk about opportunity. People right now are asking, you know, Brendan, amid all the crazy, how are you thinking about the future? How are you thinking about next week? How are you thinking about next month, next quarter, next year? Let me begin by saying this. The first way that I forecast is by establishing and sticking to my daily rhythm of things that moves the needle for me. I think the future can absolutely over the long term be shaped by and created. And if you believe that too, welcome to a self reliant world in which you are determining and creating and coactively building your destiny right now. We must remember our future is something we are building right, right now. When you want to hunker down and be fearful and wait everything out. I understand that at a pandemic level, but in your life you cannot do that. And even in this pandemic, I really believe it is necessary to establish a daily rhythm that gives you confidence and momentum. The daily rhythm. So what I mean by that? Well, when I'm forecasting, you know, the next, call it year, I'm asking, am I doing the things that I know move the needle and am I doing those things consistently on a daily rhythm? My forecast in my business for three quarters from now, I don't think in any way is different than it would have been with or without the pandemic. And I know that sounds crazy for anybody to say, but because I know my business and I know how I am going to show up and I know the results that I can and do create. I know that you could come and reliably, Kevin can pull, you know, the last five years of my business, look at all the data, look at what my output was on a daily rhythm basis and go, oh, he kept doing these things and these results. He's pretty steady. I think that's important. Again, steadiness. But forecast with your daily rhythm of effort. Don't forecast on fear. Don't forecast on this. No, I am going to predict my future based on how I show up today. Let me say it again. I'm going to predict my future based on how I'm going to show up today. If I show up today and I show up strong and confident and disciplined and focused, I know there will be more positive outcomes than if I did otherwise. Let me say it again. I know if I show up today strong and capable and focused and disciplined today, I know I can forecast the outcome being bigger, better, and a future that I want more. So if I don't do those things. So all forecasting must begin with daily effort and behavior. Matter of fact, I tell people all the time, forecasting 90% of it is how you showed up today. 90%, your today is predicting the future. Your outcomes in three weeks are completely determinant upon what are we doing leading up to those three weeks. I really believe it's really important. So daily rhythm forecasting, second big idea. You got to look back right now in a time and space like this. Don't get trapped in this monthly thinking. Don't get trapped in the next month as we're doing this livecast with you right now. The international travel bans have been mostly set for a period of 30 days. Almost all meeting restrictions have been set only for the end of March or for the next three to four weeks. And almost all quarantines have been approached as something that is, you know, 30, maybe 60 days as of now. Who knows if this changes. I'm just sharing as of now, as we're actually doing this, what that means is we're looking at a 30 or 60 day period of time. I don't think you should forecast a 30 or 60 day period of time. Remember, my friend with 7,000 employees, what I did with him is. Let's pick up perspective. Can you look at your last three quarters with me? And instead, because a quarter is a much better average period of time, your quarter this quarter might be really jacked up, right? Because a lot of fear and panic. I mean, look at, you know, our friends in the transportation industry, in hospitality. Right now they're getting, you know, they're getting their shirts taken from them. But if you look at their historical average on a quarterly basis, say one year, two years, that's much better predictor of where they're going to be at in quarter three of this year and quarter four of this year. Why? Because the establishment of the new normal is an ongoing always trend. The establishment of a new normal. So let me say this. Three quarters ago, guess what was happening three quarters ago. New things, crazy things, volatile things, new innovations, new dramas. Three quarters ago, this one is a particular heavy and scary 1. But 3/4 ago were just as reliable as a predictor 3/4 out from now than this specific one. And that is, you know, that's economics, that's historical study, that's the law of using data. And so I think it's really important to realize if you're trying to forecast the end of this year, please don't be catastrophizing in your mind, please don't do that. It's going to keep you up at night, cause anxiety in your marriage or your spouse or your relationships or your team that you do not need. Yet you cannot possibly predict December right now based on this month. What's a better predictor of this upcoming December than this month or next month? What's a better predictor? Last December and the last Q4 of 2019 is a better predictor of December than this month of March. You follow. When you have a peak of drama, or a peak incident as they call it in economics, you can't assume that to be the average of future quarters. That is not a good use of forecasting. So I would rather you say, okay, if you're genuinely interested In December of 2020, I want you to do a historical analysis of your last three quarter fours of the last three years. So go back to Q4 of the last three years and ask what did we do? What worked well, and now start thinking and planning that way for this upcoming one. I'm not saying we're not all going to have to adjust to some realities, but if you look at the Q4 of the last three years, new normals were developing then, too. And a new normal will be set in and developed. I promise you. I promise you by mid summer, we're all going to be in a very different place than we are now. I can't emphasize that enough. So quarterly projections based on quarterly historicals, especially for Q3 and 4 of this year. And I'm here to tell you, if you think, if you're a responsible business person, if you're going to take some losses right now, then do everything you can right now to minimize downsides and maximize gains. However, also ask, okay, great, then how do we take what we thought we were going to do in quarter four this year and how do we substantially increase that? What would I need to do to start right now? So my friend, as I was speaking with him last night with the 7,000 employees, what I shared with him, I said, okay. So we talked about the realities the last couple quarters, we talked about this quarter. And then my question was, okay, tell me this, what could you do now to ensure your Q4 is so much higher than you already had hoped it could be to mitigate the losses that you experience now? And listen, what he decided, even as he has to lay off some people now, he decided to spin up and hire more in this specific department. That's really going to impact his Q4 efforts. That make sense. So even as he's minimizing downside here, he's maximizing his forecast for his Q4. That's what you got to do, right? You got to be thinking, okay, if this month sucks or next month sucks, okay, how do we minimize that? But then also, how do we shore up for a bigger end of the year? I think that's really important for people and that will give you a sense of confidence. You know, go to your battle boards, as I call it, right? Go up on your wall, draw 12 boxes, and if this month sucks, write sucks in it and then write winning in November and December and plan for that. You got time, baby. It's not just now you got time. You really do hope that helps.

Think about it.

For forecasting, another thing that is really, really important to me is that we reach outside of ourselves for all of forecasting and future growth. What does that mean? It means whatever you already had planned this year when you're trying to anticipate your results, when what we usually do is go, oh my God, my results are going to be less because of this chaos, right? Oh, my gosh, my, you know, my May or My April is going to be so much worse because of this situation. That's true only if your forecast involves your solo efforts as they are now. What do we mean by that? In a moment of chaos when we are trying to forecast our future, the most important thing we can do is wrangle in industry peers into joint efforts. Right? We got to come together. In other words, you need. If you're trying to forecast, of course that forecast looks scary when it's just your own efforts. What you need to start doing immediately right now is setting up promotional partners and promotional plans for quarter three and quarter four. A lot of people don't want to do anything right now because they're scared and they're looking at this next quarter going, I don't know what it's going to be about. Great. So set up promotional plans for quarter three and quarter four. Set it in stone as a calendar, meaning do some type of joint effort with peers in your industry. Now, if you're someone saying, Brendan, this is a lot of business talk, man, I don't know what you're talking about. You know, I was just, I'm home with the kids. Okay, how if you're looking at your happiness and your joy and you're like, I don't know how this is going to play out, then here's what, like, engage your neighbors more. Make plans now for later. Right now, everyone is in canceling plan mode, which is fine and totally understandable. Like, sure, cancel. That's minimizing downsides, right? But don't project too far out at all. Instead, first only project out based on what is real. And then build out with others. Build out with others. I'll give you an example of how I'm thinking about this with minimizing downside and building at the same time and just forecasting right now. Many of you guys know I have an event coming up in May. It's our certified High Performance Coaching Certification week. And as of now, our event is scheduled May 14th. So it's mid May and people have asked, are you canceling it? And I said, we are not determining that right now. A determination that would be premature. Now it's easy for people to outrage. How dare you? How could you do that? I'm like, because I'm honest enough to say I'm not God. When the best of the United States government and governments around the world, the best estimations and the only regulations and restrictions and almost all their Recommendations are for 30 days, who do I think I am guessing 60 days? These are officials who Spent many in many places and cases their lives in public health and they don't want to set any restrictions past 30 days. Who do I think I am to do that in such a way that would impact other people's career and their potential businesses and their families? I'm not going to make that designation sooner. I'm going to wait and say okay, let's see things how play it out. I'm okay to make the determination with local authorities, with the government, with public health officials, with medical advice, with the input even of the community. But I'm not going to premature make any decision of the business. Does that make sense? Because what most people are doing is they're taking the forecast. You never forecast the future based on the current reality. You base the future based on trends and historical average. Trends and historical average. We are not in a trend right now. We are in a knee jerk reaction. We don't have the data to be making May, June and July. Now I know lots of people say but Brennan, other people have made decisions for that. I'm like cool. We might end up making the exact same decisions and we'll do them when it's judicious and thoughtful. Not a knee jerk reaction to the moment. I think what is always important is not to be in a knee jerk reaction mode. Especially when other people's careers or businesses or families count on that thing. Now I'm also insanely protective of my community's health. I'm insanely protective of, you know, the well being of our people. So if it leads to in that time I have to make virtual accommodations for them where we do something virtually or if it means I have to move or postpone the an event. I'm totally open to that. But I won't prematurely make that decision when the world's experts are only forecasting 30 days out. We'll revisit it very soon. But I think that's how you also have to forecast. You forecast based on maybe, listen, maybe a 30 day window and then you revisit. And I think it's really important for you to say don't over knee jerk reaction in your life right now. Because we are facing a historical, unprecedented, unforecastable moment. Right. We are also seeing a situation, in my opinion, where there are other things that we know are affecting more people worldwide than this current situation. And while the concern is absolutely valid, the hysteria is overblown. I am okay with major actions to protect mass community, but the hysteria around things is usually not that responsible in my opinion. So make Decisions when it is timely to make decisions. I do believe that the world clearly does did not act sufficiently and quickly enough with coronavirus. I want to be on record for that. For those who think I'm not saying that right now, I absolutely believe we've done a horrible job. How do we not, as a global community, have had a global testing system in place that was incredibly more efficient and incredibly more widely available than it is now? That is something that we should have had, no question. So please don't think I'm not taking things seriously. I'm absolutely taking things seriously. I absolutely think we could have done a better job. But I also know your life and your business and the future of your family is dictated upon you forecasting accurately right now. And it is all forecasts are always better on a trend line than in the moment. So let that trend develop a little bit so you can understand what is happening before you make a knee jerk reaction for your particular business or for your particular career. I hope that helps think through that. That is my approach to that. Okay. That is my approach to that. Next up on forecasting, you must find where you are. If you're in business, find where are you spending right now. And you must very, very closely watch that trend line over the next four weeks and do not make decisions to end any campaigns based on the last 72 hours. I've had so many friends who are like, oh my gosh, this conversion didn't work well. I'm like, yes, people were busy buying supplies. I can't believe, you know, they're catastrophizing based on their return on ad spend in the last four days. I'm like, you know nothing about your business based on the last four days. Please don't catastrophize. I think forecasting should be done on a trend line. And I think it's really important to recognize that you have the opportunity right now to identify, pay closer attention to your numbers than ever. But also if you happen to be in a place where whatever you are doing stayed steady, let me say this again, if whatever you are doing has stayed steady in the last seven days as a trend, stay committed to that. And if it stays steady again next week, if there is a steadiness over two weeks spend treadline in an incident like this right now, I'm here to tell you, consider doubling down because that means you have, quote unquote, a bulletproof campaign running. And if you got a bulletproof campaign running right now and you see that over a two, three week period in this moment, especially after next weekends, if it stayed something that is acceptable to you in terms of your risk profile, double down, like you got a winner that you didn't even know is a bigger winner than you thought and, and forecast with that with a stronger sense of security than you probably want to. Okay. That would be how I am looking at that personally. Okay with that. I know I might be going a little bit over today, but I know one of the big questions is, well, Brendan, how do you think about opportunity right now? I always think about opportunity the same way. Do not be an opportunist right now who makes major changes in your life or your business. That is knee jerk. Just like we didn't say, oh, let's drop everything we were doing to do this campaign because we think it'll make money right now. I think that causes a lot of chaos and stress that you don't need when there's a lot of uncertainty. So we have another vault video on how exactly I formulaically plan my opportunity all the time that has given me a trend line that looks like this in my career. I don't like this feeling in my life, this yo yo feeling of money. No money, no money, Stress, no stress. Oh my God. Instead, I like to always be growing by making thoughtful, framework driven decisions. And I want to share that with you here and then I'll come back and we'll do a full round speed round of as many Q and A as we can. So make sure you post all your questions down below but also share what have you liked today. I would also ask as is playing for all of you to participate as a global community and also share your advice right now of how you think other people can deal with fear or with forecasting. So in other words, this is time for you to all not only ask your questions, but add value. My team will compile questions but also add value as a community and take notes also on this framework for opportunities because this is a great long term framework that will pull you into quarter three and four and in years future making decisions that are right for you specifically. Okay with that. Roll that, Kevin.

People in productivity always ask the first question. They say, well, Brendan, how do I evaluate things? Because I'm a productive person. But you know what happens to me is I keep getting distracted or I.

Keep, I don't know which one to do.

I've got two good options. I'm not sure which one to do. I'll share with you my shorthand. I got two frameworks that help me every single time they're like back and napkins things I can do. That really helped me decide between two different things because I get offers all the time, as you can imagine. I'm like. It can be overwhelming. And so here's how I do it. Future value plus L. Oh, yeah, let's. Okay. This is my magical shorthand that helps me so much. The terms of any deal. The terms of any deal has to be less than ROI plus FV plus L plus pd. Okay, next up, just check it if you're here. It's a super simple one.

Okay.

I got option A or option B. I'm gonna run them both through this equation and whichever one wins is the one I'm most likely to choose. If I. If they're really close, I'll run them through the second framework I'm gonna show you. So the first one is easy. Time, energy, resources, money. This means the terms of any deal have to be less than. So in other words, what I put into something, whatever I put into something has to be less than what I think I'm going to get out. How many follow? Very utilitarian.

Right?

Very utilitarian value here. If I'm going to put a bunch of stuff in, I better get more out. Okay? And what I found is if I have a deal and I'm gonna put a bunch of time into it, or energy or resources or money, I better get more out of it. But what my magical thing was, was the S. This is the one no one ever thinks about. And everyone screws up and they make.

A lot of decisions.

A lot of utilitarian minded people, very logical, very logical, strategic people make decisions based on time, energy, resources, money, and they forgot the S in the equation. And you have to think about every bad decision you ever chose versus something else. He said, I wish I wouldn't have done that. You just did not consider this thing called sanity. How much time, energy, resources, money and sanity am I going to have to put put into this thing? And I really got to think about that because how many of you ever did a deal with something where it literally you had to work with someone who drove you insane? Great money, great output, but the input of my own sanity, it would have driven me crazy. Entrepreneurs make this mistake, especially all the time. You don't think about how much craziness is going to go into something. You just get attracted to the time, energy, resources, more money. You're not thinking about the lifestyle or the community or other things that could really shape how sane it is.

Right.

That's one Thing I'm proud about with what we do with CHPC is like we make this a very sane, calming, comforting community. We step by step. It, it's not scary because I think a lot of other people, it's just easy to get attracted to things that drive you insane. And I think it's important for you all to care about your. You're saying so you can bring the.

Yes. Okay.

So whatever time, energy, resource, money and sanity I put in, something has to be this is less than sign. I learned that in math once has to be less than what I get out of it. In terms on, in terms of roi, you know what that means? Return on investment. So this is a straight one to one. If whatever I put into it, I better get that out and investment, I better get that out. It better save me some time, build my energy, build my resources or my money or I don't want to do it. That's straight up return on investment. And then FV is where most people fail to have strategy. FV stands for future value. Never do anything just for roi. This is where they wreck kids in business. Quick school. They wreck them because we're still teaching straight up balance sheet mentality in the world. That's why our relationships are wrecked. Because we're trying to have a balance sheet scorecard with our spouse. We're trying to equate things out with our spouses. How's that working for you? And so we start ruining our relationships because we are trying to get that balance sheet just even. And in real life, we, we want future value built into deals.

I want you, if you're going to.

Do something, I want you to be able to look out and say, wow, that's going to benefit me in 1 year, 2 year, 3 year, 4 year, 5 year. Like I can see how that moving that piece right now, that's going to be a building block that's going to serve me later on. And if you can't see that whatever deal you're doing as a stepping stone, don't do the deal. And especially don't get trapped in the idea of thinking whatever deal you're going to do is a final stepping stone.

Because a lot of people, especially when.

You'Re starting, you're like, that deal will change my life. That's it, that's all I need. I'll be good for life. That means your short term survival thinking, not strategic growth thinking. When you start thinking about future value, you make very different decisions. Very, very different decision. It makes you write different books, it makes you Build different programs. It changes the way you sell. It changes the products that you build in your company. You got to go back to future value thinking, including every little thing that you do. If you hire people. Don't hire people to fill in a short term need. Hire future value players. Can I get an amen on a Sunday?

Right.

Don't go out with somebody just because they're just there. Date future value people. Don't have short term friends just because you need to lean on somebody who's a complainer. Create friendships with future value people. Your job is to always be honoring and protecting and standing at the gates as guard and champion of your future. Everyone raise your right hand, say, my future matters. My future matters. So I have to be strategic. So I have to be strategic. The way to be productive is to be more strategic. The way to be productive is to do the things that add future value. You got to look past the short term, go for the long term plays and the long term value will change your life then. If entrepreneurs typically suck at sanity in their evaluations, then on the other side, they always fail on the big L lifestyle. They'll take the deal because it's good time, it's energy, it's making a lot of money. It's not too crazy. It's not too crazy. I can handle it. But they're not thinking on the other side. Boy, if I say yes to that, that means I'm going to be working 28 more hours a week. Who's ever said yes to something that made you work 20 or 30 or 40 more hours a week and you didn't anticipate it? Yeah, I've been there too. And listen, is that related to your productivity? Yes or no? Yes or no? Yeah. When you make decisions and you're not looking at the future value or thinking lifestyle, no wonder your short term productivity is wrecked because you, you said yes or jumped into something that wasn't your thing. It wasn't of your character, it wasn't who you are, it wasn't the lifestyle you wanted to be, it wasn't who.

You wanted to become.

And that's because you didn't take into account personal development either. You can't keep saying yes or keep evaluating things in like, well, that sounds good. Just because it's good doesn't serve. Serve who you want to become.

Okay, my friends, I hope you enjoyed that terms framework that I just gave you. Because the thing I wanted to point out to you there is. You can clearly see I'm always thinking about where is My time, my energy, my resources, my sanity really going. And I won't put that into anything that won't lead to some real personal development or lifestyle growth. It's why right now, and I bring this up specifically because people are like what should we opportunize on? What should we take advantage of in this emergency pandemic? I'm like don't. If you didn't see the opportunity prior as something that you are passionate about that brings purpose and growth and future value to you, then listen, why never do something in the short term it doesn't lead to real future value or joy or growth for you because that just means you're a hyena and there's no reason for that. Like live. Is the lion proud of what you are doing? You know, I just think that's really important. Okay, I'm going to jump in your questions because you had so many questions and I appreciate, I'm so pumped by the engagement you guys have given today and the value you just added for this community and sharing some ideas. I appreciate that. So far today I've talked about staying centered amid the chaos. I've talked about not complaining. I've talked about understanding fear and mitigating the fear. I talked about saying steady on the 80s, right? Steady 80. Steady 80 means find the five things that are working the most, your 80% of what really moves the needle and stick there, double down there, focus there. I talked about how do you maximize opportunity with the four formula I just gave you. But I also talk about forecasting, developing your daily rhythm and let your daily rhythm and your hard work forecast. Making sure you're forecasting based on quarterly historicals and trend lines versus the immediacy knee jerk of the moment. Find in this next two to three weeks if you had something that was working and it made it through this, then double down or really shore up or emphasize those things because those are working and and it worked through this. Wow. You might be on a major, major find there and really focus there. I guess my real themes of today are really take control of your emotional center, keep a long term view and do things on a daily basis that bring you joy, purpose, confidence, courage, growth. You know, those things you can control. So Jan Selko was asking though I feel role modeling is really working over the long term, but staying calm doesn't always seem to be enough. How do I help those around me get into a calm space when they are caught up in the craziness? Number one, please. You know you guys are all in this Community, you know, play this for your families, watch this with your families again, have a conversation about what we talked about. I think that will really help to Jen, grab up the people who you love who are close to you and take them on a walk. Get them out of their house, out of the media, take them on a walk. I know people are gonna say but Brendon, I'm not supposed to leave my house in this area or that area. If that's true, then walk them around your living room. I mean like take a break from it all in whatever way that works for you and talk about things that you care about again, talk about the future, plan about the future, pick people's perspective out about now and talk about things. If your kids college just got canceled, it doesn't mean you still can't talk about what their major is and what they're excited about when they go back to school, about the friends they've met in school that they can't wait to see again when they get to go back to the dorm. We get to choose the topics in which we explore with our loved ones. That's how you choose calm. You talk about things you're passionate about, things that are coming up in the future that are good. And when you are sensing anxiety or stress you help them take a break from it and you remind them to take a break from it. Limiting screen time for people right now usually we got to do that for kids. Maybe you got to do that for your husband who's just checking the thing too much and have the conversation. Jen Sel guy, I hope that helps you and, and I appreciate you being a role model for those over the long term. Tell people stay calm. Also what I like to do, Jen is give Jen our access to our program called my wellness Masterclass. You know, our hundred dollar course. There's things in there about how to manage your mind that will assist you and you can use that same intel to help other people. Okay, Luke is asking what virtual knowledge industries or services do you see set for growth? Given this time and the scare, what is about to take off? Luke? All things that facilitate people communicating virtually. Obviously that's the big thing. I mean Zoom and Vimeo and other video conferencing modalities are going to have their greatest seasons this year. We when you think about, think about all the losses, where the losses are and how do you mitigate that with a new technology or a new service. I actually believe right now as people are hunkered in home personal development is going to be huge. Growth area. I think live casts like this are going to be a huge growth area, facilitating and running Facebook groups or groups that can be virtually hosted, led, or contributed to. I think that's gonna happen and take off. But I also think right now, the hidden thing that people forget all the time. Commodities. You know, the basics are gonna go right now. I mean, look at the sales of paper towels and hand sanitizers and basic supplies are gonna see great. I mean, Procter and Gamble's gonna be super stoked. They're gonna sell the crap out of cleaning supplies. Like, the basics right now are going to be important. Comfort foods are going to be important to people. You know, when there's emergency, people love less innovation than they do comforts and community. So think about comforts and community and think about skill development, because people are going to be looking for new opportunities to grow their businesses because they're facing losses in the marketplace. Great question, Luke, for asking that. You know what we'll do for Luke? It's not ready yet, but I have the Entrepreneurs Challenge coming out this year. I think next month we'll get you access to that. Luke Ray Zonka for asking a great question. Mark is asking a great question. I'm feeling some fear based on the drop in my retirement accounts, especially since I'm now in my 60s. But I know that enough time will bring it back. However, my wife has a lot of fear about it. How can I convince her that everything will be much better in the future? Mark, great question. But also, Mark, you're awesome for being here. I mean, everyone give mark a high five. He's in his 60s and still doing personal development at this level and at this commitment level. Man, you're my dude. You're awesome. Thank you for being here. I aspire for that myself. I always want to be learning through my entire life. That's so awesome. So Mark's question. He's in his 60s, and the retirement accounts are taking a hint. I really believe that right now things are taking a hit. But a lot of people didn't see the news over the last literally 24 hours of an injection of $1.5 trillion into the marketplace. And there's been a vast underestimation of what that will mean in the future. The people who don't understand economics right now are saying, well, we injected $1.5 trillion into the market in the US and it didn't even make a blip. No, no. The announcement was made, and it didn't make much of a blip amid the Markets, because the markets are smart. It doesn't matter until the funds actually hit bank accounts. Right? You don't make decisions until funds hit the bank account. Those monies have not been yet distributed or even fully allocated yet. So when we understand that, it's like, oh, okay, I don't know if you all remember. I want to give everyone a historical perspective. When the market collapsed in 2008, do you remember the bank bailouts? Some of us have a history. Remember, remember the bank bailouts? At a certain point in time, the bank balance were only $900 billion. Now, I can't believe I'm actually saying out loud only $900 billion because that seemed like the most amount of money of all time. But the bailouts were at that point. At one point we injected 1.5 trillion. So that's a lot more than 900 billion. So there is a steadiness that will happen back to the marketplace over a period of time. And I would, Mark, I would recommend that you and your wife keep that perspective of right now. This is a terrible time to even worry in terms of what might happen. There is no guess over the next six month, Mark. And so what I would say, Mark, is let's ask, say let's be patient and see where this goes. Let's see where this goes and let's not see where it goes on an hour by hour basis per se. Let's see where this goes on the trend line. Because markets work that way and capitalism works that way. And the injections of relief always take a serious amount of time to know what they're going to do. So I know that retirement accounts are hit for everybody right now. But let's be patient. If you can reallocate for a safer play over the next couple months without affecting the retirement. Meaning you're not taking penalties. I would consider that. But please recognize I am not giving financial advice. I'm not a financial advisor. I highly recommend you consult your own and then everything else. I shared, Mark, with your wife in this situation. Please share her the replay of this. Everybody, I would really encourage you if you have a spouse, a partner, a, a teammate, somebody who's really struggling right now and they're really caught up in this, please have them watch this. Because when they realize they can be their own emotional center and they could be a role model and they could be somebody who chooses to command their own sense of security right now based on their own actions and they can keep the long term view, I think we'll all do well for our community. Okay. Lumi Waterman is asking. I'm constantly worried about her father, who's 82, dying. Lately, I think about it so much that it's really been affecting me. I can't imagine life without him. I've been feeling this since I was little. I'm a grown up woman now and I would like to be stronger. How do I deal with this fear of mine? Lumi, when you state that this has been a fear of yours since you were little and it's affected you since little, I can only recommend seeing a therapist on this topic. And I think it's really important for this community to hear me say this. When you have something that affects you, when you have a fear of an inevitable reality and it affects you over duration, in her case, decades, it is important to see therapists on that. That is something that is worthwhile to go and have a conversation with because it's something that has developed over decades. It is something that is real, it is deep and is something that needs real processing, and it needs a professional. That is not something I can give you a pat answer with. I think first and foremost you must go see a professional. And everybody, I want you all to hear this. If you have had anything that has been impacting you for decades at an emotional level, something that happened to you or is inevitable, you must seek therapy on this. And don't be sad of it. We need to have this mental health conversation with people. Seeing a therapist isn't a weakness. It's about developing new skills of processing. And you need skill in processing an inevitable reality. We will all lose our parents if we are blessed to outlive them. We will all see death of many people we care about in our lives, and we have to ultimately face that. And a therapist can help you skill up for that. Outside of that, I also highly recommend you read books on philosophy. I know that seems like a pat answer, but there's no philosopher in history that didn't grapple with, with the utter realities of life itself, our struggle with our own existence, and with the inevitable death of that, we must absolutely learn how to deal with that. If you've never read William Durant's book the Story of Philosophy, read that, because you'll see how philosophers have grappled with death throughout time. And it really gives you many different ways to access and understand that conversation, your own emotional reality. And I hope that really helps you. I honor you very much for caring about your father, and I hope he is well, and I respect you for answering that question. And I Do hope that you will seek help. And I also would ask you, Lumi, to if he's healthy, which you said he is and he's 82, give yourself the gift of asking him how you should deal with his lifespan and give yourself the gift of interviewing him. So, Lumi Waterman, we will make sure that we send you our life interview guide where you can interview your father and record it and have that for when he is not here anymore. And that's maybe the best gift I've ever given myself was calling my dad as he was dealing with leukemia and interviewing him and capturing that audio and asking him questions for everybody else. You're also, you can access that by Google just by going and typing in Brendan Burchard Life Interview questions that should come up somewhere. And you can download the PDF of the 30 questions I asked my dad, you could ask your parents. I really encourage you to do that. Last question, Chris Franceford is asking Brendan, what are your top five priorities right now? Well, that's a good one. Top five priorities right now are the same as they always are. I wish I could. I don't let chaos or sudden things change my priorities. It doesn't mean I might not have a daily reaction to them. But my priorities have been the same for almost 20 years of my life. I mean really, my daily priority is to for me live my purpose, which is honoring and sensing that feeling of live love matter. My daily priorities are my wife and my family. My daily priorities are my health. My daily priorities are serving my purpose. And my daily priorities are fighting off doubt and distraction to be steady and disciplined. And those things apply all the time for me. And this chaos has not changed that at all. And I would really encourage those of you who have stable practices in your life to continue doing those. I hope that serves you, Chris. To help you do that, I'd love to give you access to how I activate those. So let's give Chris access to our high Performance GPS course, High Performance gps, which is my goals, priorities and scheduling and how I think through all of that as well. And so I hope that serves you. You know, I know I'm a little over my time here with you all, but I just felt like sharing some of these videos from the Vault would be relevant today. I felt like this conversation about staying centered amid the chaos, not contributing to the complaining, not over consuming, recognizing when you're fearing loss and process and outcome and flipping those because instead of loss, what can you do for gain? Instead of hardship, what can you do to develop skill instead of outcome concern. What can you do to mitigate and grow as when we talked about, you know, forecasting, establishing that daily rhythm, looking at your trend lines and making sure that you are actively setting up quarter three and quarter four to be extraordinary. If you're taking hits right now, I think all of that is important. But the number one takeaway for every one of you is you can actually be the role model through this crisis. You can set the emotional tone in your life, but also in the life of your family and your teams, those you love and who you serve, by reflecting back to people, their energy, by letting them know, hey, you know what, I see you checking in a lot of hey, I hear you and you're really upset about this. Let's talk about it. Let's take a break. Let's have this conversation about things we do love, things that are here, the opportunities we do have, the things we do appreciate about the future. You get to set the emotional tone during crisis. What a gift of this life. With that, I send my love to all of those who've been affected by the current pandemic. We or to anyone out there who is struggling with any health issues. I know how scary that can be. So listen to this one more time. If you did not know all of my friends when we do these, when we put up our replay, we put up the worksheet for this and we also put up an MP3 so you can go download the MP3. Listen to it again if you feel yourself teetering on too much anxiety or fear about the situation. Maybe we discussed something today. But also scroll through all your friends in the chat role here and what they've contributed here today. There's a lot of lessons and a lot of wisdom around the world. And finally, I want to honor each and every one of you. In chaos, you chose to develop yourself today. In chaos, you chose to self coach. In chaos, you chose to be with us in this community of worldwide people who are dedicated to improving our lives. And for that, I honor you more than anything else. Even in times of crisis, my wife's dictum still lasts. We can go out there and choose to be ordinary and reactive or we can choose to be extraordinary still. So my friends, go be extraordinary. Thanks for tuning in today.