In this solo episode of the No Days Off podcast, host Brian Gubernick outlines a five‑step framework for building investment resilience amid a shifting economy. He begins by describing the current macro environment—higher interest rates, cooling real‑estate markets, and widespread recession expectations—and argues that investors must adapt their approach. The core recommendations are: (1) stop funding assets that don’t generate cash flow, focusing on income‑producing investments; (2) build liquidity to be ready for distressed‑asset opportunities; (3) opt out of involuntary doom‑scrolling and curate personal news consumption; (4) invest in personal mindset and education, citing Dean Graziosi’s advice on vision‑driven thinking; (5) define your “investor DNA” by clarifying the asset types, expertise, and criteria you pursue; and finally, increase the number of deals you review to improve decision quality. Gubernick repeatedly emphasizes that a cash‑flow‑first, liquidity‑ready, mindset‑strong, self‑aware, and option‑rich strategy will position investors to thrive when markets turn.
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Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Let's get into today's topic. Today I want to talk about investment resilience. Building your investment resilience. Here's why, here's why I want to tackle this today. Most every big CEO, most every big business leader in the nation either believes we are currently in a recession as a country, or in the next 12 to 18 months will in fact be in a recession. Bottom line, I think we could all agree that the economy looks different today than it looked several months or past few years, right? The stock market is up and down. The real estate market is cooled. Interest rates are up. Inflation is up. We all know that there are economic changes going on right now. The degree to which are debated, but no matter how you spin it, things do not look nearly as strong as they once did. This is just part of the cycle. I mean, things go up, things go down. If you look over the course of history, you will see cycles running every 7 to 15 years or so. And here we are. Candidly, I think we overstayed our welcome in this last cycle. And the pandemic certainly threw a wrench in things. But here's what I want to talk about. I want to talk around investment resilience, the steps specifically you should take as an investor as a real estate investor, as an investor in wealth, as a wealth builder, the steps that you should be taking or you should consider taking in today's climate. Okay. Number 1, stop funding anything that doesn't create cash flow unless you are in a financial position to do so. Here's why I focus on this one at first. I see too often individuals buying assets, maybe even good assets, that don't in fact cash flow. And if they don't cash flow, then you're simply speculating on the fact that the price, the value, is going to in fact rise. Well, that might be a decent strategy in good markets, but when markets change, when things get a little weird, holding an asset that has value but does not cash flow and is maybe even costing you out of pocket is a very risky proposition. And you don't really like to take risks. You shouldn't like to take risks when the market itself is risky, when the economy is in turmoil. So, my first rule, and this is a shift I made, stop funding anything that doesn't create cash flow. And this isn't just in investment. This is probably if you're a business owner, if you're running a big team, It also pertains there too, like speculation is not for today. Number 2, recognize that distress, which is what we're seeing in the market, creates a lot of wealth opportunities, which means that you must create liquidity if in fact you want to eventually take advantage of these distressed opportunities. So, there's— maybe the best way for me to To say this, anybody that went through the last real estate downturn, you know, '08 to call it '12, '11 or so, there's not a person that lived through that didn't say, "Man, I wish I would have bought more real estate properties. Man, I wish I would own more rental homes." Everybody said it, but what was the problem? Few actually had the capital, the liquidity to go acquire these properties. So, everybody wanted to do it, but they weren't in a cash position to do so. So, I think that if you know the, the economy and the market is in some distress, then getting into a better cash position, having liquidity so you can go take advantage of these things when the time is right, puts you in a very favorable position. Number 3, in terms of building your investment resilience, opt out of the involuntary news cycle. In other words, don't just scroll, doom scroll. Don't just look at your Apple News and read any story that comes up. Don't just simply pull up the headlines. I would be more purposeful in choosing what I'm going to read as opposed to letting it be chosen for me. And the reason I say that is because this involuntary news cycle, all the doom and gloom, it could lead us to a place where we don't really want to be, where we shouldn't be. Both in terms of our mindset, our approach to investment, but even our mood, our attitude, our emotion. So, focus on your personal economy and not the global economy. Focus on you, which means controlling your news cycle versus letting it be involuntary and the stories get chosen for you. The fourth thing in terms of investment resilience, Invest in yourself. Get your mind right. Dean Graziosi did a great episode with Ed Mylett several months ago, maybe even a year ago, on Ed's podcast where Dean was talking about the mindset necessary for economic turmoil. Dean's a specialist in mindset, but it was a really interesting take on the mindset you need and investing in yourself. You've got to create a vision, Dean said, You got to create a vision that's greater than the problem. So, if the real estate market as a problem is a big one, right? Your vision to overcoming that must be even bigger. So, get your mind right and invest in yourself. If there's something you don't know or you need to learn, then go learn it. If there's something you need to understand in order to take advantage of a specific asset class or an investment, in today's environment, then go learn it. Go invest in you and get your mind right. Number 5, in terms of building investment resilience: know your investor DNA. What does that mean? Bottom line, know the kind of assets that you want to invest in. Know your area of expertise, right? Know, know the, the numbers and the requirements of what makes for a good investment. So understand what you stand for as an investor, like get super clear around what it is you're in fact looking for, and then have your head on a swivel. I share this one around investor investment resilience because I think as the market shifts and things change, lots of opportunities will come about. And I don't want you running around just grabbing at anything. Instead, if you know what it is that you're aiming for, if you understand the type of investments that impact your personal wealth journey, right, you have clarity around these things, then you can in fact capitalize when an opportunity comes about. And you could do so with confidence. And it's less speculative. And going back to number 1, you're only buying things that are in fact cash flowing, which gives you even more security. The last thing that I, I want you thinking around in terms of investment resilience Increase the number of deals that you're in fact reviewing. So what I'm talking about, in my experience in business and life, the more options available to you, the better the decisions that you make. So for example, if you want to buy a rental house, if you have one rental house to choose from and that's the one, you will mentally do lots of things to try to make that deal work. However, if I gave you 7 different properties and said, hey, pick the best one, odds are you will make a much better decision because of the options available to you. Again, this works in investment, this works in business. Think about business. If you're hiring, if you have 5 candidates to choose from, you will make a more educated decision than if you only had one to choose from. And you could see how this applies everywhere else. In life. So, a quick recap in terms of investment resilience: stop funding things that don't— that do not cash flow. Distress creates opportunity, so make sure you're in a good cash position. Get out of the involuntary news cycle. Get your mindset right. Understand your investor DNA, what it is you stand for, the type of investments you want. And lastly, increase the number of deals that you in fact are reviewing to increase your odds of success. That's all I have for you today, the No Days Off podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.
