Resilient or Burned Out? How to Build Bounce-Forward Leadership in Business

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Last week we talked about burnout as I crashed and burned like a. Like the. I believe the analogy I made was like a 200,000 mile Hyundai with every check engine light on. How do we avoid that and how do we recover from that? That takes a skill called resilience. Yes. That seems just the smile in your. I love seeing that smile on your face because you're like giddy. You are like a nine year old the day before Christmas. I'm just talking right now to build anticipation. Stay tuned. She's the CEO.

He's the marketing and operations guy.

If it's broken, you need the business fix. Do we need to banter or do you just want to get right into the topic?

I mean, go ahead.

I just. I just feel like you're so amped up for this.

I am.

I mean, I know you've got your coffee over there.

I do. And it's.

I decided it's funny because you're amped up. Enough about this.

I didn't need the caffeine.

No, she did not need. No sugar, no caffeine, no sugar, no caffeine. Chrissy is not on meth. She just is really amped up to talk about resiliency. Just. Even the look on your face, it's exciting. It's. You serious? You have this look of wonderful. Of like a 9 year old.

Because it's fun. This is a. This is an important topic.

I wholeheartedly agree and I love it.

The.

The importance of this is amazing. I wholeheartedly agree with all that. That being said, let's. Okay, we're just gonna get into this. I wanted to start. I wanted to really tone this back just to like, just to just to really hunker this down and just torture you. Really?

Yeah.

Webster's dictionary defines resilience as the ability to bounce back from adversity.

Yeah, that's Webster's version.

Oh, I, I like this. You. You have it as. It's not bouncing back, it is bouncing forward.

Yes.

That. This is. This Is gonna. This is. And anytime someone says cool, like bouncing, I think of the Kool Aid man bouncing through the wall. So that. That. Oh, yeah. That is what we're gonna be rolling with on this. The personal development mind side of the mindset side of this is all you. I'll cover some operational, like, how to recover from those. Oh. Moments. But yeah. So this is your thing. This is your jam.

It is.

It is a skill, not a trait. I love how you put that because this is something that says it's something that can be learned.

It absolutely is.

Looking back 10, 12 years ago, you did not have quite the same resiliency you did today.

No.

There was more times crying on the office floor, I'm assuming. Yes, there's. And that's not just big picture leadership. This is a skill that happens in your business and out of your business. Make a bad golf shot. You got to be resilient to come back to make the good golf shots. Do you golf?

No, not anymore.

Me neither, but I figured it seemed like it fit.

It's a good analogy.

So, yeah. What are some of the core habits? Mindset. Mindset shifts that a business owner needs to really, like, cultivate in order to avoid burnout. Recent topic. Go back and listen to last episode Shameless Plug there.

Yes.

And how do you consistently face this, the inevitable challenges that come with business?

Yeah.

And the look on your face right now. I just got. I have to say one more thing. You are like a dog in the starting gate. Just shoot the gun off already.

Yes.

Let me out. Let me route go.

I'm ready to go. So here's what I'll say first about resilience. Yes, it is a skill that you can build over time. Yes, it is a skill that we are constantly working on. I don't know that anybody ever truly masters it. It's one of those that you're continuing to get better at.

It's a skill.

It's a skill. Yep, it's a skill, but it's something that you can learn, and it's also something that you can teach your kids, you can teach your team members, you can teach other family members. You can teach people in the community. Resilience is something that is transferable to everything that you do and every person that you touch in the world. So that's something that I think when people just think, oh, well, resilience is just about bouncing back when you have a business setback. No, resilience is about being able to bounce back, period, from anything.

So it is that when The. As I always like to say, when the fan needs a pressure washing.

Yes.

Your ability to get the fan clean quickly, efficiently and without causing a whole lot of issues.

Yes. It's about moving forward.

We want a clean fan.

We want a clean fan. So in talking about that, I will say that, you know, resilience starts with purpose. It doesn't start with hustle. All right? So if your only fuel is hustle, you're going to run out fast. Talking about burnout last week, Purpose. Purpose is really what keeps you steady. And, you know, a lot of small business owners, we build momentum on grit alone, but grit without grounding is going to burn out. So when things fall apart, and they will, because it just. It's part of the human experience, nature, things fall apart, you. You have to know why you're still showing up. Why am I doing this? And so, for me, resilience didn't come from working harder. It really came from getting painfully clear on what actually mattered.

Oh, I like that.

Yeah. And then I let that what actually mattered really lead the way for me. And resilient leaders aren't just high energy, they're anchored.

So here's a question for you with that, then. Does that resiliency help you then decide, like, what's worth worrying about?

Yes, it can. It's a set of. I mean, because resilience is a set of. For me, we have, like, resilient operating system. It's a set of skills that help you determine how you're going to continue to move forward. Do I need to stay in fear? Can I move forward? This setback happened. What do we need to do? How do I need to take care of myself so that I can continue to do the things that move me forward, move the business forward, move the family forward.

Makes sense 100%.

Yeah. So the first one, you know, resilience starts with purpose, not hustle. Second is, you know, again, dealing with burnout. You can't be the only engine. So if your team needs you to push every inch forward, that's not leadership, that's liability. And so having a resilient operating system, having resilience isn't really about doing more. It's about designing things better. And it starts with stepping out of the hero seat. Stop trying to be the hero all the time. Resilient business isn't one where the leader's invincible. It's one where the systems and the people can function without the leader in the room. I think that's one of the most important ones. I'll say that Again, it's one where the systems and the people can function without the leader in the room.

It's funny you say that. I was just talking with someone the other day. In fact, it was earlier today. Tammy Oley, who is the alumni coordinator for Cleveland area 10,000 small businesses and.

Our number one fan.

Correct. Tammy's amazing. Talked about how someone talked. They had an emergency plan that they came up with that their business was able to run while they were in the hospital for almost a year.

That's wonderful.

Correct?

Yeah.

When I hear that, I'm like, oh, yeah, not. Not there yet.

No, no, I don't think I'm there either. But I've lived both sides of this, being able, like being the person that has to be there all the time and then being the person that is away, that. That isn't doing all the things all the time. And I can tell you, when your team knows the vision, has the tools and feels trusted to lead, that's when the growth of your business really happens.

Sure, sure. 100%. It's interesting that you've talked about both sides of that because I know as you came up through your business, you got to see that as different things happened.

Yes, absolutely. And I became resilient. Kicking and screaming. I didn't become resilient because I wanted to be. I came resilient because I had to be. So I think that's a lot of. So when I wrote the book reluctantly resilient. I mean, people were like, oh, that kind of sounds. I'm like, no, no, no. That's literally. That's the truth. I'm resilient. It's not.

And from when we sat in the studio here and you read the book, it wasn't reluctantly. It was like you said, kicking and screaming. And it wasn't like, eh, I'd really rather not do this.

No, it was, hell, no, no, don't want to. Don't make me. I won't. Which brings us to number three, about a key to resilience. And we talked about it last week too, in talking about burnabout and that Burnout. And that is. That rest is a leadership skill.

Yes. It was funny when I saw the notes for this, I'm like, oh, she took some stuff from last week and just kind of said, hey, dudes, remember that thing?

We're going to repeat it.

Remember the dumb thing that you did? Yeah.

Oh, it's thoroughly dumb. It just happened. So we're just going to move forward, but fast doesn't mean forward. Burnout isn't a badge. It's really important. So one of the hardest lessons that I had to learn, especially when I was in seasons of crisis, and we talk about this in 2013, I had two tsunamis within 30 days of each other. A personal tsunami and a professional tsunami. I lost my first husband to suicide. And 30 days later, our business went through a major change with the Affordable Care Act. And so, I mean, hardest lesson, especially in season of crisis, is to kind of know how to slow down. And sometimes you will know that you need to slow down, and then there are other times where life is just gonna slow you down. And so when we slow down, we don't wanna collapse. We wanna make sure that we're realigning. So taking that rest is really a strategic pause. So taking that strategic pause is leadership. And resting is really a form of a leadership skill. So, no, I.

So that. I guess I kind of want to touch on that a little bit, because to me, it is that resting. So you can pull back and be thoughtful about what you're doing.

Yes.

Instead of the reacting in the emotional mess of it is what it is.

Yeah. Because if you don't build time to think, process and reflect, you're just reacting. And when you're reacting, you're not leading. And in the long run, you're teaching your team that chaos is the standard that you're always going to bear. Unless you're willing to pause, reflect. Yeah, it's important.

Walk softly. Carry a big stick slowly.

No, I wouldn't. You don't need the stick.

Just move slowly.

I guess I would say slowly. Slowly.

Slowly and intentionally.

Yes. Because resilient leadership makes space. It makes space for growth. It's. It makes space for rest and for really what actually matters.

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I'll give you a few seconds to go to the website while we get ready to get back to the show. Yeah, I guess I. I guess when I say the Walk softly Carry a big stick. I'm more heavy on the walk softly piece because it takes intention.

It does.

To walk softly. It does, yeah. To do that that way.

Yeah.

We talk about. I mean, you. You talk about how this is a toolbox.

It is.

And me being a mechanical guy.

Yes.

You. As soon as you bring up toolbox, I know. Oh.

Speaking your language.

And so this is. This is the. This is the question that I. This is the statement that I want to make and kind of let you build off of this.

Yeah.

Anyone that has a toolbox.

Yes.

We all realize every tool in there can be a hammer.

Yeah.

Pliers can be a hammer. A wrench can be a hammer. They are not good hammers.

No.

I'll let you run with that.

So resilience isn't personality. It's a toolbox. So resilient leaders don't just power through. They pull from the right tools at the right time. And so. So we talk about. At Clarity, we're working on a project called Resilient Operating System. So for those business owners who are like, hey, I think I need to build these skills, call me. I would love to talk to you about how we're going to build these skills, because we have a program that really teaches the different tools that go in your toolbox. But in talking about resilience, I think oftentimes, and I don't like this, we talk about resilience like it's a character trait, like it's something you either have or you don't have. And that's not true. I mean, I've learned that it's way more practical than that, that resilience can be developed. So real resilience is a set of tools. It's skills, it's habits, it's boundaries, you know, it's frameworks. Because we know that we don't rise in crisis because we're tough. We rise and we get better and we move forward because we've built a system that helps us respond with clarity instead of with chaos.

I'm seeing themes here.

Yeah.

Clarity, resilience.

Yeah. It's like all the things just go together.

You say those words a lot.

I do.

I love this.

Yeah. So, I mean, as we talk about, you know, this is what Resilient Operating System is about. It's really about equipping leaders to lead through the mess and to thrive through it, not just to survive it. So when things go sideways, you don't need inspiration. You really need a playbook and a toolbox to help you get through, through to the next thing, I mean some of those toolbox examples, I mean growth, mindset, interpersonal effectiveness skills. So learning how to get your needs met, communicate effectively, clear purpose. I mean there's always self care techniques, learning how to have those boundaries, how to give feedback, how to embrace progress over perfection, forgiveness. As a business owner, I think especially of yourself, because we can be hypercritical, practicing gratitude. I mean some of these are really simple or they're simple to say, they're hard to put in practice. But there's, there's a million different skills that you can put in your resilience toolbox. I mean we talk about probably 16 big ones in resilient operating system, three primary. But I mean it's something that you can continue to add in over time. Like I just, I learned a new tool this week and I'm like, oh, I think that's going to go into our resilient operating system toolbox.

It just makes sense to me. The one that I find so interesting there is the feedback.

Yeah.

Because too many people give feedback in the moment.

Yes.

And that feedback in the moment also comes at people like a semi truck. Instead of something that is constructive, instead of something that has forgiveness, gratitude, all those other things to it. That feedback can come in the form of a baseball bat. And I like the fact that you're talking about that as a tool that can be used to move it forward if you use it correctly.

Yes. And it can be a tool that you use for other people. But in this case, when it comes to resilience, I am talking specifically about feedback that you are soliciting from other people about you.

Oh sure.

Because we can't get better if we're not willing to have the hard conversation or be willing to solicit feedback from the people around us that care about us the most, that want us to be better. So this is why I think a lot of times with leaders when we're talking about, you know, we're going to do 360 feedback and off like the, I think immediate. You want an executive director to bristle, have your board tell you we want you to do 360 feedback. And they're like, excuse me.

Right.

Why?

Right.

It's like, no, no, no, this is not, I understand that it is, it is a, it can sometimes be an uncomfortable process.

Sure.

I don't like 360 feedback either as much as, I mean, it's good for me. But there are going to be moments where I'm like, that's what they think. It's like, yeah, that's what they think. And it's okay. It's just data. So what are we gonna do with that data? So feedback can really be important to keep you resilient. Cause it's also. How are you gonna bounce back from that feedback? You know, weaponize it, don't do it.

No, it's that feedback. And that's how we get better. That truly is how we get better.

Yeah.

100%.

So you wanna talk about operations?

I always wanna talk about operations.

I know you do. All right, so I talked about personal resilience, but I have a feeling you've got some things in place to talk about, like company resilience, because I feel like that that tends to be more your bailiwick.

It is.

All right.

And it's funny because when I was out for the week, there were pieces of my business that I am heavily involved in still that I just haven't been pulled out of. Those came to a screeching halt. The parts that my employees and others take care of hummed right along. They're like, great. He's out of our way. So to me, it's funny with that, the biggest one is cross training and documentation that I always tell people no single employee should be. I mean, if you have three employees, it's tough, but as you grow, no single employee should be the sole key to the. The greatest treasure in all the land.

Yeah.

Just can't be that way.

No.

Make sure people know what other people do and make sure that they know how it's done. And. And it needs to be documented. Yes, we. I just talked. I was on a podcast the other day about company culture and, like, how to do some of these things, and we talked about those standard operating procedures. Because I'm like, look, if you don't have it written out how something's supposed to get done, when something goes wrong, you can't look back and say, where did we go wrong? You just have to say in One of these 30 steps, something went wrong. We don't know what step, because we have no numbers and we have no process.

No, don't leave people guessing.

Correct. This also prevents the bus factor. Do you know what I mean by the bus?

Oh, I love the bus factor. If I'm about this all the time.

If I'm walking down the street and a bus mows me down, guess what I mean? I'm going to reference the movie Speed here. Maybe I'm on that bus.

Yeah.

You never know what's going to happen. So make sure that you you, your, your bus is covered. Just because you never know. The other piece to that is, is it makes it so much easier for everyone then.

It does.

Because what happens when someone wants to go on vacation, it's. It's super simple, super easy, and that vacation's an opportunity there too. The other thing is, is I always say some buffer and contingency funds always have something. I mean, cash is like cash reserve is. It's something that you need to have ready and handy for resiliency.

Yeah. Cash reserve, line of credit.

Yep.

Different levers. You can pull on 100.

Having three to six months of, oh, money. And once again, it could be cash, it can be line of credit, it can be any one of those. Yeah, you need that.

Yes.

I've seen talk to so many businesses where they're like, hey, don't cash this until Friday. And you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, Whoa. This is $200. This is an issue. You need to focus on this. The other one is too, is when it comes to the marketing side of things, so many people target a thing instead of a group of things. We want you to target specific people. Marketing only works if you target specific people. But don't target one person for all of your marketing.

No.

When we look at podcasts, like in our business, we have medical podcasts we work with, we have racing podcasts we work with, we have diversified industries that we work with. So if something crashes, it's not going to take everything down. We have real estate podcasts. I don't know about you. I remember 2008, 2009 pretty vividly, but, um, there was probably not many real estate podcasts starting in that amount of time. They were not, they were not throwing a whole lot of marketing money out at that point in time. The other thing that I always like to say with that is too, is too many people market to one channel. Hey, we find that we get a lot of people on Instagram. Great. What happens if there's an Insta. What happens if there's an algorithm change? What happens if the platform. I. I know.

So political change because of a platform and all of a sudden you don't know if you're going to have it or not.

Correct.

Yeah.

Who remembers all the people freaking out when Tick Tock was down for 12 hours?

Oh, gosh, yes.

There's so many people. The other two things is what happens if you get hacked and you can't keep it on the back. Back on that platform? Additionally, what happens if you some reason get banned?

Yeah.

Meta is Famous for this.

Yeah.

They ban people for random reasons and then suddenly you can't get back in, you can't get back on. And if that was your only channel of market marketing that you have built, you are screwed. And starting from scratch, build it across the board. The last thing too with this is client concentration. We all know that business.

Yes.

Where they're like, yeah, I've got, I've got like six big clients. One of them is 50% of my business. You can't control how their business goes or how their businesses run. If they shut down, you are screwed. Rude.

Yeah.

I know a couple of people that went through this marketing wise recently. Single client can wipe out your business. We try. I mean 20% is a big number.

It is.

That's what I, that's the maximum I would ever want to see someone as, as part of my business.

Yeah.

If, if they keep running up, great. But I've got to build safety nets in to try and catch the other side of that. Because in all of this what I always like to say is to have that war game plan.

Yeah.

What happens when this goes sideways?

Yes.

Go through some of those scenarios in your head. What happens when our top client leaves?

Yep.

I gosh, I hope they don't.

You gotta pressure test what happens if they leave.

What do we do? What are some of the moves that we need to look at making and when.

What are the tools in our toolbox?

What are the tools in our toolbox in order to make sure that we can bounce forward?

Bounce forward.

I almost said back and I was getting ready to see you punch me. Even before I muttered it, I saw, I saw the fist clench and I was like, chris, he's threatening send no to me. I always say you need to test those things just to make sure that like there are those, there's those backups.

Yeah.

Make sure you're ready for it. The only other thing to that is I will quote Mike Tyson in this.

Yes. I like this quote.

Everyone's got a plan until you get punched in the face. Everyone steps in the ring with a plan until you get punched in the face the first time. August out the window. If you have no plan though, you're really starting on the back foot.

Yeah.

If you at least have some ideas of. It's never it. You think it's going to be a right hook and it may be a left uppercut.

Yeah.

It's going to be different. But you still have some idea on how to react to it. And that's going to be the Biggest piece with that. Do you feel more resilient now?

Yeah, I always do.

I know you do. You're.

And I mean, most of the time, I mean, I still get knocked down. There's moments where I've had a couple of things in the last year that have knocked me over, and it's like, I gotta be resilient. You do. It's okay. There's been moments I'm like, you. You wrote a book on resilience. You need to suck it up, soldier. Get moving there.

There's a. I. I guess there's something else that I want to insert in here, too. The one lesson that I heard from, like I said, I think I've told this before on the podcast where I was in front of a business owner. Large business, probably 1.3 to 1.4 billion a year, was getting cut. Their supply was getting cut 35%.

Yeah.

And without hesitating, he looked at me, he goes, it's moving target. And that, to me, is resiliency.

Yeah.

Because he found a way to. I mean, they found a way to make it better.

Yeah, It's. I mean, it's the realization. I mean, we tie a lot of our lives, I mean, our livelihoods into our business. We have a lot of things as business owners that define us, and our business can define us a lot. And I. And I think that when you work on building your resilience, your perspective also can shift and you look, you know, some people believe that business is a spiritual game. Some people believe that business is just a game. I like to kind of think it can be both at times, but it's a moving target. That was probably one of the most impactful stories you've ever told me a couple years ago on it, and I was like, okay, so there have been a few things that have happened in our organization. Some have been really great. It's like, oh, that's a. That's a good moving target. Those are moments from like, oh, it's a moving target.

And it's funny, too, because the. It takes me back to something else where we talked before about moving goalposts. You cannot move the goalposts for people because someone else is going to move them for you.

Yes.

It's just how it happens.

It is. So when you have those tools in your toolbox to manage yourself as everything else is going on in your business, you're able to keep moving forward.

So can you lead when you're in survival mode?

I don't think you can.

No. I. I asked it as A question. I wholeheartedly agree that when you're in survival mode, you're. I mean, you know what the first. You know what the first thing they do when you take a lifeguard school or you know what the first thing they teach Coast Guard swimmers is?

No.

How to subdue the person that they are rescuing.

Ah, that makes sense because they will cause you to drown.

Yeah, they will cause you to drown. If you are drowning, you're not going to be able to save anyone else.

No, no. And I think that that speaks to. When a leader. You are constantly putting out fires in your business. There's no space left for strategic thinking. There's no way for you to stay grounded. So you've got to figure out, you know, bringing those operational buffers that you talked about.

Yeah, yeah. Reserves. Give yourself some breathing room. Make sure that you. And once again, if you are struggling to survive, it is very, very tough to try and move forward. It is very, very tough to keep your head above water. Give yourself. Do what you can to make that push for breathing room. What about cross training? Oh, do you do any of that?

Of course we do.

I know you do. I figured. I. I mean, that was kind of that softball toss.

Yeah. That's. So no one's. PTO turns into panic for everyone. That's always a way to say, oh, I love.

Where did you pull that from?

That's just. That's how it is. PTO doesn't need to be panic.

PTO doesn't need to be panic.

Yeah.

We are going to come up with a lot of shitty wall art for people.

I love this. Yes. It's coming.

We need. We need to have our own inspirational quotes book.

Yes. Or not so inspirational. Yes.

Yes.

One or the other.

One of my favorites is. Have you ever been to that site, Demotivation? Yes. My favorite is Teamwork. Have you seen that one?

Yes.

None of us is as dumb as all of us.

Yes.

That is my absolute favorite. To me, the other one is just building capacity. And like, people cannot run at 110 all the time.

No.

People can run very well at 75% of the time. And that also allows them to move forward. And when stuff does go sideways, they. They've got capacity to handle it instead of flipping out, losing their mind, and coming at you crying.

Yes. And really understand that if you're an extremely high performer, your 75% is not the norm.

No.

So you've got to think of what the average 75% is.

Think of what their expectation is. Yeah. What's the Difference between personal and business resilience.

So I feel personal resilience is getting back up. Business resilience is usually staying upright during a storm. So they kind of keep you from failing the same way twice. So personal resilience is that moving forward, it's that bounce forward. It's grief, it's dealing with therapy, it's trying again. It's having grit. And then I think that business resilience is really. Those are the things that you build so that one bad day or one week or one month or one down year doesn't derail everything that you've built.

I love that.

Yeah. I think strong leaders build both.

Have you ever gotten bad news in your business before?

Never.

No. Me neither. Me neither.

It's perfect all the time, right?

Right. What's especially tough is when you have to tell a client something, this didn't go as planned. How do you demonstrate resiliency with that? Oh, I think we're gonna have similar takes on this, but we're gonna come at it from a different angle.

Yeah. I think first of it is you gotta be able to manage your own emotions around it. So if you need to role play or think about how you're gonna have the conversation, rehearse it, great. But I think part of it is just being direct in your communication. Hey, this happened. We wanna make sure that you know it. Here's what we're doing to fix it. Or we're really sorry that it happened. Here's what we're doing to fix it. If we can't fix it, then we're gonna say, this is how we're gonna make it. Right. But it's really about creating a cadence of communication. And when that happens, you are in front of your team. If something happened with your team, your team did. It doesn't matter. You are handling that conversation. You are modeling it, because there may be someday where you're not available. And this happens in your team. And your team knows exactly how to handle it because they've watched you do it. So do not apologize in a silo. This is. This is a really great opportunity for training for your organizational leaders to understand how we deal with giving a client disappointing information. If you're a small business owner navigating the world of marketing, or looking to establish yourself as an industry expert, you already know the power of a great podcast.

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Back to the show.

It's funny. It's the I am very much the simpler, the better. This is exactly what's wrong. This is exactly how we feel. It's going to affect you. And this is exactly what we're doing.

Yeah.

Not we're going to start working on the thing thing. And we feel like there's. There's no feelings, there's no nothing. This is exactly. You have to cut anything fluffy out. This is direct. This is painful. This is a sweaty 10 minute conversation.

It is.

That may involve like a puddle of urine underneath the chair at the same time, but if you, I mean, done correctly, that saves that relationship.

Exactly. Because you know, panic is contagious with your team and so is composure.

I wholeheartedly agree.

So if you can model composure, you're the leader. Yes.

If you're freaked out, I guarantee everyone under you is losing their ever loving minds.

Yes. And probably also going, I'm really glad she's here and she can do that. Or I'm really glad he's here and he can do, I don't want that part of the job.

Oh, sure.

That's why you're in charge.

Sure.

Yeah. Don't spend on sugarcoat now.

That's the. I love that composure piece though, because there's so many people when, when you see a boss, a manager, a business owner lose their mind, you just realize that you are watching it implode.

Yes.

In one way or another, something is just absolutely imploding and the amount of damage that's going to be done from that is huge.

Yeah. And I will tell you, I mean, Josh, in our business in the last 30 days, because again, we live in one of our industries is a political football in the insurance industry. We have had carriers that have given us 12 hours notice and said, we're no longer going to pay you for the work that you're doing. How we, how I respond is key in that situation because it's like, I've got employees now. They're like, we're not Going to get paid for what? I'm like, we're not going to get paid for this. They've changed our commission schedule. We're not going to get paid for the work that we've been doing. We have another one that is. Modified their commission structure and said, look, we're gonna. You're gonna take a 20% pay cut next year. You're gonna do exactly the same amount of work, but you're gonna take a 20% pay cut, and there's nothing that you can do about it. So, you know, thanks. Can you please write our business anymore? No, don't think so. But how I respond, having the resilient operating system, having the skills that are like, okay, this is what I can control. This is what I can't control. This is an attempt in learning. We're gonna learn through this. What can we learn from the situation? How much more do we need to diversify? This is why we have new products coming out. This is why we have fractional hr. This is why our business is not dependent on any one client or any one carrier. It's really about modeling those systems and showing when things are hard, we can still be resilient and work through it. Doesn't mean I'm going to smile through the whole thing, because I really want to punch somebody right now, but that's okay. We'll move on. We'll figure it out. Keep moving.

This is why you're so excited.

I'm so excited about resilience because, I mean, you're trying.

This is a review for you to put this into practice.

It is, and I think it's something that. I mean, there are so many things going on in the world. So many things. Whether you are concerned about what AI is going to do in the workforce, you're concerned about what the political landscape is, whether you like it or you don't like it. If you got derailed and weren't able to fly in the last couple of months, but because things got chaotic, I mean, being able to build these skills is paramount to being able to just move forward and thrive as a human. Because disruption happens no matter what.

Yep.

So why not just thrive through it?

Totally agree.

Build the skill set.

Totally agree. Should we wrap a lot of this? Yeah, I. I think it's a good spot to do that.

Yeah.

My big thing is going to be build that buffer.

Yep.

Um, in fact, I just want to say the. Build the buffer and then document three key processes. Okay, three. I mean, because that. That is an operational buffer for you, too.

Yeah.

So build the financial buffer and then build that. So that way, if something goes sideways, you've got a few days of your process still running smoothly to. To iron things out.

Yeah.

What would be a couple of your top suggestions and key takeaways besides, like, read the book and. To the resilient operating system.

Yeah, do the resilient operating system. Come. Come to the course with me. I would say inventory your skills. If your skills are lacking. I mean, really kind of think about what you need to do and maybe, maybe build an ad. I will say that consistency in modeling these skills builds clarity, flexibility builds resilience. So, you know, resilience is adaptability under pressure. And your team shouldn't be surprised by change. They should be ready for it because you're modeling how to respond under that pressure and when things happen and when things change. So, I mean, when we got the notice about what was happening with those carriers, they're like, this is what we got. And I'm like, okay, well, we're going to continue to work on what we need to work on to take care of the customers that we're going to not get paid for. But now we're going to move forward and we're going to do something else that can continue to generate revenue. It's like, okay, let's do that. They're not our only clients. Let's keep going.

So put on your raincoats.

Put on your raincoats. And I would say, too, it's really. It's building your own resilient operating system and then modeling the behavior you want to see in your organization. You are the front of the ship, so you gotta model what you wanna see. If you wanna see chaos, model chaos.

But. And this will be my opportunity for the radio voice. If you wanna be cool, calm and collected.

Yes.

Was that good?

That was good.

Was that good?

It's perfect.

Just all. All NPR for people. Just cool, calm and collected. What's a daily habit you use to stay to reset your mental resilience? I mean, I joke that. I mean, we're sitting here in a padded room.

Yeah, we are.

What do you use to. To kind of stay resilient mentally?

So it is a question that I ask anytime any situation is going on. And that is, what can I learn from this when things are going well? What can I learn from this when things are going not so well? What can I learn from this? I mean, it's. We talked about it in a lot of other episodes. That is. It's the reframe of I Am Awful. I can't handle this. I'm not doing well. Fixed mindset to what can I learn from this and just grow? It's a growth mindset learning. So for you, I lost my question. Oh, I got it. What's the fastest way for a leader to destroy organizational resilience?

I am actually working with a client right now that I am watching this happen with.

Oh, no.

They have a culture of blame. It's. I didn't do it. I didn't do it. It's not my fault. Whatever. If you cannot fix, you cannot fix anything ever. If there's people that. If people are afraid to admit there's a problem. No, if you admit there's a problem, you can fix it. You can get on with your life. That to me, is that bouncing forward.

Yeah.

Because we've now fixed this.

Yes.

And we probably. We probably, probably won't do this again. No. But it's to me, because I see it all the time. People. People will bring a problem up. Not their fault. They get in trouble for it.

Yeah.

And I'm like, this isn't you. I just watched it with a facilities manager who got yelled at about a problem that happened in a food service area. And I'm like, that. You manage the structure.

Yeah.

Nope. Yeah. So to me, that, that is that thing that just makes things worse and worse and worse. If. If you can't admit there's a problem. Being open. We have. We talked about being open and honest in the business.

We have psychological safety. Being able to move. You want to move at the speed of innovation. You want to be able to have a nimble team, be resilient. Got to be able to talk model resilience.

Love it. To everyone that, like, you want to take care of the ups and downs. Does business ownership have ups and downs?

Just a few.

Have you experienced those? Just a couple. This wild vacillation of called open enrollment. Yeah, right. Not only that, but just the wild vacillation of one minute, like, oh, this is amazing. And 20 minutes later you're locked in your office crying on the floor. If you're looking to like, is there. Is the resilient operating system out yet or.

No, it's out. Resilient operating system dot com, that is. Yes, we have launched.

Go there. Go to businessfixpodcast.com. make sure you follow us on all the social medias. All of the social media. Because we talked about the marketing piece of that review. A subscription. Tell us what you want us to talk about. We would love for you to put that in, like one of the podcast platforms. Let us know. Would love to hear about it, Christine. I enjoy doing the research and everything like that behind this. And we obviously, we have some fun in the studio talking about it, too. We know, in fact, we just talked earlier about someone that has just this stream of ideas.

Yes.

That we absolutely love, adore. But sometimes you got to wonder, is your business broken at? Like, if you're not making money, or are you just bored and trying to throw stuff at the wall to see what happens? So broken or bored, that is what we're going to talk about next week. Do me a favor, take care of yourself. If you can take care of someone else, too, we will see you very, very.