Special Episode: Leading Through Crazy Times

Hey, I'm Chris Plackey, host of the Lead you'd Team podcast. Running a million dollar business is not easy. And whether you're just getting started with building your team or you've been at this for a while, I'm going to bring you honest, specific and clear practices you can use right now, today to improve how well you lead your team. Let's go ahead and get started.

Hello everyone, how are you? And welcome to either the podcast or this video. Because I am doing something new this week, I wanted to get some information to all of you as quickly as I could. It is just such a crazy time.

And man, if you're like me or my clients that I work with, there's just been so much happening and it feels like it's such a quick pace. And for those of us who are business owners, I really do understand.

How fast the requirements, decision making requirements are of you right now, at least to be me. It feels that way.

Even in the circle that I'm in, just with my clients and then just with my husband. Just today he went to work, all had this huge plan. He's a physical therapist. I know I've mentioned that to many of you and just right now, 12 hours later, decided that's it, he's closing until further notice. And so we're just all winging this as we go along. And so for those of you who might follow me on social media.

Or on my mailing list, you know that I hosted a couple of free open coaching calls this weekend which were.

First of all, a lot of people came, which, you know, I knew people would come. I just didn't realize how many of you need help. And I was just so grateful to be able to do what I did and create space for these women and answer their questions and help them think through the decisions and just the space that they're in. We had an incredible group of people show up. A lot of healthcare providers, doctors who are running various different kinds of practices, nurse practitioners, occupational therapists. I have a lot of doctors and physical therapy clients, also dentists. And then lots of women running small shops and small businesses or services that are also being greatly impacted by a lot of the very rapid response changes to our current circumstances. So anyway, to all of you out there doing your best, I see you, I understand and I relate to tremendously. Even as in my own world here with my kids sitting outside my office now full time. And my husband I guess will also be home full time. So that's happening too. So what I'm Doing for this purposes of this podcast in this discussion is I want to share with you some things that you need to keep in mind. But then I want to extend an invitation to you because what I know is these are unusual times and, and I don't even know if unusual is the right word. These are unseen before times. And it's very reasonable for most of us to feel incredibly unprepared and.

Off guard in terms of what we should be doing and also really planning for. So I have created a four week course, just coaching course. It's a mini course. It's incredibly coach intensive. So there's lots of coaching time. I'm going to be doing two calls a week, plus I'm throwing in some bonus Saturday coaching calls. And then I'm going to provide you some video content. And I use the word content loosely. It's really not designed to be a course that you're busy doing. I want you to be more applying. So I'm just going to share videos with you that will help you with your own insights. But then I also want to complement those videos with some videos that you can give team members because I know your employees need help as well. And I was talking to one of my other clients, who Patty Palmer, who has Deep Space Sparkle, which is a beautiful business for creating art lessons for teachers and she created something for everyone last week for her clients, but it was also for parents and it was designed to just be given to anyone who needed it. And I want my clients to think about this as well. I know you have a lot of people who your lives touch through your business and I want to create some tools for you to give your employee who doesn't know how to process this very well for themselves. So as someone who's in this coaching group with me for the next four weeks, you'll have access to a lot of that plus our coaching, which I know you'll find supportive and helpful and validating and resourceful and maybe and hopefully grounding in a time of great disarray in so much of our lives. So.

I will give you the more details about that as we wrap up this episode and I'll give you the actual website that you can go to to get the information.

And we'll get you all set up so that you'll know exactly what you need to do. Okay, so, but a couple things just to keep in mind because I know if I know that we're all kind of going through it. First of all, this is when you lead.

This is what leadership is Right here. You thought leading was what you were doing three months ago. No, this is leadership. This is leadership. This is making decisions when there is no right answer.

And it's making decisions when there's no right answer and then sticking to it. It's like having your own back. Making, making decisions for reasons and purposes that feel right to you. And that doesn't mean that they will feel right to someone else. I was just coaching someone today who has employees who, who seem to have some misgivings about her plan. And so she's kind of was initially sort of annoyed with the employees for having an opinion about her plan. And I suggested that maybe she just allow her employees to have an opinion about her plan, but she needs to execute her plan. So we let them know. I absolutely understand what's going on for you. I want you to understand that this is how I'm going to choose to run my business. And if it doesn't work, I understand you can make another decision. And we have to be willing because at this point there's a lot of people who think they know the answer, but you all. Nobody knows the answer, so you have to find it for you. Now, part of the reason I want you to join me in my four week group is because it's really hard to access your own answers if you're all, if you're still in your own disarray, if you're in fear and worry and anxiety or anger or impatience or frustration or burdened or if you're so scared about money. Like there's so many things I know that are on your mind, but your decision making is at the heart of this. You are the leader and we can bolster your skill set in leadership. That's not hard to do, but you have to be willing to do some things to help yourself get better at it. Okay? The second thing is it's normal for people to be really, really uncomfortable with what I'm calling ambiguity. Ever actually guaranteed. It was never guaranteed there would be toilet paper and paper towels at the grocery store. We just got really used to it being there.

It was never guaranteed that your business was not going to hit a wall.

It was never guaranteed we weren't going to have a pandemic. We just believed that doesn't happen. Of course, we've seen enough movies now that I think we're all programmed to really be even more freaked out because we've seen these movies about pandemics. Stop watching those movies. By the way. There is not really anything that is predictable. And yet our Belief that things are predictable and stable is what makes us feel safe.

And right now, everything's ambiguous, everything's uncertain, so we feel unsafe. But nothing is really any different than it was yesterday or two weeks ago or last January.

It's just we now have our future shaken, even though we thought we knew what it would be, but that was never granted to us. We just believed it. So what you choose to think now in this circumstance really matters.

And I need coaching just as much as the rest of us. Trust me, I get a lot of help right now. I need it. And if, if you're not feeling that way, I'm really happy for you. But that's not the majority of people. And honestly, some people are just annoyed with everyone being making such a big deal out of this. But guess what? You have to either employ those people or sell to those people or, or hire them as vendors, like, and they're not going to be there. So there are considerations here. But this notion that things should have not changed or this shouldn't be happening and now that being a trigger for lack of safety, I want you to understand where that comes from. Because it's going to help you help other people. Right. That's. That's the valuable, I think, piece of insight in that.

So we have to know there's no right decisions. And we have to know that everything is always actually ambiguous. It's just that we didn't think that it was.

And then I think the last thing for sure that I want to share with you today is that you need a plan. You have to stop thinking that you'll figure it out or we'll see what happens. You need a plan.

When crazy things like us like this happen, it either is we watch people who shrink and get small and freak out and then kind of wake up in the world when it's all better or different. And then we watch people innovate. And the people who innovate are the people who take this circumstance and they make a plan. And that doesn't mean you have to create a ton of new stuff. It doesn't mean anything like that. It just means like, instead of shrinking and worrying and fretting, what are you doing to innovate here? How can you think about this differently? I talked with a doctor over the weekend who was so distraught because she doesn't have the supplies she needs. They're not in any way, shape or form looking like they're going to show up. And she has all these people she needs to help. She's a very small office. And she's trying to handle this as though she always has handled her patient and she can't do it anymore. It's just not possible that it's time to innovate. And once we got through about the first five minutes of our conversation where she was really able to just vent through and process her distraughtness and then land back into another reality, she was able to see what her other options are. But when we stay in our resistance position, we don't find solutions. And that's what coaching is for people is. That's the gift to me is, you know, I can't. I can't tell you how many times I'm talking to Brooke, my girlfriend, Brooke Castillo, and she'll say something to me and I'll be like, I. I didn't even think about that.

Right. It just didn't even occur to me. Why not? Because I was so busy focusing on the problem part. All right, as leaders, you didn't sign up for this, but you signed up to be in charge. And being in charge means you first, you've got to think about what you need to take care of yourself so that you can take care of everybody else. If you're a hot mess in your head, you're not going to be able to help people. And we, the women, y', all, we're going to help the people. And so I'm all in. I'm totally committed to doing whatever I can to be helpful Right now. All of us who are in a position to help, I believe are, like, charged to do it. And so I see that. And this is what I want to do for you. I'm creating a four week course.

Tons of coaching time, not a ton of content, but, but insights I want to share with you. Like, think about the podcast on steroids that you'll get to keep tools for people you love and work for you. Okay. And the opportunity to meet with and see other women who are sharing in your current circumstance, but who are the kind of thinkers who are taking things forward and instead of dwelling, okay, you with me? So what you're going to do is you're going to go to ChrisPlacki.com and across the menu, you're going to see a menu option that says leading through crazy.

And you're going to click on that and it's going to take you to all the details on leading through crazy times with me. Okay? And on that, you'll see that you have the four weeks of coaching and the video insights. This starts On Monday, March 23rd, we are getting started. I do not want you to wait long time not knowing what to do. Things are moving rapid fire around here. We're just getting notices like these are closing. This is happening. You know, I want you to have a plan so that as you go into the next two to three weeks, you're feeling more solid. You have to be prepared for this to be a three month circumstance. And that means a lot of things. That means what to do with the team, how to handle this yourself, how to handle this with your clients, how to generate if revenue, if you need to think about revenue. What is your financial plan? There are elements we've got to talk about and I know those at any one of those could be total triggers for you. So that's why we're going to do this together. We're going to figure it all out and we're going to be done with this pandemic and we're going to be like, okay, now what?

You thought you were going to own me coronavirus? It's not happening. Not today, Zerg, is what we used to say. Because we're big Toy Story fans in my family. So listen, I care so deeply for you and who you are and what you do in the world. And I want to ensure as best we can here that you stay focused on what matters, that you get your head clean. Because it's like one of my clients said to me, girl. Cause I've amped up all my time for all my clients. I'm doing office hours every day. I've been doing the free calls this past weekend just to help a few folks out. And I'm gonna keep doing this for my existing clients, you know, my existing clients who I know will watch this video. You get all of this stu that I'm creating for everybody. So if you're an existing client, you are well cared for. As best I can right now, aside from inviting you to my house, I'm doing everything I can. So I want to invite you into my community. If you aren't here yet, please join us. Your brain. So one of my clients said to me this morning, I. I need this every day. I need this every day. And you know what? So do I. I need this every day. And I have my outlet for it as well. You have to find ways to get the resources and the support you need. Okay? And there if it, if it's not this, it should be something else. But I know you listen to my podcast and I know that you appreciate getting this kind of support. And for me. If there was ever a time for you to invest in yourself this way, it's right now. And. And I'm charging you hardly anything for what it's normally very much more money to work with me. And I just want to get this in your hands and I want to get you the coaching support I can get you right now. So I'm really hoping this works for you and I'll continue to provide resources for you. So keep watching the Instagram. If you're not on my Instagram yet, go to Chris Plackey, coach on Instagram. I'm also on Facebook. I have a Facebook page, Chris Plackey, so. So just go to Facebook. I think it's Chris Plackey, but I'm not quite sure. But it's not my personal page, it's my professional page, but you'll find me there as well. All right, so thanks for tuning in. More to come, go to my website, chrisplacky.com. go to the menu on the top. You'll see leading through Crazy. Click on that and you'll see all the details and where you can register. And again, we start Monday, March 23rd. So don't think about it. If you want to do it, go. Okay. Talk to you.