927 8 Ways to Be Calm and Prepared During Crisis

This is episode number 927, eight ways to be calm in moments of crisis. We are foregoing the five minute Friday format right now in order to really educate people on what's happening in the world right now. There's been a lot of news, there's been a lot of stress, fear, concern, chaos happening, especially in the last few days, typically all on this coronavirus information. And in this episode, we wanted to do a special coffee conversation where me and Matt Cserato get together and break down the facts from what the CDC is saying on their website on health habits for your home, for your family, for your school, for your work. We also want to talk about how to be a leader in your life, in your relationships, at home, and at work. And really, again, these eight ways to stay calm emotionally, how to set yourself up and be prepared, how to have compassion for people, how to really have an abundance mindset and live like a leader during times of chaos. So we hope you enjoy this episode. Please subscribe, please share this with your friends, get the message out to help people be prepared to during these times of crisis in the world. And let's dive in to this coffee conversation.

To help coffee... City of Los Angeles Emergency Hotline.

Take common sense precautions. Wash your hands thoroughly and frequently. Stay home if you feel sick. Keep extra food and medical supplies around. And practice social distancing. To learn more about how you can help stop the spread of the novel coronavirus, visit lamayor.org/coronavirus. We are rolling, and right as we started rolling this coffee conversation, the phone rang. And I said, why is the phone ringing? and it just had a voice message to what everyone that go out to the whole world.

City of Los Angeles. This was our landline.

City of Los Angeles landline just came out to us and it essentially said everything we're about to say on this episode.

Incredible.

Of the notes we have of what we're talking about. This is really, in my opinion, eight ways to be calm and prepared during chaos and the coronavirus. So this is what we're talking about. In the last 48 hours, it's been crazy what has, how much fear has come up in people's minds. And I'm not saying you shouldn't be concerned, you shouldn't be prepared, you shouldn't be worried about the coronavirus. But in this Coffee Conversation, me and Cesar, cheers. Cheers, Coffee Conversation in the new studio. We are going to be talking about these different eight things that we came up with on how to really be calm and also Matt's going to break down what is on the government's website CDC. CDC of exactly what you need to know and you should be concerned about so that you don't get the virus. And here's what I'll start with. You cannot control what happens in in your world or in your life but you can control how you respond to every situation, to every event, to every experience, to what people say, what people do, attacks that happen, all that stuff. You can't control what other people do, but you can control how you react. And I think that's what I want to come across today. So the first, Matt Cedar, is going to break down a few of the practical things that you need to be aware of in your life, in your work, in your house, with your schools, so that you are protected, prepared, and aligned to being safe. That's what it's all about. Then what I'm going to do is I'm going to break down these eight different ways that you can be emotionally safe, mentally and spiritually safe and aware so that you're prepared in your inner world. So Matt's going to talk about the outer world of how to respond to the situation. We're going to talk about the inner world next. So what are some things that we can do?

Again, this is coming from the CDC's website. Yes. Easily found on a Google search or just go to CDC's website and ultimately this just tells you how to keep your home safe, keep your workplace safe, keep safe at school. Obviously a lot of people are, a lot of states, a lot of counties are shutting down schools.

Crazy. In Ohio, we just got word that schools are getting shut down for three weeks minimum.

Incredible.

We just saw today that it was the NBA shut down, MLS, hockey, baseball, NCAA, like every major sporting event is being canceled. All in the last 24 hours.

South by Southwest.

Expo West, all on the last 24 hours, people, it wasn't until yesterday when people really started to freak out. And I'm not saying people shouldn't be canceling all these things, they should be so things don't spread. And I don't have all the data and facts on this, on if things should be canceled. But I think it's smart because we never know who has the virus and who could spread it in a public setting. So I think it's smart that they're canceling all these things. And I don't want to cut you off because I'm going to talk about this in a second, but what can.

We do to make sure that we're protecting ourselves? Absolutely. I think this is important. Just inform yourself. These are very simple habits that the CDC is reinforcing that is just normal. So you don't catch the flu or any other sickness. It's just the normal habits that people kind of forget about and neglect over time. I mean, even myself, it's like you don't even realize just washing your hands a couple more times a day, not rubbing your eyes.

I guess I do all the time. Yeah.

I mean, that's a whole-- hands on.

My face sitting here all day long.

I know. I do that right around, you know, you grab your mouth, you know, you just scratch your nose and you don't even realize like that's the way that anything you've touched across.

Well, I think if you have hand sanitation at access and you're putting it on, Throughout the day, if you touch someone or something and you put it on, then you're okay to touch yourself.

And that's number one on our list. Clean hands, you know, every time you can think about it pretty much. When you're touching door handles, when you're going out in public places, if you can clean them regularly, that's like number one on what they're saying to do to keep your home safe. Create habits, reminders to avoid touching your face. Cover your cough, cover your sneezes, disinfect surfaces like doorknobs, tables, handrails regularly. Money, wallets. You're touching your wallet. Just think of the money that's going in there. Credit cards, it's going in there. And that's where your mind kind of gets carried away because I mean, recently now, now that your family's calling you, friends are calling you, I'm getting text messages saying be safe. It's like, I think in those moments it's just kind of like things are like hitting critical mass right now. And I think we just need to take a deep breath and just kind of simplify the process. So again, increase ventilation by opening windows, adjust air conditioning, and then it goes on to say if you're in a household that's vulnerable for seniors, there's some significant underlying conditions that include health, lungs, kidney disease, diabetes, and conditions that suppress the immune system. So have healthy people in the household conduct themselves as if there were significant risk to the person with underlying conditions. So just be more conscious and aware of the things you're doing every day. Those are the little things. So you can be a, remember it's like be a buddy, be a good friend, be a leader. And if you're someone who is healthy, don't neglect that other people around you have you know, lesser immune systems. So it's saying wash hands more frequently before interacting with someone who's, you know, has a compromised immune system. You know, especially if you're feeding or caring for that person, if possible, provide a protected space for vulnerable household members, like quarantine them. You know, last time I was sick, you know, in January, Kendra just, she like creates this like sick area on the couch and I just stayed there. It's covered with sheets and you literally quarantine yourself. So, let's see, ensure that utensils and services are clean regularly, like just the normal stuff. Just try to be more clean in your actions. And then it says, households with sick family members, you know, if you already are sick, give them their own room if possible, keep the doors closed, Have only one family member care for them at a time, you know, as not to infect. Consider providing additional protections and more intensive care for household members that are over 65 years old with underlying conditions. So this is coming again from the CDC's website. I think it's important practice. Same thing, it's really a reprise of the same things when you're talking about your commercial establishments. It talks about if you're at work or you travel a lot, I'd say right now you see that we're cutting down travel internationally as a country. Let's see, it says avoid crowd, major crowds. Use online transactions wherever possible, like cha-ching Amazon, you know what I'm saying? Walmart.com, I don't mean to, Promote one or the other, but it says, Consider limiting attendance to large gatherings. You were supposed to go to LA.

Galaxy-- LAFC, soccer game tonight. They canceled this morning. And all MLS games for the season.

That's crazy. So again, it's just these little habits for transportation. You know, when using buses, taxis, it says, Keep windows closed when you're traveling in your car.

Keep it closed. Why is that?

I'm sorry, keep windows open. My apologies, yes. Increase ventilation, not decrease ventilation. And then disinfect surfaces. Let's see what else we got here. Obviously with food, limit food sharing. Let's see.

A lot of people are saying cook at home more.

For your kids at school, it's saying limit food sharing. Don't share your stuff in a lunchbox if your kids are still in school. Strengthen health screening for the cafeteria staff and their close contacts. Ensure cafeteria staff and their close contacts practice strict hygiene. If you're feeling sick, stay home. Don't send your kid to school sick. Don't go to work. Don't go to school. Don't go to work. You know, your mom was sick, you know, just recently this week and I talked to her. I was like, just stay home, just, you know.

You know what's crazy? She sent a photo, I think she sent it to both of us. Yeah. Yeah. Where she went to the urgent care and it said, if you're feeling these symptoms, do not come in. That was incredible. It said, call this number. said, Do not come into the urgent care if you think you might have coronavirus.

Talk about some that would terrify you if you saw that. You're sick, you really need help. You need help.

And they're saying, Don't come in. It's crazy. So here's some things. I literally was just going to, Dr. Oz had a post on Instagram today that I saw that was sharing about the symptoms. If you're having these symptoms, you might have coronavirus. I just clicked on the post and it literally sent me to this that says, Looking for coronavirus? info. And it's telling you where to go. Even on social media now, they're trying to help people. Anything with a hashtag, they're saying go to cdc.gov, see posts. They're going to have the most up-to-date stuff. So, this is what's information that's out right now. But if you go to cdc.gov, it's going to give you more up-to-date stuff. So, I would go there first. That's the thing.

Keep it simple. I mean, here's the other thing. People are going to be sharing their own places to go get information. You have so many news outlets sharing information about statistically what's going on. Obviously it gets a little overwhelming for me. It's like there's so much news happening right now. I just figured go to the CDC.

And make sure-- They have everything there. It's just an easy-- Don't read into media. Read into the facts that CDC has up to date. There's four common symptoms of the coronavirus. that are different than the common cold and the flu, which is what I saw from Dr. Oz's post. The fever is common, a cough is common, but it's usually dry, fatigue is common. Those are the three main common things. And sometimes there's shortness of breath. So those are the kind of symptoms you're gonna face if you think you have the coronavirus now.

And just to keep, just to finish this up, So we talked about to keep safe at home, what to do if you've got older seniors at home or sick people at home, keeping the workplace safe, that's the last thing we wanted to talk about, stop handshaking. So this is funny because-- We did a foot shake this morning. Right, right.

We had a couple interviews today and.

It'S like, hey, how you doing? Exactly. Are we supposed to hug?

Are we supposed to handshake? Are we supposed to elbow shake? There was a guy in the elevator, I'd give a fist bump. foot handshake too. We just like tap each other's foots.

Who was in last week? We got fist bumps.

Fist bumps. David John. He was like, ah, I don't know what's going on. Right.

So anyway, so just be careful with these things. Clean your hands. I'm just going through disinfecting. I mean, we've got Purell in the.

Office, a massive tub.

Spritz every 30 minutes. Exactly. Be careful with meetings and travel. So obviously, I mean, my brother works at Amazon. Amazon completely like close their offices from what I heard. And you can read that online, Twitter same thing. So I was reading online, it's like, I mean you're gonna get used to video conferencing. It's funny, we only have video conferencing because we basically had your home studio before and now we have an office.

And we're all coming to the office still.

So we're still coming, I mean here's the thing, just don't come in sick, you know? That's it. Be a smart contributor. Wash your hands regularly.

Sneeze on each other.

Right, exactly. Don't cough, don't sneeze, just cover that stuff. So again, limit in food sharing. And the last piece was stay at home if you're feeling sick. And if they have a sick family member at home, you should also consider not coming in because you may have an incubation period sickness that will come out into the air too. That's it.

We're seeing, you know, this is going to get, in my mind, it's going to get worse in terms of media beer hype, then it's gonna be, you know, sooner than later it's gonna get worse. And here's my thoughts. Literally last night was the first night it was like getting bad. And I'm here doing interviews yesterday and Jeanette, my girlfriend, is FaceTiming me every 20 minutes when she saw something in the media. Oh my gosh, Tom Hanks has it now. Oh my gosh, the president said you can't travel to Europe. for 30 days. Oh my gosh, like every 20 minutes she FaceTimed me and was like, Babe, relax, breathe. You're gonna get sick just thinking about this.

Yeah, create that disease in yourself.

She created the disease in herself. And literally I get home and she's still obsessing over this conversation in the media. And I say, Listen, it's okay to be concerned and be prepared and have worry for friends and check in. All these things are good. What's not okay is we react with a lot of fight or flight, fear, stress, anxiety, worry, 'cause that's not gonna help us get prepared for what's to come, whether more bad things happen or this ends tomorrow. And literally, this happens for a couple hours. We order food. She has a little bit of soup. She doesn't eat anything solid. She's just drinking soup. And right away she goes, oh, my stomach is hurting me. what is going on? Did you eat something? I have a taste of it. Everything's fine. And for three hours, she's in, like, fetal position, cramp mode, like she's on her period, essentially, feeling. And I'm, like, relaxing, trying to calm her. And it's fine. A few hours later, she goes to bed, fine, everything. But I go, you literally just created so much stress in your mind and your body where you made your stomach sick. Yeah, yeah. and it was just like we need to be prepared and we're going to talk about these eight things that you can do to be calm, prepared during type of chaos in your life, whether it's coronavirus or any traumatic experience happening or any media frenzy or fear, whether it's real or not real.

What's the way that you, if you're in a situation or you're stressed or something's happening for you personally and you feel it coming to a culmination and you don't know what to do in that moment, what's your go to.

Last night, I was just like, there's, I've done so much practice. Me and Tiff were talking about this today. Last night, I was just like, there's nothing to worry about. There's things to be concerned about. There's nothing to worry about because worry does not do anything good for you or anyone else around you. It causes more stress, more anxiety, more pain, more disease when you worry. And worrying about something that hasn't happened yet is a great crime for yourself because it's distracting you from your vision, it's distracting you from being in a loving environment, it's distracting you from giving to your friends and family, it's distracting you from your dreams, your goals, your routines, all these things of keeping you healthy. So worry is a crime. It's necessary to be prepared, be educated, be concerned, be ready. All those different things is great. But you can't be prepared and ready if you're worried at the same time. It's really hard I think. If you're coming from a fight or flight, ah freaking out, you're always like what's going on, what's going on? And so that's why when I got home last night I was just like hugging Jeanette, I was just like it's all gonna be okay, you know, let's be prepared, let's get educated, let's be concerned, but Let's not worry.

Right.

Because that's not gonna do anything for us right now. Of course. The more you worry, the more you become, your immune system gets weaker when you have stress in your mind and your heart. And that's going to be susceptible to getting a disease.

Of course.

Getting a virus, a cold, whatever. So you want to keep your immune system strong. So here are the eight ways to be calm and prepared during chaos in your life. The first one is something to consider is Defensiveness and denial. Now, I'll be the first one to admit, a few days ago before all this craziness in the media came out, I was like, this is not going to be a big deal. People are blowing this out of proportion. I was probably a little bit less considerate to not having the full picture on what's happening. I was like, this is not a big deal. It's not going to affect me, my life, whatever, right? And I was on a little bit of denial. which is not the best thing to do. So don't get defensive or be in denial, and don't downplay the situation. Right. And I think that's what I do. I think somebody who's, listen, here's the thing.

I think people immediately, their knee-jerk reaction if they hear somebody overly buying goods, or, you know, my wife went to Target today and she's like, all the paper goods are gone. She said the photo, there was no.

Paper goods on the racks.

My daughter Bella, she's in the little cart and there's like nothing on the shelves. It's almost like post-apocalyptic. obviously there is concern, but I think for some people they're like, oh my gosh, these doomsdayers, these people who are overly preparing, calm down, and they get defensive, and they live in denial, and they almost create this false sense of security for themselves instead of doing the right thing, which is just educate yourself, take positive, committed action to preparing yourself. Yes. So, I mean, I agree. I think that's a good one.

Yeah, and this is a serious, you know, it's a serious situation for other people, even if this is, not personally affecting you or not personally connected to someone you know or a friend of yours who's may not impacted by it doesn't mean it's not real and people and businesses are being impacted by it. So not being in denial about it and having compassion around it, that's number two. The second point is to have compassion for people. So, you know, again, my girlfriend was like last night she was like, I'm gonna be in fear tonight. Let me be in fear and tomorrow I'm gonna go back to normal life. I'm gonna go back to school, class, she's doing English right now. She's like, I'm gonna go back to the gym, my routine. But I just need a moment to be in fear. I said, okay, like stress, look at the news, be frantic, and then let's move on. You know what I mean? Let's be prepared now. And so have compassion for people. Don't play into the fear, but beware of your behavior in times of chaos. I think what can you do when someone else is fearful? Don't make them wrong, right? Don't try to fix them in that moment.

Let them have... Let them have their in box. Tell them you're there for them and you're here. Just listen like at sometimes when people are going off, they're going off the deep end. They just need someone to listen to them and hear them out. That is like a basic human instinct for people.

So, don't try to avoid the situation. Don't try to deflect it, listen like you said, I think it's great. And check in on family and friends. My family was texting a group text today. I'm sure your family was too.

Friends, family, yeah.

Hey, schools are being closed. Hey, how's it going in LA? Here's what's happening in Ohio. You know, so we're getting on that. So I think check in with friends and family and don't make people wrong for their experience and what they're feeling. Be a support, be a compassion for them. And the best thing you can do is help people calm their nerves. help people calm their nerves because it's hard to be creative in chaos. It's hard to be calm when you're high stress. So do your best to listen and show peace. If you are the steady ship when the waves are crashing, then people are gonna wanna jump on your ship and feel comfortable and relaxed around you. So be a leader in this experience. not someone who just follows the crowd of being scared and nervous all the time.

That's it.

And I think supporting your local businesses, people are really going to be hurting for a while. We have friends who are big time speakers who all their speaking gigs have been canceled for the next six months. If they're in the event business, every event is being canceled. Comedians, speakers, magicians, canceled everything and that's people's livelihoods. So having compassion for people, local businesses are suffering, people aren't going to be going out for maybe, maybe it's a week, maybe it's a month, maybe it's who knows how long. So make sure you support the people in your life and have compassion for them.

Be kind, just honestly just be kind to people in times of crisis because a lot of times we're isolating ourselves obviously based on healthy habits, trying to stay out of crowds and things like that but It doesn't mean you can't be kind to people. It's like, let's be human to each other and see if someone needs support or needs help. So again, I think in that moment, just reach out to family members you haven't heard from. Just check in on them. Ask them if there's anything you do for them, you know?

That's it. Just be a support. That's it. Emotional support. The third thing is to reduce your exposure. You talked about this in here, staying at home, not trying to go to big public gatherings. This is just a wise mindset thing. Part of me is like, I want to go to my workout classes, I want to go to the gym, and the gyms are still full from what I'm seeing online. But it's like, just be smart. If you're gonna do it, be aware of the challenges you might face, be aware that there's gonna be people there, and you might pick something up. Make sure you wear gloves, sanitize, all the equipment is being touched by lots of people. Just be aware of that, and reduce the exposure as much as possible.

That's just what I would say. You're talking about workout classes, I mean, we went Barry's Bootcamp like a ton last year. And yeah, we did that 30 days. People were sweating, spitting- Can I tell you, there was one time, so you do the transition and I got off the treadmill and I didn't wipe it down fully or completely and the person literally like confronted me and honestly, it was like a negative way. Like they attacked me and I was like, oh my apologies, I'm sorry. And in that moment I was like, wow, I need to like do a better job, especially if I'm pissing somebody off. Yeah, exactly. Because, you know, obviously they're using that. So I think in those moments, Just being smarter and also knowing that a lot of times you can't help what other people are gonna do. Only person you can be in ownership of is yourself. So be a leader. Be a steward.

Be a leader.

For being better.

Yeah. I love this. Okay, number four is keep life simple and clean. So for the last two months, my girlfriend moved in. We've had more things we've been collecting. I've been getting more clothes, you know, sponsors and gifts and products and all these different things. and I keep looking at my closet saying, I want to clean this out. I want to clean this out. I've got all these things that I'll never wear. I need to clean this out. And now this weekend, it's like, I'm going to do a spring cleaning now. Like, it's time to clean out your space, throw away the old, use only what you want to use moving forward. Get rid of stuff that doesn't support you. Throw out the trash, throw out the excess stuff that's in the corner of your apartment, whatever it is, get back to whatever her name is, Maria Kondo, you know. Just clean and organize your space, your living space and create, make your life simple. I'm talking about your physical space, your financial space, go in your bank accounts and make sure, am I organized with my bank accounts? Am I setting things up on auto pay for my investments, whatever it is, am I paying off my credit cards? or are things piling up in my financial space, my physical space, emotional space? I say get back to your simple routines.

In times of crisis or chaos, try to simplify and organize to the best of your ability. Otherwise it's going to be a compounding effect on you.

More chaos. So clean your environment, clean your space, your financial space, your relationship space, conversations you need to have, all that stuff is important. You don't need to do it all at once, but start thinking about it and taking steps. Also, create a very, get back to a very powerful morning routine and evening routine. The more calm you can create, the more routine you can create, the better. Stay on track on being productive. Don't allow yourself to be overwhelmed and consumed with the media hype and the fear that other people might have. Be a leader by keeping life simple and clean. Check in how much you're spending. What are your habits? Self-care, all these different things. Make sure you're taking care of that. Number five, prepare for the worst. Now, I'm not the type of guy who's gonna go shop out of Target and have my whole place stocked with toilet paper. That's not-- you-'re gonna call me if.

The apocalypse-- I'm gonna call you, 'cause.

Your dad and your wife and you are gonna be prepared for the worst. Now, I think-- but I did tell my girlfriend, because she's worried and concerned, I said, you, know what? Let's go to Whole Foods tonight or Target or wherever we need to go. And let's buy some stuff that we're prepared for like the next month. Okay, so you feel safe, you feel protected, you feel like, okay, if something horrible happens, we're good for a month. Like, let's go do that. Cool. I'm down. So that's what we're doing tonight. So prepare for the, we always talk about this in sports. It's like you prepare for the worst. Expect the best. Expect the best, prepare for the worst. And we think about this as someone of greatness. It's like, okay, what if the lights go out? What if the slides go down? What if the video goes out? What if the audio goes out in this podcast? We're always thinking about what's the backup? What's the backup? And then what? And then what? How are you going to handle any situation? So you want to prepare for the worst. Here's the thing. We have no clue what's going to happen in the stock market with prices of milk and eggs. I have no idea. Prices might go up and you might be making less money right now. So you've got to figure out how to prepare and make sure you're ready for that. Don't wait till the last minute to buy something.

And I think the best way to prepare sometimes is just take inventory. I mean, some people go through life, they don't check the funds regularly. They don't know what they have or, you know, they don't have, they don't know what they have in their closets or rather their pantries as far as food. Just make a list, you know, prepare for it. Take a look at your bank accounts. See where you're at. Find out how many days weeks months you can live exactly, you know just prepare and that way and hopefully this.

Will get you ready once this is all over because this will end someday this will be all over at some point just like swine flu was just like what was it Ebola or all these different things that happen every three four years yeah, creates big scare and that's over so this will be over at some point and so number six is to hope for the best and prepare for the best as well so I Choose love, not fear. Continue to stand in love, not fear. Have a growth mindset in this time, even though you might be afraid. And you don't want to completely avoid the news because I'm the type of guy that doesn't like to watch anything in the news. You don't want to completely avoid it. You can check in on every couple of days or ask a friend what's really happening. But I would not sit there and obsess over because it's only going to feed you fear, so you keep watching. because they want to keep making money. Keep watching all the fear.

But there has to be a healthy dose of information. It's like not living in denial and going and diving into Netflix because you're working from home, right? Your office is closed.

Exactly, right.

You know?

Yeah, so be prepared. Check out the CDC and just have that information there. So that's number six to hope for the best. Number seven is business as usual. We talked about this stay productive. Keep adding value to the world, whether that's to your friends and family checking in, but staying productive with your routines. It's easy to go down the rabbit hole of the world is ending. That's just not the case right now. The world is struggling and there's challenges in different parts of the world for sure, and people are dying and people are going through hard times. It is not ending. So don't get caught up in the media and panic. Here's something I will say. This is going to be one of the most important things that people hear. In this time, you want to find ways to keep income coming in. You want to find ways to find a side job if you need to because businesses might shut down for a while. So you got to get, this is the time for you to get creative, pick up a new skill, learn editing for video, learn graphic design, learn communication, public speaking, learn something that you can make money on the side. in the future with. Learn a language. Whatever it is, pick up a new skill. Because when things get uncertain and you're not sure the future, skills is what's going to get you out of that in the future. When you have a talent that people are going to need to hire you for. So, have a new skill. And as well, stay humble. Stay humble during this situation. Now, this is number 8. My opinion, probably the most important is to keep giving. It's hard to have an abundant mindset when you feel scarce, but that's when you need to think abundantly with resources, time, energy, effort, love. If we can think and be abundant in a time of scarcity, that's where true richness lives in. So always keep giving.

And the giving of the humanity, man. That's it, man.

That is our humanity. And it can be giving, just like saying hi to people. Again, the person who came in the elevator today, I was just like, he literally had a piece of paper and touched the button in the elevator, 'cause he didn't want to touch the button with his finger. So he put the button here, the paper over the button and touched it through the paper. And I did it with my elbow on the button. And we just kind of laughed. And I was just like, Hey, man, I want to hug you, but let's give a little foot-five-five, you know? And we just had a moment of, giving to each other, like connection.

It's being human.

Even in a moment of like fear maybe, right? So keep giving, stay abundant. When you feel scarce, find ways to give more to people in those moments and it'll always come back to you. So those are the eight ways to be prepared to be calm during chaos with all this coronavirus stuff. You gave some great stuff that was on the CDC's website. And what else? Again, you can't control what happens in the world or the events that happen or what people do, what people say. But you can always control how you respond to those situations. And I think that's what we need to remember. But what are you going to do as a dad and a husband with your family?

We've been preparing for the last week, you know?

Really?

Yeah, we have.

You started a week ago. See, I'm just like, okay, let's go tonight and get some sleep.

My brother works at Amazon so he was like, oh man, I'm working from home now. so I knew, you know, things, you kind of understand things are starting to go in a direction of, I mean, obviously it's a pandemic now, but you start realizing there are decisions you need to make for yourself to be protected, be safe. I've got the responsibility as a husband, a father, and even a leader of this team, you know, I mean, we live in an office right here and we're in close quarters and we're a small team, but we can still do the things, simple things, put those into practice.

Sanitize everything, yeah.

Sanitize, wash your hands. Now, it's just a little part that you can play for yourself and for everyone on this team, everyone around you, your family. So, we're also preparing with, you know, our paper goods, our canned goods, rice, things like that.

How should we prepare as a business? And how should businesses prepare as the operator of the business? What are you thinking about? in terms of team safety, in terms of financial safety as a business to keep going, because it seems like a lot of businesses, I mean, all these NBA, NFL leagues are essentially going to lose billions, it seems like, over the next few months, because they're not playing their games.

Of course. It's going to be a lot of loss as far as revenue for businesses, absolutely billions of dollars.

Stock market going down, and all these things.

Airlines that aren't taking flights internationally right now. So as a business, you just have to be smart and put into practice good financial habits. Making sure that you do cut expenses that don't need to be had right now.

That's good. Cut the fat.

You know, make sure that you can hit your payroll, you know, make sure that we can pay people. People are the most important part of any business. So taking care of our team, taking care of our people is always top of mind. Cutting expenses, like I said.

What are the two or three things that we've done well to be prepared for this type of moment? Maybe that we were planning for or not planning for but we just did a good job and we were ready for it. And what are a couple things that you're like, oh, had I known this was going to happen six months ago, I would have done this and this for our business by now.

You know, at this point, I don't know that there's a Having the same information now as six months, I don't know that I would have done much differently. We're a media business, we're an online media business as well. We'll see what the impact is on advertising for our podcast. A lot of things are yet to be seen, but again, it's just beyond just also falling into scarcity and not getting too caught up in scarcity. Obviously, cutting expenses, making sure you can make the payments that you need to make, figure out payment plans if you need to cut some payment out at any given time. And the other thing that is just, you know, like number seven, it's find a new skill. We can lean into other things as a business. We do have multiple revenue streams.

We can create something new. We can sell something new.

There's undoubtedly an impact revenue-wise on what this is doing for the entire world and our business. There is a direct impact that we can measure. And right now it's just making sure that we don't get caught up in scarcity and we're still growing, we're living in abundance like you said. Investing in people, realizing that this will pass and just being committed to the success of your organization, of your life, your family, and doing it with love too. I mean, at the end of it, it's like we need to be kind and compassionate in times of crisis. and times of chaos.

So, yeah, and I think we're having fun. We had fun today. You know, Tiffany bought pizza for people.

Yeah, we kept it light.

We had music on.

We had a pizza party, you know, and we did it washing our hands and being safe and, you know, but take inventory of where you at, where you're at financially for your family as businesses. Take inventory of where you're at. What are your next monthly expenses that are coming out? Take a look right now at what's due in the next 30 days. What can you renegotiate if it's looking tight based on the expectation of limited or limiting income? So that's it.

That's it.

Just little habits.

I love it. If you guys enjoyed this, leave a comment below on the YouTube channel. Share this with a friend. I think this is powerful information. Again, for me, it's about not reacting to events, it's responding. And you get to choose how you want to respond in every situation. And they're all, you know, Chris Lee would coach and say that every event is a neutral event and we get to decide if we want to make it a bad or scary moment or a loving and learning moment. And again, it's not saying what's happening is not challenging and hurtful and scary for some people and their realities. but you get to control your own reality and give yourself the power to choose how to navigate through it all in a leadership role or in a scarcity limited role. And you're always going to be stronger emotionally, spiritually, and physically. Your immune system is going to be stronger if you come from a place of clarity and love and chaos. And I think that's what's allowed Me, and I think you, to be able to handle a moment like this, at least up to this point, is our sports background of being under pressure a lot in situations. You cannot perform well in a sporting event if you stress out in pressure. You just can't. That's when you have to slow your heart rate down, see the big picture, see the whole field. That's the only way you're going to perform well. So I'd say breathe every day. Breathe a lot. Slow your heart rate down.

Meditate.

Meditate. Pray. Set an intention of how you want to show up this day, every single day, when someone comes to you with, Did you see this news? Did you see this? And they freak out. Tell yourself, when someone comes to me with this type of information, I'm going to choose to respond in calm because that's what's going to get us through it in a better way. If I respond in chaos, like this person is reacting to me, it's only gonna cause more chaos. Don't be in denial about what they're saying. Don't shut them down, but respond with calm love and supportiveness.

We can be leaders in our community. We've got leaders in the world. We've got leaders at our government level, but as individuals, we can all be leaders in our homes, in our workplace, in our communities, And I think that's, I have to say that's the beauty of moments like this. We really start to support each other. You see human beings lifting each other up, supporting each other, doing the smart things to get through a pandemic, a time of crisis, because that's what this is. And so.

What's the difference between a pandemic and an epidemic?

Epidemic, I think, is just like small communities. you know, when it spreads in small communities or city, pandemic is worldwide. So this is a worldwide...

This is a pandemic.

It's a pandemic, yeah.

It's an epidemic and a pandemic.

It's transition from epidemic to pandemic, from.

What I understand, yeah. It's spreading worldwide, all right. It is. Coffee Conversations. Cesar, with the knowledge, the experience, appreciate you. Appreciate you. Thank you gang so much guys for listening to this Koffee Conversation. If you enjoyed it, please share it with a friend. You can text someone right now, you can post it on social media, you can tag me @LewisHowes and subscribe over on the School of Greatness, plus leave us a review. We'd love to hear your thoughts on what this is and how this is helping you over on Apple Podcast review section. We really talked about the eight ways to be calm and prepared during a crisis. of the coronavirus. We talked about really having compassion for people, reducing your exposure, healthy habits, keeping your life simple and clean, reorganizing your habits, cleaning out certain things that maybe has too much excess in your life, being prepared for the worst, hoping for the best, business as usual, developing new skills, and continuing to live with a giving heart. I hope you guys enjoyed this very much again. We want to help people have the best information possible to live a better life during any time of stress and worry. We hope you enjoyed this special 5 Minute Friday turned into a coffee conversation for these times. Again, I love you so very much. I hope you know your loves and you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.