Scott Duffy interviews Greg Reid: How To Adapt & Find Cash, Episode 44

Good morning, everybody and welcome. Welcome to what now with Scott Duffy, presented by SAP. Concur. I'm so fired up this morning. I am. Seriously, I'm having the best morning and I'm having the best morning because I have an awesome team and.

Just a group of people that have really come through for me over the past, over the past few weeks. And, and you know, today is really, I just was celebrating this morning and so I'm pumped. I'm fired up. We got so much to discuss. I'm so happy to see all of you and I want to thank all of you for joining. So from wherever you're joining, this stream is just starting to propagate. Whether you're watching on Facebook or YouTube or Instagram or Periscope, you're watching today through Apple TV or Roku or one of these other places, I just want to welcome you and I want to ask, because we do this every day, if this is your first time, if you could drop your name and the industry that you're in into the comments and the biggest challenge that you're having right now in your business or something that you need help with. I want to do everything I can to shape the show around you. Again, I want to thank all of you for joining today. It's so good to see all of you. Like I said, we have a whole bunch of cool stuff to talk about today and we're going to go live on the radio here in just, just about 60 seconds. And, and so again, if you could just drop your name in the comments. Good morning. I see you guys dropping in. Good morning to Sita, good morning to Bill, good morning to Len and good to see you. Brooke, thank you for joining today. And again to all of you, thank you so much for joining and let's have an amazing show. And again, drop your name into the comments, the industry that you're in and the biggest challenge that you're having so we can shape the show around you. Our guest today coming up shortly is Greg Reed, a really good friend of mine. Greg Reed, he is a best selling author and speaker. He's been published in over 100 books. He has a PhD in Literature and a star on the Walk of fame. And we're going to talk to Greg about some of the interviews that he's done over the past few weeks to share with us some ideas on how different businesses are adapting and how some of the most successful entrepreneurs are thinking about how they're going to move forward into this next step of dealing with the coronavirus. All of us going back to work. All right, so here we go.

Good morning. My name is Scott Duffy, and this is what now with Scott Duffy, presented by SAP Concurrent. I want to welcome you from wherever you're listening. You can tune in each day at 10am Pacific Time to watch the live broadcast on YouTube and Facebook or download the podcast. Now, this show is for entrepreneurs, small businesses and those thinking about starting their own companies. It's for people who've been affected by this economy. Maybe they lost their jobs, maybe they were furloughed or they saw their consulting consultants, their consulting contracts canceled, and it seemed to happen just like that. It's for people who are asking, what do I do now? And how do I come out of this period even stronger now? Our focus today is going to be on five steps, five steps that you can take to adapt, iterate and reinvent your business and get to cash faster. How do we generate cash and how do we generate it faster in this economy? We're also going to talk about a topic that is, can be a sensitive topic for a lot of people, but it is something that entrepreneurs are asking me more and more about over the past week, which is bankruptcy. So we're going to talk about bankruptcy. I'm going to share with you some things that you need to know and some things that you need to do if that's something that, that you're thinking about, whether it's a personal bankruptcy or a business bankruptcy. As I mentioned earlier, our special guest today is Greg Reed. Greg has been featured in over 100 books, has over 45 bestsellers. He's a PhD in literature and had a star, has a star on the walk of fame. Let's start with the news. So the number of coronavirus cases worldwide is now confirmed at three and a half million. So we have three and a half million confirmed cases and just over 250,000 deaths deaths in the U.S. we're at 1.2 million cases confirmed and nearly 70,000 dead. Now, here's the thing, and this is why I talk about this every single day and I walk through these numbers is the projections for the number of those infected. And deaths has moved around over the past few weeks, particularly the last two weeks, like a pinball. It has been all over the place. So there's two. I want you to know why there's two primary sources of the projections that we see. The first set of projections was created by President Trump's economic team, and these projections are much more conservative. Then there's a second set of projections that were created by the doctors at the cdc. And this set of projections is a bunch more aggressive. Now, just a few weeks ago, the President said that we were winning the war, winning the war on the virus. And he was using the economist projections. So where initially we were told that there would be somewhere between 100 and 250,000 people that could die from this thing, President Trump scaled back and said, we won the war and we're going to be at about 60,000 people. Well, we have blazed past that number. And now for the first time, it looks like President Trump's economic team and the CDC are on the same page. And they're both projecting that the number of deaths from COVID 19 will double. It'll actually double between now and the beginning the first week of August.

So why am I spending time on this? Like, we know that, you know, this coronavirus thing is out there. We know that people get it, we know that some people die from it. We have a pretty good sense of who is most at risk. It's people that are older, it's people that have pre existing conditions, it's people that are obese, they're overweight. These the people that have been the most affected and are the most likely to have serious complications from getting this virus in the same way that people do. That same group is the most affected by the flu. But here is the thing. I spend a lot of time on this because we all want to go back to work. I am stir crazy as hell this morning, I got to tell you. I am stir crazy as hell every morning. I am doing what I'm doing right now. I'm doing the show from my house. I have had to learn how to set up an entire studio because what I'm doing here is I'm sharing video with you. And because we're live, we're doing this through social media and we also do it through the radio. And so we have like a separate audio board and video board over here for all of the radio stuff because you need a different quality of sound than you do on social media. We also then take all this and we create a podcast. We also transcribe everything and we create blog posts, all this stuff. And it takes a team, it takes a few people. And so where this used to be done somewhere else, now I'm being forced to learn how to do all of this inside. And on one hand, it's been frustrating as hell. On the other hand, it has been such a blessing because I've learned how to take control of all this and also I've learned how easy it can be when you get things started. And so.

Like I said, the downside though is that I'm doing this every day for my house. I'm stir crazy as hell. Like, I can't wait to get back out there. I can't wait to get back out to work. I can't wait to get out to other, like in front of other people. And I can't wait to get back out into the studio.

And I know that those feelings are like the feelings that so many other people have today in the question. The reason I spend so much time on the coronavirus numbers, especially the death number, is this because I want us all to know or get a sense of what it's going to look like when we do go back so that we can prepare, we can prepare to do work in this new world so that we can shift and adjust and adapt our businesses in order to be in the best position possible, right? To do as well as possible, to generate as much income as possible and to really thrive on the other side of this. So what is it going to look like when the governors open up their states and the counties open up their local areas and let people go outside? What happens? You know, at a high level, I don't think any of us are sure what's going to happen, but we do know it's not going to be the same. And again, the reason I talk about the death rate every day and by the way, when it comes to the numbers and the timing, I just want to share. I have been dead spot on on this stuff for the last seven weeks. I look at the data super unemotionally. I look at a variety of different sources like, and I pull together and I say, okay, so here. So I was telling everyone seven weeks ago to prepare for the entire economy and not to be opened until August. And that is exactly what we're tracking for today. I told everyone that the death rate would significantly spike in May and in June and in July going into August, because the death rate is a lagging indicator as we basically flatten the curve on the number of new infections for coronavirus. What happens is people that have been on ventilators and have been fighting this thing start to lose the battle, and they start to lose the battle late. And that's why the end of May, June and July are lagging death rate indicators. But here's what happens. What happens is as we go out and we start to go out this summer and we start to see in the news the number of deaths start to increase by two times. They're going to double. They are going to double over the next month. We start to see that it creates more fear. And as it creates more fear, people tend to want to go back inside. And so it's something to really be pay attention to. And it's something to pay attention to because again, our goal is to help you to adapt your business. So just being told we can go outside is great news. Getting outside is amazing. It's totally awesome. But the thing is, people will still be in fear. And what will happen is the height of our death rate is supposed to be the beginning of August, but then in September, we go right into flu season in September and October. And so it's just gonna be a little bit funky out there. I think a lot of people are gonna stay at home, especially the people most vulnerable due to their age, due to obesity and other underlying conditions. I think that a vaccine isn't coming anytime soon. And this really upsets me because the fastest approved vaccine ever in the United States took four years to get approved. Johnson Johnson said to us, just recently, said to the public that, look, there's all this talk about coming out with a vaccine and if we have a vaccine for this, it solves all problems. Well, here's the problem. The president and the administration keep talking about, you know, a vaccine being right around the corner. They're trying to create hope. And the problem is even Johnson, Johnson and Johnson, who stands to gain so much. You know, Johnson Johnson could make billions of dollars by being the firm that comes up with the vaccine and is able to sell it. They've said, they just said that in a best case scenario, if everything worked perfectly and the government removed all of the restrictions and they could make the timing go longer.

Right?

They just, they knocked all barriers down. In a best case, it would take 12 months to be able to come up with a safe vaccine and to get it out into the marketplace. And I think it's really important again to understand this, to understand our timing. We won't be fully open as a country until August to understand that the death rate is going to increase between now and then. It's going to double. And that's going to make some people, particularly the people most vulnerable, nervous about going out outside and not staying sheltered at home. It's important to know that we're at least a year away from a vaccine. So I get really upset with the government narrative and the Wall street narrative that a vaccine is right around the corner, because what it does for small business is it creates hope. It creates a false hope that many people rely on. Hope is their strategy. And for all of us, that's not the place that we're going to live.

And it's not we're going to live because for the last 24 hours, I have had more calls, emails and texts from frightened business owners, many who are in the restaurant, the travel business, than any time over the last six weeks. Kind of crazy. So not even when the market was first kind of coming apart. Not even the week of Black Thursday. I've gotten more calls over the last 24 hours. Emails, texts and DMS from business owners asking, what do I do now? And the reason is so many of us have held on tight. Like, look, I'm in the events business. My primary business going into all this was live events.

Like the whole thing, just overnight. If you have a business that's in the restaurant industry, you're in the travel industry overnight. So they're asking, what do I do? They'd hoped that the PPP and other government assistance would help.

The problem is they have existing models, just like I did. I had an existing business model which said that all of our sales and stuff led. All of our sales funnels led to live events. Right. Just doesn't work now. Live in person events. And if you have a restaurant and let's say, let me give you an example. Let's say you're in the airline business and you've gotten your PPP money, you've gotten your bailout money. The challenge that you have is that your business, the entire industry, is not set up to be able. The cost structure is so high. It's not set up to be able to make any money if you eliminate middle seats. What we've learned from the airlines in the last 24 hours is that everyone is going to be required that travels at least for the next year to wear a mask. You're going to have to wear a mask when you enter the airport, when you check in and you get your ticket when you go through security. And for the entire flight, you're going to wear a mask. You're also not going to have a middle seat. Now, they're not going to pull the middle seats. They're going to block them off. Okay, so there's no middle seats. Well, when you lose all of that capacity and all those seats to sell, that's incredibly problematic when you're an airline. I'll tell you firsthand, because remember, I used to be in the private jet business. I will Tell you firsthand how tough it is for an airline to make money with middle seats. When the market crashed in 2008 and 2009 during the Great Recession, one of the biggest challenges the. In the airline industry had was during that time we saw this big jump in oil prices. Now, maybe TMI, but every $10 jump in oil prices per barrel is a billion dollars in additional costs for the airline industry to fuel their planes. So what happened was it became really hard because of the jump in oil prices to make money. If you are not going to say their names but firsthand, you're one of the major carriers in the United States, one of the big three. American, United, Southwest. You're one of these guys. And you had a seven, seven, a 767 plane. That was the biggest plane they had at the time. 767 that flew from LA to New York. If that plane during the, during the height of that recession was totally full. So 100% of the seats were taken, all full fare. So everything, everybody paid the highest possible price for every seat on that plane. No discounts, no Expedia, none of that stuff. No miles were used. So 767, 100% full, 100% capacity. 100% of the tickets are paid full fare from LA to New York. During the recession, that plane made $500. 500 bucks on a 767. How crazy is that? Now imagine you get rid of the middle seats. Think about what happens. So I have business owners that have been calling me. I mean, I just shared with you more in the last 24 hours than any time in the last six weeks. Many have gotten their PPP money, they've gotten some Eidl money, but what they're doing is looking at their businesses and they're going. The cost structure, the paradigm that we live under, doesn't work. If I get rid of middle seats, I can't make money. If I'm a restaurant and I can only put 25% of the. Have 25% of the tables full, I have to leave 75% of the space open because that's what social distancing is. I can't make money. I cannot survive. Retailers. I had a big retailer call me yesterday. It was actually really interesting. And a retailer called me yesterday and the retailer has got all of this big box space all over the country and they're looking at this and they're going to. How in the heck can we afford to keep these big boxes and pay these big rents and these big leases with Social distancing when we can only allow so many people in the store, it just doesn't make sense. And so everyone is talking about how we adapt to the new normal, the new normal, the new way things will be going forward. And this morning I had a chance to listen to Randy Guerini. So Randy, Randy's awesome. So Randy is a CEO of Shake Shack. And I was, I was pretty tough on Shake Shack a few weeks ago when they took PPP money as a public company worth a ton of money that had a lot of cash on its balance sheet. I was really upset about that. But I think that Randy has done a really, Randy's done a really good job, you know, over the past, over the past, you know, three, four weeks, he gave, gave the money back. And he's been a really good, I think he's been a really good leader and he's provided some really good insight around the restaurant industry. And one of the things that he shared today was how Shake Shack is pivoting. And.

These aren't short term pivots, these aren't short term changes and they're not short term because we're not going to go back to the way life was eight weeks ago, not anytime soon. Again, I shared with you earlier timing. I had been dead on in terms of timing and numbers around this, this pandemic. I really believe I'm going to share with you that we're looking at what we're in right now for the next two to three years, what we're experiencing right now. I think this is a two to three year thing and I think it's a two to year, three year thing because we're going to, we're going to level off in terms of the number of COVID cases confirmed. And then what's going to happen is we're going to go into flu season. And whether you have Covid or you don't, if you get the flu, you get a cold, it's going to be like a scarlet letter. People aren't going to be want to be around you. You're going to end up going back and sheltering at home. And so I think that we're going to have these situations where we all feel great and we're out and then we all pull back and we feel great and we're out and that we all pull back. I expect that to happen. Also, talking to people in the sports industry, I don't expect, you know, and in the, in the music industry, I don't expect concerts. I don't Expect sporting events. I don't expect any of these types of things where you bring a lot of people into one closed, confined space. I didn't expect any of that stuff to start having audiences for at least a year to 18 months. Even if we're social distancing, even if there's a seat or two between us. And the reason that I keep hearing from the people that put on these events and one person that owned one of these big stadiums is they're just afraid of the liability that's attached to it. So, again, we're looking at two to three years. So we have to pivot now. And what. What Shake Shack CEO Randy was saying is that they're still going to have their restaurants and they're still going to have people come in, they're going to have reduced seating because people have to social distance. But they're also creating something called the Shack Track. And the Shake Shack Track is basically a new way of being able to place your order and to come to the restaurant and pick up and create an easier pickup process. And the pickup process happens on the Shake Shack Track. It's not fully developed. He shared some ideas, but again, what that tells me is that he's thinking that this isn't something that's going to change over the next six to 12 months. He's looking at two to three years and how they really pivot their business. So I just want all of us to be on the same page, because the question that I ask every day is, what now? What do we do now in order to not only come out of this strong and stronger, but to come out stronger than we've ever been on the other end. And we have to, you know, first, again, start.

With this idea that we're on the same page about the timing. Start with this idea that we are never going to go back to the normal that existed eight weeks ago in the same way that we didn't after 9, 11. And we have to embrace that. We have to embrace it, and we have to come up with new models today. Today is the best day, by the way, to get off of your heels and to get onto your toes. Today is the best day to rethink everything that you do and to ask why? Why do I do things the way they do that I do? And does it make sense for today's market? And does it make sense and meet the needs of today's existing customer?

Also important and with regard to.

Bailouts, because this is another thing. I had somebody, I was coaching somebody last night, and they were so frustrated, and they were frustrated because they looked around them, and what they saw is all of these big companies getting bailed out.

And.

And this person was in the restaurant industry. They have three locations. And what this person said to me is, it's not fair. It's not fair that airlines get bailed out. It's not fair that auto manufacturers get bailed out. It's not fair that these people get all this money and I'm not getting enough to stay open. And I just want you to understand why that happens. I think it's so important. I want you to understand why. The reason this happens is.

The odds are if you have three restaurants, you have employees. But in the grand scheme of things, you probably. You're a small business, you're a micro business, you don't have a lot of employees. I just want to give you some numbers to wrap your head around and help you to understand why. Why these big businesses get bailed out. So as an example, again, I'm really close to the airline industry. The airline industry employs 750,000 people around the world. 750,000 people around the world. But here's the key thing. In the United States, the airline industry creates 10 million jobs. 10 million jobs. That's why it's so important. These are people that are making parts. These are people that are in manufacturing. These are in people that are in maintenance. These are people that fly the planes. These are the people that take your reservation. So that industry alone is responsible for 10 million jobs in the United States, directly or indirectly. And if you take a look as. As an example at the auto industry, the auto industry employs 1.7 million people in the United States. And these are people that are engaged in design, they're in engineering, manufacturing, they're supplying parts, components, they're assembling, they're providing service, they're selling. So these big industries are responsible for so many people, that is why they get bailed out first versus all of us that have smaller and micro businesses that may feel like, you know, we're not getting taken care of by the government.

And guess what? We got somebody who just joined us. So my buddy Gregory. I'm actually. Bring them on right here. Greg, you ready to go down there? All right, here we go. Pull them up right now, real quick. So first of all, Greg, we have been talking this morning, we've been talking about. About where we stand, kind of where the market is. We've been talking about stay at home and finally having the opportunity to get outside. States are releasing like they're relaxing restrictions. Local counties are relaxing restrictions.

Yeah, we're like a racehorse, man. We're at the gate, ready to go.

Well, exactly. But you know, the challenge, Greg, is this, is that we're all ready to go, but what's it going to look like on the other side? And so we've been talking about as entrepreneurs, what we have to do in order to kind of acknowledge what's going on out there and get close to customers and understand what their new needs may be. And pivot is necessary. And before I ask you a question, I just want to share with people who you are, people who have never met Greg Reed. So Greg Reed, my guest today, first of all, just an amazing superhuman dude, one of my best friends on the planet. I love Greg Reed. And Greg is a, he's a best selling author who has been, he's been a part of over 100 books and has over 40 bestsellers. He has a PhD in literature and he has a star on the Walk of fame. And that's just to get started. Greg also has worked closely in the past with the Napoleon Hill Foundation. And so, Greg, what I'd love you to do as we kick things off is to share who Napoleon Hill is and your experience at the foundation and really what it was that led you to spend the last 10 years traveling around the world interviewing people who built some of the biggest companies in the world. And then what I want to do is I want to spend the back half talking about the lessons you've learned from them of how, of how they pivoted in hard times.

Okay? So first of all, good to see you, buddy. You only like me because we got the same haircut. Door number three is the first part of what you were saying before we talk about Napoleon Hill was about be kind to your future self. You know, I'm working on a new book right now with a buddy of mine, Eric Power. It's called be kind to your future self. What incremental steps can you do today to have a brighter tomorrow and not over pivot? And I think that's going to be one of the challenges. We're going to look back. Like right now a lot of people are taking their entire business and going, we're going strictly online. Here's what we're going to do. But like you said, as soon as they open up the gates and people can go back out, well, what if you over pivoted and you find yourself in a spot where you shouldn't have been? So I'm recommending You actually have a little bit of clarity and insight because just two months ago things were completely different than today. And I believe two months from now it'll be different again. So be careful that we don't over pivot. Now back to Napoleon. 20th best selling book in the history of the world called Think and Grow Rich. A lot of people don't know the backstory. When Napoleon Hill was 23 years old, he gained access to the richest guy in the world. Andrew Carnegie is supposed to be a 30 minute interview. Turned out to be three full days. @ the end of it he says, hey, I like you. Young man says, here's an opportunity. He said, work for me for free for 20 years and I'll send you on a mission to meet all my friends. You'll interview them and write the first ever formula for success. And Napoleon Hill looked at him and says, not only will I accept that mission, rest assured I'll complete the task. And then Carnegie says, you got himself a job. And Hill says, why are they going to talk to me? I'm just a kid, I'm nobody. He says, I'll write you a letter of recommendation. When they see it, they'll know I sent you, give you all the time you want. Sat down with Edison, Einstein, Ford's Rockefellers and wrote the 20th bestselling book of all times. But here's what's really cool. Carnegie was a sticker for action and after giving his guest all the information to make a decision, gave him 60 seconds to make his choice to work for free for 20 years. And when Napoleon Hill walked out of the office, Carnegie pulled out a stopwatch. He began and realized there was 31 seconds left on the clock. And what's really interesting is that Carnegie made that same offer to over 250 men before Napoleon.

Wow.

Wow. Only person to say yes. Everyone else had something called the bad case of the one size. I'll take action once I get the big break. And it's the people that take action when the moment strikes. They're the ones that we tell the story stories.

About. You know, one of the stories that, that I love, that you and I have talked about is with Henry Ford and. Right. And Henry Ford had the Elon Musk problem where he, he went from making cars by hand to the assembly line, which was incredibly successful. But the problem was the cars kept backing up and they kept backing up because he had a big problem. And. Do you want to share that.

Story?

Yeah.

Yeah.

There's 18 billion messages.

I want to talk about the one I think is the hottest topic right now. And I'll tell you why. Because you and I talked about this just the other day when Bill wrote this book. The biggest chapter is called the Six Ghosts of Fear. And I think that's what people are facing right now. When he wrote this in 1908, started the journey, and it came out in 1937, all the fears he talked about, I don't believe were necessarily true. And you pointed this out to me the other day because he said it was the fear of the loss of love that's the biggest fear in the world, or the fear of old age, or the fear of dying, or the fear. I just don't find that to be true. And I said, well, maybe the modern fears are the fear of pain. And you said, it's the fear of the unknown. And then we both came to the conclusion that is actually the fear of judgment. Right. Or people are worried about what people are thinking about them than anything.

Else. And I'll do it right.

Now. Exactly. And if you were walking down the street in Arkansas, I've never been to Arkansas, but I trip over a curb, first thing I'm going to do is look up to see who saw me, even though I don't know because of fear of judgment. And there's a bumper sticker that says, what would you do if you couldn't fail? The big question is, what would you do the moment you stop worrying about what other people.

Thought? You know? Okay, so I want to pivot on that real quick because that is a great point. And I was saying that in the last 24 hours, I've had more people reach out to me, more. More small business owners than any time in the last six weeks. It's really crazy. The kind of the. Almost like the mindset that's going on out there. And there was a whole lot of fear. And there's a lot of fear because these small business owners were holding on. They're in the restaurant business, they're in the travel business, and maybe some of them have gotten their PPP money. But with all the social distancing and things like that, the inability to bring in as many people into a restaurant or onto a plane, their business, they can't figure out how to make money, and the cost structure just doesn't allow it. And excuse me. And they're afraid. And one of the most common questions I've gotten over the last week, and particularly yesterday, was, should I file for bankruptcy? And the number one thing in my conversations with people that would keep them from filing for bankruptcy is what will other people think about me? That's the number one thing that comes up. And I saw this today. I actually wrote this down because it was such a big issue yesterday. So in the last three days, last three business days, guess who's filed for bankruptcy? J. Crew, Hertz Borden Dairy, Dean & DeLuca, Gold's Gym, Modell's Sporting Goods, McClatchy Newspapers, True Religion. And I think one of the most amazing things about our country is it gives businesses, it gives small businesses the opportunity to basically readjust right to. If you get yourself into a financial situation like we really support entrepreneurs in business, there is a mechanism, there is a tool for you to be able to get your feet back under you. What do you say, Greg, to all of those people that are thinking potentially about declaring bankruptcy but are afraid of what others.

Will think? No one's thinking about you.

Situation right now. Look, no one's looking inside the window, people.

I'm looking at it right now. This is the greatest time to get started. Look, if you had that idea for a book or a movie or starting a new business.

They'Re dealing with their own situations. So the big question is, you know, moving forward, how would we do things from a different lens? Do think it's a great opportunity for people to adjust and pivot in this one way? I'll give you an example. A buddy of mine is in the credit repair industry who's oh my gosh about how he's going to go through the roof. But he realized that everyone's been off duty and he offered everyone to come back to work on a limited time to spread them out. And no one wanted to go back to work. They'd rather have their unemployment money. So he went 100%, by the way. So to the office and he's been answering the phones and doing everything and realize that he by himself is doing what seven people he hired to do in only four hours. And he said a while everything just got so convoluted that an assistant became an assistant because the company got so big that people what each other was doing and a lot of it was double and triple work. So he said, at the end of the day, I'm going to bring back the right people, but I'm also going to make sure that we're so lean and we're running our business better than we ever could so we can lower the prices that actually help more people to repair.

The credit. That's awesome. Yeah, I mean that, that, that's, that's Totally awesome. I mean there's so there is so much opportunity right now to, to take a look at your business to ask yourself why. Why is I do everything that I do and does it make sense and any.

Any longer.

And expansion? So I do live events, everyone. I do an event called Secret Knock every year and I bring in these world thought leaders and we do this amazing event. But here's the deal. I realized by the hybrid of shifting is that I would fly in Tonino Lamborghini all the way from Italy and I bring in the founder of all these different corporations and it's very expensive and a lot of times the dates didn't work out. So I'm going to do a hybrid moving forward where I bring in, you know, 50% of these amazing people. But now I'm working on that technology where people can beam in so it looks like it's holographic. So they're actually beaming in from other parts around the world where I don't have to pay $15,000 for a first class ticket. I can now have, you know, Mr. Lamborghini tune in all the way from his estate and get four pennies on the dollar. So I think moving forward, my pivot is going to be a hybrid of.

Both modalities. And what else do you see? Because you're, I mean you've been, you've been a major part of the business training influencer community in the personal development community for over 10 years. What else do you see trainers doing today that appears to be working in.

Their business? This is, this is a weird one. Collaboration over competition. So this is the time that I am seeing that, for example, if I do my big event and I'm competing against Grant Cardone's 10x. Well, I just did Grant's call the other day with all of his people and I'm trying to bring him on mine. And we're all starting to share. And I'm realizing that if I can bring my following to you and you can bring yours to the next person, we can keep them in a circle of a trusted source. Well, what happens, it opens up the opportunities for everybody. And I'm hoping when we get out of this, people see more of that. Even in the brick and mortar example, if you're in a little strip mall and you're a pizza guy and you don't like the traffic that goes to the liquor store that's in the corner and they block your parking space, well, maybe it's time to walk across that parking space and say, hey, why don't we collaborate? Every time someone orders a pizza, I'm going to start putting a little flyer on there for 50% off the first six pack. And when people go buy a six pack, you give them a 50% discount for my pizza. What if we started collaborating like that rather than competing? All.

That'S possible? Yeah, I love that idea. You know, one of the other things I see people do right now is if they have a business that is maybe their business is struggling to actually look for business partners. So what they'll do is they'll take what they do well, what their superhero power is. They'll find somebody that has a superhero power that isn't necessarily the same or overlapping. Instead, it's really complementary. And if they're in the same business, they combine combined powers. So now you kind of as a, as a business owner, you can continue to be a business owner and maybe you're in partner with somebody where 1 plus 1 equals 100. What do.

You see? Right, you just said it. I mean, again, back to this, this at least my industry of personal development. So like we did a live stream, we were the first group out of the situation we're going through to do a big live stream with Worldwide and it turned out to be a good success. And then afterwards, you know, all my competitors started calling me saying, how did you pull that off? And I said, here's my actual team who did it for me. And by doing that and sharing with them, all of a sudden they brought us on these calls. So the whole thing is work your strengths and hire your weaknesses. Back at old school. Here's the new one. Work your strengths and then collaborate with.

Your weaknesses. That's awesome. I remember, I remember years ago I was a member of TED and that whole TED talks before they did all that in the TED community. So I used to go to these events and I remember it was really awesome. I mean, we'd be there and Bill Gates on one side and Steve Wozniak on the other side of me. We're watching all this stuff and I'm going, why am I here? And how did I sneak in? I was on a bus because they had this bus that took us to this one event and I was sitting next to all these people, maybe the most successful person that I, that I've ever known. And he was so, I don't want to say who it is, but he was so wealthy, had so much money, had so many successful companies. And I was sitting next to him. And at this time, it was like 2009, 2010. And I asked him, what do the most successful people do when the economy is in the shitter like it is today, which is where it was back then. And he said, the most successful people, all funny partners for every, just what we're talking about for every one of their businesses. They look for.

Strategic partners. Yes. And also watch trends. Look, you and I talked about something the other day about, you know, CPC clues, patterns, choices. So a year and a half ago, you know, I was writing a book called wealth made easy interviewing worth 100 million, a billion. And one of the interesting things, they all started a year and a half ago and I started following what their process was. And they said, look, we're dumping all of our holdings and our real estate stuff because we see a bubble's coming now. No one's what's happening, but they knew a bubble was coming. Look, the stock market was peak and real estate peaking. So what I did is I worked on my credit and made sure that I had a 750 to 800 credit score at all time, realizing that credit will be the new gold moving forward idea how powerful that would be today. I also cashed out and I sold percentages of my businesses, things of this nature. So I actually had a nice little nest egg. So now when we're in this situation where some people are running, you know, going crazy, I'm doing contrarian investing, blood in the streets mentality. So what I'm seeing, the stocks and the opportunities are at the lowest is also the time that we want to get in. But I was kind to my future self a year and a half ago and didn't buy Ferrari. So I cash to be liquid so I could.

Strike today. Greg, what do you tell somebody that eight weeks ago they had cash in the bank, they had a really good paycheck, they had medical benefits, they.

They, they, they were, they were comfortable, they were stoked. And then today they find themselves fired or furloughed. And they're at home right now and they don't know what to do. They're looking around them and they're thinking things like.

Oh my gosh, what am I going to do? How am I going to pay my rent? How am I going to pay my bills? How am I going to send my kid back to private school next summer? And they've got this loop that's running through their head. What do you tell.

That person? Well, first of all, you just got to congratulate yourself because the realities are we're batting a thousand right now. We have got through 100% of every challenge we've ever faced in our life so far. Think about it. So you've got through 100% of every challenge you've ever done, and this is another one. And you always come out the other side. It's like watching that old TV series like Batman where they tie him down to the train tracks and here comes a train. Well, all I know is, next episode, chances are Batman's gonna be there. He's gonna get out of this thing. So right now, we're just tied to the train tracks and it's coming. But you have a super power to see your way out of this thing. And this shall pass. The big question is, what do you want your next. I'm gonna call it, lifestyle to look from? I'll give you an example. When all this started going down, you know, everyone's talking about the deaths and the things. And look, I'm an older guy. I got worried, and so I called my accountants, I called my lawyers and said, hey, how do I look? What's my death style look like? I go, what do you mean? When I die, how's my death style look? I go, is my kid gonna be taken care of? Is he gonna be set? Is my name, reputation, good? Do I have legacy? All that good stuff? And once I really checked all those boxes, I walked outside and said, well, what's my new lifestyle going to look like on the other side of this? I said, do I really need these three brand new cars in the driveway? Do you really need these things? And so I'm using this as a pattern interruption to start seeking what I want my next lifestyle to look like. Because there's going to be a reset for many of us to do.

Just that.

So you and I, you actually took me race car driving. So it was one of the things on my bucket list. You took me to Las Vegas and we went and got race car driving lessons. And I share this story about how that day I feel like I learned more about business and life than I did about race car driving. Because when they. Right. So they put us in those cars. I was in a red Ferrari Modena. It was amazing. And so we're in there and we've got the instructor that's next to us and they have their hand, remember, they have their hand right up against the wheel and they tell us to go and we start driving. The first thing they teach you is to keep your eyes up and on the horizon, to look at where it is that you want to go. And going 5 10, 15 miles an hour. Super easy. But when you and me were jamming, when we're going 100, 125, 150 miles an hour on that track, there's a funny thing that happens. The faster we go and the more stuff that gets thrown at us in life, the more we start to take our eyes off the horizon, and we look down at what's right in front of us. In skiing, it's called looking over the tips of your skis. And race car driving, it means you look right over the edge of your hood, and you see every pebble drop of water, everything in the road. And so you start to make these really fast, quick, quirky adjustments. At five miles an hour, this is no big deal. At 150 miles an hour, that quick thing of the wheel takes you into the wall. And so one more thing, and then I want to ask you a question, is the second thing you'll learn how to do is to crash. And that's what we learned that day. And the way they teach you is they take their hand, which is close to the wheel, and at a time you don't expect it, they give it a little tug. And when we feel fear, because that's the first thing that we feel, the first thing we tend to do is we look right at the thing. We focus on the thing that we fear the most. So, as a race car driver, boom. What happened with me, and probably with you, is we look right at the wall, right at the offside of the track. And the thing is, when you look over there, it pulls your head, which pulls your shoulder, which turns your hands, and takes you into the wall. So they. The instructor has only one thing they're supposed to do, which is take that hand. Their hand, after they tug, put it on your helmet and do this. Give you a little pressure. And that little pressure takes your eyes back to where you want to go, which pulls your head, which turns your shoulders and turns your hands. And that's how you get out of a rough spot. Right now, so many people are having trouble focusing on the horizon, where they want to go. They're just focused on the stuff they have to do today. What do you tell those people? How do they keep their eyes up and get to where they want to go versus sitting in this.

Like, stuff? I think you just nailed it, by.

The way.

That was. I mean, it's so funny how you and I are friends and we're peers at the same time. Right? So I'm hearing this whole story going, yes, tell ghost.

And you know, there's an old quote, it's cliche. It's kind of like, you know, if you don't plan for the future, you better hope it never comes. And I think again, this is going to be.

A great. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. That's a good one. Say that.

One again. Yeah, if you don't plan for the future, you better hope it never comes. The whole idea is that be kind to your future self right now. I think rather than looking backwards, we look forward and say, okay, what can I learn from this? And say, any moment, at any time, everything can change and be adjusted. Where everything's taken from us or our opportunities, we need to make opportunities for ourselves. So, for example, you know, they always taught us as kids, you needed three months or six months worth of savings for these type of scenarios. All I know is the people that have got that aren't freaking out. That's just. And I realize it's the people that weren't prepared for the future. They're the ones. So the next time, just like that squirrel, start saving for a rainy day, start being kind to your future self. Sharon Lecter, who wrote Rich Dad, Poor dad, and Three Feet from Goal with me, she says, pay your family first. You know, it's so crazy how, you know, we always find a way to pay the phone bill and our water bill and whatever, but we don't find a way to pay ourselves our little nest egg as well. So maybe this is that opportunity to sit down and say, what do I want my future to look like? And take incremental steps to make it become.

A reality. Exactly.

When you talk to. So you have. I know you just had a big event. You just had secret knock, which you've been doing for years. You had hundreds of people that attended secret knock digitally. I remember.

You shifted. You.

Had the. The big room, right? The big place in San Diego. And then you shifted the whole thing. What is the key to running a good online.

Event today? Looking in the camera like I'm doing right now. And people missing this. A lot of times on these zoom calls are looking down here. They're looking at themselves and they're not connecting with the audience. Look at this. This doesn't feel. But I'm suiting up, showing up, looking at the camera, communicating with people so they feel like I'm having a conversation with them, which I am right now. And I sure these simple little things we want to do differently. And then door number two, there's so many modalities out there. You know, we're on this one, it's called what we're doing. Streamyard. Streamyard, great one. You know, there's always these programs out there that are available for people to use, capitalize on them. The whole thing is right now there's so many free or next to free programs that you can connect with your audience like never before. Even if we did a simple little one of these things and talked about something that's common sense to you, but it genius to someone else. I'll give you an example. Yeah, nice 8 year old kid, you go, what could he have to share? Well, I'll tell you one thing, he's a Fortnite champion, right? So he knows the moves. So what's common sense to him? I guarantee if he did a one of these little stream yard events to all the other kids out there and said let me get my latest thing, how to get Deadpool playing. You know the Fortnite. Yeah. Somebody's going to tune in to watch it. And what you're sitting on right now, which is common sense to you, someone else is dying to hear. So true that you start reaching into your greatness and start bringing it out to the world so they can.

See it. There's some really simple things that you can do when you're doing, when you're doing live streams, when you're doing zoom calls and you're training, you're coaching people, you're doing your virtual parties, whatever it is. One thing you can do is you can buy a really like just buy a USB Logitech high definition camera sits right on top of your computer. You have 1080 quality. It can look fantastic. Now the social media networks and stuff may shrink it all in the file size and things like that to push it through, but you start with really good original quality video. Second thing you can do is you can buy a microphone. They're very inexpensive. You can get a whole mic kit for 39 to $49 on Amazon that will plug into the back of your computer. It's a usb. It's got, it's got a mic, it's got an arm, it's got wind protection, I got all that kind of stuff. So there, right, A ring light. You can get a little.

Ring light like that right here. Just all. I use it for uplighting because this is my standard. So by putting it here, I now light my entire face by having a little ring light for.

20 bucks. Exactly. And you can put that in your backpack or you can put that in whatever, you can take it with you wherever you go. A lot of those ring lights like that, they'll call, clip onto a phone, onto the top of the phone. Now you've got light right there. Professional lighting is again, there's just some really simple things in terms of these kinds of presentations. There's all kinds of free tools. There's, you know, tools. There's Streamyard, There's Zoom, there's eCamm, there's Wirecast. I can probably name 10 of them.

Called Skype. Is it strange? Like, one thing you said to me the other day goes, first, the market used to be so cool, and now it's the kiss of death. And I go, what do you mean? You go? You always want to be third to fourth to market. Why don't you.

Share that? Well, you know, it did. I mean, I started my career working with companies that were always first to market. They defined the market. They were the leading brands. And that's really tough because you're building the plane as you're trying to fly it. You're educating consumers about the product. You're spending all of your money on marketing. And number two comes in. And by the way, number one in any market does not need to be the best product. Number two does. So number two comes in, and what they do is they basically, they're in your wake. They're able to draft you, and they're able to leverage all of your marketing, all the money you spent, all the consumer education that you did, and they're able to come in without doing any of that and take over, you know, and fight and compete with you. And so being first to market is tough. I tell this story often, actually, I think I shared this story yesterday being with Richard Branson. I was talking to him and I said, I have a question. I'm always early in the market. You always come in late. I said, you always. I go into markets that don't even exist yet. You go into the biggest market with the most competitors and the most money to spend to beat your ass. And I said, can you explain it to me? Why do you do it? And he said, scott, here's the thing. This is my formula. This is it. Number one. He said, I always look for a big market, right? I don't try and I don't try and build anything. I look for a big market where people, and this is really important, already have their wallets out. They're spending money. I will never teach anybody that they need to buy anything. Big market, wallets out. I find one person in that market, I Ask for one problem they have, I solve one problem for one person in a big market. It's a billion dollar business. And then he laughed at me and he said, I have $5 billion businesses right now. Maybe you should try it.

Next time.

Back. I think it was Burger king right behind McDonald's, because all they do is wherever McDonald's goes, they go put a Burger King. Yeah, because, you know, they're following successful actions of others. It's like I'm also seeing like a lot of the people you just mentioned, you know, they're going out of business and stuff like that. The big one last year for myself was in the biggest waste, and this is a personal thing was Toys R Us. You know, I grew up on Toys R Us. Yeah, they were so stubborn. Just stubborn. And. And I realized that they had the greatest opportunity and they never capitalized. Example, you know, they're the greatest one shop stop for all these toy markets. And then GameStop stop, you know, grew and thing. But what if Toys R Us would have started their own Comic Con, but they did it for ToyCon, and what if they became world's largest competitors of logo building championships through Toys R Us? What if they. There was so many golden opportunities to pivot and change and adjust and go at the times. And it drives me nuts when you see these juggernauts not do.

Just that. And, you know, for somebody that's pivoting now or they're changing, maybe they lost their business. Maybe they're starting a business for the first time. You know, there's this mentality that exists that I'm too late, I'm too old. You know, I'm. You know, there's no way I can do it again. The average millionaire in the United States that makes a million dollars and keeps it, keeps all that wealth until they die, starts their business when they're 41 years old, they start it right. It takes five years, I think takes four or five years for any business to really get its legs underneath it and really establish a firm, you know, a firm footing. They started when they're 41 years old. And so, you know, it's never too late. And we could tell all kinds of stories about amazing entrepreneurs that started in their 50s, in their 60s. I mean, how old was Colonel Sanders when he was out there hawking.

That chicken?

And you know what's interesting? People always think that again, being next to market or collaboration, Colonel Sanders. There's a story that people don't tell. You know, Colonel Sanders worked his butt off to get to where it was and he had more trials and tribulations. But once he even had it going, he sold the rights out to two brothers, just like McDonald's type of thing. And they're the ones that turn it to kfc. He never did. He just got paid a million dollars to be the spokesperson. So didn't ever make the billions of dollars. But you know, people don't look at that. It's the same like Arnold brothers and Ray Kroc comes in. What's the common. It's not the first of market. It's the people that come in second, third, fourth. They're the ones that take it and usually grow it and adapt by that collaboration. Right now what could we do next to either be that person to come into something to take it over and run with it, or B start something and collaborate with people that work our, you know, work with something that we, that, that plays that something.

We'D struggle at, you know, that really hits on team for me. So there's a very big difference between most founders, founder, CEOs and professional managers. So you got three types of entrepreneurs. They say you got your visionary type of person, see the vision, they sell the vision, they see the market, they get people behind them, they raise the capital, they bring it up. Then you've got the professional manager and this is the person that takes that vision. They may be kind of visionary, they take the vision and they put the business, all that stuff in place and they manage the day to day of the business. And then you have the person that's like, I call them a sharpshooter. So they're really good at one thing. They're a great salesperson, business development person, coder, whatever it is. And I would say the most important part of building a great team is self awareness. You have to understand who you are and put the right people around you. Now for most entrepreneurs, they are not experts at being professional managers. Most of them are more in the visionary kind of space. So if you have a company and you're trying to figure out how to get from here to there, this could be a great time because there's a lot of great people that are out of work right now. This could be a great time to go and hire a professional manager who's built something that has already been where you want to go and bring that person in to help take it.

From here. Yeah, or partner up. It's so interesting. This is a parallel story which is kind of interesting and just you know, I got to fly after this. Is that what's really interesting is when I made my first big movie. It's called Wishman. It's trending worldwide on Netflix right now. But when I did, I didn't know anything about the movie industry. And so I was frustrated because I only had a couple million bucks budget, low budget film to make this thing. And I wanted to make it look like a $20 million film like all of us. And so I got a meeting with the founder of Showtime Television and I said, what do you do? And he says, greg, he goes, don't give all that money to one famous star. He goes, you spread it out and more importantly, find the people that are best suited for each of those roles. He goes, looking for a face who's the best to play that role. And he says, when we did Twin Peaks and when we did mtv, he goes, we didn't go for the star power. We went for the best people, the best actors and became. And so what happened is I interviewed and, you know, made sure we put the very best actors to play these things. And then I put more famous face recognized people around them so that we could have a movie that carried the cast. And by doing that, we end up making an incredible movie that made the Oscars ballad this last year and is streaming worldwide not because we're a genius, but just because we look for the people that were the very best and most available to serve.

Our needs. Greg, thanks so much for being here. You're going to be with us on May 21. We haven't announced it yet what it is, but on May 21st you're going to be with us. We got 16 hours, 8am to midnight. Incredible entrepreneurs, entertainers, athletes that are going to share how they're making their company stronger and getting through this better off on the other side. Thanks for joining us today and I'll call.

You.

Later. Bye. Good to see you, Greg.

So before we wrap here, I just want to share one thing. Earlier I was talking about when you have people that have had to adjust, they've had to shift. Maybe they're in their 30s, their 40s, their 50s, their 60s. They're afraid that maybe it's too late. They're afraid that they're too old in order to rebuild their wealth or things like that. I shared with you that the average person in the US that makes a million dollars, that keeps a million dollars because a lot of people who make a million lose it two or three times before they keep it in their life. The people that make it and keep it typically start their business at 41 years old. And it is never the person. It is so rare that it's the person that has everything. Nobody has everything they need all the resources, all the money, all the people, all the everything. What they're great at doing is figuring out what's the first step I need to take and taking that action now. And then from there, what they do is they get that one thing done and then they take the next step. Right. Solve the problem. Solve one problem, really nail it and move on to the next. I want to thank all of you for joining today. We will get through this. We'll come out stronger, stronger together. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow at 10am Have a.

Great day. Bye. Bye.