Scott Duffy On How Do You Generate Cash When Customers Are Focussed On Survival

Good morning, everybody and welcome to what Now. This is what now with Scott Duffy, presented by SAP. Concur. And I am back and I'm so excited to be back and joining all of you today. I was off the air for two weeks preparing at first for the COVID Business Festival, which we threw a week and a half, about a week and a half ago. And then last week I was working on all the follow up related to that event. And so I was not able to come on air. And I'm just going to tell you up front, I'm having an incredibly difficult time this morning. The last thing I wanted to do was come come on air and, and talk to a bunch of people. I'm really upset about things that are going on here in, in my hometown. I'm in LA right now and I don't know if you can hear it, but we can hear the helicopters overhead and we can hear police cars whizzing by right now. And it's just a really crazy time.

But my commitment is to you. My commitment is I want to do everything I possibly can to help businesses, to help small businesses to get through this period and these riots and this unrest is part of this period that we're all a part of. And so if you're new to the show, what I want to ask you to do is please join the discussion today. Please write down your name, the industry you're in, how you're being affected, maybe the biggest question that you have. And I want to really tailor this show for you. Again, there is so much to talk about today. I am broadcasting right next to the Fairfax district. I'm, I'm in Los Angeles and so I'm kind of, we are kind of in what has been one of the hearts of what's going on in Los Angeles for the past couple of days. And again, if you can't hear it, you may, because we can hear it. Helicopters overhead right now and police cars or whatever going by. It has just been crazy and it's been a crazy morning. So I want to talk to you about all that. But I also want to talk to you about what do we do now as business people? What do we do? You know, business in Southern California started to open up last week. We were opening up in la, you know, Friday, Saturday, and today was a big day for openings. And unfortunately things are being closed and they're being boarded up and we're going to talk about that in a little bit. So what is it that we do as business owners? What do we do? To rally and to continue doing business during this time with all of this stuff going on around us. So that's something that we're going to talk about and we're going to go live on radio here in just a second. So I'm going to shift, but I'm so, I'm so thankful and grateful for having you here. If you will please, please write down your name, the industry that you're in. Please join the conversation today. Please comment because I want to do everything I can to build this show around you. And here we go.

Good morning. My name is Scott Duffy and this is what NOW with Scott Duffy, presented by SAP. Concur. 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 or listen nationwide on DASH Radio. This show is for entrepreneurs. It's for small businesses and those thinking about starting their own companies. It's for people affected by this economy. Maybe they lost their business, their job, they were furloughed or they saw all their consulting contracts canceled. And for many of us it happened just like that. It's for people asking the question, what do I do now and how do I come out of this crisis? Even stronger now. Our focus today, for the past two weeks I've been off the air, I've been off the air because just over a week ago we threw the COVID Business Festival. And I'm going to spend just a little bit of time on that today, which was a really big success and I just want to thank, I'm so proud of that team. So I spent a week off the air preparing for that and throwing that event. And then last week was all about follow up. But it has seemed in the last two weeks since I've been gone, like the whole world is melting down. It's really quite crazy. You'll look around today and you know, we're going to talk about unemployment, cities reopening or trying to reopen for business, trade wars with China, the stock market amidst all this stuff, the stock market is up and we're going to talk about the riots. And I, I just, like I mentioned at the top of the show, I'm, I, I was having such a hard time this morning, a hard time focusing, a hard time thinking about anything because, because of what's going on. And we're going to talk about that and, and I'm so frustrated. I'm so frustrated because where I grew up, you know, yesterday and last night Part of it was just destroyed. You know, where I live now over the weekend was. Was destroyed. I. I drove up and down the street this morning, and it was just so sad. What I saw banks that had been broken into. I said two banks broken into and where people had tried to steal. I saw at least 75 businesses that were completely blown out, windows blown out, graffiti all over the walls, which was just so sad to see firsthand standing, you know, or being in a car and watching these places being looted with police standing right there and watching the whole thing happen. You know, it's. It's so disturbing. Again, this is where I grew up, and it's where I live now. And so it was really hard to get on today. What I know is, I know there's a big protest that's being. That was scheduled for today. It's still scheduled for today in Westwood, which is on the west side. So it's between where I am and in Santa Monica. There's a lot of small businesses and a lot of apparel stores and. And things like that. It's right next to ucla. And so that will probably be the big hotspot today. And if you can't hear it, we can hear it right now. The helicopters and the police cars driving by. So it is, like I said, it's. It's a crazy time. And I think what. What really has got me about all of this is that what happened to George Floyd over the week, you know, last week, like, what happened in Minneapolis, to me. And by the way, if you don't agree with me, just go somewhere else. I'm totally cool with that. What happened was so absolutely, totally disgusting. It was. I mean, like, it is so heart wrenching to watch that video. And to me, I'm so pissed off that not all of those police have been arrested. That the people that were there, that were. That were alongside the officer with the knee in the neck, the guy who took the person's pulse and, you know, three minutes before the knee came off and said, there's. He's not responsive. There's no pulse like that. None of those people have been charged with anything. To me, it is absolutely crazy. It is. It is. It is something that drives me crazy. And I can't imagine what it would be like to be a person, you know, to be a person of color going through all this and watching all this. And I do the best that I can to try and empathize. I want to help, but if I'm this upset, I can't imagine how upset other People are. Are about this. But what I'm also upset about is that's the last thing I'm thinking about this morning. It is the last thing I'm thinking about because like so many other business owners out there, we have businesses to run. We have to put food on the table. We have to make payroll in the same week. We have to figure out how to navigate through all of that stuff during this crazy Covid crisis. And so, you know, what. What was. What was again, interesting today to watch was, is I went out outside and I drove down the street. I drove down La Brea. What's happening is there's trucks that are lined up that have plywood in them and then have wood. And everyone is. And this is going on in Hollywood Boulevard, too. They're covering their storefronts as fast as they possibly can just to protect against what could potentially be coming. And they're spray painting on the front. They're spray painting nothing left in the store. So that's really interesting. Nothing left in the store or been totally looted. Nothing left in the store. And these are businesses that haven't been hit yet. Hopefully they never get hit. But again, it's just. It's a really. It's a really interesting time.

I heard this morning that Target is planning to close all of their stores nationwide until the rioting is over. And again, on a day that, gosh, we should be celebrating here in la, the business was set. Businesses were set to open again. Like, this was a big day. I was so excited for this. Like, so many of my clients, so excited about this. Instead, they're boarding up. So it's just, you know, it's a really, really interesting time. By the way, my plan for the show had changed going forward. We did our first 50 episodes before the COVID Business Festival. And for the next 50 episodes, my plan is a different format. And so what I'm going to do is break each show into three pieces. The first piece, and for only just a few minutes, I'm going to give an update and a recap on what's going on in the news and share more positive stories and teach a lesson. And then what I'm going to be doing is bringing in a special guest every single day, Monday through Friday. And then we're going to invite each day, one person, one entrepreneur, one small business owner on to the show where we can actually hot seat with them and talk about their business. So it will be me and the guest, and we'll be breaking down where this business owner is and what challenges that they have in their business. And we're going to work together to try and solve some big problems, to try and at least provide a couple of nuggets to help that person to move forward. So that will be the new format of this show. I plan to start today. But again, with the riots and everything else going on, things got thrown a little bit sideways. I want to talk to you about 1992 for a second. So 92 with the LA riots, it was a really interesting time because I wasn't like living here in LA at that time. I worked for Tony Robbins. And my job was to go from city to city with a group of five to seven people. And we would be like an advanced team for Tony. And we would sell pre. Sell tickets for events, live events that he would do by doing parts of the seminar that he was going to perform and then hopefully get people hooked and excited, and they would then pay money to go and see Tony. Now in 92, the city that I happened to be working was Los Angeles for like two or three months. And we were living out at the Oakwood Apartments in the Valley. And on the day of the. Of the LA riots, of the day of that crazy verdict that was announced, I was actually doing a seminar for Robin's Research downtown la. And when it was over, again, pre Internet, pre all of that kind of stuff when it was. And I didn't really listen to AM radio or anything, when it was over, I got in my car.

I want you to think about this. My. I said, I'm going to go by my high school because my high school was right there, adjacent to downtown la. So think about this. On one side of the. Of my high school was South Central la, and on the other side of the high school was Koreatown. So my high school, that area was like in the middle of this powder keg. And I remember driving down the street and things started to get a little crazy. I had no idea what was going on. And then I'll never forget, I made a left turn to avoid traffic and it took me into a neighborhood and everything was on fire. It was the craziest thing. And I'll never forget the feeling of the heat coming through the car and thinking that my windows were going to explode or that the paint was going to melt off my car. And I bolted down the street and I went out to the Valley, you know, and I went to where we were staying. So check this out. So I get out there and I remember that we were all on the phone and all of Our teams were on the phone. The next day, things stopped in that area. You know, they settled down. So all of us went again. It was five to seven or something like that. We all went down to my high school to see if we could help protect it or if it got burned or anything like that, we could help to clean it up. Well, the whole area around Venice and Normandy was. Was just rocked and looted, and it was. It was really a mess. And so what we did is there were people, local people in the community that had brought brooms and things like that. And we went and we cleaned an entire shopping center. We cleaned the shopping center out, and we went into a store like the big Market. Nothing was left in there, but we. We cleaned everything. And then afterwards, I remember we took a picture. Everyone took a picture. I still have it. And we were like, you know, gosh, if our community could just work together like this. We walk across the street to the next shopping center, and we're like, we're going to tackle that. And we got to work. I was so heartbreaking. And we turned around, and somebody had lit the entire shopping center. We had just cleaned up on fire, and the whole thing burned down. It was just crazy. And what I can tell you is this, what we're going through right now feels so much worse than that period. And to me, it feels so much worse than that period for a couple reasons. Number one, here, at least in Los Angeles, the volume of businesses getting hit is just. Is just crazy. Second, I think that there's a different awareness, and there are just so many people that are. Are upset and mad and angry about what happened in Minneapolis. I. I think there's just a different culture. I think there's a different. Like, I. I don't know. But third, we're also going through pandemic. So it's just. There are all these different things that are going on. And I. I just want to say all of that. I just want to say this to all of you. This morning, like, two minutes before I got on, I said to Sita, I said, I don't want to do this. I think I'm just going to cancel, not go on today. And what she said is, you need to stop thinking about yourself, and you have to start thinking about your people and your tribe. So I did. And that is a great lesson for all of us right now. When we're trying to rebuild and we're trying to sell, no matter what's going on around us, it's really important that we stay focused on our target. Customer. It's really important that we're constantly asking people, what is it that you need right now? And what can I do? What has to happen? How do you know that you're getting what it is that you want? It's just. It's so important. And, you know, I've said in the past that as a public speaker, I mean, I've been speaking as, like, on stages since, you know, like, my whole life. And, you know, when I was 21, 22, I'd already done like, 300 presentations in the US and Canada for Tony Robbins and Robbins research. Like, I've always been speaking. And one of the things that I've learned is something about nerves on stage. And this is a great lesson, I think, for all of us entrepreneurs. What I've learned is that when we're nervous and we're about to go on stage, I think it's the ultimate form of selfishness. And the reason it's the ultimate form of selfishness is it means that we're entirely focused on ourselves. We're not focused on the people that we're serving. And so I think that what is really important right now, again, is to take that into perspective, because when you focus on the people that you're serving, it helps to center you and it helps to ground you, and it helps you to perform so much better and so much more effectively. And so, you know, it's funny is I'm going to give a couple of examples, and they might seem like they're a little bit off color because of what's going on right now, but it's true. I mean, these are entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs in action. So.

I went to. I drove up to Hollywood Boulevard today, and every morning I do something. I'm supposed to be broadcasting from Dashrade from these studios on Hollywood Boulevard right now, but we're not there because of what's going on in the city being shut down. So I'm doing this from my home, like all of us. But every day, I vision, I have a process where I get in the car, I drive past, I picture myself getting ready. I picture myself. What I'm saying. I'm picturing the impact. I'm picturing all that. I drive past and I'm thinking, and then I turn around and I come home. So today, what I saw when I got to Hollywood Boulevard is there were lines there of pickup trucks that had plywood in them. And there were people. There were workers with work belts, and they were going up to businesses seeing if they wanted to board up their Business to protect it in case the looting came there today or sometime this week. And so, you know, again, these people, again, this might seem like an off color kind of thing. I don't mean it to be, but what I mean is it's all about asking your customers in the moment what it is that they need and how they need it, because that's what these people were doing. And they were boarding up all of these businesses.

There was a paint removal. So one of the things that was really cool is all the people that were helping to remove the graffiti yesterday from this area. So again, my, my area where Sita and I live, just for perspective, here next to the Fairfax area, the Whole Foods that we shopped in wiped out the Nordstrom's that I bought this shirt in, totally looted out the. The farmer's market where I hold probably half of my meetings during this pandemic here in la, totally graffitied and looted out all those amazing little shops and stores of all those entrepreneurs. The bank that I go to was broken into. All the windows were, were, were smashed out. So it's like right here. And so again, like, I felt just so off center today, and maybe some of you guys have felt the same way, but there were people that today were out there and yesterday were out there and they had graffiti cleaning services. And I went and I talked to one of them, and it was a person that had been out of work, unemployed, felt like he was doing a service to people if they needed it, and he was just going up La Brea helping to clean up graffiti. It doesn't matter what business you're in, whatever your business you're in today, take a look around and ask yourselves, it doesn't matter what I did before, what's most important to you and what do you need as my customer? How can I give it to you the way that you want it? Right? That is the most important question that we need to be asking today. And I want to bring a little bit of this back to leadership also.

Leadership also, like this is super important.

As leaders of our companies, whether we have a big company, you know, so whether we're, you know, I used to be at Fox at Fox Sports, right? And whether I've got a bunch of people working under me at Fox, or I have two employees, or I just have a bunch of contractors that I'm working with every day. The most important thing that you need to be with them during this period is straight. You have got. You cannot paint a picture that does not exist. You cannot paint a picture about what's really going on with your business in order to try and make people feel better or make them feel like they're more safe or make them feel like their job is more secure, none of that works. Here's why I've always said, as a business leader, what happens is the more successful and the bigger that we get in our company, in our business, what happens is, is that entrepreneur, small business leader, we have so much on our plate, and as we're focused on growing the business, we. We tend to assign responsibility to other people that are closer to our customers and they're closer to the market. So when there's problems in the marketplace, what happens is this. When there's problems, we. We may try to hide it. By the time we figure out what's going on, the person closest to those on the street, they've known what's going on. They've known about it for the last month now. So, number one, you got to be straight. Number two, you got to empower those people that are close to the market to be asking what's most important to you, what has to happen? How do we know we're giving you what you want and to really go out and find solutions? I find the people closest to the market tend to have the best ideas for most of the time. But as leaders, we haven't empowered them. We haven't empowered them to speak up. And so it's so important right now that we bring everybody in our business into the conversation. We bring everybody in to speak up. And you don't do what LA Mayor Garcetti did, did yesterday and the day before, and you don't do what the person who ran Santa Monica did yesterday. This is really instructive. And you got to listen to this. It's really important. So Eric Garcetti was, first of all, totally wrong type of background and environment. When you study communication. He is in, like a. He's. He's at the mayor's office, like, in a conference room reading off of his iPad while the city is burning. He's not in the street. Right. So because of that, you. I'm just. From a communication standpoint, you lose rapport right away. It feels like the person's disconnected from the problem. Well, here's what's happening. He was on. We. Sita and I were laughing. He was on television and he was saying. Saying everything is okay. We have it under control. We don't have to bring in the National Guard. We don't have to. Whatever. Here's the lesson. The lesson Is behind him. The B roll that was running. Was the city on fire? It was actually. There was a picture while he was saying everything is cool, of a police car being lit on fire. And it's really instructive. It's really instructive for us as leaders that we have to be straight with our teams. We have to be straight with our customers. We have got to be straight in the same way. Last night, I remember we were watching the person who was heading things up in Santa Monica, and that person said on television, and I believe at the time it was on national television. What they said. What they said was, was everything. We have stopped the looting. There is no looting that's taking place right now. We have stopped all of that. In the camera behind her, the B roll said live, and it was people looting stores. So, again, this. I'm not here to, like. The purpose of this is not to bash these mayors or police leaders or whatever. There's, like, maybe another forum for that. What I'm just trying to do is entrepreneurs, right? As business people, as people, like, we are in this together, trying to get through this period together. What I want to share is this. Trying to hide what is really going on is not going to help you. Right? People see right through it. Just like they did on those broadcasts. People see right through it. You lose all credibility as a leader and as a business owner. And so that is the worst place that you can go. Instead, the number one thing you should be doing is casting the brightest possible light you can on the problem. Cast the brightest possible light. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. Once we're honest about what the problem is and we bring other people on our team into the conversation, that's when we empower ourselves and others to go and solve it, to go and fix this thing. And right now, we all need each other. Because. Because.

The playing field keeps changing underneath us, right? The ground that we're standing on feels like it keeps shifting. So the value of me talking to you and you sharing what's working and not working and me sharing what's working and what's not working is incredibly helpful today.

You know, yesterday I went to.

So yesterday I was. I was here. I was in town, I was in la. And I drove up. I drove up La Brea because I had to drop something off with my show producer, Kent Speakman. And so I went over. I went up to Kent's house, and right down the street there's a Guitar Center. And Guitar center opened for the first time two days ago. And I don't know about you guys, but, you know, for me, you know, doing this kind of thing, like, I'm having all kinds of issues with microphones and this and my little digital camera. And Amazon is sold out of most of the stuff I need. I was so happy for Guitar center to open up. I'm like, they're gonna have everything I need. I can talk to somebody. Like, this is going to be so super cool. Here's what happens. I get to this Guitar center, and by the way, Guitar center in Hollywood is like a Target. It is huge. I get there. They only allow 10 people in the store at a time. That's it. 10 people in the store at a time. So the wait to get into a place like the size of a small target was 45 minutes for me just to get in. Like, what kind of customer experience is that? What I want to hear and what I want all of you to share is if you have a retail shop and you're starting to open, how are you doing it? Like, what is working? What isn't working? How are you creating a great experience for your customers? Because there was a way, like, there could have been a way yesterday to create an amazing experience at Guitar Center. There could have been a way. For example. Well, I was in line. I would have loved to know, to have known. Like, is there a catalog? Is there a sale going on? Is there an easy way to buy from the app? Can I get a discount code from the app? Can somebody bring me some water? It was really hot. Like, there is probably a way to turn that experience into something that's different than anybody else. And so your customers will become raving fans. And while Guitar center is doing what it's doing, everyone else is going to be talking about Sam Ash across the street and what they're doing. Right? So again, I think. And again, the same. The same is true with, with restaurants right now. So. And I'm going to stop here in just a sec. But with restaurants.

Last Friday night, not this, the weekend before, we finished the COVID Business Festival. And when it was over for me, it was five, five and a half weeks of, you know, seven days a week, 18 plus hours a day. It was truly one of the hardest things I've worked on. And we'll talk about that later because there's a whole bunch of things I learned. But when it was over, I was with Sita and we said, let's go see if a restaurant's open. And we walked to. We were in Newport and we walked onto Balboa in the first restaurant on the island had just opened up. And what they had is they. In Orange county, they're enabling restaurants to put tables on the street and on the sidewalk. And so we went and there was a thing. And so it was, like, socially distanced. It was all outside. The staff was so incredible. They were so amazing. They were asking us about, like, hey, how is your business? Like, what's going on with your business? You know, like. Like, they were just. They were incredible, right? And they felt like they weren't just happy to be open, but they felt like they really cared about us. And it was amazing. Like, we didn't want to. We didn't want to leave. There are things that are. Some restaurants are doing out there that are now opening, that are only able to have, you know, 50 or 60% capacity inside the restaurant, which in most cases would kill a restaurant, but that are able to operate with that kind of capacity restriction, that are creating fans that are more loyal and more raving than ever and that are generating income. And so the question that I have is, what are you doing? If you're in the restaurant industry, what are you doing? Again, I plan to change the format of this show, and because of what's going on with the riots, we're going to go. We're going to start next week because this week is so unpredictable. But starting when that starts, I'm only going to speak for a few minutes. On these. These shows alone, we're going to be bringing in a guest, and then each day we're going to be bringing in a business owner, and we're going to spend a good part of the show talking about their business and what they're specifically doing to innovate right now. And we're going to be hot seating with them, so they're going to share what are the biggest issues they're having, the biggest problems that we're having. And me and our guests, we're going to work right on their business with them the way we would if they were a client or like right in the business with them to help them get through it. And we think this will be really instructive for the rest of our community as well. So, again, if you're in the restaurant business, love to hear from you. Now, I know that's a lot. That's a mouthful. So I just want to say hi to some people before I move forward. First of all, Duck, it's always great to see you, brother. Love to see you, Lori Taylor. We got some good laughs this weekend. Great to have you here. Duchess. Sarah Lakin. Always amazing to have you and to see you here. John Halpern, great to see you this morning. Anya, wonderful to have you here this morning. Patrick. Kimberly. Kimberly Schulte. So nice to see you. Can't wait to catch up. Sita Thompson, Brian Hardy, great to see you this morning.

You know, for all of you guys that are joining today.

You know, the number one message I have for you is this. It's to stay. It's to stay safe.

There are a lot of people out there that are really struggling. They're really struggling financially. They're really struggling in their businesses, they're struggling in their relationships because of all the stress and all the tension on the outside. They're struggling. And now you have riots here in Los Angeles. You have business owners that have been waiting for this day, this day to open, but instead, they're being forced to put plywood over their windows and chain their doors and lock themselves up.

I need you to give people a mulligan today. If people are short, if people are a little bit rougher on the edges, if they snap a little bit faster, I need you to know that it's not you, that there's a million other things that could be contributing to what is going on with them and to their reaction. And I need you just to step back and to take a deep breath or to move away from the situation because we're all facing a lot right now and it's difficult for everybody. And I just want you guys to be safe and to say to stay safe through this, through this period.

I was talking to a. I was talking to a friend in Salt Lake City today whose store was destroyed downtown. So I know this isn't an L A thing. I know this is affecting people everywhere. Um, so again, I just want to say to everyone, please, please stay safe. Please stay at home if possible. And if there's anything that you need, please reach out again.

I really didn't want to get on today. Two minutes before I was supposed to go live, I had this thing ready. At 9:30, I walked out to Sita and I said, I'm not going to do this. Having a really tough time focusing, having a really tough time making sense of a lot of things right now.

But it's not about me, it's about us. And so, you know, anything that I can do or that we can do together to help raise this vibration, to help understand how we can move through this period even stronger, we just have to show up. That's what we have to do. We have to show up every single day.

And, you know, before I wrap up today, I want to say this.

To George Floyd and his family. I, you know, I just feel so awful about what happened. It was absolutely disgusting. It was terrible. It was. You know, I get sick every time I watch that video. I get sicker thinking that that kind of thing happens in America a lot. And I just know that as a white guy with Irish descent.

It feels really frustrating. It's frustrating to watch. It's embarrassing to watch.

It is. It's one of those situations where I can try and put myself into another person's shoes, into a person of color shoes, but I can't because I don't have that experience. You know, all I can say is, is I just think it is absolutely disgusting. And I hope that we find the answer to these issues real soon. I think the only way that we do it is, is together. I think that we're stronger together. And the answer doesn't come through rioting and looting small businesses. I am just as concerned today for this issue of, you know, what the police have been doing to people of color. I'm just as concerned about that issue as I am my neighbor who's at the corner fucking store, who spent their entire life and their entire savings building a business, who through no fault of their own, had a bunch of people break the windows and steal all of the shirts and all the dry cleanings off the rack, who, some of that stuff will not be insured, who will probably go out of business, who had just opened because of the virus.

There's a lot going on here. There's a lot going on here. And so I just, I have empathy for all of it. And I just want to say to all of you that are watching today and listening, please love each other, love a little harder, and give people a break, an energetic break. If they're sharper or they're shorter than usual. And, you know, and finally, we got to make money. We got to make money. We got to generate income. We need cash. So keep asking your customers what they need now and what you can do to help solve those problems that they have today. I'm going to be. This is a shortened show. I'm going to be back tomorrow at 10 o', clock, 10am Pacific. Until then, you guys stay safe and have an amazing, amazing day. This is what now with Scott duffy, presented by SAP. Concur. We come to you Monday through Friday, 10am to 11am Pacific Time Eastern. You can download the podcast or listen live on DASH Radio nationwide. Have an amazing day. Bye. Bye.