Scott Duffy On How To Lead A Home Based Workforce, Episode 21

Good morning, everybody. Good morning. And welcome back to what Now? An Entrepreneur's Guide to Managing Through Coronavirus in Uncertain Times. I am Scott Duffy and I want to thank you from for joining from wherever you are. And I cannot believe it is Monday. I can't believe it's Monday. Because today it feels like every day is just starting to, like, blend into the next day since we're staying at home and we're not going out.

And so it was an interesting weekend. It was interesting. We're going to talk a little bit about going stir cray cray and how we all deal with that as a community, because I can tell you something. I woke up this morning and I was so stir crazy. I'm curious if any of you guys are going through the same thing, feeling the same thing, but I woke up this morning and I was so stir crazy and ready to get out of the house and ready to go for a run and all that kind of stuff. We'll talk about what happened when I got outside. But it is great to reconnect with all of you.

Being at home feels so isolating that I just love getting on and I love connecting with all of you. It feels like a community. It's really something to look forward to. And I love to share with all of you and connect and get your comments and your feedback and answer questions. And I think that together, because that's really the only way that we're going to get through this together, we're going to really be able to help each other grow. So if you're just joining or you're joining for the first time, I'd love to ask you to do one thing, and that's this. It is to write down your name, jump into the conversation, write down your name, the business that you're in and the biggest challenge that you're having in the business so that we can customize the rest of the program for you. Now, this program airs across the country as a radio program. And so just a couple minutes, we'll start to pick up that feed. But right now what we want to do is I just want to welcome everybody and give this stream a little bit of time to propagate. So we are appearing live right now on Facebook and YouTube, on Instagram, on Periscope and on LinkedIn. And again, I just want to thank all of you guys for joining. And we're going to jump right in in just a second. Patrick, good morning to you. Al Manfrey, good morning to you. So good to see you over the weekend. And thank you so much for all of your help. I now have a updated trust, an updated living trust, an updated will, an updated medical director, powers of attorney, all that stuff. You helped me to put that together last week and that was. That was just amazing. So. And by the way, if you wouldn't mind doing this with your group, if you could, please go ahead. If you found any value in the show, please share it to your group, share it to your communities, share it to the people that you love. Because today we're going to talk about some really important information to help you to get through this time personally and help you to manage through this period with your business.

So let's go. Let's do it. Good morning. My name is Scott Duffy. This is what Now A guide to managing through coronavirus and uncertain times. I want to welcome you from wherever you're listening. You can tune in each day at 10:00am Pacific Time to watch the live broadcast on YouTube and Facebook, listen nationwide on Dash Radio or download the podcast. Now, this show is for entrepreneurs, small businesses, and those thinking about starting their own company. It's for people affected by this economy. Maybe they lost their business, their job, they were furloughed or saw their consulting contracts just come to an end. And it happened like this. It's for people who are asking the questions, what do I do now? And how do I come out of this even stronger now? Looking back at the weekend and the news breaking this morning, there's a few things I'd love to share with you. And by the way, our focus today is going to be on. We're going to take a quick look at what we learned about the stimulus over the weekend and the best ways for you to apply for it and the best ways for you guys to get your money quickly. We'll take a look at that. And we're also going to talk about how to manage yourself and your work teams and things like that from home, because this is becoming a bigger and a bigger topic. And if you don't mind, if you're just jumping in, if you would write down your name, the industry that you're in, the biggest challenge that you're having so that we can customize this show. Good morning, Sarah, and good morning, Helen. And the biggest challenge that you're having, that would be awesome. So the next two weeks are really expected to be super pivotal in terms of slowing the spread. And that's what we've been hearing. That's what we've been hearing last week. That's what we heard all weekend. And this is a really big week. But it appears that new outbreaks in places like New Orleans, Detroit and Chicago could really slow the nation's chances of getting out of this quarantine down by a couple of weeks. And so again, what we saw over the weekend is really big increases in the number of infections in New Orleans, Detroit and Chicago. And what we're starting to see now is the economies in Florida and, and Nevada really getting hit the hardest. And they may come out of this, this period the hardest hit. Now, the stimulus that's being provided by the government, Check this out. Is already two times the size of the 2008 and nine recession. So in only three weeks, the stimulus provided by the government is already two times the size of the2008, 2009 recession. And a couple of people asked me this question. What is a recession? And how is a recession different than the depression? Like, is that something that we would even think about or is that something that this may look like? What is a depression? So here's the answer. Up until the Great Depression, anytime the economy went negative, anytime there was negative growth, it was called a depression. But the thing is, the Great Depression worldwide, I mean, you have to figure that 90% drop in the market, it was crazy. The Great Depression was so painful for so many people that nobody wanted to use that word anymore. So economists came up with a new word, and that word was recession. And they defined it as two consecutive quarters or six months of negative growth. And so there isn't really a general consensus on what a depression is means today. But again, a recession is two consecutive quarters of negative growth. And again, what's so different, by the way, if you're concerned, have any concern, you've been watching television and they've been saying that's the direction that we're heading and they're pointing to the 30s. All I want to tell you is this is back in the 20s and the 30s, you didn't have the social programs, you didn't have the government stimulus, you didn't have the financial foundation that we have today. And it is a completely different situation, and it is a completely different world. The way that the government has jumped in and they're not only providing personal stimulus, but they're also providing, they're also providing stimulus to our businesses that just didn't exist in those times. So I just, I wouldn't let that concern you. I wouldn't let you, that freak you out. But here's the thing. In addition to government stimulus, companies are helping in to help entrepreneurs like you and me. So Facebook is now beginning to roll out some of its new measures to assist businesses dealing with the impacts of COVID 19, including business shutdowns. So this week we're going to see more details on their hundred million dollar plan to help small businesses through a grant program. It's not a loan program, it's a grant program. So I would, I would pay attention to that because I think that's going to be great for small business. And this is intended to provide tools and fiscal stimulus to help enable people get back to work.

And the last thing. I feel so stir crazy today. I don't know if any of you are going through this. I feel so stir crazy today. So I've spent most of the past three weeks behind a mic, talking on shows just like this during the daytime in this room. And then in between, I've been with my kids and I've been helping them. I've been helping them do homework. I've been helping them to just stay, you know, busy and occupied while they're at home. And by the way, if you're experiencing any of this, if you're experiencing stir crazy today, or if your kids are at home right now, they're not in school, and you're going through like you've learned some lessons or some techniques or there's some tools that you're using, they're helping you to manage this work at home and work with kids situation. If you could share that in this group, that would be amazing. That would be amazing. Because I got to tell you, like I said, I'm getting stir crazy. So this weekend was, things didn't slow down. And I know for me, maybe for you, it starts to feel like every day is just blending into the next. I get up and instead of getting in the car and going to work, I get up and I just walk into the next room. And I've been trying to get my exercise in, I've been trying to get my meditation in. But I have to tell you, over the past three or four days, it's gotten a little bit tougher. It's gotten a little bit tougher to self motivate around some of these things. And what I realize is, is how important it is right now for all of us to really, really make sure that we hold ourselves to great habits. It is really important because we're only three or four weeks into this right now. I was looking at this this morning, March 16th. So I don't even know. That was three weeks ago. March 16th is the day that President Trump first announced social distancing. That was on March 16, March 19. Three days later, the Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, he announced a tougher standard here in the state of California. And then the following day, March 20, the social distancing initiatives were announced in New York. And so we're like three weeks into this, and what we're looking at right now is we're looking at the next, you know, 4, 8, 12 weeks being in the same situation. And if there's anything that I've learned in life, it's this. It's that when times get tough, we gotta be the toughest people in the room if we really want to get through this strong and we want to come out strong. Not only tough for ourselves, but tough for the people around us. Tough for our families, our friends, we gotta be tougher. Our employees, our investors, our. All of these people are shareholders. And so now's the time to hold yourself to a higher standard. And how do you do that? The first is. The first thing starts with habits. It's your habits and your rituals and routines. And we're going to talk about which habits and rituals and routines that I think you need to focus on the most over the next. Over the next few weeks.

Again, if there's anything that you're doing to help you break up the monotony, if there's anything that you're doing to help manage working and really, you know, putting your kids through school and balancing all of that, it would be amazing. It would be amazing if you would share this in this group. And I think, yeah, you're right. Patrick Carney. Today is three weeks since Trump's announcement. And good morning, Jim Blakemore. A couple inspiring stories I saw over the weekend. So, again, what I see out there is all this negative stuff. We got negative news. Every time I turn on the tv, it's all negative. I go to my favorite websites, it's all negative. It's really freaking depressing. And so I'm out there looking for positive stuff, really. Things that inspire me, things to get me up, things that get me to focus, you know, on the places I want to go. Three things I saw this weekend that were super cool. The first was rainbow drawings. And this is something that you may want to take up in your neighborhood in the uk, what's happened is people have started to draw rainbows. And those symbolize kind of inspiration. Those symbolize starting here and getting to the other side of this pandemic. And so if you take a look at pictures right now in the uk, particularly in London, you'll see homes everywhere. Their windows are filled with these rainbow drawings. So that may be something really cool for you to do. It may be something really cool for you to have your kids do and maybe kids in the neighborhood to do to keep them occupied. Second thing I saw this weekend, super inspiring. Leonardo DiCaprio has started the America's Food Fund. Leonardo DiCaprio has started THE America's Food Fund. And this is so cool to help people right now that are having, having trouble, you know, getting food, having meals. And I don't know, you know, most people, I think, don't realize how big of an issue hunger is in the United States and hunger for children. I'm broadcasting today from Los Angeles and here in LA alone, in the LA Unified School District, there are 600,000 children. Think about that. 600,000 children that get their only meals of the day through a school breakfast or school lunch program. 600,000 kids. There's 20,000 kids just here in the LAUSD. They get their only shelter, their only shelter while they're at school because they're homeless. So think about that. So I was really excited when I saw that Leo DiCaprio stepped up and started the America's Food Fund. And finally, this story is awesome because I'm always sharing with you inspirational stories about how businesses, how small business is adapting and they're pivoting during this time in order to better address market needs. And one of the coolest things I saw this weekend is that Formula One racing in Europe and Mercedes Benz partnered up. Formula One and Mercedes and they have invented a non invasive ventilator between the two of them. So Mercedes is now producing these non invasive ventilators. They created the whole thing in less than a week. So we talk about innovation. I love to say it's incredible if you give an entrepreneur a big problem and not quite enough time to solve it, it's amazing to see what they can do in this. So last week, Formula one in Mercedes, they decided to team up. They came up with this non invasive ventilator in less than a week. And as of this weekend, they had already delivered 40 to hospitals. And because of the way this ventilator is made, they can produce it for far less money in far less time and get it to far more people during this global crisis. An incredible example of innovation. And it uses materials. My understanding is that it uses fewer parts, it uses materials that we can find now in more abundance.

And this is a big deal because we talk about the global supply chain, we Talk about something like a ventilator. So most people don't realize that these ventilators, these ventilators cost right now in the open market up to 50,000, $55,000 per ventilator. And some of them have anywhere from 17 to 15 different parts that are needed or materials to make them up. So here's the thing. In order to solve the problem of getting more ventilators to more hospitals in this country, we have lots of issues. It's not just about opening a GM plant and having them kind of customize their existing manufacturing facility to make these things. We got to source all of those parts, and we've got to source those from all over the world. All those materials from all over the world. And we're not the only country that's trying to get our hands on those. Every country. As of last night, there are 181 countries that are now affected by coronavirus. By COVID 19. So there are effectively 181 countries. And the countries, I'm sorry, the companies and the hospitals and the medical professionals in all these countries trying to get the same parts. So again, you give an entrepreneur a big problem, not enough time to solve it, and you end up with Formula One and Mercedes Benz in less than one week, figuring out a new kind of ventilator, a new way to make it, different parts, less parts. And that's how we solve this thing. I freaking love entrepreneurs. I love you guys. And the reason is this. The reason is it's not government, it's not government. It's people like you and me that are going to find the biggest problems. We'll identify the biggest problems in the world, we'll figure out how to solve the biggest problems in the world, and we'll figure out how to fund the biggest problems in the world. And that's what makes entrepreneurs such an amazing breed. Whether you are an entrepreneur, you're a small business owner, you're a micropreneur, you're a mamapreneur, you're a datapreneur. It really doesn't matter. And what's really cool is that for this big problem, we're all in it together.

On the cash side.

I always like to talk every day about how to protect your cash and stabilize your business. And on the cash side, what I want to share with you is this all last week, we talked about the government's big lending and grant programs. We talked about the eidl, and we talked about the ppp. I had kedma o from the sbdc, the small Business Development Council, who works side by side with the sba. I had Kedma come on two or three times last week and share really help us to break down what that bill's, what those bills were made of, how to apply, how to get yourself to the front of the line and get your money the fastest. And then came Friday. Friday was the first day, last Friday that you can apply for the ppp, the Paycheck Protection Program. And that program is the program created from the $350 billion government stimulus package that's been announced for small business. So what happened on Friday? Businesses started to apply. And it wasn't one or two or three or five businesses or 5,000 or 50,000. It was more like 500,000, you know, 5 million, 15 million. There was such a flood of applications. The two things happened. One is many people called me frustrated. They couldn't get a hold of a bank, of a lender. That was one thing that happened. A second thing that happened is many banks announced that they weren't even ready, they weren't even prepared to take in applications. And so what I'd love to share with you is this. It's just the idea that these are great programs that have been created by the government, but they are going to take time. And if you were frustrated Friday, if you were frustrated over the weekend, I would expect over the next week, the way that we submit applications, the responsiveness that we get from vendors, things like that, should get a lot better. And if you're an independent contractor or consultant and you want to apply for the PPP program, you can apply starting this coming Friday. And a lot of you have asked me, what does that mean for me? How do I do it? What do I need to know if I'm going to apply as an independent contractor, if I'm going to apply as a consultant? And the short answer is we don't have all the answers. And my guess is that we won't know all the answers. We won't know all the answers until Wednesday. And the reason is this past Wednesday, this past Wednesday is when the is when the government announced the PPP for all other businesses. So I would expect this coming Wednesday for contractors and for independent contractors, you'll have the information that you need. And what we'll do is we'll bring Kedma O back on from the sbdc and she can help us to break it down for you. We'll also bring in a couple of bankers this week as well to make sure you guys put yourself at the front of the of the line.

I saw some really cool innovation. Additional information that I want to share. I have a couple of friends that are in the apparel business.

So one many of you know Sita. So Sita Thompson, she has a luxury apparel clothing brand. And this is a brand that sells to the travel industry, to hotels, to spas, to yoga studios, all wholesale. And what happened with this brand is that it started the year having its best year ever. I mean, remember like a month ago, the economy was just insane. So the company won the number one rising fashion brand in Los Angeles from the LA Business Journal. It had more orders than it had ever had in the company's lifetime. It was killing it. And then when coronavirus hit and hit the travel industry, probably first, what happened was all the orders were canceled, all the shows were canceled through the end of the year. And so what Sita did is she took a look at all this inventory that was sitting there and all these canceled. And she looked at all of the material that she had purchased and she said, what can I use this for? And we were actually watching tv, we were watching Mayor Garcetti talk about this situation on Friday here in Los Angeles. And she decided that she wanted to take this material and give back. And so what she's done is she created a mask over the weekend. They start producing the mask today. It's a one for one program. So be able to go into her site, buy a mask. And for every mask that you buy, you'll be able to get there's a second mask that's going to be donated to the city of la. And she's been working with them on where that's going to go. The reason I bring this up is I also have other friends in the apparel business. Two of them make custom men's suits that have done the same thing. And the question I have is, what can you do in your business? How can you adapt? What could you sell today that would provide massive value to your customers, massive value to your customers, but also help the people that are severely affected by this crisis? Is there anything that you have, Are you in an inventory based business where you're sitting on goods right now, you've paid for goods that you're sitting on that you can't sell in the way that you sold them in the past? How could you reinvent yourself? How could you reinvent the products that you serve in order to get those things, those things pushed out and do good at the same time?

I had somebody reach out to me over the weekend and this person offers an Incredible service, Super good service. They're actually in the coaching business and they're, they're really, really good at what they do. And they reached out because they told me that in the last month they've had to cancel all their events. They had all of their annual contracts with customers canceled. Most of their regular one on one coaching things had canceled. But they had so much great information to help people to pivot and to adapt today. And what the person said to me is, they said, I just feel so guilty. I feel so guilty taking this product out and charging people for what I do. And by the way, that is a sentiment that I have heard from so many people today. That's a sentiment that I've heard all over the place. People feel there's almost a guilt because I get it, we are all in this together. We're all experiencing Covid together.

Many people have told me they're in it for the long play, right? So they want to give and give and give now. So down the road there's an affinity that they have in their target customer group with that avatar and they win in the long game. So I want to say a couple things about that. The first is this. You know, about a year ago, I was backstage in an event and I was sitting next to Grant Cardone, if any of you guys know Grant. I was sitting next to Grant and his wife Elena. And we were talking and we were talking about the long game. And he said to me, he said, scott, he said, it's good to be in it for the long game, but the long game don't pay the rent. I don't think there is anything wrong. There is nothing wrong with taking what you do. And as long as you're providing value, massive value charging for that right now, there's. There's nothing wrong with that. In fact, I think it's incredibly important, it's incredibly vital that you generate the cash that you need to put the money in, you know, to put food on the table. And so I just. Look, what's common sense to you isn't common sense to everyone else. The things that you can do and you can share with others, the products that you can create for others are things that people need and they are willing to pay. Now what you may need to do is adjust your product market fit, meaning you may have to adjust the way you charge for things and the pricing of your products and how you get paid and things like that. But don't hesitate. There's no reason to hesitate to get paid. I'll Tell you, I think about it this way, whenever I sell anything, I'm always thinking of this 20 to 1 calculation. And actually it was my buddy Dave Meltzer, we talked about this and this is where I really got this, is that if I were to give you say you gave me a $20 bill, you gave me a $20 bill and I gave you $100 back, would you do that transaction? Would you give me 20 bucks if I gave you a crisp hundred dollar bill back? Now the answer is of course you would. You would do that every single day. Who wouldn't? Well, that's the way I want you to think about your sales during this period is for every $20 that you get from somebody, you're giving at least $100 back and, and value you're over delivering in every transaction. And so I really want you to approach each transaction in this way. And if you're doing that and you're really giving and you're really coming from that energetic space, the person on the other end is going to feel that they're going to know that. And again, I think that just that makes the exchange of money so, so much easier. So with that I want to take just a minute and I want to drop in here to the thread and I want to say hi to a few people and I'd love to answer any questions that you have. Sarah, it is so good to see you. Thanks for joining again today. Bob Strobel.

Interesting. From Bob Strobel.

I was able to apply with Kabbage. They have converted their unused line of credits to SBA ppp so perhaps this might speed things up. I'll report back what I hear. That is great information. So for any of you that use Kabbage, Kabbage is a, it's a place that you can go to apply for a loan online. Kabbage does not check your credit report. Instead of what Kabbage does is it has you link as many financial accounts as you feel comfortable with. So you'll link your business checking account, you might link your personal account, you will link, you might want to link your QuickBooks, your PayPal, your, your Stripe. You link all these different things and they've developed AI. So they go in and they determine on average how much you bring in every month and what your overhead, how much you're putting out. And they determine through their own AI or custom built AI what to lend to you in the form of a line of credit. And that line of credit is guaranteed in a number of different ways at the end of the day, you're going to be responsible for it. But that's how they do it. When the market crashed on March 9, what happened was many people reported going to Cabbage and when they were at Cabbage.

It was basically down. So the whole thing was down. If you try to log in, all the accounts were disconnected. If you called them, you went to an old voicemail machine, kind of like back in the 80s and 90s, just leave a message. And nobody knew what was going to happen. And there was a lot of talk in Silicon Valley and in those rags that cabbage may be done. So it's really cool. Great example of a company seeing what customer needs are and pivoting so that they can not only supply customer demand, but also fix their own needs of finding capital and things like that to support themselves. So the idea of Kabbage offering SBA PPP is super cool. If you are applying for the, for the PPP or you want to, I really recommend go to Kabbage. I will check it out today and I'll have all the info for you tomorrow. But go check it out. Don't waste time getting in line. Nathan. So Nathan, Yes, Nathan is one of the tailors that I was inspired by who was converting his business into making masks. And I believe that Nathan has already sold thousands, if not tens of thousands of masks. Now, I don't know if they're cloth or if they're medical grade, but I know that today in California, in New York, really all across the country, what we're being told is if we're not in the medical profession, that we're being asked to wear cloth and send all of the medical grade masks to the people on the front lines. Bobby Jo, Bobby Joe Cook, it is good to see you this morning. What you're sharing is that your girls and I picked oranges, grapefruit and lemons from our yard. You bagged them.

And dropped all on neighbors porches with an inspirational note to remind them that we're all in this together. We're not alone with your phone number to call if they were in need of anything. That is so awesome. That is so inspiring. That is so super cool. And Donya Romano, Donya, if you are still here, first of all, it is amazing to see you. I have known Danya since I was about this big, since I was a little kid and we went to school, grammar school and high school and all this stuff together. And Donya is a principal and has a school in Los Angeles. She owns a school in Los Angeles. And what she said Here is Donya is Italian. Her family owned probably the most well known Italian restaurant in Los Angeles for years. They started drawing and coloring rainbows in Italy weeks ago. So I didn't know that until this weekend. And when I started to see pictures in the uk, I was so inspired. And that is really cool. In Italy. Donya, I would love to know what you can share.

What you can share with us about things that we may be able to do with our kids to keep our kids busy and to keep our kids learning while we all go through this process. And if you have any ideas about how we can juggle, how we can juggle our work and our kids at home, that would be awesome. Because let me tell you what happened with me today. I woke up this morning. My first call this morning was at 4:30 Pacific Time. I got it this morning. I had my call. I did the same thing I've been doing for the last three weeks. Basically went from the bedroom to the office room, got on the phone, strapped up and set go. And that's what I did. And I've been sitting at this desk all day, every day and I was so stir crazy and I'm like, you know what? After this call, Eye of the Tiger, I'm going to throw on a Rocky video, I'm going to go put on my workout clothes and I'm going to go run. And it doesn't matter because nobody's outside right now. So I did, I put on my stuff, I put on my earpods, I picked my song, I walked outside and I didn't even know it. It was pouring rain. It was pouring rain here in la. So I turned around, wa wa wa and I walked right back inside. And I got back inside and I'm like here we go again. So any ideas that you have for how we can break it up and how we can stay in that great non stir crazy mindset at home would be awesome.

Friday Art Zoom class Art with Andrea for Kids that I will add a link to here tomorrow that would be amazing. So if any of you guys have a skill that you want to share, maybe you're looking to come up with a new kind of business to help you through during this time. If you want to start a Google Face hangout, it's free. You want to start a, you know, a zoom group, you know, it's, it can be free to start with a certain number of users.

Capped. If you could do an art class for kids, if you can do a reading class for kids, if you can do a math Class, a science class. If you have classes that you can run for kids, that would be an incredible help to me and to other people. If you could share that in this group, that would be super cool. Sarah, you're saying, by the way, I'm making masks too, for people. So thank you for sharing that stuff about designers and how to. Sarah, how can we get in touch with you if we want to buy a mask? How can we get in touch with you and how can we share with other people? That would be incredible. That would be amazing.

Let me see here. Question. Some of the kids in my neighborhood have gotten together and they're doing this social distancing thing where they're getting together, staying six feet apart, and they're riding bikes to the neighborhood. Is that cool right now? Is that not cool right now? I got a text, I wasn't really sure what to do about it. From a mom. Let me know what you guys think.

Here we go. Let me pull this one up as well. It's not bringing the name through, but what it's telling me is what about the tons of ads for attorneys wanting us to do a consultation? Think our insurance does have business interruption. Called first thing to my insurance, and they said, never in a pandemic. Pandemic. Should we consult.

So I spoke to my insurance company on Friday, and the company that holds my business insurance policy and the company that holds my auto insurance policy, the folks that hold my business insurance policy said that Hanover, who has my business insurance, was extending. So if you were late, they would extend, I believe it was two or three weeks. And then they wanted to kind of see, and then you could call them, but they wanted to see where things were at that point. So that was really cool. That was Hanover.

I spoke to my auto insurance company, and what they said is if you were doing a rewrite, they may be willing to do not charge you to rewrite your policy, but pick up from where you left off if you were late. And you said that you were late because of coronavirus. So, again, that's just based on my personal experience and what I. What I have to share. Ron Foster, thank you for joining. And I have an idea for you, if you don't mind. So Ron Foster, my buddy, member of our breakthrough mastermind, Ron, puts together.

Maybe the best super bowl party in the country every single year. He puts on events, the big ones, the ones everybody wants to get into, like the ESPN things, all that stuff for the super bowl, for the Masters. He does it for college sports championships, racing, all that kind of stuff. So you can imagine that right now all this stuff has been canceled. So what do you do?

Two things. One, I was reading about a company over the weekend and this company is in the business of providing.

Corporate retreats and corporate events. So they get everybody together and they do things like pamper poles and they go race car driving and they do all this stuff that requires you to be outside. But the problem is they can't get these groups together, can't go outside now together.

So what they have done is they figured out how to put together really cool things for the people in their businesses that they can do remotely so they can do a zoom call call and they can do corporate bonding retreats. They can create corporate challenges, they can create all kinds of corporate stuff.

And leverage what they have. So maybe there's a way that you can leverage your resources and your contacts from those big events and maybe you can turn those into at home corporate morale and coaching programs and things like that. And maybe there's like, maybe there's a way you can do something there. Maybe there's a spin there. I mean, I don't know. But you know, why not ask? Maybe we could, maybe you could reach out to a couple of companies and find out if there is a way.

And maybe there's, there's something you could do now. Luz, good morning to you lose. You called your car insurance, you put a couple cars on hold is they won't be driven zero miles right now and that saved you over $100 a month for right now. So since you can't drive anywhere, you may want to call your auto insurance company and say, I don't want to cancel but I want to put on hold and I want to stop paying right now because I'm not driving. I read this morning, I'm sorry, I don't remember the name, but one of the big car issue insurance companies in the US is actually sending people back 15% of their premium knowing that they're not driving or they're driving less. So that's really interesting. For parents looking for something to do, there is always Craig Collins. Craig Collins is with us every single day. Craig has an amazing reading program, the universal reading method. And if you want your kids to be taking reading courses while they're at home, I highly recommend reach out to Craig again. He's got universalreadingmethod.com and he's got some great courses that.

You can become a part of.

Let's talk about working at home. So important.

So with regard to working at Home. There has never been a more important time for us to develop amazing at home habits than now. And it's not only for ourselves to make sure that we show up. But I gotta tell you, if you're employed or if you're a contract worker and you're fulfilling the contract, you better show up. You better sure as hell show up every single day putting your best foot forward. Because your employer, who may be struggling to figure out how to pay payroll and feed their family in the same week, wants to make sure that every time he scratches a check or she scratches a check, it's for people that they know are coming to work and they got their game face on and they're ready to play and they are ready to play. And so what does this mean? This means that you need a routine. And the routine is you got to get up, you got to move around, you have got to get that blood flowing so that on that first call, that first zoom, you don't look like you're still waking up, like you're still a little bit get up and you got to move around. Walk around the block, do whatever it is that you need to do. Get a meditation in number two. You got to take a shower and get dressed. Get dressed as if you're going to work and you are about to go into the most important on site meeting that you have ever had. How would you show up? What would your energy be like? How would you have prepared? What would you, what would your appearance be like? I need you to get up, I need you to get dressed and I need you to create a workspace so it doesn't matter. Like it doesn't have to be fancy, doesn't have to be anything like that. I don't care if it's like a table, it could be one of those fold out tables that you get and you put a tray on a tray table. It could, doesn't matter what it is, but I need you to go to the same dedicated space every single day and that's your workspace. Because you want to develop this habit where your mind every time knows that you go into this, into a space, it reinforces certain kinds of behaviors. So you need to create your space. Next, define your work hours. And this is super important for you. And if you're juggling kids as well, it's super important for the kids as well. What this means is by defining your work hours, okay, you can not only again stay in a routine, but you can take breaks that you rely on and that your kids rely on. And that everyone looks forward to to do something else. Whether it's to move around, it's to take a break because you're still at home. It's to go and sit down with your kids and help them with their schoolwork, or just give them some attention and give them some love, but create regular breaks at the same time. Set an alarm every single day. The people I know that are super killing it right now, this is exactly what they're doing. Turn off the tv. Be sure to turn off the tv. Never been more important. Turn off the TV right now and over communicate. If somebody is paying you right now, somebody's paying you, or you're applying for work, or you're trying to put your best foot forward so you get hired right now. Be sure to over communicate because what's happening right now is that a lot of people are spending time on social media and a lot of people are trying to communicate with the masses through zooms and this and lives and whatever. But they're not picking up the phone, they're not sending texts, and they're not sending emails. Instead, what they're doing is they're isolating themselves. And this is not a good time to isolate yourself as it relates to your work. Right now, the most important thing that you could do is be contributing value to your network. And the way that you contribute value is by staying in touch. And the way that you stand out is by doing something that everyone else isn't doing. And that could be as simple as making the phone call. That could be as simple as you're making the phone call, you're sending the text, you're checking in on somebody in a very personal way, you're doing something that other people aren't doing. And so again, I highly recommend, do not isolate yourself.

And finally, if you're really having a hard time.

If you're really having a hard time.

If things feel like they're getting dark, if you feel all alone, if you feel like there's no way out, I need you to do two things. One, reach out to me, reach out to your friends, reach out to your family, because everyone is going through it. And the odds are the feelings that you're having are the feelings that everyone around you is having as well. And if it's really tough, I highly encourage you to reach out to a line and I'm going to start to post the number. During our daily lives of suicide prevention lines and things like that that can offer help, that can provide somebody in a totally anonymous way that you can Just talk to that. You can just share what's going on. Tell them you're having a rough time, even if you're not, you know, thinking dark, toxic thoughts. This is a great place to go to have somebody to talk to in an anonymous way that can help you to get through. To get through.

This, this period.

I'm taking a look right now at some of the comments coming in through Facebook and through YouTube and here on Instagram.

You know, it's really interesting. It's really interesting.

We're all going through this. And as entrepreneurs, part of our job is putting on a brave face. We're brave for our families, our friends, our investors, our employees, all of these people. And because we're so used to being brave that sometimes what happens is we feel like we can't reach out. We feel like we can't share what it is that we're going through. We feel like that makes us look a certain way, that's weak, and.

And that we just don't want to put out there. But I'm telling you that now is a time that we need each other. And so even if you're not the person that's going through that, what I highly encourage you to do and I ask you to do is check in with the people around you. Like, really check in. Like, really ask the questions. Don't let people get away with stock answers. And really check in to make sure that they're okay. And if they're not okay, please be an ear for those people.

Finally, one of the things I wanted to share today is as it relates to innovation, what. What's really cool right now with what we're doing and this conversation that we're having and this idea of going live is this is here in Los Angeles, business has been incredibly disrupted, like in other places. But one industry that stands out is the entertainment business. So every city has its rock stars in, you know, New York. It's a financial town in San Francisco, it's a tech town in Los Angeles or an entertainment town. And here in Los Angeles, entertainment has really, in many ways, it shut down. People can't go to the movie theaters. Production has stopped on sets. Live shows have stopped happening live in studio because of social distancing. And so what's really cool here is how the entertainment business, again, entrepreneurs asking people what they need and how they need it. Really smart producers, people that normally work for CNN and for CNBC and for Fox Business News, for abc, they're doing, you know, Kelly and Ryan and what they're doing. Is they're looking around on social media and they're seeing people on zoom lives, and they're seeing people on Facebook lives and Instagram lives, and they're saying, how can we create new features? How can we enable people to broadcast in a way that not only gets them broadcasting on that one channel, but in lots of channels at the same time? How can we create more activity? How can we create a visual experience that does more like television? How can we do all that, but instead of doing it from the studio or in a truck, how do we do it over the cloud? It's an incredibly difficult technical challenge. And for the past two and a half weeks, I've been working with some of the most amazing production people on the planet. People that bring you, like I said, those big programs or the Grammys or this or that. And together we have been able to innovate. And starting later this week, we're going to change some of the look and the feel. And this program is not only going to be distributed across social media, but a number of different channels. And we're going to share with you in real time how we're doing it. We're also going to announce later this week, so it's really cool. And I really invite you guys to give me your feedback. Please give me your feedback, what you like, what you don't like, and how you may be able to use something like this for your business. That's number one. Number two is about two weeks ago, two and a half weeks ago, I really put out the call. I said, you know, we as entrepreneur, we have got, you know, a big mission here. We need to help as many people. I want to help as many people as I possibly can, as I possibly can get through this crisis. But I can't do it alone. Just like you can't do it alone. We have to do this all. We are in it together. We need to bring the love back into business. And so I put it out there and I said, who can help? How can you help? And I got a call at about 11 o' clock at night from one of my good friends who is at one of the biggest companies in the world. And he said, our company wants to help. We really want to get behind and support small business. How do we do it? And together we have been working on something over the past week that is really awesome and I can't wait to share it with you later this week. And I just can't wait to share with you how amazing this company has been and what they are Doing for small business in the Bachelor. It's really cool. And, and finally later this week, I'm going to be able to announce an event and I just want you right now to mark your calendars for April 25th. April 25th, we will announce later this week we are going to be doing a. I'll just, I'll just tell you right now. It is a 24 hour live stream event. We believe that this could become the biggest digital event everywhere, anywhere in the world in history. We have got some incredible people behind it. Celebrity entrepreneurs, entertainers, athletes that want to do nothing but give to entrepreneurs, give to small business, give to businesses just like you. To not only help you to do this, to not only help you to create a solid foundation through this period, but come out the other side and come out the other side even stronger. Come out stronger. We are also raising money through this initiative to help people out there. And I'll share with who later, but later this week, but to help people. And it's an incredible opportunity. I'm going to need all of your help. But again, it all comes down to innovating. It all comes down to how do we, how do we as a group, as a tribe, as a people, how do we as humans help each other to get through this period? Well, I'll tell you, I'm working as hard as I can to do it. We have big companies and big talent coming in to do it. Now, here's what I need from you. What I need from each and every one of you. This is my call to you, is I need all of you to check in with the people around you, check in with the ones that you love, check in with your friends, check in with your coworkers, check in with your former coworkers and make sure, see if they're okay. See if they're going through a tough period, see if they're, if they're getting to see if they're whatever. And I need you to be there for them and I need you to be their friend. Because only one way we get through this and it's together. I need to run. I want to thank all of you for joining us today. We have a lot to announce and show you later this week. And please, again, if you're not, oh, by the way, I want to wish somebody a happy birthday. My dear friend, Terri Simpson, who I just love with all my heart. Terri Simpson. It is her birthday today and I want to wish her a happy birthday. And just say, I hope you have the most amazing day. Another incredible entrepreneur, an incredible media powerhouse, Terri Simpson. Happy Birthday. Have an amazing day. For the rest of you, we are broadcasting live every day at 10:00am Pacific Time right here. You can catch us on Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, on Periscope and on all day long on Dash Radio. You can also download the podcast what Now? A Guide. An Entrepreneur's guide to Managing through Coronavirus and uncertain Times. Have an amazing day and I look forward to seeing you tomorrow. Take care.