Scott Duffy Shares Experience With Bankruptcy & What You Should Consider

Good morning, everybody and welcome to what Now. This is what now with Scott Duffy, presented by SAP. Concur. And I am late this morning. Yes, I am. I am late this morning. I've had an amazing. I've had an amazing morning, got up, got a great workout in, a great meditation and then just had a lot of cool business stuff come up. And so I am running late. But I am happy to be with you here now and here today for what now with Scott Duffy, presented by SAP. Concur. I hope you guys are doing amazing on this Friday and getting ready to go into a killer, killer weekend. If this is the first time you're joining the show, it would be amazing if you would drop in your name to say hello, tell us what you're up to, what industry you're in, maybe the biggest challenges that you're having today, and how we can help so we can do everything possible to build this show around you guys. I am so fired up. So I'm going to tell you what I've been working on in just a few minutes. But before I do that, I want to say hello to a few of you. I want to say hello to Patrick Carney. What's happening, my man? Daya, always good to see you. Good to see you this morning, Bob Dunnell. Bob, I got your note last night after your program was over. I understood it was last night and I just want to thank you so much for being a leading voice out there and bringing people together. I think that's so cool. I think that you're amazing. And by the way, if you're watching this show now and you have never experienced Bob Dunnell and Next Level by association out here in Orange County, I really recommend that you do because it is a hell of a program and the people I've met through the Next Level group are just, just incredible. So Bob, it is good to see you this morning again. This is Scott Duffy what Now with Scott Duffy, presented by SAP. Concur. I am starting late today because, yes, I am running late. I had a really, really interesting morning, a great morning and I've been working on this live stream stuff and we are now in the process of building a production team, which is really cool. So we're going to have a production team. It looks like our first person is going to start next week, so it's not just me. And it's going to enable us to bring you guys so much more. It'll give us more time to source and bring on insanely great guests and it's going to give us the time and resources that we need in order to build out actual training. So I'm going to call them whiteboard sessions where we get up and we literally, we're doing the work together. Because what I really want to do with this program is I want to make it about the work. There is so much content out there, and it's great content that is motivational, it's inspiring. It's going to make you feel really good. It's going to help you to think positive. It's going to put some shine on the day. But what it doesn't do is it doesn't give you, like, stuff that you can use today, like things that you can use today. A roadmap every day around a specific issue. And that's what I want to do. I want to give you guys actionable content that you can apply immediately to get better results and whatever it is that you're doing in your life or in your business. Now, I've had a lot of green juice today, so I'm feeling extra good and I'm fired up. And.

We'Re going to do this now for radio. So 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 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 affected by this economy. Maybe they lost their business, their job, they were furloughed or saw their consulting contracts canceled. It's for people asking, what do I do now and how do I come out of this period even stronger? Now, our focus today is on a topic that I think a lot of people can relate to during these times. Our focus today is on what I would do now if I had to start over. What would I do today if I had to start over? Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that I had to start over because I lost everything or I'm unemployed. It could be I have to start over because I have to find a better way of doing things. So it's not just from starting from scratch and building up. It's from starting from up and building a better kind of a better reality for yourself. So what is it I would do if I had to start over? And again next week, we're going to start our new format. So we'll have a special guest on Each day. And we'll be doing some hot seat masterminding as well, where I bring in you, I bring in viewers, and we actually work one on one, me and your guest, on your business, in real time in front of everybody. Because I think that even though someone may not be in your business or be in your industry, the lessons are super actionable. And I think that getting perspectives from different industries helps us to think different and in ways that can help us in all kinds of really cool ways to do really cool stuff. So I was looking at the numbers today and, and it was just, it was really interesting.

Trying, we're all trying to process what's happened over the last three months from COVID to recession to protests and all these different things. And they all have an effect. They have an effect on our energy, they have an effect on our focus, they have an effect on our business results.

So let me just summarize some things for you. And I'm curious what your point of view is on all this stuff because again, I was looking at the numbers today. I'm a data driven guy. So 12 weeks ago, it was 12 weeks ago. Yesterday we were told that Covid was going to sweep the nation, that the number of deaths would be totally catastrophic, that we'd see suffering in a way and death in a way that we hadn't seen it since 1918 in the Spanish flu. So we were all asked to shelter in place. And there was really, there was real meaning behind shelter in place because we were told if we did it as a nation and we held hands and we all did it together, we'd be able to slow the spread and make a difference. And that Covid had had the power to really take us all down. But this was our way to stand up and to beat this thing. Now today there's 1.8 million cases in the United States with 108,000 deaths. Let me say that a different way. When you add people that are not only citizens, but other non citizens here in the United states. There's over 400 million people in the United States and there are 1.8 million cases of COVID with 108,000 deaths out of just over 400 million people. Interesting. Now, just for perspective, again, I'm a numbers guy, so I like to look at this stuff for perspective. Heart disease kills 647,000 people in the United States each year. Cancer, 599,000 people in the US each year. Accidents, just freak accidents. You get bit by an alligator. 169,000 crazy accidents each year. Stroke, 143,000 people each year. Alzheimer's, 121,000 people each year and Covid 108,000 people each year. But we shut down the country. Now for perspective, closing down the country, what has it done? Unemployment is worse than the Great Depression. Now you may see data today that says that we had this incredible job gain, the biggest in history. Don't buy the bullshit when you really dig into the numbers. I'll do it on Monday for you. We are still at 43 million people have applied for unemployment. And in the past, in the past three months, real unemployment again is over 40 million people. But what we're starting to see is we're starting to see the effect of people, companies who had gotten the PPP being able to bring people back so they have eight weeks if they want to get that money.

Use like waived as a grant versus a loan. They have eight weeks to spend their PPP money, a percentage of it, on bringing their people back and putting them back to work. Which is tricky because so much of the country isn't open yet and because so many businesses are under such heavy restrictions by local governments like restaurants that you can bring people back but they don't have anything to do. So here's the thing. The ppp, when you look at it again, I'm a numbers guy, when you look at it will this eight week period as you stagger it out for companies that received it will end around the end of August. So by the end of August, all that short term cash that companies have been given to bring people back to work will be used also. What happens in August, well, July 31st is those $600 bonuses that people get each week for unemployment right now that program will be over also. So what I would say is the numbers may in some crazy things look like they're getting better, but it is a short term thing. And I'm not trying to say this in order to create fear because that's the last thing I want to do. It's just so that we know the real real. Because when we know the real real, what we're able to do with real data is we're prepared, we're able to prepare and we're able to make really smart decisions. So again, for perspective, over 400 million people in the United States, 1.8 million cases of COVID and 108,000 deaths. Okay? Heart disease, cancer, accident, stroke, Alzheimer's, all have more. Now let's get real real. Let's talk about something a lot more serious. Let's Talk about suicide. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States. In 2018, there were 48,000 suicides in the United States. 48,000 suicides in the United states in 2018. You guys might not realize this, but almost 70% of suicides are middle aged white men. Almost 70% of suicides are middle aged white men. And one of the most common causes or reasons for their suicides of these middle aged white men is unemployment. It's losing a job, it's losing a business. Now, according to Oxford University, suicides increase in Europe and the U.S. think about this. By 1% for every 1% increase in unemployment. 1% for every 1% increase in unemployment. That means in the United States, every 1% increase in unemployment is 140,000 additional suicides. Think about that. A 1% increase in unemployment creates more death than Covid has in the United States. So it's really interesting when you think about things from this perspective and what this has all done to us. Chris Naugle, awesome to see you. Proud papa, new dad. Thanks so much for joining. So again, like I said, I'm a real data driven guy and when I take a look at all of this, it makes my head spin a little bit. And again, I just want to read these suicide numbers one more time because we're going to talk about how we watch out for people that may be having a rough time. We're going to talk about that during this show. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States. 48,000 suicides in 2018. Almost 70% of suicides in the United States are middle aged white men. We hear a lot about kids and what's going on with all of this.

We, you know, we hear about so much about teens and the increase in teen suicide. It is middle aged white men, 70%, the number one reason that they go to that is, is because of loss of a job or loss of a business. According to Oxford University, in Europe and the US about 1%.

For every. There's a 1% increase in suicide for every 1% increase in unemployment. That means in the US a 1% increase is 140,000 additional deaths, which is like a third more than we've already had from COVID which is just crazy when you think about it. And when you add that up, that would mean that shutting this fricking country down for three months, creating all of this unemployment, all of this business closure, all of that kind of stuff would create suicide deaths that are 10 times that of COVID deaths. So Again, you can buy into the numbers. You don't have to buy into the numbers. I'm just a data driven guy. I look at a lot of this stuff. This is what I spend my time doing, is looking at data to provide with other people to help them make smart choices. And, and I just think it's really a shame. And what I think this really means is that all of us have a responsibility right now. All of us have a responsibility once we have data and we can make smart decisions to watch out for each other. We have to watch out for each other. So here is my call out to you, my call out. The action item I want you to take today is I want you to take inventory of the people around you. Your friends, your family, your significant other, your kids, whoever it is. I want you to take inventory and I want you to, to really think about the situation that they're in and how they're doing. I want you to ask yourself, has this person gone off the grid? Has this person been saying things that are especially negative or maybe having a hard time? And all I want you to do, all I want you to do is check in on these people. All I want you to do is watch out for the person next to you. That's all I'm asking you to do. With a heightened sense of awareness. And this is an incredibly important topic and it's something that really sticks close to me in my heart. And because I am one of those people, I am one of those people that a few years ago, as a not quite middle aged white man, but as a fairly close to middle aged white man, lost all my money, lost my business, and I was so close to being another statistic. I was in a church parking lot. I talk about this and I only do this. The only reason I share this with you is to know if you're having a hard time, you're not alone and other people have gone through this stuff. I was in a church parking lot, I called a suicide prevention line from the church parking lot, about to make a really bad decision. And you know what? It saved my life. And I want you to have the same sensory acuity. I want you to have the same awareness for what other people are going through right now. And I want you, if you see people having a hard time, to reach out. I want you, if somebody seems to have fallen off the grid or taken reach out. This is not the right time, if you are feeling down to go off the grid, this is the right time to ask for help. We're going to talk about how in just a minute. And all of this really, when I was reading this data today, made me think about what one thing, you know, what is it that I want to share with people today? What do I want to talk to people about today? And the answer was, what would I do today if I had to start over? What would I do today if I had to start over? And start over can mean I had to start over because of a loss or a reset. That could be losing a business, it could be losing a job, it could be being furloughed, it could be losing consulting contracts, it could be a business I'm in is getting completely wiped out or closed down or whatever it is. It could be starting over. I have a business and my business is successful right now or I'm doing well. Like, I'm not one of those people, Scott, that you're talking about. But what I want to do is I want to take it to another level. What do I do? Like, what, what would I do now if I was like, re accelerating this business? What would I do? And that's what we're going to talk about today. But before we do, I just want to. I want to stop for just a second and I want to acknowledge some people. I want to jump in and I want to thank some people for joining. I want to thank you. Da. It is so good to see you this morning, Daya. And I hear your Kundalini classes throughout the week. And Patrick Carney, always good to see you. What's happening? My man, Bob Dunnell, it's great to see you and thanks so much for putting on your program last night. That was awesome, Yvonne, really nice and thank you for joining us. Rima, great to see you today. Thank you so much for joining. Gosh, we have so many people across social media in today. Chris Nagle, it is so good to see you. Chris Nagle, by the way, is a new proud papa has a newborn, healthy newborn, and his wife Larissa is doing great. So, Chris, congratulations. Helen, it is great to see you as well. So again, what we have been talking about this morning, as we have been talking about data, we've been talking about data.

Surrounding Covid. We have said there are 400 million people in the country, that 1.8 million cases of COVID have been reported and there have been 108,000 deaths. We compared that data that 108,000 deaths to things that typically occur in the country. Heart disease, 647,000. Cancer, 599,000 accidents, 169,000 like getting bit by an alligator stroke. 143,000. Alzheimer's. 121,000. Covid. Covid, 108,000. We talked about what's happened. We've all made this personal sacrifice by staying at home and shutting this country down. Okay, 408,000 deaths. Now for perspective, what the country has done, we talked about this. Unemployment rates have been through the roof. Small business shutdowns through the roof. Restaurant industry and others. I just can't imagine what they've been through. We have talked about some of that stuff. And then we. We also compared these numbers to suicide and suicide prevention. And we learned that for every 1% increase in unemployment, that there is a 140,000 increase in the number of suicides in this country. So we've had over a 10% increase in unemployment. That would be an additional 1 point, I think 4, 1.1. 1.4 million suicides. And Covid has 188,000 deaths. So it's just crazy when you look at the numbers. So now what we're going to talk about is what you would do or what I would do today if I had to start over. So here it is in no particular order. The first thing is this is I would have panicked faster. Now what does that mean? I don't use the word panic as like to mean fear. I would not have just fallen into fear faster. What I would have done is taken the actions that needed to be taken. And I'm going to share with you now versus waiting because what tends to happen is when things go sideways in whatever it is that we do or we're out of control, the first reaction that a lot of people have is to get on their heels and not their toes. And when they're on their heels, they're hoping things will get better. They're waiting for the cavalry to come in and save them. And I got news for you, I got news for you. All the cavalry ain't coming. And so our job is to get on our toes to panic faster and take the actions necessary. And I'm going to share with you right now. Next thing is, I would have looked for work. I was an entrepreneur that had had a series of companies and I really needed cash. I needed cash to pay the bills. And it wasn't until later that I adopted this belief that sometimes the purpose of being in business today is to be in business tomorrow. That's it. The purpose of being in business today is to be in business tomorrow. And if we have to generate cash, we got to pay the bills, then there is no shame if you are an entrepreneur or are an entrepreneur or you're an independent agent and consultant to go and find work. Now, for some reason my ego would get in the way of all of that. And I suffered so much more than I had to because of my, my ego and not going out and finding work. And there are a ton of companies out there that are hiring. They may not be in areas that you've worked before, they may not be in your industry, but they're in places where they're solving people needs for people that people needs that people have today. So.

I would look for work. I'll tell you two quick stories. I'm not going to tell the full stories because of time. The first is, the first job that I was offered after running a company for Richard Branson was to sell P. Like it was a sell P. And here's the thing, it just, every time I say it, it just sounds so crazy. I've been out of work for about a year. I've been trying to figure out what to do. I've been trying to either start something. I was throwing a ton of spaghetti against the wall to see what stuck. Nothing was working, nothing was sticking. I got a call from a friend. He said, scott, I hear you're looking for work. You're hired. He said, come meet me for lunch. I'll tell you what it is that you're going to do. I went to meet him, I sat down, I said, what's my job? He said, scott, I decided you're no longer running the company. You're going to be a salesman. I said, what am I going to sell? He said, p. I said, what? He said, you're going to sell P? I said, what does that mean? He said, I just bought a research lab. We specialize in processing urine for doctors. A doctor has their patient pee in a cup, they send it to us, we spin it in a machine, create a report, send it back to the doctor. He said, your job is to go in all the pee business from all the doctors in Southern California. He told me that his vision for me in a year was that I would be the king of pee. True as hell story. And you know what? Here's the thing. I didn't take the job I got. It's cheesy. I got pissed off. Haha. I got pissed off. I got really mad. I was like, how could he offer me that job being who I am, having run this company? Sold it to like my hero entrepreneur, right? What? What? I didn't do is I didn't look at the full situation and go, you know what? I could actually use that money right now. I could use that money and I could use that to create a foundation. And the foundation for me is what I could leverage in order to stabilize myself and my personal situation and get my new thing off the ground at night. So here's the thing. Great expression. The legs feed the lions. For a lion, the most powerful hunter in the jungle, its legs are its foundation, its legs are its base. Its survival is dependent on, on its legs and ability to hunt speed. Here's the thing, as a line ages, the first thing you go is its legs. And so what happens is it goes from running to jogging to walking to being unable to hunt. And here's the thing, for all of us as business people, our legs is our financial. It's our financial stability. That's what we need to get. So whether it is taking a job selling pee or, or it's going and getting a job at Walmart or at Starbucks or for a medical company like Teladoc or for, you know, a General Electric, there are companies advertising all over millions of jobs. If you need the cash, don't be too proud, Go find work, build a financial stability. And we can build off of that. We can build off of that. Next, I would look for partners. If you have a business or you had a business in an, and you were really good at one thing, or you had an asset that you, it was a real asset you could bring to the table. You had real customers, you had real marketing channels and like a following, you had some great people that were on board, whatever those assets are. What I would do now is I would look for people in my industry that I could partner up with. Maybe they buy my company. Maybe buying my company means they just give me a job and other people in the company a job. Maybe buying my company means they make me a salesperson, but I don't have to deal with the debt that's in that company. So what I would do is I would look for partners and potential acquirers in order for you to come out of something smoothly and to help somebody else to get market share. And there's no reason you can't partner up with somebody and get some equity or some upside in whatever it is that you bring. I can tell you in Silicon Valley, you know, one of the number one reasons that companies buy other companies is to acquire talent. So, you know, just bringing you into a competitor, I mean, you may have never thought you were going to call A competitor, you know, and what. But this, this may be the time and it might be the right thing for you right now. So I would panic faster, meaning taking the action now. I would look for work in order to create some financial stability. I would look for partners. I then go out to my network and I would ask what it needs. I would be like, okay, so what do you need? What do you need now? What's most important to you now and what has to happen? How do you know that I'm giving you what it is that you want in the way that you want it? We talk about this every day. I would be asking everybody what it is that they need. And instead of trying to figure out what to build, what I would do if I were doing it again now is I would put together a list of like 50 people in my network. I'd find it on Facebook and LinkedIn on my phone, and I would call every single one of them and I would ask them, what is it that you need right now? I'm a really resourceful guy. If I'm able to find it, what are you willing to pay for it? Or if I could find somebody else to do this for you, what are you, what are you willing to pay? And I would just go solve problems for people. I mean, that's a really simple thing to do. Go solve problems for people. So that's something that I would, I would think about. I would take a look at whether or not my industry in the space that I'm in is kaput. I take a look at whether I'm in a high risk or a low risk industry of coming back and really being stable over the next 10 years. So if I was looking for a new industry, I would be looking at, at healthcare, number one. Because when you look at investor dollars, job growth, entrepreneurial opportunities, and you look at the data, healthcare is the number one space between 2020 and 2030 to be in. I would look at healthcare, I would look at AI, I would look at robotics, I would look at things like that. Now there's so many more spaces. And you can Google online, you can Google what industries, like, what industries are the best to be in, you know, from 2020 to 2030. And all those answers will come up. What will be the highest paying jobs from 2020 to 2030? And all of those jobs will come up. And I would start to use this data in this information to decide where maybe to position yourself from an industry standpoint going forward. Now, your industry may be the one you may be in the Right place now, but if you're not in the right place at the right time, this is just a great exercise to go through. And again, this is what I would do if I were. If I were starting over.

Next thing I do is I go through my customer journey. So I would take a look at my industry or I would take a look at. I would take a look at things that I just do, products I buy, things I love. And I would ask myself, what is the customer journey? Now, I've given examples. I give examples all the time on this show. So, for example, real quick, I'm not going to do the whole thing, but if I was a person, like, I've been in the travel business and specifically I've been around aviation. So I ask myself, what does a customer journey look like for people that are going to be buying commercial travel over the next 10 years? I ask myself, from the time they get to the Uber car, right? So time you get to your Uber, what do you expect in side of the Uber car for you? Do you expect hand sanitizer instead of water? Do you expect, like, what kind of things do you expect in that experience? You get to the airport, you're not going to be able to bring bags on a plane the way you used to. So would I prefer to send my bags in advance? I don't want to touch all the bins. Is there a touchless way of being able to check in all of, all of my stuff? How do I get ticketed when I go inside? I don't want to touch the kiosk anymore. So how do you create a touchless way of getting your ticket from a kiosk? So here's the thing. What I want you to do is go through your customer journey in your industry. And if you're struggling with your industry or you think your industry is one of those that's going to be disrupted, just pick something that you do every day and come up with a new journey and think about what kinds of products or services either you can create, or if you were to go and work with somebody, or if you have an existing business right now in this space, how could you add more value into that space to really secure your position? I'll tell you what. I went to Guitar center last weekend because I needed to buy a new audio board and I couldn't get the help I needed online. Nobody's picking up the phone anywhere to provide support. Everything I wanted to buy was sold out for weeks on Amazon. Guitar center opens up. Okay, first of all, I go to Google to see if it's open and it says it's open. So I go there at like 10 o' clock in the morning when it says it's open. It actually doesn't open till one that day. Then I try to call and the phone number I got, that was just a recording that kept going in loops. It gave me no information. So I drive the Guitar center and they weren't open. I was so pissed off, I end up coming back later at one o' clock now because again, I've been given no guidance by Guitar Center. I find out this store that's like the size of a Target only will allow 10 people in at a time because of social distancing. What a joke. But that's what they're doing. So now I'm in a line. The line is in a parking lot where it's like 100 degrees on black asphalt and I'm there in the sun. I waited for 45 minutes before I left the line. It was ridiculous. Guitar center, shame on you. Because I went to Sam Ash right across the street. Completely different process. Here's the thing, here's the lesson. Think about that customer journey. Where could you be adding value? Could you be creating a product for retail stores that's a. We're opening back up product right now. Like you need fast cash, right? We're going back to work product right now. And so hey, I'm going to call Guitar center and here's what I'm going to do. I'm charging X amount of dollars. I'm going to set you up. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to change your. I'm going to make sure your Google listing is correct, number one. Number two, I want to make sure your phone, your answering machine provides some sort of value to your customer, number three, I'm going to innovate that line. I'm going to figure it out. I'm going to give away water. I'm going to come up with some kind of inexpensive tenting thing. I'm going to have a. I mean, it's a Guitar Center. Gosh damn, it's a freaking guitar Center. I'm going to have somebody playing the guitar outside. Like what could you do to create an experience not just as the business but as a service provider that can do this for the business to help them stay out state in business during, during this period? There's so much opportunity out there. So I would take a look at the customer journey. I was talking to Sita last night she's back in la. I'm in Newport today and.

And it was interesting because I had to go to the market yesterday. I went to three markets, three markets at 4 o' clock and they were all closed. And again, the Google listing said one thing. Nobody was answering the phone. I had no reason to believe. It turned out there was a protest across the street from one the Whole Foods. Nobody knows why they were shut. They were shut down. And then the Pavilions, everything shut down. So I had to go to four markets to go get what I needed. So what can you create or what can you do as a business owner right now in order to think about your customer journey and make it easier for them today? Because whoever makes my journey easier in that Guitar center like of experience is going to have my business forever. I don't care if it's Guitar center or Best Buy or it's a Mom and pop on the corner. By the way, if you know something about audio boards, if you know something about, you know, audio boards, live streaming, live casting, I'm telling you, I. I'm like, I'm committed to being the leader in this space. I talk to everybody and I'm learning all of this stuff on the fly about. And there's no help anywhere. There's some YouTube videos, but it's really tough. From microphones to sound boards to this camera, to the whole camera that we're set up, that we're doing behind me right now, to integrating white bar boards and overlays. Here's the thing, if you know how to do this, maybe you just done it once or twice, like, go on to upwork. Enlist yourself as somebody that can teach other people like myself how to do it. I hired somebody yesterday in upwork because I was trying to evaluate a couple of different types of live stream software. I couldn't find help anywhere and I kept posting it and nobody was responding. So I went to upwork and all I did was write Wirecast. That was it, Wirecast. And one person that is it showed up and he was so cool and he was able to walk me how the, how the software worked. So what I want you to do again is think about your customer journey. If you're selling a microphone to somebody, think about what are they using that for today? Are they using it to livecast? And if they're using it to livecast, what can I help them with in their journey? Okay, what's another example? Virtual events. What's another example? Opening up a restaurant. So just continue to go through these, these examples so enough of that. Next I would take a look at the skills that will be the most important from 2020 to 2030 over the next 10 years and where I can get training on those skills. So as an example, digital Marketer. I'm a huge fan of Digital Marketer. Every person I talk to that just does not know where to start, I say go to digitalmarketer.com Understanding how to market ourselves, how to attract and convert customers online will be a skill that will thrive over the next 10 years. So I say go to digitalmarketer.com they have a free introductory course. They've got an amped up course for like 30 bucks a month. It is incredible information at like a buck a day or free. So what I'd say is take a look around at the skills and you can type it in Google the top 10 skills people will need from 2020 to 2030 and up come your results. This is what you do. Figure out what those skills are and figure out how you become really great at those things. Again, whatever you were great at, your superhuman skill three months ago may be your baggage today. And so you gotta always keep on learning. And what I recommend is pick one to two of these skills and focus on them and really get good at them. Because whatever you do and whatever industry you go into, you will be bringing and providing value. I highly recommend certification programs when you're learning new skills. I think that is incredibly, I think that's incredibly powerful when you are looking for a job. I think it's incredibly powerful if you're raising money for something to show that you have actually done the work and successfully completed courses around, around things you're looking for a job in or trying to get hired. So again, if I had to start over, here's what I would do. I would panic faster. I wouldn't live in fear. I just take the actions I need to right away. I would look for work. I would look for work to get paid somewhere as a job in order to help create some financial stability underneath me. I would look for partners. If I had a business where I might have assets and resources, where either one plus one equals 10. So we combine and share resources or they somehow absorb or acquire me, they acquire my talent, they give me a job in return for the resources. They take all this stuff off my hand in returns for, for wiping away all my debt and taking care of all that. There's all kinds of things that you can, by the way. And if you need any help with this. I coach people, I help them do this all day long, just shoot me a dm.

I would go to my network, ask what it needs and the way it wants it delivered. I would evaluate if my industry is in high risk or low risk of being disrupted over the next 10 years. If it's high risk, I'd pick a new industry. I look at the hottest industries projected over the next 10 years. Where is the most investment money going and where are the most jobs being created and where do people get paid the most? I would go through the customer journey and I would look for needs and innovations every step along the way. I look at the skills that would be the most important to acquire over the next 10 years and I become really good at one or two things. And wherever possible, I would look for ways to get certified in these areas.

So that if I'm looking for work, I'm looking for investment. I need to show that I've got a knowledge base or understanding in these areas. I can show that a third party says that I've done the work. So that is what that. That's what I would do. And Doug, Doc, you're late to the party, baby. You're late to the party. But it's so good to have you here.

We have got big changes in the way this show is being formatted and I want to thank all of you for all of your feedback and all of your input over the past three months that we've been doing it. We've done about 60 of these now. And I started the day that the market crashed 12 weeks ago yesterday. We've done it through Monday through Friday almost every day. And what I'm doing is, I'm learning, is I'm putting together a resource guide of how to do live streams, evaluating all the different software that's available, all the different tools that are available, and I hope to be sharing with that that with you over the next couple of weeks to make your journey even easier. I hope you guys have an amazing weekend. And I just want to ask you to lead into this weekend with love. And I want to ask you to do this. I want to ask you to reach out to one person as you scan through your network that you think is having a hard time or could be having a hard time. And I want you to reach out and just ask how they're doing, find out how they're doing. Don't let them get away from that question and be there for them and be willing to provide resources if that's what they need. And resources could be just time on the phone. It could be time to vent. It could be time to, to do whatever. It could be going on a walk. You know, it could be, you know, delivering something to their house. Maybe it's a care package. You know, maybe it's a green drink. I don't know what it is. The point is there's never been a more important time for people to be around people. And when you're really struggling, it's really easy to go inside. It's really easy to think irrationally. It's really easy to see your way to the other side. And so what we need to do more than ever is to be close together. Hey, Jamar, let me, you know what? I'll post these if you like, but let me give you, let me give you the stats again. So I'll actually, because we're wrapping up the show, I'm going to read all of them and if, if you think that would be helpful. So here we go. For those of you who weren't joining us, I read some stats, really data driven at the beginning of this program, and I want to share some of those with you. I'm going to put this up here, Jamar. One sec, buddy.

Here we go.

There you go. Okay, so, Jamar, here's what I've got. If you take a look at the total number of people in America and you include the people that, that are accounted for through census and things like that, plus you add people that are projected to be in the country that are either undocumented, they're not citizens, whatever, you're just over 400 million people in the United States. There have been 1.8 million cases in the United States of COVID with over 108,000 deaths. So if you go to, by the way, bloomberg.com just, just Google Bloomberg, Covid. And every day they provide updates from all over the world on all the data around Covid. Okay, for perspective. And you can go to the CDC for this. For perspective. Heart disease kills 647,000 people a year. Cancer, 599,000 people a year. Accidents, 169,000 people a year. That could be like getting bit by the dog. Stroke, 140,000 people a year. Alzheimer's, 121,000 people a year. Covid. So far, what we know, 108,000. For perspective, diabetes is about 83,000 people a year. Okay, for perspective again, we're just talking about the data right now. Unemployment, over 43 million claims in the past three months. The real unemployment rate is greater than the Great Depression. 50% of small businesses in the United States report that they are fighting to stay open and will likely be forced to shut down now within the next four weeks.

If you take a look at the PPP and the way that it's been distributed, part of getting your PPP loan waived and considered a grant is to put a certain percentage of the money you receive towards bringing your people back and paying your people, paying for your mortgage, paying your rent. And I feel like I'm missing something. But if you take a look at ppp, you have eight weeks to spend that money, the people part. So people are, business owners are racing to get that money out to folks. So that money, if you take a look at how it's been distributed, will likely all be spent by August. And the $600 a month bonus that people get as part of their unemployment right now, $600 a week, that program runs out on July 31st. So August, two things happen. PPB money starts to go away for employees and the bonus goes away for employees. Now if we take a look at suicide, this is the other data that I shared. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States. In 2018, 48,000 people in the US died of suicide. Now here's the thing, let me just go back so I want to be absolutely accurate. So again, According to the CDC, about 80, 83,000 people die of diabetes and about 48,000 people.

Die from suicide. Almost 70% of suicides in the United States are middle aged white men. Almost 70% of suicides in the United States are middle aged white men. The number one reasons that it's believed they commit suicide are unemployment and loss of a company. So unemployment, loss of a company. According to Oxford University, suicides. This is according to Oxford. According to Oxford University, suicides in Europe and the US increase. This is crazy. About 1% for every 1% increase in unemployment. So 1% increase in suicides for 1% increase in unemployment. That means that there's about 140,000 additional suicides for each percentage point that are unemployment increases. This is amazing. So if we did the math and Oxford is correct and we just went with what Oxford University says, if we did the math, that means that we would be more at risk. Like, that means we'd have like 10 times more deaths from suicide as a result of what's happened the last 90 days than Covid here in the United States. And by the way, this is like not a political statement about we should stay at home or not stay at home like that. Staying at home is the reason that the numbers are. So it's none of that what I'm trying to. Yeah, exactly, Jamar. The one to one ratio is frightening. That. That's the part that really caught me today. And when I read that, that was how I came up with today's idea of what I wanted to talk about is what would I do if I had to start over? So, again, my, my, my ask of all of you today is just watch out for others. And my ask of you today is you're. If you're having a really time, just shoot me a dm. I'm happy to talk with you and talk about how we can. We can help you to work through this. I just want to say finally that I just. I love all of you and I just. I want to do everything I can to be a resource for all of you. And if there's ever anything I can do for any of you, please let me know. I want you to be safe this weekend. Lead with love. And I will talk to you again on Monday. Have a great weekend.