How to keep a Successful Mindset during the economic shutdown

Oi, this is Joshua Nelson with Seven Figure Agency. I hope that you and your family are staying safe with the whole situation that's going on here with the coronavirus. I wanted to give you some ideas and insights on how to not only survive this situation, but to really thrive. And so I pulled together a group, what I call a roundtable, of highly successful digital marketing agencies on kind of what they're doing, how they're approaching this situation, how they're thinking about it, and what you can do to really make sure you're positioned to emerge from this as strong or stronger than when you started. Check it out. So I want to start with mindset.

You know, I just—

each of you, I'd like to hear how you're thinking about this from a mindset perspective and just kind of share what your thoughts are. We'll start in the same order we went. We'll go to Alan first.

You know, as we all know, this has been a difficult time for everyone. There's a lot of uncertainty, a lot of stress. With people forced to stay home and at risk of losing paycheck. There has been heavy losses in the stock market and small businesses are closed due to a lockdown. But I really truly believe that people are looking to feel positive. They're tired of feeling stressed. They want to be more constructive. I feel that a call from you is a positive conversation that they can focus on discussing move-forward strategies. And if I was on the phone speaking to somebody, I'd say something like this: Mr. Prospect, can I bring up some constructive strategies now that when this all passes, you'll be in the position to be moving forward full steam ahead? Just keep it simple, and I guarantee you your prospects will listen.

No doubt.

Think about the long term and stay positive. Let's go to Jim. Alan?

Aline, sorry.

That's all right. So I had a big mindset shift the second that this started kind of rolling out. And it was, how can we help? That's the mindset that I went into from the second that— from the first conversations with with our clients and with prospects that we're starting to feel it. And that's what we've been doing. That's our whole focus now is how can we help? How can we help you now? How can we help you be in a better position when this ends? Because it will, right? Helping them, having conversations with them to calm their fears, you know, and help them understand that, you know, that there are good things to come if you make the right decisions during these times.

Yeah, no doubt.

How can we help? For sure, I like that mindset. Let's go to Brian Stearman.

Yeah, so in my mind, you know, hey, there's, there's light at the end of this tunnel. And I work in a very seasonal business anyways, so every year at the end of October, early November, till really February, our customers have downtime, their revenue drops drastically, all those types of things. And so this is really no different. And what we see is those are our busiest months. So that's as entrepreneurs, just like us, your customers are entrepreneurs and they're looking for a way to grow their business. They're looking for the future. That's, that's part of being an entrepreneur. And so this is a great time for them to start focusing on what can we do for our business to move forward, because this is going to end. This is, I mean, maybe 2 weeks, maybe 4, but at the end of the day, they're going to have businesses again, and having a plan and being able to work on their business— this might be, for some industries, the best time because they usually don't have this downtime to really focus on growing their business.

I like that. That's, that's a really— I like that thought process around, look, it's downtime, right? And smart business entrepreneurs use that downtime to plan, to think, to put things in place. So great, great insight there.

I love that.

Let's go to Josh. Konigsberg.

Thank you.

Hey, Brian, love the glass half full attitude. I love it. So I want to take it on just a little bit of a deeper level, and then I want to talk about how we're handling it here. So deeper level, meaning that it's all going to be rooted in your core values. And as long as you take some time now, if you haven't done it, to identify those core values— and I'm talking about your personal core values that will translate over into your business— particularly for the smaller agencies out there, because values are going to lead to your attitude, and your attitude is going to ultimately lead to your behavior. And as long as you're congruent with, with that process, everything's going to work out all right. Don't be scared. I had that conversation with a family member the other day. Don't be scared about this. So, so with that being said, we've taken the position— when I say we mean in the leadership team of Law Firm Marketing Pros— is we're going to be here as a leader for our families, our staff, and our community, which includes our clients. So that, that, that's the position you have to take. And we are all here for you as part of Seven Figure Agency to help support you in, in moving forward, uh, with that model.

I like it. Can you repeat something you said yesterday about, you know, you don't consider this to be as hard as times in ancient history, like there's been tougher days.

Yeah, so especially for America, this is not tough stuff, okay? Uh, you know, I like to— and those of you who heard me say it, I'll just say it again. Um, listen, storming the beaches of Normandy as an 18-year-old, 19-year-old kid, that's tough stuff, man, okay? Iwo Jima, that was tough. This is not hard, okay? Um, you know, getting dropped into the jungles of Vietnam That is tough. This is not hard stuff. I've got some recommended, maybe some recommended reading and a concept on that that I want to share later as we get to some concepts. And do you want me to share the story about my friend's father?

Sure.

Yeah. So my college roommate's father, dear friend of mine still to this day, his father was a tank commander in the Second World War. He went into Normandy on D-Day plus 3. As a tank commander, there were 148 men in his platoon and 12 came home. And every one of the 12 came home with a Purple Heart. This is not hard. We're going to get through this and we're going to get through this together. So you have to have the attitude that you're going to be in a position of leadership as we navigate through this.

I like it.

And thank you, Josh. Thank you, Josh, for your leadership.

Thank you. Let's go to Danny.

I am right with Josh on pretty much everything he said. You know, going through a lot of personal hardships not too long ago, I shared this yesterday as well, is this is, yeah, we're, you know, everyone's in panic mode, but I tell you, I've been through very tough situations where I didn't even want to be alive, you know. I really didn't want to wake up the next day, and I wanted everything to be over. Didn't have any money, felt like the sky was falling on top of me. And when you're in the middle of situations, a lot of times it seems like it's never-ending, like, what are you gonna do? So, you know, one day at a time, one moment at a time. And, and, you know, just like Josh said, it all starts right here. It's what you put, you know, like you started this off with, is what you focus on expands. So for me, I've been doubling down on personal development, on Again, the core values is extremely important because that's going to determine what actions you take throughout the day, or if you stick to your action plan. Because guys, the reality is that it's not going to get easier right now. That is the bottom line. That is a reality. That is a reality. If you don't want to face that, you know, this is not rainbows and unicorns right now. So that is the reality. Uh, and I do believe, look, this is the time. This is probably the biggest time that you can take in I don't want to use the word capitalize on, but for the lack of a better word, is to really take that leadership role in your industry and become the dominant force that you wish you were in your space. Be known, be the best known in your industry, be the one, the one guy that they're going to remember, hey, when everything was chaotic and I needed help with this, that was the company that helped me out with this, you know. So that's— those are the conversations I've been dealing with, you know, at the company level. And again, like we've said here, look, everyone's counting on us, and we get to be in that position where we're blessed as men and as leaders. And if there are females on this thread right here, you are blessed to be the queen of your castle. And, you know, if the king doesn't rise, the kingdom will die. So whatever kingdom you're in charge of, which is your family, is your employees, is your clients— your clients, you got to make sure you're defending them and you're going out to the very end. Because at the end of the day, look, I don't know about you guys, but if I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die winning. That is my motto, you know. So you see, that's how I feel and that's how I walk. That's a level of courage that I walk through. So, you know, yeah, we're gonna face disappointment. Yeah, you know, the stock market is crashing. You know, I don't have a lot of money flying around, so, you know, but it's time for us to reassess and And it's also time for some of us to take ourselves seriously because when the times were easy and didn't take advantage of the opportunity of putting ourselves out there, of prospecting, of investing the time, putting our assets, investing. I want to share something with you. This just came in the mail, by the way, a magazine right here. Thanks to our sponsors, Concrete Marketing Crew. Some of these companies are billions of dollars, billion-dollar companies that I associated myself. And yes, I invested a lot of money to put myself in this situation. But thanks to this, this has created a domino effect in our industry. Look, the A-list right here has my name right here and Matty right on top of it, um, as a byproduct of investing so that right now we're in a better position, uh, to endure the tough times. But it's a moment of realization to not take the good times for granted. And I think we, we all do that. We have a client base, you know, we're surviving, we're thriving, uh, but going back to the mindset is something that I've had with since I started this thing. Because I came from nothing. I came from nothing, I was with nothing, you know, so I feel blessed. I trust God, I pray every day, and like I shared yesterday, you know, when this whole thing started happening, I said, God, you know, if you want to hit the reset button on me, do it right now, you know, so that's my thing, I want to get it over with, but every day, one day at a time, a moment at a time, you know, and each one of us has different responsibilities, so for me, it's mapping out those responsibilities, I did give my team a raise, my entire team a raise, you know, right when this started happening early, early March. And I'll tell you, that has brought a lot of encouragement. And I also instilled that in them, that our clients are counting on us more than ever, more than ever before. And we're— I'm playing this for the long term, so that, that is my mindset.

I love it.

Great, great stuff, Danny.

Jimmy? Yeah, so, you know, I echo Josh's, Consberg's comments around the fight, you know, fighting for your family, fighting for your friends, your— not your friends, your team, your clients. And it certainly has given me a sense of purpose. You know, I think when you have crises, leaders will rise to the top and they'll shine, and people are looking for leaders. And for our clients, I think it's very important to show confidence in general. I mean, we deal with doctors, so a lot of our team, I mean, let's face it, Mary, all of our team makes a lot less money than these doctors typically are making. The account managers that can lead with confidence and, uh, you know, lead with getting them to, to go down the right paths and make the right decisions, those are the ones that are, are enabling us to retain a majority of our, our, of our accounts. And, uh, empathy, uh, thinking about putting yourself in the mindset of the doctor that, you know, has 30 employees, 2 locations and both of them are closed and, you know, he can't practice for the next 3 months. I mean, empathizing and, you know, we're finding that over-communicating is better right now, informing as much as possible, giving them actions to take even beyond just digital marketing so that you can help them. And, you know, I think it really comes down to at this point, You know, having that faith that Danny's talking about, that you're on the right path and that, hey, this is a bump in the road and your team's looking to you to lead and your clients are looking to you to lead and you're gonna be just like Michael Jordan or Tom Brady at the end of the game with that ball and you're gonna win the game at the end. So, um, that's the kind of mindset I'm going in with it.

Well, I hope you got value from that video. You got some good ideas and insights that you can go back and implement And you might still be thinking like, how do I proceed? What do I need to do next? I just want you to know I put together an action plan on what you can, should be doing to truly maximize your potential as it relates to prospecting, as it relates to client retention, as it relates to managing your team, as it relates to contingency planning. And if you want to download that, you can just go to 7figureagency.com/actionplan, no dash, 7figureagency.com/actionplan. Action Plan. There you can download the action plan and really get the step-by-step instructions on how to really take your agency from a potential place of struggle to, to really being able to thrive in this environment. So go out there, be successful, keep your mindset in the right place. Let me know how I can help serve and support you and grab the action plan at 7figureagency.com/actionplan. Stay safe.