Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan - #82: Zack Friedman, Speaker, Entrepreneur, & Bestselling Author, on Living a Lemonade Life

Episode Date: November 24, 2020

Whether we know it or not, every day we choose to live a lemon life or a lemonade life. A lemon life is settling; it is unthinking; it looks safe but it is unfulfilling. And it is the life that 99% of people lead. A lemonade life is one full of purpose. It is a life led by passion to do more, help more, and contribute more. Zack Friedman, the founder of Make Lemonade and author of The Lemonade Life, has discovered the 5 steps to choosing a lemonade life. Join us as he describes how to make the change and how to make it last.  About the Guest: Zack Friedman helps companies and people reach their full potential. He combines his deep experience as an entrepreneur, CEO, investor and author to deliver inspiring, motivational and actionable keynotes that drive results. Through engaging storytelling and real-world examples, Zack isolates the habits and behaviors that significantly drive innovation, creativity and energy for every audience. A Wharton MBA and Harvard alum, his thought-provoking leadership lessons have been formed by his travel to all 50 states and 30 countries. Zack has interacted with presidents, prime ministers, CEOs and billionaires – and shares his fresh insights on leadership, happiness and transformational change that will inspire you to take action. Finding Zack Friedman: Visit his website: https://www.zackfriedman.com/  Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter: @zackafriedman Read his book: The Lemonade Life Check out his TEDx Talk To inquire about my coaching program opportunity visit https://mentorship.heathermonahan.com/  Review this podcast on Apple Podcast using this LINK and when you DM me the screen shot, I buy you my $299 video course as a thank you!  My book Confidence Creator is available now! get it right HERE If you are looking for more tips you can download my free E-book at my website and thank you! https://heathermonahan.com  *If you'd like to ask a question and be featured during the wrap up segment of Creating Confidence, contact Heather Monahan directly through her website and don’t forget to subscribe to the mailing list so you don’t skip a beat to all things Confidence Creating!   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Come on this journey with me. Each week when you join me, we are going to chase down our goals. Overcome adversity and set you up for a better tomorrow. Listen to your seat. I'm ready for my close. Hi, and welcome back. I'm so excited that you're here with me for yet again another crazy week. Oh gosh, this one really takes a cake.

So I have been so looking forward to one of my best friends is coming to. coming to Florida to visit not only myself, but one of our other really close girlfriends, and she's flying across the country, and we've been counting down the days. And especially during this pandemic, you know, I find it critical to focus on something I'm looking forward to because there are times, obviously, where just weeks upon weeks, my son and I are staying in. He's in Zoom school. I work from home now full time. It's just incredibly monotonous and can be really isolating sometimes. So I was so excited for her to come. Wouldn't you know, we get a phone call this week that one of my girlfriends who she was actually staying with for part

of the trip got COVID. And it's just unbelievable. You know, as you know, so many people are getting COVID and so many people are fine when they get it and some people are not, but you just don't know what's going to happen. And obviously the right decision around any question marks is just for everyone to stay home and not see each other when those are the situation. So unfortunately, my friends are all staying home and isolating. And it is such a bummer. So to that end, actually, I was on one of my team meetings this weekend. I have a number of clients on the West Coast, some in the Midwest and some on the East Coast. And I was hearing from some of my clients in California that things are really bad where they're basically back on quarantine now. And it's so bizarre to me

right now because in Florida where I live in Miami, things are not shut down. And it reminds me of when this all started. I remember for months in the summer, all my friends who lived outside of Florida seemed to be living their best life and going on vacation. And we had 6 p.m. curfews here. And it was awful for a couple of months where other people had a lot more freedom. And now, I guess where we have the availability to be outside a lot and not be inside, we have more freedom and opportunity to do different things where other parts of the countries don't. I can't keep up with all of it. And this is where I really love my team meetings to hear from people all over the country

and understand how different it is, depending on where you live right now. It's massively different, depending on who you're government. governor is and just all these different factors. So, you know, I just hope that we can all move forward during this time with no judgment and let people do their own thing. I've had so many people say to me, oh, Florida's awful. There are people outside everywhere. Well, then if you feel scared, stay home, because that's really what I have been doing is just staying home. You know, I don't want to get sick. And I have my son in Zoom school. I work from home. Again, I understand that that. is not a simple answer for anyone. Frankly, I can't stand it. But, you know, I guess during this time,

it's just about hopefully people make the best decisions for themselves, the safest decisions for themselves, and hopefully these vaccines get out sooner than later. But I am all about not judging others. You do you. I'll do me. And hopefully we can all stay healthy and get through this really challenging time with the most amount of empathy possible for, for, for everyone, gosh, for everybody. So, so bizarre. So I have plenty of problems in my life, plenty. And there's plenty that I'm really grateful for that I haven't struggled with, you know, from a health standpoint, been really lucky in my life that haven't had a lot of health issues. And this is so bizarre. But I also haven't had a lot of skin issues or just some of these things. I guess I

took for granted I never really thought about. Well, about, I guess it was now a week and a half ago, maybe even almost two weeks ago now. One morning I just woke up and I had all these bumps around my chin and I thought, oh gosh, that's weird. Someone said to me, oh, you're probably getting it from masks. You know, every time you leave the house, you have to have a mask on. I bet you're recycling the mask not getting rid of them. They were right. I didn't know that if I wanted to keep bacteria off my face, throw the mask out every time, you know, and get a new one. Okay, done. So I immediately changed and started throwing the masks away every time I took it off and thought, okay, in a couple days I'll wake up, this will be gone. No. A couple days later, I wake up and now I

bumps all over my chin, the bottom part of my face, and under my chin. And I thought, oh, something is very awry here. This is not normal. So I called my dermatologist and said, can I get an appointment? He saw me a couple days later, which now is about a week ago. And I go in to see him and he said, listen, I'm not positive what this is. However, it's one of two things. It's either your premenopausal, which I'm 46 years old, and that was a gut punch hearing that. He said, or it's a bacteria infection. Either way, you know, the best root in my opinion is I should put you on a really strong antibiotic for bacterial infection to see if maybe that's what it is. If that's the case, it'll be gone very, very quickly. And I thought to myself,

No, I'd rather find, you know, first of all, I'm home all the time. It's not where am I going, not to some amazing gala where I need to look fantastic. I thought probably the safer thing to do is try to find a more holistic way to treat this. Mind you, I've never really had any bad skin condition. So I just thought, oh, this is, you know, temporary, whatever. Ha ha, funny, funny. So I say, no, I decline the antibiotic, even though he really wanted me to take it. And they said, okay, well, just let me know what's going on, you know, and keep me updated.

But if it doesn't get better in a couple days, you need to call me back and go on the antibiotic. So I said, I'm going to go see this amazing woman who all she does is facials and skin and she's super holistic. And I went to see her. And she said, okay, I don't think it's premenopausal because there's way too much, you know, going on in your face because now at this point it's a few days later. and my face is covered in bumps. It's not, I can't even tell you what, it's just gross, okay?

So I had never had anything like this. And every morning I wake up, I don't know what I'm going to get. So she said, I want you to start using oregano oil and apple cider vinegar. And I want you to use honey. Oh my gosh, the amount of products I was putting on my face was so funny. So I tried that for a couple of days and I convinced myself it was working. I also convinced myself that this was the opportune moment I've been looking for because I'm always wanting a product to sell, right?

Like this new product, like a spank. It's going to change people's lives and make me a billionaire while doing good in the world. That's the dream, right? So I thought, okay, this is the moment I've been waiting for. I'm going to figure out a holistic solution to rashes on face so that you don't have to use these really powerful antibiotics. make a long story short, didn't work, sadly. Sadly, I did not have my billionaire idea. So now it's out of control. My face is a war zone. And so I call the dermatologist and I said, 9-1-1 emergency. Things are way

out of control. And now it's moving down my neck and my chest. So it looks like I'm going to end up being covered head to toe. If I let this go a few more days, I don't know what's going on. It's really creeping me out. And it's itchy. So immediately he says, you have to go on this antivial. twice a day for seven days, it'll be gone in a couple days. Don't worry. Just take the antibiotic. I never take antibiotics. I said, forget it. I'm doing it. Fine. So he calls it in for me. I go and pick it up with here we are right now. I'm 24 hours after taking the first pill. And it's a huge difference how this, I mean, for sure tomorrow it's going to be completely gone. So it's already halfway gone right now. This is the first time I've seen significant improvement in almost two weeks with this crazy skin

situation. So of course, like anyone, I start reading side effects of the medication, because anytime you take an antibiotic, you have to go in eyes wide open and see what, you know, you potentially could be doing to yourself. Oh gosh, it's horrible. You know, weight gain, mood swings, but then suicide ends up being one of the side effects. And it was so interesting to me because I had heard about this. I remember when I was younger, I'd heard about people going on different medications for their skin and having major problems. But because it wasn't in my circle, right? I didn't know people having that situation. I hadn't been in that situation. It didn't seem real. This was such an eye-opening moment, just a reminder to me to be grateful for

the things that we don't have to deal with, which I guarantee there are so many that you can be grateful for today and certainly so many I can be grateful for in any situation. But that's what this whole thing's really taught me is that, wow, I have to really. think about right now, you know, being mindful and self-aware in ensuring that I'm not going to be one of this very small percentage of the population that has this awful adverse effect to medication and just being aware that that is a potential out there and how serious that is and how heart-wrenching it is. Of course, I went down the rabbit hole and started reading the stories and just horrible stories that have happened to people and just so sad. And it really took me back to this place of

how grateful I am that I never had to deal with any of this. I mean, I have no idea why I'm dealing with it now, but I am. We're going to live through it and get through it. It's a first world problem, but to know that things like this have impacted people their whole life. People have struggled with skin issues. People have struggled with health issues that they couldn't figure out what is a solution, what is the answer? And here I am two weeks into a very surface skin issue that was just annoying and we're able to find a solution after just trying a few different things. And that's sort of always the way I move forward with challenges. There's always going to be a solution out there. It's just we've got to figure out what is that right one for us, but to know that there are people who have

struggled with something like this for years and years. And the more people I talk to now about it, the more I realize so many people struggle with skin issues and mental issues and just so many things that if you're not struggling with, we might not be thinking about. So it takes me back to that whole topic I'm thinking about and really focusing on today, not judging others, having empathy for others and understanding. We just never know what it's like to be in somebody else's shoes. And I got this tiny little glimpse of what it would be like to have these skin issues, you know, that some people deal with their whole entire lives. And I've been dealing with it for two weeks. And it's just so annoying and frustrating, not knowing what's wrong, not knowing when you're going to find this solution and

trying to focus on the solution. And I just, I have so much empathy for people dealing with things that I just know nothing about and feel so grateful for the ability in most situations to find the solution. So stay focused on your solutions wherever you are with whatever challenges you're having. They are out there. It just takes time to connect those dots and find out what that right solution is for you. But it always, exist, it's on us to find it, just keep going and just move forward with gratitude and empathy and no judgment for others because we never know what someone else is going through. All right, hang tight. We're going to be right back. And welcome back. I'm so excited today to be introducing

you to Zach Friedman. He's the bestselling author of the Blockbuster book, The Lemonade Life, which Apple named one of Fall's biggest audiobooks and a must listen. I need to hear about that. The Lemonade Life also debuted as the number one new business book on the Apple Books bestseller list. Zach has inspired millions of people through his powerful insights, including more than 150 million who have read his advice on Forbes. Zach is the founder and CEO of Make Lemonade, a leading personal finance comparison website that empowers you to live your best financial life. Previously, Zach was a CFO, hedge fund investor, worked at Blackstone, Morgan Stanley, and the White House. Zach holds degrees for

from Harvard, Wharton, Columbia, and Johns Hopkins. Oh my gosh, Zach, thanks for being here. Thank you for having me, Heather. I'm so glad to be with you. A crazy, impressive resume, I have to tell you. Something tells me you grew up an overachiever. Maybe a little bit, maybe a little bit. But thank you.

That's very kind. Well, I'm really excited to speak to you. As I just mentioned, I got to see your TEDx talk, and I thought it was so good and so relatable. You know, when you were talking about the story of, I believe the name you said was Ron. or Brian, when this new guy started working with you and just was clueless to how negative people, bosses can be in corporate America. I got a really good laugh out of it, but it was painful to

relive those days. You're exactly right. And that's a very true story. It's the beginning of my TED talk about the secrets to happiness at work. And, you know, I talk about this friend, as you said, whose name is Brian. And he thought that the corporate world was going to be a little bit different, right? The people were going to kind of nurture you and take care of you and hold your hand. And on his first day of work, literally, he ended up working in the office all night. Like, I don't mean until like 8, 9, 10 p.m. I mean literally until 7 a.m. the next day. And he just didn't really realize what he signed up for because so many of us are looking for, you know, a group of people, a pack of mentors, a wolf pack, as I call it in my book. And a lot of times we don't find that.

And so we don't have that happiness at work that all of us really crave. And oftentimes if you don't have that tight-knit culture, it sets you on that wrong path once you want to be part of a larger group. And so, yeah, that's the beginning of my TED Talk, which was fun to do. It's so crazy to me. So having gone through, you know, your book and all of your content, there's so much great content that you have. It's interesting to me to see the level of success that you had in corporate America. However, you left that and made the leap to go follow this more purpose-driven passion project, which you're living now and succeeding. And what was the catalyst like?

What did that look like when you decided to make that leap? For me, it was really about wanting to follow a purpose that I felt it was the right time to do. I think so many people want to be an entrepreneur, this whole idea of escaping the nine to five. And look, that's great for a lot of people, but it's not for everybody. And I tell people who ask me that same question, I don't think that everyone needs to escape the nine to five. I mean, some people do very, very well working nine to five.

They like to work for somebody else. They move up to the corporate ladder or they work in different organizations. And that's wonderful. For me, I wanted to build upon what I had learned and what I had experienced, the skills I had developed. And I wanted to create my own business, which is called Make Lemonade. And for me, it was the right time to do it. And being able to run a business, a company, a technology company, and also have a platform to inspire people in my book and speaking and other content. I call them at Forbes, has been a great opportunity as well.

So for me, it was the right thing to do. It was the right time. And I think that's an important thing for people to realize. I don't think everyone needs to follow the same path of escape the nine to five. Nine to five can be good. For a lot of people, it's really good. But for me, I wanted to do something different and take a different path. And I haven't looked back since.

So happy for you that you were able to make that leap and now be living such a passion and purpose-driven life. So one of the stats that jumped out of me that I was actually shocked at that I saw on your blog, I believe was it 85% of people don't like their jobs or don't love their job? Yeah, I mean, look, everyone has different statistics, but yeah, it could be that high. And, you know, we work up to 70,000 hours of our lives at work. I mean, just think of that for a second, right? If you look at someone who's working nine to five, 40 hours a week, they do it from age, you know, 25 to age 65. You know, we spend more time at work than we do with our families a lot of times, as sad as that may

sound. And so many people don't love their job, right? I mean, you have to put food on the table. You have to pay your bills. But a lot of people choose a job for the wrong reasons, right? They go after the money or the perks or they think they have to work in New York or Miami or L.A. because that's where their industry is or they think that's what they're supposed to do to be successful. And they end up just making the wrong decision, right? They're following their friends. They're following what their parents wanted to do. The worst thing you can do is choose a job that you don't like. And again, not everyone has a choice in their job. They have to earn money. That's just what they have to do. But if you have an option, if you have that flexibility, it's so important to choose the

right job. Not the right amount of money, but literally the right job. You spend so much time doing it. And we're all guilty at least some point, at least I was, of choosing something that didn't give us the greatest passion, the greatest purpose. And if you don't choose the right job or you don't have the right boss or you don't have the right environment, your life will be miserable. I don't believe that you can separate your work life from your personal life because they blend together, right? Whatever you feel at work, whatever you experience that day, invariably, you're going to take it home. And if you had negativity that day, you can try to move towards more. positive outlet, but it's still going to eat away at you. So I would implore everyone,

the best thing you can do is really find that job, again, where you feel a satisfaction. You're actually excited to go to work because, again, you're going to spend 70,000 hours of your life at work, right? Maybe it's a little less, maybe it's a little more. But just think about that for a second. You have to find something that gives you purpose and gives you meaning. Otherwise, you know, what's the point? So one of the challenges that I find in what you just described is that you can go into a company and into a job and initially like it, right? And maybe initially you've got one boss and initially you're in one role. And then maybe you get promoted and that boss changes and slowly over time, you're not loving it as much.

But it wasn't like you flipped a switch and said, oh, wait, this just went to, you know, slowly when that changes, you don't really notice, but you just start this underlying, I'm not as happy anymore. That happens. That happens. And you're not alone if you feel that, right? You might come in one day and, you know, you read the brochure and, you know, the pool looked great and, you know, the view look great from the room. And then over time it kind of deteriorates, right? And so I think keeping that fresh at work is so important. How do you do that? Right. It might be changing teams if you have that flexibility or changing departments or groups or maybe you worked in marketing for years and now it's time to work in sales. Or maybe it's time to leave the company, right? Like, I think people need to either reinvent themselves, find things that continue to challenge them, see if they can, they can switch or pivot. somehow. A lot of people, I think, get into a rut where they're like, this is my job. Oh, yeah,

maybe they send out a couple resumes, but they've kind of committed themselves to being stuck in something that doesn't challenge them or inspire them. And so it doesn't mean you need to keep leaving companies or switching jobs every year. That's not the point. But the point is, if you're not feeling continually pushed, continually inspired, feel that you're giving more than you're getting back at work, think about ways you can shake it up, right? Talk to your boss. Have an open conversation, right? Talk to your colleagues. Is there more work I can take on? Is there different work I can do? Is there a new division I could help start, right? Is there some other ownership I can take at work? And there's ways that you can be more proactive rather than letting

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this unknown economy that we're facing with the pandemic. And I hear from a lot of people, I would want to go pursue my passion, but now's the worst time. I would want to ask my boss if I could make a pivot, but I don't want to upset the Apple cart. How do you guide people to handle this more uncertain time? This is a very uncertain time, unprecedented in many ways. And I hear that a lot too. I've heard that same thing. I hear it a lot actually from people who probably said it before the pandemic also, right? Oh, I would do this. Oh, I would switch jobs, bud, or yeah, I'd love to move across the country, but oh, it's so far away. I think people need to

really sanity check themselves and ask, were they asking that question six months ago a year ago? And a lot of times the answer is yes, they were asking the same questions. You know, I'll tell you, this isn't unprecedented time. A lot of people are losing their jobs. But I hear from a lot of people actually at all levels who are actually taking new jobs at this point. And they're either finding jobs within their organization, they're switching careers, they may be starting a venture. I think this is a phenomenal opportunity to actually start something right now. You know, I think some of the greatest companies are actually born out of uncertain times, right? And it doesn't, again, there doesn't be some disruptive technology company. You know, find a small niche that you think that's

missing in the marketplace right now. It's not. necessarily easiest time to go raise capital, but if you can bootstrap it or, you know, start it with a small amount of capital or just do a service-based business, there's a lot of opportunity right now. And so I would really ask yourself that question or people who are considering, hey, you know, is there not opportunity right now? I think there's always opportunity. It's just a question of how you find it. And it might be harder now, right? You might not sign the deal that you've always loved or the job you've always wanted. But I think you need to ask yourself, was I asking those same questions before the pandemic that I'm asking now? Because a lot of times

there are solutions to all of these things. It's just about how you go, you know, you go do it, right? That's such a great point that I hadn't thought of, but I'm glad that you shared that with me because I am going to challenge people now when I hear that question. A lot of these people are the ones that are getting furloughed and coming out saying, well, I've got to go, I've got to stay in the same industry. I've got to try to find a competitor instead of stopping and like what you're saying, where is there a white space? How could I add value? And one of the ways that you map it out that I absolutely love and I'm probably going to botch his I key guy. Iki-guy, yes. Oh, all right. Okay, so I love the concept. It's a Japanese concept. I wish we had learned

this when we were kids. Oh, my gosh. Absolutely. Game changing. Can you walk us through what it means? Yeah, Iggyzai is a Japanese term. And it's a philosophy. It's a way of life that says, how can you have a purpose-driven life? And, you know, people have heard the term purpose, obviously. It's talked about a lot. But so many of us are not taught that at a young age. You're exactly right. I wish they taught that in schools to tell people, again, don't just find the job with the most amount of money, right? That's where people tell you to do. You know, get good grades, get the best job with the most amount of money. That's pretty much the lesson that so many of us learn. And, you know, get a good job with benefits or get a job with a pension or get a job with a retirement plan. And, you know, this Japanese approach of Iggy Guy says,

how can I have a purpose-filled, more meaningful life? And so they don't look at necessarily the monetary benefits. They look at what drives you. Why do you get up in the morning? Why do you get up every single day to do what you do. That's at the center of my book, The Lemonade Life. And Ikey Guy is this reality that underlying every decision you make in your life, you can look at it introspectively and look at your entire life. What is the meaning behind it? Like, why do you get up every day? Are you doing it for yourself? Are you doing it for your children? Are you doing it for money? Maybe it's money. Are you doing it because you want to improve the lives of others? It's because you want to solve an important health crisis. Like when you connect that possibility, as I call it in the book,

to that purpose, right? That's how you get that iggy guy. It's the underlying meaning, the reason why you do what you do. And they looked at studies on this. It's not just a philosophy. And in Japan, there were folks who basically, you know, escaped all death mortality in a sense of the overall statistics. They were able to prolong their life when they looked at it, you know, adjusting for variables by having that purpose-driven life. And people who are working towards something and they're working for something or somebody tend to extend their life more than people who lack a purpose or they lack Iggy Guy. So that's one way to think about Iggy Guy. There are other definitions, but that's one way to think about it. I feel like for most people, this is just a sense I get in one

that I had, you know, finding the stuff that, you know, you want to do that you like to do, you can figure that out pretty readily. But when you connect those circles, how do you drive value? How can you be paid for it? When I was in corporate America, I never thought. that there would even be a business where I, first of all, I didn't even know speaking was a business. I didn't, you know, I never thought I could be an author. You only see yourself in one lens. So how can you direct people to be able to figure out what they could be paid for that they maybe haven't seen yet? I think it's as simple as you used a great word earlier, which is white space. And for those of you never heard that word before, it's, you know, take out a piece of paper, right?

Take out the notes on your phone. And just think about opportunities in different areas. So there might be an area or a niche, you know well. You know, if you work in the health field, you know, name all the different sectors in health, right? You could work in nursing homes. You can work in hospitals. You could do something with, you know, lab work, diagnostics, you know, whatever the subsets of those areas are, lay them out on a piece of paper, right, and just understand what are the sectors. Find out what might be interesting to you. And once you've kind of figured that out, think about some more research, right? Like, peel back some layers and think about what's the market size I could look in here, right? What's the competitive landscape?

escape look like? What would customers be? Would they pay for this service? A lot of people come up with what they think are great ideas, but no one will pay them for the service, right? You talked about this earlier. It's like you have to earn money doing it. And so passion and purpose, it's not just finding something that you like, right? Like, I'd love to do things that I like to do, but they don't necessarily produce income, right? People won't pay you to do it. And so figuring out what that might be is it's really, as you said, it's like laying out the circles. It's like a Venn diagram, right? Like, here's what I like to do. Here's what makes me happy. Here's where someone would pay me to do it. Here's what gives me purpose. Here's where there's actually a legitimate

opportunity, right? There's not a million competitors, right? Look at the competitive landscape, what's out there. And that's if you're starting a business or you're working, you know, you're applying to a business. If there's, you know, they're hiring one person, there's 80,000 applicants. Maybe you don't want to direct all your efforts there. But there might be other opportunities when you kind of combine all those things into a single Venn diagram. And that's the same exercise if you're looking for a job, thinking about what to do next, right, working for somebody else or it's starting your own company. Those are some of the dynamics that you can look at and start to think about. One of the things that I picked up from your articles as well was that you don't put a

tremendous amount of significance on education or where you went to school, which shocks me because you went to the most prestigious schools and have the most prestigious, you know, Harvard and an MBA and all these things that I don't have that I would put people on a pedestal. So what are your thoughts to younger people that are thinking of taking on that kind of debt to, you know, to end up with all of this recognition in the end. Look, for everyone has to make their own opportunity, but I think you can just get a great education, whether you go to fancy schools, you go to names that, you're proud of in your home state, or you don't go to college at all, right? I mean, there is tremendous opportunity for anyone in this country or really all around the world. If you have a

great idea, right, and it's an idea that you believe in, and you can create value for other people, particularly people are willing to invest it or customers are willing to buy it. And if you can execute on that idea, which is really the important part, then there's really no limit to creating anything. When people are giving you money to start a business or people are buying your product, they're not asking where you went to school, right? That's really irrelevant. They might want to know your experience. Like, do you have the composure, the judgment, the skill set to run a company? But no one's going to ask, oh, where did you go to school?

They want to understand, like, can you manage people? Can you build a business? Can you scale a company? can you build out a platform? Can you have this vision that other people don't? And so I think you can get those skills whether you acquire them in school, which usually doesn't happen. It's usually through experience, right? Some people are innately born with them. But most people can develop those types of skills by reading books, by listening to great podcasts like yours, Heather, or they can learn from others, having mentors or seeing the people who have done it that they admire. But school can help a lot to build

foundation, but it's never going to get you the real world experience to build and grow and manage people and like getting that experience of working on a team, which is something they really, we don't get taught at all. Like you do group work when you're in school, but you don't know what it's like in an actual like pressure cooker environment. And I think so many people who spend a lot of time in school and think that the way that's how it is, a lot of people go to business school or law school or even medical school, you know, they know it's school.

It's not actually work, but they do think it's so much closer than it actually. actually is. And a lot of times when you get to work, you get to that job, it's like everything you did in school kind of goes out the window, right? It's never the way you think it's supposed to be, or you think it's going to happen. And then, you know, you kind of have this wake-up call. So people who are starting out today, look, if you think school is right for you or you think getting an MBA is right for you, like by all means, go get it. You know, if school's not right for you, that's not the way that you learn or you might go to a trade school or you might to say, hey, I'm going to be an entrepreneur. That's okay, too. Like, you got to find the right

path that works for you and what's best for your platform and in your trajectory. When you were describing leading people, it immediately took me back to athletics and being on a team. And that for me, personally, I learned much more about leading and being a part of a collaborative team from athletics versus, you know, getting my degree from college. 100%. 100%. I would even go looking to hire former athletes for my sales division because I knew that they would understand how to compete, how to work together. And I had a lot of success of all that strategy. That's exactly right. Absolutely. People who play on the team at the competitive level, where there's high school, college, even after, professionally, they probably

understand so much more about teamwork. People who served in the military also, leadership skills, teamwork, collaboration, you know, competitive dynamics, right? Hard work. You know, what it means to kind of reach peak performance. Like, you can't teach those things in school, right? You can do as many exercises and homework and tests, but you can never teach that kind of experience, a camaraderie that exists in a team format. So good. So I know in the book you get into the difference between a lemon versus a lemonade life. What are those key differentiators? So every day, all of us, whether we realize it or not, or kind of face with these two choices for what life we want to lead, right? Most people are stuck living what's called a lemon life and they may not even realize it. So a lemon life,

it's really where 99% of people end up. And again, they don't necessarily want to be there. No one's like, hey, I want to live a lemon life. But they just end up doing it. And it's all about settling and pretending and chasing. And it's not really the life we want, but it's kind of the life we've either accepted because we don't realize it or we're too scared to do anything else. And again, that's unfortunately where 99% of people are.

But there's this 1% that leads what's called a lemonade life. And a lemonade life is built on purpose and possibility. And purpose is the underlying reason why you do what you do. It's what we talked about earlier with Ikega. It's this underlying reason why you get up every morning. Why do you do? Why does Heather get up every morning to be successful at what she does? And understanding that purpose. But on the other side of the coin is possibility. And possibility is infinite opportunity. Right. And it's how do you connect that underlying purpose to infinite opportunity. When you marry those two through action and you do it on your own terms, that's how you lead the lemonade life. And so, it's this choice and it restarts every single day. Am I going to lead a lemon life or a lemonade life? And the great thing is, is there's not like this artificial wall between the two. Everyone who lives the lemon life today can lead a lemonade life tomorrow. And the way you do that is by flipping these five switches, these five behavioral characteristics that, you know, I started looking at of like the greatest leaders everywhere from sports to politics to business, religion. You know,

what drives all of these people? What are these behavioral characteristics of them? most successful people in the world. And what I did is I distilled it down to these five qualities, these five switches, as I call them, that are just like light switches. When you flip those five switches, and I show you exactly how to do that in the book, the Lemonade Life, you can move from a Lemon Life to a Lemonade Life. And can you walk us through those five switches? Sure. So the best way to remember them is through an acronym, P-R-I-S-M. And a prism, as you know, you look through it and you get to see, you know, beautiful things on the other side. And a prism is, is, you know, the lens through which a lemonade lifer views the world. And the best way to remember this through

Prism. So P is for perspective, R is for risk, I is for independence, S is for self-awareness, and M is for motion. And if you flip all five of those switches, we can talk a lot more about them, that's how you can move to lead a lemonade life. So starting with perspective, are you suggesting reframing how we see things, reframing our situations? That's certainly part of it. I mean, the world really begins with your mindset. And we hear that a lot with mindset and perspective, but really it's about rewiring your brain. Not that you are necessarily happy all the time, although happiness plays an important part. But it's really how can you see the world differently than perhaps you're seeing it now? And a lot of that starts internally. It's not an external function.

We get to the external parts kind of later in the book. It's really about not how do I get that temporary happiness or how do I stay happy all the time. But it's more like whatever goes your way, Every time you get knocked down, not only how do you get back up, but how do you not feel that like life is pressuring you or your job is pressuring you or your competitor is pressuring you all the time? And so it's not like, let's watch a YouTube clip, get happy for five minutes and then go back to being who we are, right? Which so many of us do, right? We're like, let's get motivated. Let's watch a YouTube clip. Oh, we feel great.

And then nothing happens. And like, go back. Let's watch another YouTube clip. We're feeling great. It's really about how do you rewire your brain? What I mean by that is how can you view circumstances that when you feel, the toughest things in life. Your business fails. You get, you lose your job. People are telling you know all the time. It's like, how do you have the power to go on? Right. And we always hear this thing of like persistence and

failure is good. And I talk about that in the book a lot. But it's like how do you kind of have that mentality and that mindset that you can actually execute that. And that's really what changing your perspective is about. You're definitely orienting yourself towards a more positive outlook, a poor positive future. And that is the basis of that opportunity aspect of the lemonade life. And it's not only identifying those opportunities, but how you can make them work for you. And a lot of that deals with removing negative things from your life. So those are things like naysayers, right? So like I have this thing called the chasm of can't, right? It's like this artificial world where it could be your parents, right? People near and dear to your heart, your family members, your friends. These are people just kind of like throwing shade at you

all the time, right? Or some of the time. You know, you have this business idea. I want to start a podcast. Like, well, why would you do that? There's, you know, 10 million podcasts or, hey, mom and dad or, you know, brother and sister, I want to start a new business. I'm going to be an entrepreneur. Like, whoa, that's, you know, that's a lot of risk. You sure you want to do that? Like, sure you want to leave your job? Like, hey, I want to leave my job and apply to a different company. Oh, wow. Think of all the things you're going to give up. And all of us have heard this before, right? A lot of times you're just like, you know, sometimes we might listen, right? Okay, oh, good point. I didn't think of that. Oh, I know that. But a lot of times what happens is those people are projecting

their own fears onto you, right? It's not to say they're not valid or they're not like looking out for your best interest because oftentimes they are. But other times they're really projecting kind of their insecurity, right, or their unease of doing it. And it's really important to separate those two. And it's not an easy exercise because when we mix kind of the people that we look to in our lives, when we're hearing that feedback, right, that we want to be reinforced, but we don't necessarily hear that. We have to be able to separate the two.

I would implore people to really think about, you know, are the people that you have around you or are really the people that you want around you, right? The people that should be around you. And if you're constantly hearing this negative thing, you really need to kind of extricate yourself from them, right? Like I had this idea of a wolf pack in the group and kind of the five most important people in your life. We've heard that term before from Jim Rome.

It's like, who do you want around you that's kind of going to help you get to where you need to be, right? Like who are the people you turn to on a daily basis that get Heather, right? They understand what Heather wants. They understand what Heather needs. And like they're supporting you to do that. They're not just like telling you feel good things, but they're actually like helping to support your dreams.

Like they understand your purpose and they want to help. help you get towards you where you need to go. They'll give you subjective feedback, right? It may be constructive. It may feel criticism for you. It might provide that to you, but they're not going to kind of like prevent you from getting there and like create the roadblocks to where you need to go. Because again, a lot of times they wouldn't start a business. So therefore, they're telling you not to start a business or they wouldn't, you know, move across the country or they wouldn't leave their job in the middle of the pandemic. And so separating those things are really, really important because not only do the people that you spend time with, but kind of like the

ideas that you spend time with, right? The TV shows you watch, the food you eat, the magazines you read, the time you spend on the internet, all that's going to influence who you are. And if you're not surrounding yourself with the right people, the right ideas, the right platform, you can't grow by definition. You're going to be reflecting, you will be a reflection of those other people and those other ideas and those other feelings. And I think people don't take enough time to realize that, but when they do, you start to see things a lot more clarity. I couldn't agree more. And when you're talking about that, all I'm thinking to myself is I've gotten into a rut with Netflix watching the blacklist. And my son and I are crazy for this thing.

However, it gets your mind thinking a little crazy, a little negatively. It's, you know, a sci thriller or whatever. And conversely, what I used to do at night is if I was at home, I would watch TED Talks and something that was a little bit more interesting or I could learn and grow from it. So it is, it's so more than just the people that are around us, but taking a look at everything that we're doing. It is. And the thing is, it's like, look, watch Netflix have fun. But, you know, if you watch a really good TED Talk, like, you want to go conquer the world afterwards, right? You read a really good book. You're like, I can do anything, right? And when you have that kind of reinforced positivity in your life and it speaks to you internally, like, you really have the opportunity in the platform to do what you

want to do. And that's an amazing feeling. It's an amazing. It's an amazing. advantage too. So as I mentioned, I watched your TEDx talk. I learned something from it for me to apply to my business. I thought he leads with humor right out the gate. And I typically don't do that. And I thought, you know what? I'm going to change it up on my next speech and just try it and test something. Who knows where that takes you. But if you never flip on the TED Talks to, you know, give the 10 minutes to actually listen and try to learn something, you're just going to stay right where you are. Absolutely. And it's good to try, right? Like, it works for some people. It doesn't work for other people. the more we take in, like the more you read books, the more you learn, the more you talk to people,

the more you interview people, the more you write. So many like good things happen to you because you're kind of exchanging ideas, you're hearing ideas, you're learning, you see what works, you see what doesn't work. And you just become better, right? Like, I'm a strong believer in that. So I'm, I'm a big life learner, right? Like, I've learned a lot, but I have so much more to learn. And I love speaking with people. I love, I love hearing their thoughts and their ideas and their perspectives because I gain from that and I try to give back more than I gain. But I try to kind of learn from other people as much as possible. I think that's just an important human element. Let's go back to Prism. So I want to make sure that we touch on each one of these. So we covered

perspective and now we move to risk. Yeah. So risk, as people tend to define it usually is like, I'm risky, right? Like I like to gamble or I like to take, you know, huge bets on life. Or I'm risk averse, right? I try to stay away from that. I don't like to get out of my comfort zone. And people think of it in kind of this binary way, right? Risky or risk averse. But that's not actually the best way to think about risk. The best way to think about risk is actually to think about the relationship between the two. And so it's more about thinking about what's your upside and what's your downside every time that you do a decision or you take an action. And you can apply this to what's the like kind of risk benefit analysis, right? Like what's my upside versus my downside?

What's the relationship? So, you know, making this up, if I start a business, like based on all the research and analysis I've done, I think I have a 60% chance of succeeding. But I have, you know, an 80% chance of failing. Maybe that's not a good business for you to do because it's like 60% upside, 80% downside, maybe that's not great. But maybe you find an opportunity where like, you know, you think, and these are subjective numbers,

but like, you know, there's 80% upside and there's 20% downside. Maybe you feel comfortable with that. It's like 80, 20, it's like a 4 to 1 ratio. Doing that kind of exercise, and I walk you through in details how to do it in the book, thinking about the relationship between the risk and the benefit, right? That's a much better way to think about things than just, is this risky or is this not risky?

And I think we can change our behaviors and make more precise decisions once we understand all of the upside and all of the downside. I think a lot of people when they make decisions, they tend to trick themselves into whatever they're biased in terms of the outcome, right? Like they don't really paint all the risks that are there. And I think the best exercise that anyone can do is just be very, very honest about, hey, here's my upside. That's always easy to do. Like, yeah, I can go to Hollywood and be a famous movie star. But, you know, what are all the things I'm going to give up? And don't candycoat them.

Just like, say, really, what am I going to give up? like I may struggle for 20 years. I may never get hired. I may, you know, live in a small apartment with five roommates. I may not see my family. I may, you know, hear rejection after rejection. Just so you understand what all the risks are. Like, what are the risk factors that I'll have to experience if I pursue this particular action? And again, you can apply this to any aspect of your life when you make a decision. And I show you in the book how to do it. But that's a better way to think about risk because it makes us better decision makers. When you're doing this risk analysis, any type of data that you can access to really into as well, I'm sure, would really help in that decision-making. Yeah, and look, a lot of this is, like, subjective, right? Like, there's not going to be data like, you know, should I start this business and here's like the percentage chance you're going to succeed, right? It's more like, hey, you know, based on what I've learned, based on who I've talked to, you know, I think this is what my upside will look like.

And here's what I were to read. I'm looking at a new job, for example. You know, I think this new job, salary, you know, on a one to five scale, salary gets a five, you know, benefits get a four. You can almost like add up those numbers. You get like, that's my upside number. That's the total. My downside, you know, I'm going to sit in traffic, I have to travel a lot.

You come up with those numbers. You kind of look at like, hey, here's my upside. Here's my downside. Here's the relationship between the two. Do I feel comfortable knowing what these are? And it's just a more honest, transparent exercise than just like, hey, is this a risky job or not a risky job for me to take? If your anxiety, depression, or ADHD are more than a rough patch, you don't need just another

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Exactly, exactly. And what about independence? So independence is something that is one of the most critical of the five switches, because so many people walk a life of dependence, right? They're dependent on other people. It's not just a financial dependence. It's really a mind dependence. So you think about people at work, I think the best example is this.

you're sitting around in a conference room, right? We've all been in the situation before. The boss says something and they go around the table, not because they want to hear what everyone has to say, but they want to make sure everyone agrees with what they're saying, right? It's like, do you think we should do this? Everyone's like, oh, yeah, absolutely. Like, great idea, boss.

Like, they all go along with it. And even though you feel differently, you don't want to speak up because you might be embarrassed or you said something the other day and they're like, why is Heather always talking? I don't want to hear her ideas again. And so people kind of stay quiet. And that is an example of a life of dependence, because you are forfeiting your own ideas to go with a majority.

It's the herd mentality. And I encourage people to speak up. Like it's regardless of what your title is. No one cares what your title is. If you're the most junior person, the most senior person, everyone's idea matters. Like the smartest people are the people who a lot of times don't talk as much. And they may be someone who's at the most junior level, but they understand the organization a lot better than anyone who sits in the C-suite.

And I try to remind people of that. It doesn't mean talk up all the time or just like shout-out questions all the time. I mean, you have to be measured and use your judgment. But it's important to kind of realize that you do have a voice. You do have a seat at the table. And people do this in their personal lives too, right? Like keeping up with the Joneses, we've all heard that term before. But it's really a life of dependence because you're not living a life for you.

You're living a life based on someone else, right? You're driving a car because your neighbor drives a nice car or you're spending money artificially that you don't want to spend because you have to keep up an appearance. Besides the like financial bad decision of doing that, you're also not thinking independently for yourself. You're basing your life and your decisions on someone else. And that person, most likely that you're trying to copy is doing the same thing to somebody else and doing the same thing to somebody else and somebody else. It's like this continuous cycle. And so independence is like, how can you escape from the herd mentality? Right. How can you live a life that's based on your terms? You make your own decisions and you feel a lot

more empowered than you do just kind of chasing other people. And that comes back to that idea of chasing that I talked about earlier. It's pretending, certainly, but it's also that chasing idea as well. Do you think that the lack of independence is based in lack of confidence? I think that's part of it. I think people who don't believe in themselves enough, they feel that their ideas are not good enough or maybe they're missing in other areas that they have to kind of supplant that with this idea of like, I got to keep up with somebody else because that'll help mold me to the way I think I should be or I can't speak up at work because I'm only an associate. I'm not a partner. And so what do I have to really?

add value to someone who's been doing this for 30 years. But the reality is a lot of people who've been doing it for 30 years don't know more than the people who are doing it for three years. Or maybe they're disconnected because they've been so senior for so long and they're not really on the ground or in the weeds all the time. And they just might not have that perspective or advantage point of someone who's younger or is new to the business that can see something fresh. And there's so much value and power and innovating and getting those different perspectives.

But I'm dropping the ball on S. I don't remember what S in prison is. S stands for self-awareness. And that also is, along with independence, is probably the most important. And it's probably the least invested. You know, we've all heard the term self-awareness before. But I think people don't want to spend as much time on self-awareness as they should because they're afraid of what it might look like.

And self-awareness is, it's really understanding who you are as a person and being okay with that, right? A lot of people, similar to when they're thinking about risk, like they don't want to talk about the downside. They don't want to say that I am not good at something because they want to be good at everything. That's like a natural thing. People want to be good at everything. But in the lemonade life, like, you can't be good at everything. It's just, it doesn't work that way in real life. And the more that you can tell yourself, I'm really good at these things. I really believe I'm good

at these things. And here's why and here are the results. But I'm really not good at other things. Like, it takes a lot of confidence to say that. But when you do, it is literally the most freeing thing you can ever do in your life. Because you have identified to yourself. You've confirmed with yourself, self-confirmation, that I'm not good at these things. I am not good at these things. And that's okay. That's great because the world is so much more efficient when you know what you're good at and what you're not good at. Think about that, right? Like, there's no more pretending. In the lemon life, you pretend. Lemonade life, like, you're authentic, you're honest. The good thing is, other people are good at those things. Other people can help you, right? You can partner with someone

to help you. You can hire someone to do that for you. You know, you can learn from somebody else. And so be more efficient with your time and your resources, not trying to be great at everything, but figuring out what you're really good at and kind of focus there, like do those things better. And when you start dropping the act of like, I'm not good at this stuff, the world changes for you and your opportunities change substantially. Well, I saw in your past life you were a CFO and I have to tell you anything around spreadsheets, numbers, and organization is my biggest weakness. And I rock that and own that with pride.

There you go. That's good. That's good. There you go. That's the way to do it. Tell me about imprison with the momentum. Yeah, so M is motion, right? Which momentum is certainly part of it. But look, you can do all the first four switches, but if you don't actually put in the work to do this, like none of it works. You can have a positive perspective. You can practice self-awareness. You can be independent. You can make better decisions. But the lemonade life is all about putting in the work. And the important thing is the lemonade life is not a destination. It's not like, okay, if I do these five things, I did it. Like, I lead the lemonade life. It's actually a way of life. So it's a continuous cycle. And it restarts every single day. You know, it's like every day you have a new shot at greatness. And if you don't keep up with it, like, you don't get to be great. And so it is like every day you're doing this. You are doing this to lead the lemonade life every day. You're practicing gratitude. You're working on your business. You're working to be a better mom or a better sister or a better friend. You're being more honest

with yourself. You're being more loving to yourself, right? Like self-care is so important too. A lot of us are so hard on ourselves. We don't take time. We're always helping other people. We're always giving back. But like take some moments for you. Take a moment for Heather and just like, pat yourself on the back for being an amazing person. And a lot of times we don't invest that, but we need to. And, you know, when you're following your path of life, I think so many people are racing to get to the end. I want to be successful in my job. I want to be the best salesperson. I want to have the best podcast. I want to do all these things. And of course, we should aspire to be number one, right? That's human nature. But at the same time, not everyone's path looks the same,

right? Like some people make a left turn, two wrong turns, and they like end up five miles in the wrong direction. And that's okay too, because everyone has their own path to get there. And, you know, we're all kind of, we might all be doing some like global race, but like your path may be different than my path. And that's okay. Like, we're not running side by side. This is not like a sprint. We're not running in like person lane eight is like the first place person person number one is like last place and the medals are given out. We all get there at different times. We all, you know, finish different ways. Our output may look different. We all put in different effort. Like we're unique individuals were unique human beings. And I think that's important to know too because I think a lot of

people always feel that they're losing somehow because they see what their friends are doing or what their mentors are doing or what their sister does. And you're completely different. Like your situation is totally different than what they're doing. And you can't measure it on an apples to apples basis. And so that's really important to remember because we all get there in the end, but it may take more time or less time for certain people and that's important to remember too. That's so important. And so many of us, myself included when I was back in corporate America, I associated personal value with a title or how much money you were making. And when you're surrounded by peers who do the same thing, it just becomes, you're almost brainwashed with that. And when I was fired from

my C-suite position, I hit an all-time low just feeling so badly about myself and what other people would think of me. However, that ended up being a catalyst to leading me to having a purpose-driven life, which I don't believe I would have found if that hadn't happened to me. So yeah, I couldn't agree more that the path that we all go is so completely different. And frankly, it's irrelevant how you get there, but it's all about, you know, how find your happiness on that journey. That's exactly right. Well, I'm so excited that everyone is getting to hear about lemonade life and where can we find the book and where can we find you. You can find the lemonade life everywhere all over the world. It's an hardback, hardcover. It's in paperback. It's an e-book. And it's also the

audiobooks, which I narrate. So definitely download that and go listen to it. You can buy it at bookstores everywhere and online. And then you can find me, also LemonadeLifeLifebook.com, I should tell you, which has all the links to all the great places to buy the book. You can find me at Zach Friedman. Z-A-C-F-R-I-E-D-M-A-N.com and all over social media from Facebook to Instagram to TikTok to to LinkedIn, Twitter all over at Zach A. Friedman. And don't forget that you were number one audio book, and that's a major, major accomplishments. So congrats to that. That's huge. Thank you so much. Thank you. I'm very proud of it. You know, I love hearing from people around

the world who've read this book and it's changed their lives. So it's, you know, it's been a great joy to talk with folks around the world and just hearing the feedback. So I'm, I'm very humble and appreciative and grateful everyone whose lives have been touched about the lemonade life. Well, keep up your great work and thanks for shining your light and your great story and your teachings with everyone. And please check out Zach's book. You are going to love it. Hang tight. We're going to be right back. Hi, and welcome back. I wanted to jump into taking you through an exercise. I've been taking my team through, which is something that I do every year, end of year. But before I do that, I just received a message on

LinkedIn this morning. I wanted to share with you a woman who had been a receptionist at the company I used to work for, went back to school, really wanted to dig into her passion and find out what it was she was meant to do what her calling was. She's decided she wants to get into property management. She's really excited to do it. and she sends me a note and says, you know, I'm willing to do whatever it takes. I just want to break into this field. How do I get in? Here's the thing. I don't know why this stuff is second nature to me, but I just know, okay, if I want to get into property management, number one, I would Google property management companies. I'd make a list of the top 5, 10, 15, 20, whatever it is in your

community, in your area. Then I would Google search who the heads of those companies are. Then I would Google search open positions. Then I would research on Facebook and social media who the people are running these organizations, who's worked there, who I'm connected to. I would do such a deep dive on something like that that I'd already have applied for 17 positions by noontime. You know, if you are really committed to finding a way to get in, get in any way you can. And that means starting with a conversation, having a conversation and putting it on someone's radar, that you want to work here, that you want to be a part of this, that you have a passion for it. But get in the conversation, get in that circle with those people, any and every,

way you can and don't back off until you got the job. And it doesn't mean you're going to have the property management position. Maybe you start as a receptionist, an admin assistant, a salesperson, whatever, but just get in. And then it's on you to convince those ultimate decision makers why you warrant that next jump, that next job. But let nothing stand in your way. If you're that serious about something and that clear on it, just start dialing right now. Get on the phone. Go down to the establishment knock on the door, but let nothing stand in your way and nothing will. That's my feedback on how do you break into a new industry or new position that you've really been wanting to get into. Okay, so here's an exercise I've been taking my team through, which is an

end of year exercise. I highly recommend it for you. Really what you want to do is you want to do a deep dive on where did revenues come from in your business this year by quarter, by month. What were the challenges you encountered, how can you alleviate those challenges for next year, what potential challenges could come for next year that you haven't thought about yet, you know, where are the opportunities, what are the profit centers that are working, what are the ones that need to be improved? Okay, we go through this whole system. I want you to go through this. I promise you, it's eye-opening, and it will help you improve your business. So the first thing we look at is what are the current revenue streams that we have, and what are those specific goals,

timelines, deadlines on them. So I'm making it up, but say you have six different revenue streams right now, you know, and then you map out, this one was up 5% this year, this one was down 10, this one was up 20%. And then, okay, so that's your actuals for year to date for 2020. Then what are your goals for 2021 and break them down by quarter, assign them a number and a deadline. Get specific. Okay, those that deal in specific seldom fail. Those that deal in generalities seldom succeed. Tie everything to a specific number, a specific line item, and a specific deadline. Okay, so then you also want to look at, you know, who are your customers, who have been your customers this year, around each profit center, around each revenue stream,

and really map out that avatar. In general, it's a person who works in this industry. In general, it's a company from this business or, you know, this manufacturing or the restaurant business or whatever it is, but map it out, put it in writing, and challenge yourself to say, if I'm able to service this marketplace, is there another marketplace or industry that likely could benefit from this as well? And at the same time, ask yourself this question, if I'm servicing, and let's make it up, just the finance business, that's my largest industry, is there another product or service I could offer them that they all need that could bring a new revenue stream to me? So start having these bigger picture conversations about, you know, more strategic conversations,

about your business so that you can accelerate your growth. How are we actually going to get there? This is where you're going to assign responsibility for different profit centers, strategies, marketing, HR, you know, onboarding people, recruiting talent, upgrading talent, training talent. This is where your real details on your plan are coming from and you need to assign accountability for each line item to someone and have them map out the details. So what is the timeline to getting this done?

What does, you know, winning on this concept look like and get very specific with these people and with each person you assign accountability to? Okay, the other big question right now is what are the obstacles and challenges that could come at us? And obviously, number one, remote business for another year, I would just put that down. Whether you believe that's going to happen or not, no one knows, but I would prepare for it, right? So, you know, no brick and mortar, no on-site events for one year and social distancing for one year. Zoom school for one year. Hopefully that doesn't happen. But I'd prepare and plan for the absolute worst so that you don't find yourself come June that you decided everything would go back to quote unquote normal, you know, in a very difficult situation. So plan for the unknown, plan for the

worst. What are the things that could really ruin your business right now? Right. So plan for those things. That way you're going to be thinking of solutions to help you get out of those challenges versus being caught in the middle of it and not having any ideas or any pivot available. This is another great one. What partnerships or affiliations can bring you more revenue? Which ones do you currently have? Which ones can you grow? Which ones should you fire? And where are you not looking at for the following year? So, you know, that can be with publications. That can be with other companies. That can be with competitive marketplaces. That can be, you know, maybe a large company in your same arena doesn't like to service a smaller revenue stream that you really like to service. Maybe you partner

with them, pay them a commission for the referral. You know, there's so many different ways to slice this up, but really challenge yourself to look at where else could you be tapping people from a partnership perspective to help support them, incentivize them, and for you to get business from. And oh my gosh, when you nail a few really strong partnerships, that can change your business for good. Take a look at your competition. Who are they? What white space do they own? How do you compare to them?

What do you do better than they do? What do they do better than you do? And what's your unique value proposition? Why would somebody work with you versus any of those different competitors? And sit with your team and really go through this so everyone can be very real with what's happening in the marketplace. You know, what could they be doing better than you? What are they offering that you're not offering?

And what are those opportunities for your business for next year? How can you innovate any part of this model for next year to be more efficient, more customer-centric, focus more on employee referrals for business, for attracting new talent, customer referrals from existing customers? You know, really do a deep dive into how can your business benefit from some of these ideas, changes, and accountability measures you're going to implement for the following year. Okay, take a look at your team. You know, who needs to go, who needs to be upgraded, who do we need to work with, who do we need to potentially promote, but do a full-blown assessment of your team,

your target audience, and the messaging that you're utilizing to reach your target audience, what's converting well, what's not, dig into the data. You've got all this information, elicit help from your team. the more work that you put in in November and December, when a lot of people are often not available, the better 20-21 you're going to have because you're going to be prepared for the unexpected. You're going to have put the time in. Your strategies are going to be rolling out, not just being thought of and responded to next year. So I hope this helps so much.

It definitely has always helped whichever company I was in, whatever business I was running, and I'm in the midst of doing it right now, just like all of my clients are. Love to hear back from you. Hopefully it's going to help you. And hopefully 2021 ends up just being so much better than any of us expected, which if that is the case, we won't need as many strategies as we came up with. But I'd always rather have the strategy available and in front of me and mapped out and ready to go just in case we need it. So here's to you creating your confidence this week and every week. And no, I'm right there with you.