It’s no secret that businesses are experiencing a bit of contraction in our current market, and as we approach the new year, it is essential that we learn to adapt to these natural ebbs and flows in order to succeed in business.

This week, I provide a four-step approach for gaining clarity: awareness and acceptance of your current situation, narrowing your focus, setting short-term actionable goals, and trusting the process while preparing for future growth. And of course, we discuss how this same process applies to your personal growth, as well!

See full show notes here.

[00:00:22] Caitlin: those. Well, we had a family introduction to Hand, Mouth, and Foot, which is Is that your first time?

[00:00:32] Caitlin: This was like the real version, though.

The first one we got was just a little taste, a preview. Um, this was more of the full on.

[00:00:45] Caitlin: fall. There was kind of an unexpected snowstorm. We just woke up and there was a ton of snow. The power was out and there was a tree down in our yard that went across our neighbor's driveway. And so How big was the tree? It's a willow tree.

They're usually pretty

[00:01:17] Adam: I don't know. I don't know how to answer.

We definitely got, um, this entire week has been nothing but, uh, snowstorms that weren't expected. Yeah. NOAA, which is usually the forecast, I pay attention to the forecast four or five times a day, just to make sure that, keep up with skinning. Um, but the, uh, uh, the last, and NOAA is the national, uh, forecast that people use, and it measures it at like 3, 700 feet of elevation, measures at 2, 200 feet of elevation, so it's really like, it's dialed in.

And they've under Which is very rare for them. They usually nail the storms pretty good, and they've underperformed on the last two storms. I mean, last night we got 12 inches, and they were supposed to get 2 to 3, and that storm that you're talking about, I think we got like a foot, and I think they were, they were calling for like maybe 3 inches.

And it was that heavy, dense snow that was there. Very wet, yeah. Yeah, exactly. Um. Yeah, so we are full in motion for winter coming in here. I bring that up because it's also, when I was driving into the office this morning, it's like the tale of two different worlds, essentially. One is up, I live up in a mountain, so I mean, I know you do too, a little bit.

And it was windy, it was snowy, the roads were challenging, and it was tough to see, you know, it's kind of hard to see things, and so like, it just got really kind of, you could You get this sense of like, it's harder to drive, right? People are driving slower. We had a tractor trailer truck halfway across the road this morning.

And so we were dealing with that at a job site. Then I get down here into Burlington and there's no snow and it's clear and it's easier to drive. The roads are dry and it's there. And it got me thinking the last couple of weeks, I've been doing a lot of conversations with our team members, um, regarding how to get clarity coming into Q.

One. Um, particularly in our world, but in any world right now, I think there's, there's challenges. There's always challenges. Um, in the real estate world, it's, it's becoming, it's even more challenging now. There's a lack of inventory, right? That's a problem. Sales have dropped because of that, and interest rates are still really high.

Um, so it's funny, when I was thinking about how do we intro into this, because we want to talk about clarity, uh, it made me think about like how when I was driving in a snowstorm and it was much difficult to drive, how much more you're having to pay attention and, you know, of course you're not looking at your phone, you're not really, you're not really talking to anybody else, you're, you're paying full attention to that, and how often when it gets Easy do we just stop paying attention?

And I feel like that happened over the last couple of years and we'll work our way into where it is today, which is the last couple of years in most industries have been relatively pretty easy. The last six to eight months, probably not maybe last year, but for a lot of people, there were still this kind of spurt and now all of a sudden we're coming into a really hard time for one, there's seasonality and things, so it makes it even challenging, more challenging, but, um, how do you bring.

a different level of clarity into Q1. And I, and I think the thing is, is, is number one is I think people Um, stopped having to put an emphasis into clarity because when, when sales are happening or in any business, it's just there and like you buy into the fact that you think you're better than you are, or you buy into the fact that you think your business is better than it is.

And, and it's, it's mostly because the tide has come in, right? And so we all know that analogy. It's like when the tide goes out, you see who's been swimming naked. It's the kind of same thing you understand in business when the tide comes in. Anybody's succeeding, but when it starts to go out, you can see which businesses have been performing and which ones are actually built on models and systems and focus and clarity.

And the first step to doing any of these changes that are happening in a business is to one, get really real on where you are. So before, so if you think about the steps that are required for clarity, um, number one has to be, where am I? Where am I right now? And you have to get really real. And love where you are right now.

And the reason why I say that is because if there's been a lot of people that I've spoken with that we've kind of turned around and I've had this conversation with is they're, they're still not um, either they have just admitted to themselves or not quite doing that, which is preventing them from finding the next step.

Right, or to what, because then they just get caught in this kind of paralysis of, okay I, I understand something's got to change but What is it? It's like, it's almost like they're building up, they can see their income dwindling or they can see the lack of sales and they can feel the pressure coming into it, but it's almost like they're waiting for something outside to change so that that can help them get to what they're worried to go, which again is where you're relying on the outside forces, which that's going to go up and down.

That's fine. There's going to be times when that goes higher and that's going to be times that goes lower, so But the first thing is you have to get real and go like, okay, I haven't brought the level of focus that I needed to in my organization or for myself, right? You can be a solopreneur or you can run a business, haven't brought that level of focus.

So number one is where exactly am I right now? That means, go ahead. Well, and you

[00:05:57] Adam: Yeah. Um, well you have to, and I, I use the word love it because that means you generally accept it. Once you love it and you've accepted that, and it's almost like, let's put this behind.

And now let's get really clear in what it is. And you have to love it because you've made the decision. So you've made decisions as to where you are. So love the decisions that you made. You can learn. Doesn't mean you can't learn from them, but if you are beating yourself up by them, then you haven't let go of it.

And now you're still living in the past decision. That's preventing you from getting clarity on making the next best decision. So, by the way, this can parallel to your personal life too, but we just, you're seeing this in how businesses act in general. So, you have to, number one, if you're listening to this and you haven't gotten real clear or haven't, you haven't stopped to understand exactly where you are now and that means, how much cash do I have on hand, what are my expenses really look like?

Because what I find is when people start getting pinched, they don't want to look at things. Right? They don't want to actually look at their pipeline or they don't want to look at their bank account or they don't want to look at their expenses because they're afraid they're going to have to change something.

That's why I said, well, you have to love the fact of understanding where you are so you can actually love the changes that you can make. And again, it, in, in every business makes change. I was just reading, um, um, a financial report for one of the largest companies, uh, publicly traded companies that is out there, uh, and they themselves in their, in their.

End of Q3, um, kind of public statement that they're making. They made really good money, but they were saying they were shedding billions of dollars leading into this because they could foresee the challenges coming ahead. So they're getting aware of it. So they were, they were soaring into it. They had good profitability and then all of a sudden, but they're recognizing that there's probably going to be a shift.

So they're trying to trim billions of dollars coming into, um, to the next season, of course, billions for big companies is just a percentage of everybody. But it's, it just reminded me of even in good times, we've got to be trimming our costs. That's why I think a lot of people put their head in their sand over the last couple of years and just said, well, the market will take care of it.

Well, now we're here. Get really real where you are. Again, that, that includes from a tactical perspective of how much money do I have? Like, what are my expenses look like? What does my pipeline look like? What does the sales funnel look like? What do I need to be doing for you? Right. Like that, how do I need to show up differently?

Right. And we can get into that, but it's first getting really weird, really weird, really. Um, aware as to where you are and love it and that, that second phase to that of loving it is just again of a way just to go. I love where I am. And like, again, you may not love where you are, but you can love the decisions that have made and it doesn't mean you have to continue to make those decisions.

So you can just, it's kind of like disconnecting it from what you've been made. Does that make sense?

[00:08:38] Adam: having to do it. Yeah. That's exactly, that's exactly right. Because if you have to go through it and you have to be aware of this, you might as well Every moment that you're doing it, because that is life, by the way.

People get so confused that they think that life is these moments that we want to feel good, but life is actually all the moments. It's the moments that are challenging. It's the moments that where we have to curb our expenses. It's the, it's the moments that we have to learn how to handle success. It's the moments that, you know, when good PR and bad PR, right?

Like it's, it's literally all of it. It's not what you can't just be like, Oh, I only want the good ones that I feel, because that's how, that's when you will suffer. And by the way, I think also be blinded in business because you're looking for only those and not recognizing that it's all a cycle. There's going to be both of those.

I don't care who you are. I mean, if you just look at the presidents of the United States going back to all of them, at best when they were done, they had like a 50 percent approval rating on average, right? So that means that half of them loved them and half of them didn't. The people that didn't, they all wrote books about how terrible they were.

And other people wrote books how great they were. So it's like, well, who's right? Right? And so it's, you're just, you just understand that, um, you don't know what's going on with that, but like, you just, you just have to get really, really, uh, aware of what that is and, and bring that clarity into the next step.

So number one is. Awareness and love where you're at, love where you're at, right? That's why if you ever get an email from me that says love how you live And it's not love where you live because that's putting that could say well If you lose that that could take away the joy that you have for it. Love how you live which isn't in How you're living in each moment, because that's really the only place that you can live.

And your email signature. Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah, so it's just, that's the only place that you can, you can really live there. Alright, so number two, once you're clear, um, from there, and once you've accepted that, you should start gaining some clarity into Q1. And the next step that's really important here is to bring things down and narrow the focus.

So really what you're doing, step one is being very aware of exactly where I am, exactly what it looks like, and I'm admitting it to myself. I'm sharing it, I'm talking about it, whatever that looks like. Number two is narrow the focus for yourself, and if you lead a team, for your team. What does that mean?

Yesterday we were on a state of the company call, and we had a handful of projects that were still 70 percent complete, right? And so basically the conversation Intailed of, well, let's take three of these and let's finish them, right? Because there's multiple leaders running different ones assigned to each different person before we look at the next three.

And if there are six that are outstanding here, what are the most important three that we're going to do? Collectively decide which is the most important three that are going to do there. And we don't touch the other ones until these three are done. We have to narrow the focus in what we have to do. And so that becomes number two.

As you come into Q1 is you have to narrow your focus. And that means saying no. to other things. And this is where people in business and in sales get really tripped up, is because they naturally want to go grab something that they feel is going to be easier, and somehow they're going to get a quicker sale from that.

Which, and then it doesn't really work that way though. And, and, and the people In their minds, what a lot of times people will do is that they will, they will start to buy into the thought that if I can just go do this because it feels different, it's going to be easier, it's going to produce a better outcome.

When the reality is staying focused on the most important things and narrowing the focus and saying no to everything else. And by the way, when you're saying no to those things, it doesn't mean they couldn't make money. So it doesn't mean they couldn't be cashflow positive. I always like to think of this as a scale whenever I explain this in business.

It's like, think of your energy output between a zero and a ten. Zero means that I'm doing this work and I'm not getting any output from it. And of course there's negatives too, right? But that's, those are easy to let go of. Where it gets really challenging for people, Caitlin, is they, once they start getting a three to four return on something, People rarely change what they're doing because they're making, in this, I find in this zone, they're making enough money that they're comfortable with it and then in order to get to a 5 in there, they have to stop doing something that they're doing there in order to make room for something else so they can show up and put a bigger focus on something that produces something larger.

As an example, in real estate, we see this pretty often where there's a certain price point that you're working with for a buyer and you. And you happen to get referrals and newbies and different things. And there's nothing wrong with that, but let's say you're at 180, 000 average sales price and you're maxed out and you tend to stay in this realm.

They had 90 days left. of Cash, and they're hemorrhaging cash. And Steve came in there with a whole new board and basically said, okay, let's bring it down to 10 items. They brought it down to 10, and then from the 10, they chose one, which was the, the iPod, right? And they put all their energy and focus in that.

Once you narrow that, then you have to put an action plan together of how to accomplish and celebrate the small victories along the way. Because when people are struggling, or people are, are Feel like this market will last forever, what they, they get caught in their mind telling them that it's going to be forever and so they can't seem to, they almost like get paralysis with this.

So this is where you have to go in and celebrate small victories and, and set, then the third thing would be, so the first one is you're aware, the second one is, is narrow your focus, the third one is getting, uh, uh, very clear on short term goals. That people can check off and accomplish. You know, if you've ever taken Dave Ramsey's courses before, one of the things that he likes to tell everybody to do is that when you look at all of your debt, like it's kind of like you're getting a game plan for your debt.

So you're aware of what all your debt is and what he always recommends to tell everybody to go off and pay off the littlest amount of debt that you have first. And the reason why that is, he goes, even if it's the lowest interest rate, even whatever it is, because what happens is when you go pay that off and you start seeing the momentum from that, you can cross that, say you had a 1, 200 credit card bill that you needed to pay off, you pay that off, it builds this massive momentum because you can see it, it's easier, you can cross it off, and that builds the momentum to take on a larger You know, debt that you need to, maybe your house or another credit card or medical bill, whatever it is, to be able to take on to it.

It's the same process here, when you're narrowing the focus, you then set smaller goals for individuals, uh, with the, the, knowing, I guess the better way of saying it is you set smaller actions that people can celebrate and win because what people are looking for is a way that their energy starts moving in the right direction.

And that's really what you're trying to do is move the snowball a little bit. Because when people are stuck, they're standing around. There's no snowball making. And when you start getting people in the action, it's creating the snowball and start building it down the line. I, I like to think of the definition of leadership, um, leadership is not an abstract concept or, you know, some fancy office.

Leadership is about getting others into a level of action that benefits them in the organization. So it's an actual, it's a verb, not necessarily a noun, uh, in the way I like to describe it. So if you think about that, it's like leadership is getting others to change their thinking so that the actions that they're doing benefit them in the organization.

It's, you know, we're talking about this in a business context, right? That is leadership. And so self leadership then refers to changing my thinking, which then changes my actions, which then changes the results that better myself. Which then in turn better the family, better the business, better anybody that you're coming in contact with.

[00:17:06] Adam: The, uh, the biggest stress that people have during these times is they don't have a plan. They don't have a plan, they don't know how to follow it, they don't know how to get out. And that creates a tremendous amount of mental suffering. And that's where, this is where those, those three main steps, we could break down into a fourth one, but the, this is where people really struggle, is because they don't They think they have a plan, but they really don't, right?

It's like, okay, they're still showing up and doing things, but nothing seems to be changing. So they get caught in this, like, I would, you can use a word like hopelessness almost, or like, oh my God, like what's even going to happen? And then it just, the cycle becomes a vicious cycle for people to be in, right?

So the minute you can say, okay, no more cycle of this way, I'm going to get, I'm going to get very aware, and I'm going to love exactly where I am. And what that does, it just breaks this, this energy pattern that you're in, right? It just stops you for a second and goes, I'm going to love it. And again, to your point, you could do this with physicality, right?

You could say, okay, I really noticed that I've, my pants don't fit anymore or whatever that is, or I tried to exercise and it was really difficult for me. You have to get really real and love where you're at, right? And so you get on the scale, you get really real. You love where that is, you've made decisions, now you have a plan, how do I take off 10 pounds or how do I increase my physical endurance or whatever that is for you.

The same process in business. It's the same thing. If you lack a plan right now, people will flee from your organization. Because people right now, particularly when challenging things are happening, people are looking for somebody, a leader, right, to tell them almost what to do. Without telling them what to do.

That's why when you sit down as a leader, you go, are we all aware of exactly where our team is? Are you aware where you're at? And that's why a one-on-one can sit down and you can say, you know, where you're at. What, where, what does this look like for you? What do, what do you need to do? What do you need to accomplish?

Like, what are your goals here? Um, forget about the, the goal question because people are always gonna, like, you can, you can forecast goals and goals are great. It's really the actions that you want. Again, it's, you can have a goal. So I'm not saying don't have goals because they're important. But what's more important during a time like this is what activities are my showing up and doing.

Just like if your goal is to lose 20 pounds, that's great. But if you're not showing up doing any of the activities that require yourself to get to that, it doesn't matter what your goal is because you're not going to do it. So, in my case, Uh, I always like to think about, again, in times of, of coming into it when there's more stress out there or more challenges, uh, in marketplaces, is to focus on the activities or the actions by getting aware of what, what you, what you've done in previously, what you have, getting clear on what the next path is that you're going to do, and then narrowing that focus Thanks.

That's not narrowing that focus is that step that we're talking about there, which is how do I take actions and make them goals? But they're activities that I'm doing as an example One of the things I shared with the team when they were a real estate team. They were having they're like, okay It looks like we're posting a loss the next two months.

Like what should I do here? And I said, well, okay great. You understand where you're at You accepted that, and they said yes, and so we walked through that. And I said, well, what do you think we need to do? We need to get more, more houses under contract. And I said, well, great. I said, okay, so now you have a goal, and they told me what the goal was.

And they said, well, how are you going to get there? And they're like, I don't know, that's why I'm talking to you. And I go, well, you know how to get there. How do you, how do you What's the first step that you need to do? They're like, well, we need to be in front of buyers and sellers. Okay, great. So that means that you need to be belly to belly face to face with consumers.

So then why don't you create a narrow the focus of going, okay, every person on the team, we're going to start tomorrow and we're going to have 25 individuals that we speak with, right? That's the, that's narrowing the focus. Now everyone walks in and you've laid the plan out. of what we're going to do for the next couple of months.

And today, just today, we're going to celebrate each one of us talking to 25 people. And it's just, and that builds on itself. Because now you, then, what do you do the next day? You do the same thing. You do the same thing. And then it starts to build on itself, right? It doesn't mean each day is going to be this monumental success.

But it is a, it is a, it's a consistency that matters more. It's also, when we use that word consistency, it's, it's consistency As a leader to show up and provide that direction and when I started this podcast was where I started a lot of conversations with business owners right now is over the last couple years people haven't needed that because success has come easy and so they've they've gotten lackadaisical.

On having to narrow focus, having to get clear, having to have priorities, and they've allowed themselves almost like to just kind of like sit back. And it's almost like they're waiting for that, this next wave to just push them all forward and make them successful. And I'm going, that's not going to happen, right?

It's not going to happen. Just like we were enjoying the two to three years. And again, I would say most industries experienced a tremendous, you know, gift of, of, Of money floating into the marketplaces, um, and that benefit everybody. From housing, to things, to widgets, to Amazon, to, again, Barnes Noble. Like, I mean, you just, you saw it, right?

So now, on the other side of that, everything runs in a cycle. So now you're kind of going in this opposite cycle, but now is the time that we have to get clear. By the way, the other thing to remember, to remind yourself in this is, everything always passes. Everything always passes, just like every emotion you've ever had has gone away, hasn't it?

Even the best of emotions have gone away, if it's tied to something outside. That's a different conversation. But the, the thing, the worldly things that are turning you on and off, the things that are happening outside, whether again, there could be a very big challenge that came in and that emotion has gone, right?

There could be a really big success that came in and that emotion has gone. They always come and go, there's a cycle to everything in life. It's the same thing, there's a cycle in business. Ray Dalio, I think, is one of the, um, best individuals that describes cycles. I mean, he talks about this in his book, Principles, and he's been an economist to many presidents and, and chief of staffs, um, out there because he looks at everything as a cycle, and it's the same thing.

So when the cycle went up over the last couple of years, and this is why everyone was predicting recessions, right? Because The cycle went up, and now we're seeing the contraction point. Just like you breathe in, at some point you breathe out, right? And now we're just on that lower line of what that looks like of the contraction point.

And now we need to realize though, instead of getting caught thinking it's going to last forever like this, it won't. And then we have to remember, remember this and then when you get into a better cycle to remember to not get lazy again because that's what people do. The best business leaders that are out there stay consistent in any market.

They stay consistent and they're always playing and playing defense on the next market they're about to play into. So again, if you're in a really good market, you start cutting costs. And they go, why would you cut costs? Because you're cutting costs because you know you're about to play in the next market.

Now, when you're in a bad market and you start to see, or a challenging market, you start to see yourself coming out of there, good companies may double down. They may start spending a little bit more money because they know that's going to break what everyone else is trying to, Pull back expenses, which you should do, but then you should allocate expenses in the right areas to be prepared for when it takes off again.

Because what will happen, the minute the market starts going up, if you haven't built the foundation, the systems, models, and tools to expand yourself, then when the market starts to rise, you're only going to catch a little bit of that. It'd be like if, like, you're trying to get water and you're running around cupping your hands trying to grab the amount of water that's coming from the, Uh, from coming from the sky versus like setting off a, a pool, like how much more are you going to catch of water?

So at the end of the storm, who's going to have more water? And it's the same thing, but one person didn't have to build the pool. The other person is, you know, building a pool for months ahead. And that's the differences between organizations that really thrive and take tons of market share is the ones that are prepared.

So the, the fourth kind of step that I, that I alluded to earlier. It's really about setting the stage for the next wave of growth, because it always comes. It always comes. And knowing, and by doing that, by the way, you're also showing your team that you know you're going to pull through. Not only are you going to pull through, that you're going to survive this, you can thrive in this.

And you can continue to push through.

Even though you can't see it, you're taking those micro actions are what's going to benefit you 90, 120 days

And so it's the same thing. It's like, cause downtimes, if you had all nothing but uptimes, nobody would get lean, nobody would. You know, we'd be in like the markets that we've been in. So like there's a proper flow of that. There needs to be a struggle. So businesses reorient themselves to repurpose themselves to remove, you know, individuals who are just sitting there.

So those individuals can go have an impact somewhere else, right? There's a whole cycle to this and there's a reason just like every. Fall, the trees lose their leaves, right? So there's a whole process that takes place there. So business cycles follow the same thing and there's a winter for business and it's, you can, it can be beautiful.

And that's the thing, if you accept it and allow that and you're in this winter moments, which we are in and you just, you love the fact that there's bare trees, right? You love the fact that they're, you know, that it's colder out when you walk outside. You're just embracing it, you just, you You know, the market itself or the challenges out there have no right to take away your joy for how you respond to it.

And that's kind of like my mancho whenever I go through this from a business standpoint is the market or whatever challenge is happening externally has no right to be able to take away The, the inner peace that I'm going to have in my life. It just doesn't. It doesn't mean I don't feel it. It's just, I'm not going to pay attention to it.

It doesn't mean that anger or frustration doesn't show up. It does. It just means that you're not going to pay attention to it. It doesn't mean that your ego is not screaming for wanting it to be differently. It does. You just don't pay attention to it. That's what I mean by it doesn't mean. And so they come and go, right?

They come and go versus somebody that's basking in that negativity. That is always there, by the way, and you'll find that, so it's like, remember that the market, the challenges that are there never has the right to take away your inner peace, right, which I would then argue, the more inner peace that you have, the more clarity you have, the easier it is to make decisions.

The better direction you'll take your organization, right? All of those things just become, become easier because you're, you're more attuned to it. Um, and I was talking with a, um, uh, a doctor last night and he emailed me and he said, and his last line was, nature, trust in nature. Nature will always take care of you because it always has and always will.

And it's the same type of thing, right? Nature always will and always has taken care of each one of us, by the way. I mean, how many times have you gotten sick and did you really fix it yourself? Right. I mean, how many times is your heartbeat every single day and you're really making that happen? Or how many times does the sun come up every single morning?

Right? Or it doesn't really go down. You get my point, right? You're just not doing any of it right. We just so we trust in so much. We trust that there's gonna be oxygen. We trust the fact that we're not gonna fall off the earth because of gravity. We trust the fact there's gonna be enough water. There's trust.

The fact that there's gonna be enough food for us to eat. We trust in so much that make our lives possible. But then we get to these things that are. I would argue that are seemingly inconsequential, right? Like in terms of like how much money you make. And again, I understand money is a mechanical thing and you need to do that.

But we, we get so caught up in those little things and we forget the perspective of how much we put into, uh, trust into everything else. And that's what he meant by the nature of trust. It's not like a woo woo thing of like, Oh my God, I've got to fall back into nature. No, you're already doing it. That's, that's, you're already trusting in all of this entire process.

So then you just trust into the economic cycles and you trust into the process and business as well too, while taking proper action. And if you do, you'll ultimately, you not only will survive, but you'll thrive, particularly when, when markets are shift. If you look, again, the Great Depression was a great example of this.

More people became millionaires during that time, right, than any other time in history. One of the hardest times is because those people that took advantage, they built a pool, they collected more water, so therefore they had a lot more to be able to, um, gain as soon as the, the market opened up. And it's the same thing here.

If you get really aware of where you are, right, if that leads to clarity, right, you narrow your focus, and the fourth one is you just really kind of trust into that process, um, of what it is. And if you're able to do those four things, then you'll have extreme clarity coming into Q1, and you'll also have a plan.

That people can follow and that you can follow so that you can succeed in any market.