Storms of Adversity 

What is going on? My friends, Mike Walker here.

Welcome to another episode of the Wealthy Consultant Podcast. I'm so glad you're here with me today. I wanna share with you some insights that are drawn directly from the front lines. From the front lines of being in business. And, and with that being on the front lines comes challenges, that's where the, the rough stuff happens.

Okay? And I had a phenomenal conversation with one of our chamber clients, the highest tier consultancy we do here at the Wealthy Consultant. And this conversation, obviously I will be respectful of his privacy and about his business and everything like that, but I wanna share some insights, some, some stuff that I shared with him on this conversation that I've learned the hard way through the blood, sweat, and tears along the way in the last two decades of being in the biz space myself, and also drawn from, you know, mentors, books and all the other things along the way, obviously.

Um, but I wanna share some insights with you because.  It is an interesting thing. A lot of business owners that I've had the opportunity to mentor and coach over the years. It's, it's pretty common for them to come at you when things are not going so good. And so, you know, inevitably I'm gonna help, I'm gonna be working with clients when they're going through tough stuff.

And that's, that's my pleasure. And I'm, I'm, I'm blessed to be able to do that. But there are some interesting elements that I wanna share with you that I think will, um, help you sidestep some of the, the typical kind of mindset stuff that goes along with dealing with these challenges. And the number one thing is to.

First and foremost, expect the challenge, like the business of business is solving problems. That's what we do here. And yes, we wanna make the money. Yes, we wanna make the impact. And yes, we're passionate about what we do and all the good things, and that's awesome. But at the end of the day, if you are solving big problems, you can ask big prices in the marketplace.

But. That means dealing with hard things, it means it's not gonna be easy. No one said, Hey, this whole like, entrepreneur thing or, or leadership thing. Wherever you may find yourself right now in your career, no one said that was gonna be easy, right? So number one, just expect it to be difficult. And you think, oh, Mike, how profound is that?

I know, but check this out. Just hear me out here.  I walk into the office for the day, right? Hey Mike, we've got this going on and this happened, and then this crashed and, and this thing goes planned. What could I do? Well, first instinct would be like, oh my God, look at all these problems and like, I'm freaking out.

I'm stressed out and look at all these things that are going wrong. Right? That's, that's how I could approach it. Or I could go, whoa, yeah, there's a lot going on. Okay, what's the number one problem solve right this second? That's the priority. Okay. What do we gotta do? Yeah, that's sucks. I do not, I'm not happy about it.

I'm not saying suggest that I'm just like happy in roses everywhere, but I am like. Yeah, but that's what we do here. Like why am I surprised that there's a problem? A lot of people kind of like when they come in and you know, whether we're on like a coaching call or something, they kinda got these like.

Glassy eyes a little bit and they're just kind of wary and you can tell, like it is almost like the market just came off and like bitch slapped 'em, you know? And they're all surprised by it. Like, oh my God, like what happened? There's something wrong. It's like, no, there's nothing wrong. It's called being in business.

Like that's what we do here. Don't be surprised that it's hard. Don't be surprised that you're dealing with some tough shit. Like that's the business, that's the game. Okay, so just number one, as simplistic as that sounds, just because it sounds simple doesn't mean it's, it's easily applied. And so I just want really want to impress upon you the idea like.

Don't be surprised when it gets difficult. Just go, oh, man. Yeah. Okay. This is one of those things, huh? All right. Game on. Let's go. Okay. Just that little mental switch can really, really help The, the second idea I wanna leave you with is the concept of just zooming out. I. This is what I've shared before, but it's worth repeating.

And that is a lot of people can kind of start looping and just spiraling down like, oh man, this isn't going good. And then this season is just awful and the quarter didn't go as planned. And, you know, and, and they just really get down on themselves and, and what, where your focus goes.  Energy flows, right?

And so you just naturally just start getting drawn in like a black hole to this negativity loop. And that's a dangerous place to be because you're not gonna come up with good solutions in that state. Plain and simple, right? And so my, my encouragement for anybody who's like really kind of dealing with the moment, the challenge, the season.

Is to, Hey, hey, stop for a second and just zoom out a little bit. Like, is this a momentary dip or is this a true systemic trajectory of your path? Like, zoom out a little bit and you might realize, oh yeah, well this has just been a tough week, or, wow, yeah, okay. This month hasn't gone as planned, but actually the quarter's trending pretty well.

Or zoom out even further if you have to and go, yeah, this quarter's not,  not great, not great at all. But you know what? Year over year we're still looking pretty, the good, right? Or, you know, if you really, really have to zoom out and go, okay, are you better than you were 10 years ago? Right? Like, do, are you smarter?

Are you a better human? Are you more fit? Are you sharper? Have you, are you making more of an impact than you are than you were 10 years ago? For your sake, I hope that you the answer is yes. If it's not well.  Day one, guess what? You get to start right now and make a different change. You can't fix something if you don't know it's broken in the first place.

So my encouragement is simply that it, when you find yourself in a really rough moment, make sure that it's not all doom and gloom. Like zoom out a little bit and just understand. Yeah, but is this. Again, is this systemic, like a true trajectory pivot that we've really gotta watch out for? Or is this just simply a dip in the the moment, like it's just part of the season, right?

Because the reality is there's gonna be things in the marketplace that you don't dictate the macroeconomics, the, the uncertainties of the world and all the things that go along with it. Even just the seasonality of the months going by and people's work schedules and all the things that go with it. I mean, the reality is there's a lot of unknown unknowns and variables that you can't control when it comes to the entrepreneurial and the business development equation, and so I just want to remind you that.

You gotta be careful what you kind of latch onto as your truth in the moment. And sometimes just zooming out a little bit and seeing the bigger picture and realizing that, yes, you're in a dip. I'm not suggesting that's good or bad, or, or, or, or otherwise. Honestly. It's just part of the journey. And when you kind of zoom out a little bit, you go, yeah, that's that big dip that I'm experiencing is actually pretty small over the longer curve.

Okay. So just a concept to remember. Again, one of those things that when you're in the moment can be hard to remember. And so I'm trying to press upon it to you now so that when you need it, you've got it. All right. Another thing I shared with him was the importance of journaling during this period. Now a lot of people are like, ah, journaling, okay.

Yeah. And they, they probably will even subscribe to the concept being like a good idea, but that doesn't mean that they do it. And so what I, again, I want to encourage you to have a.  A, a regular habit of journaling, but that doesn't mean that you have to sit there with pen and pad and you know, oh dear, dear myself, you know, and long written out words.

You don't have to do that. It literally could be two sentences or, you know, a few types of a keyboard for the day. Like, man, this day has been really difficult. Not really excited today. Send, that's it. Right? But just the, the habit of recording where you were, because then you can reflect back and you're going through a good season and you're kind of reviewing back and you go, oh wow.

How is like really in a bad place last month, man? Like, what was I so freaked out about? Right? Well, what does that do? It proves to you that you can weather those storms. It proves to you, oh wow. Like, look, I'm still living like I made it. Right? And so the next time you deal with a negative thing, you're like, ah. 

I, I think I'm gonna be okay. Like, yeah, I'm, I'm not happy right now, but I've been here before and I know I'm gonna get through it. See you, you. But you have to train your mind to see that you have to prime your brain to acknowledge that there have been things that you've weathered before. And one of the best ways to do that is to record it.

And so. Again, in the interest of drawing from the lesson, apply it and make sure that you capture that. And one of the easiest ways to do it is either voice note into your phone, into some kind of note app that you like. I. Um, another one is you could simply record on your screen, like record yourself, use Loom or whatever tool you want.

That's a big one because you can see yourself visually and, and kind of tell where you are beyond the words you're saying, but the, the energy that you're evoking, um, that's a kind of a cool way to do it. But either way, whatever you, what, whatever methodology that you decide on, decide on it when you don't need it, when you're not like, oh, maybe I should go journal, like decide on it when you are inspired to do it, but then stick to it.

And if you can hit it every day, awesome. If you can't make it every other day, if you can't do that, make it once a week, but do something consistently. So at least you begin to build a pipeline, a, a bridge that you can look back on and go, oh look, these are these mile markers along the way. Really, really powerful, especially if you are in any type of business development or leadership capacity.

It's a really, really powerful way to do it. I honestly don't know any of the brightest minds in history that didn't journal on in some regard. Like it's just, it's SOP baby standard operating procedure. So I would encourage you to do it. It's, uh, it sounds simple, but that doesn't mean that it's not powerful.

Okay. Now. The second piece of that though is the importance of sharing what you learn. Do not go through a hard season better, stronger, smarter, something better on the other side. Do not waste a bad season by coming out the other end. Just having said, I survived, I made it, I held my breath long enough and didn't die.

Like, no, no, no. Make sure you get through a negative challenge. A, a hurdle. Again, a bad season, whatever it is, make sure you come out the other side with lessons extracted. Those lessons extracted, number one, will keep you from repeating what you, whatever it was that you just experienced, but number two, we have to remember that a lot of the things that happen to us aren't even exclusively just for us.

They are to give us the authority to speak on that Pacific, whatever it is, and then share it into the world. We are like a mirror just reflecting back what we have experienced and we can blast that out into the marketplace, into the world, and make it better for other people. It's one of the things I'm most passionate about being in the consulting space is because it's allowing me to extract from the. 

All the challenges, the ups and downs and everything in between that I've experienced over the last two plus decades of my own entrepreneurial journey. And I'm allowing, I'm pulling my decades and turning them into days for others. I'm getting them onto their fastest path to profit by being able to sidestep a lot of the mistakes that I've made along the way.

It's a great rewarding thing, and that's the, that's where I wanna kinda latch on here with this concept for you is that as soon as you can take a negative season, a really difficult. Even a heartbreaking element of life, business, whatever it may be that you're dealing with, and flip that around for the benefit of others.

It immediately detaches you from the negative energy of it, and it allows it to become an asset instead of a negative liability from the past. It's a big, big piece of being able to move forward when you can turn these. Again, tough times into a benefit for someone else. Like it's almost immediate. The second you can begin sharing the insights, the lessons that you learned with others.

Hey guys, like I was dealing with this. It was tough. I didn't know if I was gonna make it, but then I did this and then I did that and I talked to Mike for a little bit. We got some ideas together and then we did, I decided to do 1, 2, 3, and now here I am. Right, like you immediately turn all of that negativity.

It could be months of a negative season and turn it into like just one powerful, powerful message that you can share in the world. And that will absolutely elevate you with the authority to speak into that for others. And I, I know it'll bless you. It'll bless a lot of people. And of course you'll become stronger for the, for doing it as well.

Let me leave you real quick here with a, a quote from Jim Collins. I really like it 'cause it summarizes everything that I've been talking about today. The difference between an ordinary entrepreneur and an extraordinary one isn't found in hand how they handle success. It's not found in how they handle success.

It is found in how they extract from the seasons of difficulty. I. Extracting from the seasons of difficulty. Do not go through a difficult season without having to extracted the value from it just because it's difficult. Just because it's challenging. Just because it doesn't even bring you to your knees sometimes does not mean that it's not valuable, and it might even become one of the most powerful, powerfully positive things that's ever even occurred to you and into your life or your business.

All right, so again. Anyone can win in an easy season. Anybody? Money, easy street. Everything's flowing. Everyone's happy and, and confident. Good for you. But guess what? It's the exceptional entrepreneurs are the ones that weather the storm. They stay on a true path regardless of the waves and, and the, the winds of adversity.

They, they stay true to their course. That my friend is the sign of a true, exceptional entrepreneur, and I hope that this message today resonates for you. And if you know somebody else, share this. Because although these are, you know, first principles, they are absolutely fundamental to, to weathering the, the, the storms that inevitably are gonna hit you If you're not in one.

Now, I guarantee you, buddy, you're gonna be in one soon and I wanna make sure that you weather that storm efficiently and powerfully. And, uh, and some of these takeaways, I I hope that you apply them into your life today. All right. Awesome guys. Thanks for joining me today. We'll see you on another episode soon.

God bless. Take care. We'll see you soon. Take care. Bye-bye.