Episode Transcript
Hey everyone, and welcome to Simple Wins. I’m your host, Adam, and today’s episode is a bit of a deep dive into my own business psyche. Like many of you, I keep a close eye on the economic headlines—inflation, interest rates, market jitters—and if I’m being totally honest, it can sometimes create a low-grade hum of anxiety in the back of my mind. It’s easy to feel like we’re at the mercy of these huge, external forces that we have zero control over.
So, I was doing what I often do when I need a dose of clear-headed, strategic thinking: I was watching a video from Marie Forleo. And this one hit home. It was titled around strategies for thriving in a down economy, and she laid out a framework that was so profoundly simple and yet so powerful, it completely reframed my entire perspective. It was one of those moments where you think, ""Why have I been focusing on *that*, when I should have been focusing on *this* all along?""
So today, I want to share with you what I learned from Marie. This isn't a recap; this is me working through these concepts for myself, on air, and explaining why they hit me so hard.
Let’s start with the big, foundational shift. Marie immediately draws a distinction that I think is the most important starting point for any business owner. She talks about the two types of threats we face: external threats and internal threats.
She defines **external threats** as, and I’m quoting her here: *“things like inflation, wars, interest rates, stock market drops, climate events, and as always, politics.”* Sound familiar? That’s basically the nightly news. And of course, she says, *“it's important to know what's happening in the world around you. This is not what you should be focusing on. Why? Because none of that is within your control.”*
Boom. Right there. That was my first wake-up call. How much mental energy do I, do we, spend worrying about the Fed’s next move or the political drama in Washington? A lot. And what does that worry produce? As Marie puts it, focusing on what you can't control *“makes you fearful, depressed, more likely to make stupid decisions and give up.”* It’s a terrible use of our time and energy, especially when things are already tough.
So, if we shouldn’t be focusing on the external, where should our laser focus go? On **internal threats**. She describes these as *“weaknesses and vulnerabilities that exist in your business right now that you can control.”* This, she says, is where the magic—and the safety—lies. *“Internal threats, especially during tough times, those are both your biggest risks and your biggest opportunity for growth. They can either take you out or take you up.”*
Take you out, or take you up. I love that. It frames our business vulnerabilities not as shameful secrets to hide, but as the very levers we can pull to propel ourselves forward. So, with that new mindset, let’s get into the three uncommon strategies she laid out. The first one is all about identifying your single points of failure.
Marie calls this **“The Most Dangerous Number in Business.”** And that number is One. *“Meaning one source of leads, one source of revenue, or especially one team member who you could not function without.”*
This one hit home. I thought about my own business. For a long time, I was reliant on one primary channel for leads. If that channel had ever dried up, I would have been in serious trouble. But Marie takes it a step further to something I hadn’t considered as critically: the people. She gives the example: *“does one person have the keys to your technological kingdom? Heaven forbid they get stuck somewhere and there's no internet and you are in the middle of a launch. Are you fooled? or worse, is there a contractor that has you by the balls? Somebody who just might say, 'Oh, by the way, my rates are tripling next week.'”*
She mentions that she’s been there, and that it’s not fun. I bet it isn’t. It’s a vulnerability. And she quotes a Navy Seals saying that I’d heard before but never applied to business: *“Two is one and one is none.”* The redundancy isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s a survival mechanism. The bottom line, she says, is that *“you do have single points of failure in your business right now. And if you don't lessen those risks, at some point, you're going to get blindsided.”*
Her action step for this is so simple and direct. She says, *“I want you to make a list of the top five things that keep you up at night about your business. Is it one source of leads? Is it too much reliance on one marketing channel? Or is there anyone on your team, either internally or externally, who has you by the balls? Write it down. Then figure out what can you do right now to protect yourself against those risks.”*
After listening to that, I opened a notebook and I started my list. It was uncomfortable, but it was also empowering. Because these are things I *can* actually do something about.
Okay, strategy number two. This one is about financial resilience, and she frames it with a perfect analogy. She asks, *“Why does a bear fat itself up before winter? Because it needs extra resources when supplies are scarce.”*
For us, that resource is cash. We’ve all heard “cash is king,” but Marie makes it brutally practical. *“Meaning for small business owners like us, this is no time to run out of cash. Look, I know money doesn't solve every problem, but let's be honest, it solves a lot.”* I laughed at that because it’s so true.
So, how much is enough? She poses the critical question: *“if all your revenue stopped today, do you have enough cash on hand to run the business for the next 6 months? Could you handle payroll and overhead and just keep the lights on? If not, aim for that.”* Then she adds her own personal benchmark: *“Personally, I like to keep about a year of operating expenses in cash on hand at all times so that no matter what surprises might be around the corner, and there's always another one, we can weather that storm.”*
And she’s not alone. She points out that from day one, Bill Gates insisted Microsoft have enough cash to survive for 12 months with zero revenue. That’s a powerful precedent.
But how do you actually build that cushion, especially when money might be tight? This is where I learned her fantastic **“make more, save more method.”**
Step one: Make more. And she suggests a highly efficient way to do it: *“Challenge yourself to make more money now by making better, more irresistible offers, especially to existing customers. Why them? Because existing customers already know, like, and trust you. Plus, there's way more profit margin with existing rather than new customers because you do not need to factor in customer acquisition costs.”*
This is such a golden nugget. We often chase new customers, but the lowest-hanging fruit is the audience that already believes in us. She insists that *“there's always a certain percentage of everyone's audience, including yours right now, that would love to give you more money if only you would create something that solves more of their problems.”*
Step two in the method is **Save more**. This is about scrutinizing your expenses. She tells a story about a friend who did a financial audit and found over $100,000 a year in savings on software and vendor costs. *“You multiply that by 5 years, that's a half millie,”* she says. On her team, they have a mantra: *“saving money is like making money.”* They comb through statements every month to *“trim cost and cut the bloat.”* She says they *“run a lean, mean, money-making machine,”* and that we can do the same.
The action step here is to go look at your numbers. How much runway do you have? And if it’s not enough, how can you use the make more, save more method? She promises that *“the compounding effect of both making more and saving more… quickly snowballs into a more resilient business and much bigger bottom line.”*
Now, the third strategy. Marie says this is the one nobody talks about, but she thinks it’s the most important. And it’s not about systems or cash flow; it’s about **people**. But not in the way you might think. She starts with a story about a snowstorm in her town, where neighbors came together to help each other shovel driveways and check on the elderly. Her point? *“when things get tough, the best way to ensure that you not only survive, but you thrive, is to never go at it alone. The key to winning in business is staying close to the right people.”*
She breaks this down into three parts. First, **uplevel your inputs.** This is about your mindset diet. *“Garbage in, garbage out,”* she says. *“Who do you get your information from on how to grow your business? Is it some rando on Tik Tok? ...Or are you learning from someone with a solid, proven track record over time?”*
This part was a gut check for me. It’s so easy to get sucked into the frantic, fear-based content that algorithms sometimes push our way. But Marie makes a stunningly important point: *“Whether you like this or not, 80% of your success is your psychology. No business can ever outgrow or outperform its owner's mindset.”* Let me repeat that: *No business can ever outgrow or outperform its owner's mindset.* That is a monumental truth. So, upleveling your inputs—being mindful of who and what you’re listening to—isn’t self-help fluff; it’s strategic necessity.
Second, **uplevel your business buddies.** She describes her own practice: *“anytime I hit an obstacle or I just get sucker punched in my business, I send a text or I make a call. Hey, you know anybody great at building funnels? Hey, who are you using for ads right now?”* This is about having a trusted network you can rely on for real-world advice and support. Her warning is stark: *“if you don't think that your network directly affects how much money you make, how fast you grow, and how your business performs, you're fooling yourself.”* She tells us not to be the *“dead lone wolf,”* and to go to events, sign up for courses, and get better business buds.
Third, and this is brilliant, **uplevel your connection with customers.** *“Now is really the time to increase and improve your customer communication. Why is that? Because people are cutting back. So, you got to make yourself more essential to their lives, not less.”*
How? She says to ask ourselves: *“how can you shower your customers with some extra perks right now? How can you show them even more love and care and attention?”* Maybe it’s a special insider event or an exclusive deal. The goal is to *“position yourself as a must-have part of their lives.”* Because when times are tough, it’s within our control to make ourselves so invaluable that customers refuse to cut back on us.
She ends with a powerful piece of encouragement: *“Whatever you do during these times, do not give up. Do not go at this alone. You've worked so hard to get where you are. Don't let that slip... keep going for your dreams because the world really does need that very special gift that only you have.”*
So, what did I learn from Marie Forleo today? I learned to stop focusing on the storm outside that I can’t control, and to start fortifying the house I’m in. I learned to hunt down the dangerous “number ones” in my business and create redundancy. I learned a concrete method to “fatten up” my cash reserves by making more from my existing audience and saving more by cutting bloat. And most importantly, I learned that my mindset and my network are not secondary to my success; they are the very foundation of it. It’s about going from a mindset of fear about external threats to a mindset of empowered action on internal opportunities.
It was a masterclass in shifting from reactive to proactive. And it’s a lesson I definitely needed.
Thank you for listening. I’m Adam OLeary, and I’ll see you in the next episode.
