This time last year I lost three major clients, every marketing conference was cancelled and a $250k contract was taken off the table after a handshake...

All in less than 24 hours.

Here’s a few lessons that I learned on how to manage stress & navigate chaos

Share Your L’s With The Team

The team heard all the bad news.

And it rallied them more than it deflated them.

For some reason, CEOs often allow ego to get in the way and they’ll paint a rosy picture of a situation even when it’s a mess.

When you’re transparent with your team; a few things happen:

1) The stars step up to the plate
2) Relationships get stronger
3) Trust becomes more than a ‘value’ in a slide deck
4) You avoid that awkward blindside if things get worse & people need to be let go

Maintain A Long Term Mindset

We were 24 hours from launching a project that would’ve completely messed up our positioning in the market.

We pursued the idea aggressively until we came to a conclusion that it would be a short term win w/ long term pain.

We didn’t launch it.

My investment portfolio completely tanked and every time trading halted I had a rush of 2008 feelings all over again. But I didn’t sell...

I remembered this chart and told myself to zoom out.

Do Whatever It’s Gonna Take

It’s a narrative violation on Twitter to say hustle and doing the work is key but this time last year I worked weekends & late nights.

I was dreaming about work.

Was it healthy? Nope.

But it had to be done to avoid layoffs and sustain momentum.

Make Time For Tea Parties

Amidst the chaos these random tea parties gave me a much needed break from the inbox and acted as a constant reminder of my Why.

Find your own motivation outside of work and make time for it.

Don’t Be Afraid To Get Support

Shout out to grandparents.

There’s no question that we lucked out with childcare by having our parents nearby. They essentially moved in and helped us.

You have to be humble enough to ask for help and embrace it.

Forever grateful.

Be Empathetic With Your Partners

When that overdue accounts receivables list began to grow my gut wanted to bang on doors, charge late fees and lose my mind.

But I took a deep breath... Did some yoga and was empathetic. Scopes eventually expanded & relationships strengthened.

Avoid The Struggleympics

We kept our foot on the gas. We kept creating content, launching new products & building.

Some people got mad.

“Read the room” and “Don’t you get tired of always being on” showed up in my inbox a few times.

Struggle loves company. Ignore it.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of wanting to just complain and be negative amidst chaos.

It’s hard to stay positive and keep doing the work.

But hard things pay the best return.

Experiment With New Things

This time last year we started to create in-depth teardowns of SaaS companies doing marketing right.

These assets take a TON of research and writing work. These assets also changed our business and have resulted in massive wins. https://twitter.com/thecoolestcool/status/1344644059445530625

Be Kind To Yourself

I’m my biggest critic. But when things are rough — you really gotta switch your mindset and start being your own biggest cheerleader.

I had a sticky note that said:

“You’ve got this” on my laptop all 2020. It kept me focused.

Lastly Surround Yourself With Great People

Beyond having brilliant Foundationites in my corner like @nicoledawnj @joshgallantco @Cali_Barnstead — I’m lucky to have build an amazing network online and offline. So many of you kept me inspired and on task.

Thank you for that.

Most importantly... Just keep smiling. None of us will get outta this wild thing called life alive so enjoy it and ride the wave.

Here’s hoping that the rest of this decade is the best of this decade.

Much love