#131 — When the Walls Close In — Emergency Pod

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For profitable, large businesses, a downturn can be great for recruiting and retaining talent as there is a flight to safety and security. For small businesses that have focused manically on profitability from day one, a downturn in the market is also managed relatively well. This is in comparison to technology startups that often have to spend years building the product before they can monetize or spend the first few chapters of the company's life focusing on growth over revenue maximization. This means that in an economic downturn, these startups are the most vulnerable to shifting markets, especially those that are dependent on outside capital.  Living in this provisional existence, where you seemingly require outside resources to continue building towards your dream is extremely stressful for a founder or leadership team. It's hard to think of a time in one's professional career where it could be any more stressful given the vulnerability built into the model of an early stage startup, built with the help from venture capital and investors that believe in the vision before the profits sustain it. This is not the resource for how to logistically execute a playbook in a down market. This is the resource for how to manage one's own psychology, as well as the psychology of the team around them when building and leading a business like a technology startup in the midst of massively changing economic headwinds.  In this episode, I outline tactics like getting comfortable with the worst case scenario and order to maximize the chances of the best case scenario, as well as outlining the five guidelines for managing and optimizing your psychology in the midst of circumstances that will present a fog of war type of scenario for most leaders. In short, I put this together for you to avoid that latter scenario area.  The guidelines have more details within the episode, but they are here below as well for you to reference.   

1. Assess and set proper expectations for yourself and the team.   2. Find and orient towards the higher ideal.   3. Manage your mental wealth.   4. Question everything, especially your own assumptions going into this new environment.   5. Truth in community.   Please let me know what I may have missed in the comments and share this with any founder or creator that may be going through the extremely intense situation of feeling like the walls are closing in on them. And if you are a creator in this scenario, please reach out to me on Twitter or Instagram if there's a way I can help.   https://twitter.com/jamesbeshara https://www.instagram.com/jamesjbeshara

Hit the show hotline and leave a question or comment for the show at 424-272-6640, email James questions directly at askbelowtheline@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/gobelowtheline

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About your host, James: James Beshara is a founder, investor, advisor, author, podcaster, and encourager based in Los Angeles, California. James has created startups for the last 12 years, selling one (Tilt, acquired by Airbnb), and invested in a few multi-billion dollar startups to date. He has spoken at places such as Y-Combinator, Harvard Business School, Stanford University, TechCrunch Disrupt, and has been featured in outlets like the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Fortune Magazine, and Time Magazine. He’s been featured in Forbes, Time, and Inc Magazine’s “30 Under 30” lists and advises startups all around the world. All of this is his “above the line” version of his background. Hear the other 90% of the story in the intro episode of Below The Line.

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