EPISODE 23 PART II How Business will Change After Covid19 Coronavirus

This is Part 2 of a 2 part series recorded in a live radio show called El Sassa, about How Businesses Will Change after Covid 19 Coronavirus.  Radio and podcast host Sassa and I discuss the current impacts of Coronavirus in our business communities, the government loans and what business owners are facing waiting for that….how services like Uber and Lyft or hair and nail salons might transform.  Very importantly, how to decide what to do next in your business – such as how to decide – what businesses are thriving right now, how to deal with fear and the fear of failure and finding strength from trying and finding successes when you don’t quit.  I talk about digital solutions that you can try if you want to succeed in a new area of competency.

Sassa:

Let's talk about this loan, this government funds there, the loans that people are supposed to be receiving. Can you just tell me what do you think about these big change like route Roots Steakhouse, Del Frisco, Popbelly, I could keep going for a couple of... Getting 40,000,000 20,000,000 10,000,000. How do you feel about that? You got small businesses like yours and mine's and many other small little businesses that we actually went out of business waiting on this. I mean, what do you think about that? I mean, do you think that things are going to be different on this new second role that they're doing?

Well, I think absolutely that... My full understanding, I found out first about it for my CPA, she sent an email out to me, my business and several other of her clients that are small businesses and said, "Hey, just so you know, you can apply for this loan. Which actually isn't a loan because, it doesn't have to be paid back. But it's being called... Everyone knows what it means. It is money that's given to you to help your business survive and pay your employees." So it was intended for the small businesses and the mid-sized businesses, not the huge revenue making businesses. So if that was the intention, then there should have been check boxes. I can't remember every question-

They should have separated. Right? I think they should have allocated them differently. Because I mean, they get public help already probably, because of the... They trade in the public. But again, one of them gave the money back, so that was this hamburgers chain, I think fast food restaurant. Shark, I think it's called. Oh, Shake Shack.

Okay.

Yeah. They gave the $10,000,000 back. So that's good because they say, "You know what, I'm giving it back." Yeah. But you gave it back because you got another loan from the equity partners here. If they were not giving it, you probably would have kept it. And you know what, you have enough money. You have 100 stores in the whole United States to be able to survive. Small businesses who've saved all their lives' savings, they pretty much lost everything. They have to restart. That doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to get back in business and running 100% the first day it opens. Correct?

Well, another thing about a large business with a lot of revenue and capital is preparation for emergency or I forget what the word is for this that we're in, but there were data models that showed that Bill Gates predicted this in a TED Talk a few years ago that this was the number one thing that we had to worry about. Instead, our global economy and business world was focused on cyber terror and cyber construction, obstruction rather of privacy and privacy now is taking off. I'm not saying that it's massively important, but unfortunately we overlooked that this was coming. I do believe that the larger businesses, because they have more revenue, they should be able to allocate and prepare better. Just like a lot of them haven't done a great job at customer experience satisfaction because they're not transforming in the digital world fast enough to meet consumers needs.

I talk like that because I come from Forrester Research of six years and I know this is true because I sat in the meetings and heard the executives of these gigantic companies talk about it. I'm not saying it's easy, but I do believe that the larger businesses with more revenue should be able to prepare better for if something goes wrong and there is a disaster of some sort, whether it's environmental, economic, technical, war, whatever it is to have some runway with being able to stay afloat. Whereas the small businesses don't have that cashflow or they would be a large business, right? So, the small and mid-sized businesses are trying to get to levels where they can save more and invest more in things that can keep them going when there is a disaster.

That's try. I'm going to tell you maybe, if there's 15 businesses that are striving during COVID-19, Coronavirus. So I'm going to share some of them for you, so you know this and you can share this with your audience as well. Cleaning services, one. Delivery services, grocery stores, liquor and wine stores. I don't know how, but liquor... I guess people are still drinking. Go open a liquor store and get happy, right? Meal prep, delivery services, [inaudible 00:36:05], good companies, things like that. Game makers and sellers like gaming, I guess kids are at home, they want to play video games more now. Fitness equipment companies. I don't know how fitness companies, maybe they're not selling to gyms anymore, maybe selling them to the home. Landscaping and Carey, you're right about that. Landscaping because I need to still cut my grass. Because even though COVID-19 is here, I can't let my house look all busted. That one is good. Bread baking company. So if you like to bake and you like to do cookies and baking and all that stuff, might be a good one to get into.

Helping Americans relieve the stress by eating some cookies, it always helps. All right? Coffee subscription companies, go drink... I've been drinking more coffee this COVID-19, so that might be going. Gardening, I've been home a lot so I've been doing a lot of my garden stuff. Mask makers, there's a lot of people who are doing masks out there, maybe get into that. Tele-health. So those are some of the businesses that are striving in this industry.

Yeah.

So, we talk about how many businesses are going to be affected, how much my business got hit and how I'm restructuring. How I'm doing everything different. How I'm going to move my office now from a home base office until I get back in my feet, maybe by the end of the year or the beginning of next year. Hopefully by then I should be back to normal and I can probably look back into a different location and continue. But if I like that the way we said it, maybe I'll stay there. I mean, I'll save me rent and maybe I could use that money for a good vacation once airlines start traveling and start doing things back again. But this is the time for restructuring.

This is the time for you to save a lot of money and cutting things that you don't need. This is the time for you to start thinking, brainstorming, how to get back, how to restart, how to just... Think about how when you started, when you first opened your business. Like man, you were a one man shop, think about it that way, man. "I'm a one man shop. I got to go fight this battle and I got to go out there and do a lot."

Yes, you probably weren't used to doing it because you had help so many years. But go out there and think with that mentality because you know what? It's kind of like you knew how to do the business before, you knew how to do the product, you knew how to sell the product and you were teaching all these other people. So that way that could be your team, pretty much rebuilt your team. That's what I'm thinking. I don't know what you think about that girl.

Yeah. I think it's partly personality. Because with personality, you have your interests, things that you're just plain not interested in. I'm interested in so many things, but I am not interested in learning how electronics, how to connect wires to make my lights work. Once my husband tried to explain that to me and he's like, "You love to learn. Why don't you want to learn this?" And I said, "I don't know, but I don't care. I don't like electric."

Yeah.

So I think people need to be honest with themselves because yeah, you got to do what you gotta do to get through this, but don't pivot into something that you cannot stand or that doesn't really interest you because few months down the road you're going to be miserable. The other thing is, I've noticed like with people with COVID and with quarantine is that some people are like, "Gosh, I feel more relaxed than ever. I feel stressed in a different way." And then other people, like my mom, she texts me the day that they came out and said that Georgia is opening up this Friday and Monday and she was ecstatic and I was like, "I'm not really going to be ecstatic yet because I kind of got to see what this is going to mean and everything." I had to see more information and she's just chomping at the bit to get out. So I think that's part of it. I don't know if I answered your question.

No, no. You did. You know what? I know that the mayor over there in Atlanta doesn't want to open. Right? Because, she's still concerned about that. She's still thinking that-

That's right.

There's a possibility that you guys can get a big wave and coming back and getting more infections and things like that, which I am under the impression that we're doing it too fast. But I understand people are complaining that, "We need the economy, we need our jobs, we need our work, we need this, we need that." But I think we can always make money in life, but we can never make our life again. We only live once.

That's right. It's a balance.

Exactly. And you know what? Any government can probably redo an economy, can restructure, can do this. You can go out there and you can start a new business. You can actually start a new job. You can actually rebuild somewhere or the other. But your life is once, once you're gone, you're gone. There's no way coming back. Now, if you know a place where you can go and come back or something that makes you go and come back, let me know, because I'd love to know that. Right? But we have to take it seriously. And that's what people are not doing.

Oh, yeah.

What do you think about that?

I think we need to be really smart and listen to the experts. Listen to the scientists and form our own decision around how our lives are. People have different situations and it's not easy. It's a lot to decide on and things are changing so fast. It's like, "Okay, what's going to happen today?" And there's a lot of uncertainty. But this is still new. But I think too, the other huge thing is mindset and attitude. I think I touched on this before about some business owners kind of freezing or not knowing what to do or people that have lost their jobs and they're like, "I'm not going to apply for anything because I just don't know what to do and I don't know where to go and I don't know when this is going to be over." But I believe in doing it scared. Someone asked me the other day, "What if I start a YouTube channel and I fail?" And I said, "Well then you..."-

They're failing already because they're thinking about failure already. Right?

Exactly. And I liked how he was being transparent with me and the real reason why he was hesitating. But this is really what he wanted to do. But then this fear of failure was perking up and preventing him from taking action. I said, "You know what? When you have small failures." You hear all the people that become self-made millionaires and billionaires say, "I failed too. But what I did was I kept going and I learned from my failures and I kept going." I feel like I finally am... I'm a young agency, just two years old in June. I look back just two years ago or even a year ago and I say, "Gosh, if I wouldn't have tried this and I wouldn't have put deadlines on myself." While I was doing it scared because I didn't always know everything that I was doing. I was figuring it out as I went that I wouldn't be where I am today and I have so much further to go in my goals.

Unbelievably, I put so much pressure on myself but I do feel like I've finally kind of come full circle with knowing what that feels like and I can just... Any listeners out there that are hesitating because of fear with the unknown in your business, hone in on something that interests you and something that you would... If you look and you say, "If I were successful I would be so happy." And just do it scared. Lean on people that you can ask questions of and consume as much information and just start, keep going. That's my take.

I'm gonna follow up with yours as well. People who say, "Man, I don't want to apply because this and that." You pay so many years of this, it's probably time now they give you something back. This is the time when you need it the most is a great opportunity for you to say, "You know what, I pay this as an American." You pay this, you get it back. Go out there and you need it. Don't come out there and try to feel like, "Oh, I'm scared or I'm embarrassed." Girl, you need it. You need to feed your kids, your family, your husband or your wife. You need to survive in this time. Two, failure... And we pay this. I mean, I paid it. You paid it. Everybody's paid this. I mean, they've taken it out of us. It's time for us to get back from the system what you put into the system. That's the way it should be in some way when this situations happen. This is a time for you to be able to... That's what it's there for. Whenever you need help, be there for me, lean on me.

The other thing about failure, when you start to think failure already, like you say girl, you're already coming with that negativity. That's what you're going to attract and that's what you're going to start thinking. That's what you're going to start believing and that's what you're going to start bringing. So what you need to start thinking is a way with negativity, whether you go ahead, either be successful or not, you're going to give it your best because you're going to be the best at it as you can. You're probably not going to be an expert at the beginning because you don't know as much, but that's why God gave us something and that's why He gave us a mouth. Ask questions. That's why you have friends like you and I, you can text messages and I'm here to help anybody on podcasting or helping them how to get started on a podcast and things like that. Because remember, I am a firm believer that all the good deeds you do in this life continue and carry on with you to the afterlife. Okay.

I agree.

So if you do bad deed, you're going to continue and pay them over there. So let me tell you something. My life, I see this, I'm a firm believer, as a good... I'm Catholic, by the way, for a lot of folks that don't know this, as a good Catholic, a Christian believer as well, I feel I'm here to help. That's what God has sent me into this world, to help others and love others for who they are and help them in the time of need. So if you need me, I'm here. I'm a brother, I'm a friend, I'm here to help. So if we will all think this way, we can all help each other and not have envy and not have jealousy and not try to be better than you in this and that. If we all work together as a team, we will be not only a better country, but we will also be a better world a better humanity, for the whole world.

So, listened to you to because I like what you say, they have to go ahead and give it their best and work at it. I think that's good. The YouTube channel, podcasting and all this stuff. A lot of people, sometimes they don't even get the support from their husband or their wife. This might be a time for you to say, "You know what, I'm going to do it and I'm going to show the world I could do it." Am I right on that?

Oh yeah. Amen. I feel so bad for people that don't have support from their family. Because I'm fortunate and so thankful that I do. But I think about that. I try to be full of gratitude for that, wake up in the morning and write down the things that I have gratitude for. Everyone can have gratitude for something. I think too thinking, being conscious of your self-talk. If you find yourself saying these things in your head to yourself, being able to catch yourself and then turning it into a positive even if you don't yet believe it. I learned this because I learned how to sell. I've been a salesman most of my career and in technology and I learned from Mary Kay that old fashion company where you put-

Hey, Mary Kay has made a lot of money for a lot of people. My mom started with Mary Kay and she used to make a little bit of money, believe me. But it was a lot of time consuming.

I learned so much about sales. I didn't care anything about makeup. Isn't that funny? But I learned about sales and then I moved on to technology and that's what I love.

Every time I think about Mary Kay girl, I think about the cream Royal jelly, I think, oh, what was it called? That one day my mom will always sell, her friends would come over and she would always sell it to them.

The cleanser.

Yeah.

They're a great company. Really great company.

Great company, yes.

But they taught me to write down positive affirmations on sticky notes. Some people are opposed to sticky notes because they get lost and whatnot. But write on something, put it on your bathroom mirror, put it on your refrigerator. Just a few positive affirmation. So when you catch yourself saying these negative thoughts, that you revert right back and you say it to yourself, if you can out loud, that's even better. But speaking of giving and being Christian and everything, I am too. It reminded me of this company of... I'm very close to their family. It's called Perillo Motors out of Chicago and it's Perillo... They sell BMWs, luxury vehicles all kinds of... Six different lines of automobiles that they sell. Well, of course sales of automobiles have gone down and manufacturers have decreased production and whatnot.

Well, what they decided to do was to give back to their community by... There's a suffering pizza store there that has two locations. And the pizza owner, store owner, restaurant owner was suffering saying, "I don't know what I'm going to do. I might close." So they decided to offer through their service center, the dealership, sterilizing the cars. So people come in, they pay $25 to have their car sterilized, which people need right now because they can get back in their car from wherever they are and they're worried about how long the virus might live in their car. And then they're taking that $25, buying pizzas from the pizza shop owner and then taking the pizza, actually delivering it to the frontline medical personnel at the hospitals.

Awesome man. Awesome.

Great.

And who doesn't love pizza? Everybody loves pizza. So it's a great cause.

It's just like a win-win-win, and I think people will even go in and get their car sterilized if they probably think, "Well, my car's fine, but they'll probably do it anyway if they have 25 extra dollars." Right?

That's right. And Carey, the reason why I share, I'm here to help anyone in my life because that's my path. I think that's what the Lord wants me to do is help people and that's what I'm going to finish my life doing, continue. Because a lot of people who don't know how I got into radio station, how I got into podcasting. How did I get into this? When I went to school at the University of Houston for business, I own an insurance company, very successful one here in Texas. How did I change everything and went into this? Well, in the insurance industry I needed to sell more and more and more. So, I needed to promote myself. I had to go do advertisement at radio stations and this and that. It would cost me money. Univision was killing me, $800 a week. You can imagine the numbers a month, a year and every day.

That was only for 30 minutes once a week, not even every day. So I started thinking saying, "Hey, you know what, I might need to go ahead and do this on my own." So finally, I met someone who would say, "Hey, I could put a studio for you. I could put a radio for you, this and that." I said, "You know what, I'm investing my money into this because it's pretty much my marketing money that I'm doing." Well, to make a long story shorter, he left me two years later by myself. Just want you guys to know this. I would come in here to the studio, sit and I would just look at the video camera and I would just talk because he would work everything. I would just pretty much sit and just talk and never learned nothing, never knew anything. I saw so many cables. I saw so many things and I never paid attention. I don't need to know this because he's here.

Well, one day someone came, offered him more money, this and this and that, took him from me and then he never taught me nothing in my life. I asked him, "Can you teach me?" He said, "No, I'm gone." He left. People have bad heart. So how did I get into this? Well, I learned it on my own, everybody. I learned it on my own. I came, I was stressed. There were days I would come and say, "Man, how am I going to turn this thing on? What am I going to press? Nothing. What about if I mess up this and people are not listening to me? What about this?" And I would press the stuff and the radio will go down.

So one day I went into Guitar Center and the gentleman that was selling products saw me all stressed out and I said, "I need to buy maybe this. I've been reading on and this and that." He goes, "Man, you know what Sassa? You're a good guy, man? I like you. Ever since you've been coming here, you've been showing me how to love." I said, "Man, I appreciate that. Johnny." He says, "What's wrong with you?" I said, "Man, this happened to me, this and that." He goes, "Man, you know what Sassa, if you give me till Thursday man, I'm off and I can come in and look at your studio, look at your station and I can help you and see what you... And I could teach you."

Wow.

I said, "You would?" He goes, "Yes man, I'm here to help man and I want to help you. I know you're stressed." He came, he put things together, he spent time, he showed me, he did everything and he taught me everything. He left this studio running like a multimillion dollar radio station. Okay? Really good. And guess what? That's how I learned everybody. So when you start thinking about fear already, fear brings to you, fear comes to you. You will have hurdles in your new venture you're going do from now on after COVID-19.

You will have a street with many rocks and you have to maybe jump on more, you know this and that and curve and this, but never give up and there will always be... I mean, I get chills because the Lord is telling me to share this with you and I'm telling you, you will always have some angel that will come into your life because remember, continue practicing your good deeds. He will help you. The angel will come and help you. They will always be angels out there. They will leave you and give you a hand and say, "Man, I'm here to help."

That's why you don't give up. You continue fighting. Today our radio station is listened to all over the world, Elsassa Radio. You could download the app. It's a radio E-L-S-A-S-S-A Radio. Elsassa Radio and you can also check our website. It's elsassaradio.com and I learned in that way. That's how I got into this. Never in my life, I imagined I would be doing this. Never went to school for this and now we have what? An app. We have a new website coming in, entertainment and we just continue sharing this. And just to show you the powerful... How this does. How do you and I meet? On Instagram. Correct?

Yeah.

And here we're doing this podcast. That's an amen. God bless that conversation. That's how I started testing. I wanted to share this and I wanted to tell you, you have a friend in me, just like your audience has a friend of me and my audience have a friend as well. So my positive feedback from me to them and to you is, you are a warrior, you are a fighter and you are the most valuable thing to you. Never give up. Remember, you can do this. You can.

That's right. I love that. That's beautiful. And likewise, Sassa you have a lifetime friend in me and I do believe that we were, God made us born perfect and it's just we're the ones that don't see ourselves as perfect in God's eyes. But we are. If you really listen to what you're here for and what you are good at and what you're great at and how you're special, that can just really evolve into things in your life that open up as major blessings.

Thank you girl. You know what? I know we're getting to the end of this hour. I really had a great, great time doing this podcast. We need to do this more often.

Me too.

Maybe have an idea of might pop out of this and we might be starting to do this, consistently and I like that because you know what, I need ATL coming out of the way H-town together, making this for people that need us right now.

I love it.

I want to tell you, stay safe. Uh, take care of your family. Hope one day I get a chance to see you and meet you and hug you, once everything is gone, Coronavirus is gone for good.

That's right.

I tell you what's going to happen to me, as soon as this COVID-19 is done, I'm actually going to take a little vacation back to my place where I'm from originally. Go to the beach and I'm going to just drink me a margarita and say, "Thank God this is over." Because it's so stressful for everybody, that everybody just needs a relief in some way or the other. But again, keep being a fighter. Keep doing what you're doing. I love your podcast. You do an amazing job. Not only are you a beautiful woman from the outside, but you are a beautiful angel, beautiful person in your heart inside. I want to thank you for giving me this opportunity to do this with you today. I loved it. I had a good time and we will continue working together.

I think I just want to go ahead and say hello to everybody that was listening to us. We lost her for a minute, but you know what? We want to go ahead and say goodbye and see you, till the next one. El Sassa Radio, with you. Don't forget, follow me on Instagram Elsassa37. Chao chao Be good.