I don't know if I have ever talked about this before, but one of the concepts that I learned from Tim Ferris was to not watch the news and don't read the headlines. And I have been doing this for more than a decade that I have completely forgotten that most humans walk around the world, watching the news and reading the headlines. And I only started doing this as a 30 day challenge. So most of you guys already know, like I don't do Facebook.

I am not on Facebook. I don't do LinkedIn. I don't watch the news. I don't go on news websites. I don't do much in terms of mindless consumption around world events. I do when things happen and I find out things happen, I will then do my homework and do my research so that I can feel like I'm informed on these points of view.

But I think one of the reasons I keep showing up consistently in my business is because I know our human brains have an inbuilt negativity bias. Your primitive brain that is literally programmed to keep you safe is forever on the lookout for danger and badness. When you combine that with the world of Facebook and the world of like click bait news media, you feel in such a state of like low hum anxiety, uncertainty, and fear all of your waking time. It's so amazing.

I will challenge you guys like accept this as a 30 day challenge because you can always go back. You can always go back to watching the news and reading the headlines, but just try this out 30 days, that's all we're asking is one month of not reading the news or watching the news. Now the first seven days, I will tell you, it takes a lot of intention because you start to realize like, if you're with your friends and family, if people like to sit and watch the news, whatever's going on, it's very habitual.

Many, many of you might have a habit of morning show or nightly news or reading the paper or getting updates from specific news websites or whatever. But if you try it out for 30 days, remember you can always go back. You will. I guarantee you, you will still know what's going on in the world. But what is so incredibly helpful is that that inbuilt negativity bias, isn't continually finding evidence as to why the world is coming to an end .

Particularly right now, at this moment in time with so much headline news about the impending global recession and whether it's impending or it's here, it's finite, whatever details, details for the economist to tell us, somebody else can run a new story about, is it here? Is it happening right now? Who knows? Who knows my friend, but I wanted to very specifically see the thought with you about not watching the news for 30 days.

And I wanted to talk about recessions contracts and making decisions ahead of time, because all of these things are actually very interrelated. They're very connected and they all have a ripple effect with one idea or the other here is the bottom line. Whether or not it is the truth that we are in a recession that people are spending less money. It is not helpful for you as a business owner to spend any time worrying about the recession.

I remember hearing this story once of the, somebody was having a conversation about the scarcity beliefs about finding a job. And this was totally me, right? Like I remember when we arrived in Australia, it was October of 2008. The time we did not really know it, but it was the beginning of the great recession or as we call it here in Australia, the global financial crisis, the GFC we arrived when the whole bear Sterns shenanigans on wall street, everything was imploding.

It took us like six months to find a job. I know for a fact, it took me so long to find a job because I was believing all of the headlines about nobody hiring. But here's the thing. When you're looking for a job, you're not looking for all of the job, you're looking for a job. The exact same concept applies in your flower business. You're not looking for all of the customers.

You're looking for the customers to help you reach your sales target. There are more than enough customers to go around and it's incredibly unhelpful. It does not serve you and your business. And it definitely doesn't serve your bottom line. If you sit there in the scarcity belief and just the assumption that there is a giant recession, nobody's gonna spend money because your brain, your human brain is programmed to point out all of the bad things out in the world.

The more time and energy we spend worrying about your customer's purchase habits, the more time and energy you spend about your customers, tightening their purse strings. The more time and energy you spend worrying about the global impact of a recession, the smaller your bottom line is going to be because here's what happens. When you tell yourself your customers, aren't gonna spend as much money.

You feel scarce. When you feel scarce, you are not going to show up in as big, a bold away as you would have. If you were feeling celebratory and abundant, you won't post to Instagram. As often, you won't promote your products. As frequently, you won't go up to strangers on the street and say, Hey, I'm a florist. I can help you. You won't go out and build new connections in your community. You won't post Facebook. You won't launch that workshop.

You won't raise your prices. You won't think of new ideas in terms of how you could separate yourself from the competition. You won't launch that subscription service. You won't launch that new plant and homewares gardening, planning, design resource that you wanna give your customers. You won't do the things that will actually help grow your business.

Because what happens is when you stay focused, when your brain says, my customers are tightening their purse strings, your brain's gonna go out into the world and find all the evidence to support the fact that that's true. And then it's going to get to the point where it just believes that is the truth. But in order for that to be the truth, you would need to know that you've asked every potential customer in your city.

I mean, every potential customer, every person who's getting married, every person who's dealing with, a grieving family, every person that just had hip surgery, every person that just had a baby, every person that just got a new job, every person that's celebrating graduation, every person that is doing all of the things that we send flowers for.

It's based off the assumption that all humans behave exactly the same way. So if you are sitting there worried about the global recession, right, you're buying into the news headlines and you can feel yourself in that scarcity energy, right? It's a very normal place to be. It's the default programming in your human brain, right? And the more we watch the news more, we pay attention to all of the kind of click bait headlines.

The more we're gonna believe that story. But if you can also sit there and think, okay, it's possible. It is possible that your customers are making other financial decisions in their life. And they want to spend money on flowers. It's possible that your clients who have already booked in weddings with you have already saved up all of the money. They actually want to spend all of the money on their wedding.

It's also possible that your customers will make different purchase decisions. If they have a massive home loan that with interest rates rising, they might choose to forego their trip to B and instead stay home and have an amazing party at the house for their 45th birthday it's possible.

This is the perfect opportunity to practice and really live into the idea that you're not after all of the customers every new day, that there is a whole new set of customers. Just finding out about you. This is one of the things I love about marketing floral design services. Every new day, there's a whole new regime of clients who have just started the wedding planning process. Every new day, somebody wants to send flowers for a hip replacement, a happy anniversary, a new baby, a get well soon, congratulations. I'm thinking of you every single day, every single day, somebody might have just found out what a floral subscription is.

And they're like, this sounds fascinating. Yes, I am working from home. I just got promoted. I just got a raise. I wanna spend 150 bucks every two weeks on this beautiful arrangement because I love it. Now that is not going to come naturally because your brain is just going to assume that with the word recession, which is so loaded emotionally, right? It totally feeds in totally feeds into our scarcity belief system, right? If money doesn't grow on trees and there's an impending recession, tighten your purse.

Strings, my friends, get into the bunker and let's not come out for two years. , that's the natural reaction of all of the humans. And the news is gonna continue to perpetuate the recession. But here's a fun fact. And I am willing to wager some money on this. If anybody wants to say, yes, I am gonna guess Warren buffet is going to make so much money in the next 24 months because he's decided he decided ahead of time that recessions are his jam.

. This is where Warren buffet separates himself from the rest of the humans on the planet. He has decided ahead of time. Recessions are where he makes his money. It's very intentional. It's very conscious. And he literally made, I Googled this. He made 10 billion, $10 billion. I don't even that is a lot of money. That is much monies. That is a lot of flowers, right? If somebody knows Warren buffet, that would be a great business opportunity. But Warren buffet made $10 billion during the last financial crisis.

Just let that sit in this idea, right? We can feed our brains. This idea of like, there's an impending recession. Everybody's gonna tighten their purse strings or Warren buffet is gonna make $10 billion. 10 billion. During this recession. If Warren Buffet's gonna make $10 billion, there are thousands of other human beings who are also going to have lots of money.

And the human beings love spending money. This is what's so amazing. Now it requires attention and intention. Your brain's not gonna go there on its own, right? You're gonna have one customer. Who's gonna cancel a subscription. You're gonna assume that your business is doomed. You're gonna have one client that comes to you and says, Hey, we're gonna make some cutbacks on our wedding flowers.

You're gonna assume that your business is doomed. You're gonna have one customer who used to be your best client. Who's gonna say, oh, we're gonna hold off on sending flowers for the next couple of weeks. And your brain is gonna go look, impending recession. Nobody wants to spend money. This is like the perfect opportunity, right? To expand your thinking. And remember that is your default perimeter brain trying to keep you safe.

There is so much emotion tied up in the concept of a recession. We all know, and many of us have been part of downsizing, restructures people who've been laid off like all of the shit that happens when businesses decide to tighten their purse strings, our brain is going to use all of that as evidence in your business right now, to tell you that nobody wants to spend money, but it doesn't have to be such an all or nothing concept. It doesn't have to be while nobody's spending money, I should shut my doors. I'm doomed. I'm gonna die, broke alone and poor .

And if Warren buffet is gonna make 10 another, because let's face it guys, another 10 billion during the next recession, you can hit your sales goal. And when you intentionally shift your focus, when you decide ahead of time that you are going to make more money in the next 24 months than you did in the last 24 months, you show up differently in your business.

You commit now that you are gonna make more money in the next 24 months than you did in the last 24 months, your brain is gonna get to work on coming up with new ideas, to increase the revenue in your business. That's instead of nobody wants to spend money. All of my customers are tight asses. Everybody's cutting back on their orders. That line of thinking doesn't serve you. That line of thinking doesn't lead you down the path of increasing your revenue.

That line of thinking doesn't lead you to coming up with new ideas, innovating and making changes to increase your revenue. That line of thinking is default. The line of thinking of going okay. If Warren Buffet's gonna make another 10 billion, this next recession, okay. I can play that game too. I can play that game. And I'm going to commit now that I'm going to make more money in the next 24 months than I made in the last 24 months.

This is my time because here's the thing. And we all know this to be true. Flowers. Matter to humans, flowers matter to humans during a global pandemic flowers, matter to humans. When they have an abundance of money and flowers still matter to humans, even if there's a recession, flowers matter to humans in such a deep, emotional way that they are willing to sacrifice other investments and financial decisions in their business, just so that they can spend money on flowers.

People are still planning. Weddings. People still want to send flowers to aunt Judy. After her hip surgery, people still want to celebrate their 40th birthdays. So even with all of the talk of increasing interest rates and all of the panic on the horizon and tighten your purse strings and buckle down guys, danger, danger, danger, it doesn't serve your business to obsess over it. So here's what I want you to do.

I want you to decide today how you want to show up as a business owner for the next two to three years. I want you to decide today that despite all of the discussion of a recession, despite the idea of increasing interest rates and despite customers coming to you and saying, we're gonna decrease our spend. You are going to decide right now that you're going to make more money in the next 24 months than you made in the last 24 months.

I want you to decide right now how you wanna show up as a business owner for the next two to three years. This is about planning for long term sustainable business growth, the global financial crisis, the great recession of 2008 lasted approximately 18 months. So I do say plan out the next 24 to 36 months. Give yourself a good little buffer, cuz that's what good business owners do and commit to the belief that the humans in your world want to spend money.

The minute that you start practicing that belief. If you walk outside into the big bad world, your brain is so quick. It is so quick to see how much the humans love spending money. Because they're still going to Starbucks and they're still buying their expensive frappuccinos. They're still spending hundreds. And I don't even know what thousands like do handbags cost thousands of dollars.

They are spending tens of thousands of dollars on brand new cars. They are buying boats, they are buying CDOs. They're going shopping. They're getting their hair done. They're getting their nails done. If you go out into the world and you tell yourself, human beings love spending money everywhere you turn, you will see human beings spending money. That is the job that is the task at hand. And you already know that the humans have an amazing connection to flowers and humans love spending money.

Humans love spending money on flowers. You are doing a service to the humans by continually showing up and continually inviting them to spend their money on flowers. You are bringing them such an incredible level of joy. You are bringing them so much happiness in the impending Armageddon. You are bringing that magic of floral design to these people through another hard season while they're all watching the news and buying into the headlines and reading all the click bait, all the things you are going.

I am here to serve the humans. I am here to bring joy. I am here to help you stay connected. Stay grounded despite all of the chaos around you, it doesn't serve you as a business owner to obsess over the recession. One thing I would point out for you is if you are a wedding and events designer, or if you have customers that you have written contracts with, make sure that you like your terms and conditions, make sure that if you want to have an explicit rule in your terms and conditions, that talks about the amount of change to the scope of the project that you have spelt that out explicitly within your contract.

If you don't care, if your clients come to you and cut their budget in half, then don't worry about it. If you care about your clients coming to you and cutting their budget in half, make sure that it's in your terms and conditions and my friends, I will tell you jump on the Google.

If you are a luxury wedding and events, florist jump on the Google type in think splendid. So it's think splendid and bride cut her budget. There's an amazing article on there that talks you through the thought process and the ins and outs in making sure that you've got your eyes dotted tees crossed in terms of customer behaviour and the recession and how it relates to your winning and event contracts.

My favourite part, about her article other than the fact that it's so incredibly helpful. She summarized it by saying this likes are for Facebook, not for your contracts. It is so easy for us to wrap up all of our people, pleasing tendencies into our contracts, to put shame and guilt on every decision that you have ever made in your business. And then feel bad when your customer comes to you and says, oh, we're gonna cut back on our wedding expenditure.

That's their decision that has nothing to do with how you run your business. Your customers are allowed to behave, however they want to behave. And it would behoove you to sit down now, decide ahead of time. How and what rules do you wanna give your customers for the next two to three years? Because if we could learn a thing or two from Mr. Warren buffet, a making money is fun. B you can make a lot of money during a recession C he has decided ahead of time how he is going to show up in his business.

He already knows. Now the decisions that he's making and the rules that he's put in place so that his business will run the way that he wants his business to run. It's not emotional. It's not scarce. It's not restrictive and it's not reactive. So let us all learn from Warren buffet.

Let us all decide. Now how we wanna show up in our business. In the next two to three years, Warren buffet has decided that during a recession is when he is going to make the most money. It's such an awesome concept because we don't even need to begin to scratch the surface of his another $10 billion, right? We'll just take like a, a small slice of it and it is totally possible. And it comes from this idea of deciding ahead of time, decide ahead of time that this is the season.

You're gonna make more money than you did in the last two years. And while the news and all the articles are talking about tightening up the looming recession, the Armageddon, the dark cloud rolling in. I want you to intentionally decide intentionally decide right now that you're gonna make more money in the next 24 to 36 months than you have ever made in your business.

You decide that now you stop watching the news. You will come up with some amazing ideas because the humans need flowers. Despite what the news is telling the people, humans need flowers, humans now more than ever want to celebrate birthdays and retirements and anniversaries and weddings and get well soon. And I'm thinking of you and I'm sorry for your loss. And oh my God, that's the most beautiful baby on the planet. And you know, what's awesome.

It's very possible that your customers are going to cut expenses in other areas and spend more money on flowers than they ever have in the past. They might have decided not to go to Singapore, not to go to Fiji and not to go to Hawaii and instead have a backyard barbecue with the most beautiful floral Archway photo backdrop, amazing extravaganza for their 45th birthday. My friends go out there and celebrate the joy of flowers.

Spread loves for flowers and know that even during a recession, even with rising interest rates, the humans need flowers. There is so much power in you deciding and making a decision ahead of time. So decide today how you wanna show up in your business for the next two to three years, decide now that you're going to make more money in the next 24 months than you made in the last 24 months.

Just decide that that's the way it's gonna go and let's get to work and do not forget to try out, not watching the news for 30 days. My friends, just 30 days. You can always go back. Okay. My friends go out there, make some money, have the most amazing day as always, please drive safe, get some sleep, eat your vegetables, drink your water. And I'll talk to you again next week. Bye for now.