#100 Stop acting like you’re on vacation—the economy is dying

Rachel Denning (00:01.166)
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of the Extraordinary Family Life podcast. Fair, fair warning here. This is going to be a rant. I'm feeling fired up right now. I'm ready to just start going, but I feel like I got to, I got to like warm up a little bit here. So like we're still friends. Cause oh man, I'm feeling it.

And I want to share, like I really want to raise a warning voice. Um, and I, you guys, I'm doing this with all the love in my heart. I'm like dead serious. All the love in my heart. This is with sincerity and kindness and my genuine desire for the welfare of all of our brothers and sisters on the earth. I got this, this is just coming from the heart and it's born of.

experience of having traveled extensively to 45 countries now, which I know isn't that much, but I've been on five continents and I've been in some of the poorest areas in the world and I've interacted with the religions and traditions and cultures and economies and social circles like I've been with extremely wealthy people and extremely poor people and I've seen how governments work and

school systems work and economies work. And you combine that with a couple of decades worth of real study in the liberal arts and history, biographies, autobiographies, just really studying the story of humanity and life and how it all works, right?

and you combine that and it gives you a different picture. And so this is my picture, right? And obviously, you know, we each have our own perspectives and opinions and experiences and we all have something to learn from each other. And every person I meet is my superior in some way and knows things that I can learn from them. And then I can share some things, of course, that help others. And again,

Rachel Denning (02:26.03)
None of us is as smart as all of us. If we can all put our minds together to work on these things, it's the most powerful thing.

But because I've read all those things, seen all these things, seen the patterns of history and the story of, you know, and experiences and patterns and cycles of civilization and having been in all these economies of work, all kinds of different levels of life, having been out on my own, you know, and at some points homeless and struggling, you know, it gives me a unique perspective. So what's happening?

in the world because of the COVID -19 virus scare is we're shutting everything down and try to prevent the the virus from spreading. Now, again, I mean, on one side, yes, we need to take that seriously because it can be really contagious and it can spread rapidly. And there's a real concern. I've read as much of the research I can on all the different sides and angles on this.

just to be educated about it. And like on one side you're like, yeah, we need we need to make sure we take it seriously.

What on here you ready? Here comes the rant friends. Whoo. What's gonna happen economically is we got a storm coming. What what's already been done. If we stopped right now went back to work. We're still going to have a serious aftermath. My fear and concern is that this is

Rachel Denning (04:14.926)
they're going to drag it out because of fear and it's a little bit of an overreaction and the economic impact is going to be far far worse than perhaps what could have happened with the COVID -19. Now again I'm not a doctor, I'm not a scientist, I'm not an expert, I'm not any of those things.

I'm just trying to think and observe and put the puzzle pieces together. And I hope I'm wrong. Like I'll call it right now. I hope I am wrong, but I'm already seeing what's been done economically and I know how economies work and I've studied them and have seen them, observed them work in different industries and been around the world working with absolutely brilliant people in all these industries.

And like, okay, especially like an industry like tourism, right? And with a whole economies, I have friends that I know lots and lots of people, their entire livelihood, which then carries over to the livelihood of an entire area. We've lived in a lot of areas around the world, where the whole area really is built on the back of tourism. And those nations have literally closed down their airports and their borders. And

Even with the tourism going, most of the people in a lot of these countries literally live day to day. Let that hit home right now. They literally live day to day. And it's built on the backbone of tourism. So and I've been in these places when tourism slows down for whatever reason. And you can see the impact where a lot of these people are having

two meals a day if they're lucky and their meager meals usually one meal a day when things get low. But with the borders closed, the airports closed, I know already that in just a week's time, there's some serious hurt. Okay, now let's make this real. Now hold on, I want to back up and make sure that that I'm really clear on this. I am an optimist, you guys. I'm hopeful.

Rachel Denning (06:42.222)
I'm one of those people, you know this about me. I'm one of those people who said, let's fight, let's make things happen, let's create our circumstances. Let's be optimistic. Let's be forward facing. Let's create our circumstances and make things happen, right? I believe that the ancient quote of I will either find a way or I will make one. I believe in George Bernard Shaw's quote of, you know, I don't believe in circumstances. The men and women who get on in this life are those who get up and look for the circumstances they want. And if they cannot find them, they make them.

I believe all of that.

Rachel Denning (07:18.126)
but what's happening right now is so ugly and so severe and the writing on the wall and the evidence is happening, but nobody's felt it yet. Well, I'm sorry. I shouldn't say that. We're actually, we're, we're, we're really, most of us are really disconnected from the people who are feeling it already. So anyone who got laid off last week or I know lots of people.

who got laid off or their employer just said, sorry, I can't pay you. You're going home without pay. And a lot of them like they've told their employees like, Hey, you know, you need to go file for unemployment right now. Like go, go file for unemployment. Cause I can't pay you. Like, and if this is after a week or two, if it goes on for three or four or five or six or eight weeks, 12 weeks,

like a lot of small businesses that we're doing okay. Even some, the ones that we're doing well can hold on for a few weeks. The ones that we're doing okay can hold on for a week or two. The ones that we're just getting by. And this is, this is the restaurants you like to go to. It's, it's the guy who's doing your yard. It's, it's other industries like that. I mean, anything that's in service, anything that deals with human connections, me coming to the store, it's.

as like cell phones, accessories and clothing. And I mean, on and on, a lot of good stuff that we like and support. And they've been around. A lot of them aren't going to make it out of this. They just can't. The numbers aren't there. And if you haven't studied business enough and thought through those angles of all the numbers and how it plays out, right. And the interactions of the economies, if you're kind of disconnected from it, you you're sitting home right now and you're not realizing what's happening. And so my rant right now, my friends,

is I'm calling out, please share this, help me get this message out. Ready? Stop acting like you're on vacation. Holy guacamole. People are at home right now. Like, oh, we got some time off. Kids are home from school, almost like it's spring break. And they're like, yay, and mom and dad are home from work too. Let's, like, you know what? We're just gonna binge watch.

Rachel Denning (09:32.878)
Netflix and play video games and watch videos and sit around we're gonna sleep in We're eat tons of junk food Like this is great. The only thing's missing is some toilet paper But everything else is great and we're I don't know what's going on. We're all sitting around like It's it's all okay and like nothing and it's gonna happen and and here's why I'm even more fired up. So Sorry, I'm not taking it out on you. I'm just getting it out. I

I just listened just barely to a lady who's a big influencer. She's got a massive audience and people really trust her. And I literally just heard her say, you guys stop worrying, stop freaking out. It's this is not going to affect the economy. Nothing's going to happen. It's all going to be okay. Like, well,

We're just a little scared right now. This is going to blow right over and everything's going to go on just fine. Like it's always been. And that like, I get it. It's because she doesn't understand the bigger picture. She's either hasn't studied or hasn't thought about it or isn't just isn't aware of it. Maybe just doesn't have enough experience. But I about fell out of my chair when she said that. It's like how, how.

How can you tell people, how can you tell this massive audience who trust you and believes you that there's not going to be any economic impact? Like people are losing their jobs left and right. And those who still kind of have a job, they're going to go back to companies that are going to be failing businesses that are going to be failing. People are going to be, okay, let's, let's go a little bit bigger right now. A lot of people are going to, and businesses are going to declare bankruptcy. I mean, just, just think on a big level right now.

all the transportation industries when nobody's moving, right? Just just the Metropolitan Transportation of New York City. Just that just one city transportation one city, they put out a request and said they need $4 billion from the federal government. A gift. That's what they're asking for. Just to stay open.

Rachel Denning (11:51.278)
Think about airlines. Think about all the taxi drivers, all the Uber and Lyft drivers.

Think about all the millions of people who work and their work is entirely built on the movement and consumption of humanity.

And it's empty. It's stopped. Right. So then you have all these just tens of thousands or perhaps hundreds of thousands of requests for unemployment help from the government. Right. So there's a big drain on the government, which by the way, you guys already know this. Our government is bankrupt. Right. There are trillions of dollars in debt. And at some point, you guys are like, I'm an optimist. I really am. I'm not I'm not like this.

I'm not trying to scare people. I'm not like, oh, doomsday, all the sky is falling. I'm not like that. You know that. I hope you know that about me. I'm not like that.

But I have to be honest here. Our government is so in debt. If we took any person or any business and laid out their debt in ratios equal to the government, all of us would be like, whoa, that family is toast. That business is done. They will be bankrupt. Nobody can operate with that kind of debt and come out of it.

Rachel Denning (13:25.326)
Like it's going to come due. Who's going to bail out the government that's trying to bail out everybody else? All right. So let's keep going. So then you have all this huge debt. So it's bankrupt. Anyways, you have all these this this plea for help, which is going to be well there. OK, well, yeah. So there's unemployment. Then there's this plea for help. And the government's like, yeah, let's all get together and approve a one trillion dollar package to try to.

keep us all from sinking. So they get it. They know there's an economic storm coming.

collapse.

They know. But how does I don't know. And this is where this is where my own ignorance comes up. How does how does an organization that's trillions of dollars in debt. And out a trillion dollars. Especially when it's making all these tax breaks for people. So its income comes from taxes and it's giving all these tax breaks. And you know it has to have enough money coming in to even.

sustain it, which it doesn't, it's not enough to even pay its debts, right? So there's none of them coming. And then when the economy claps, less money comes in, plus all these people who are employed are asking for money. So anyways, it's, it's, you guys, it's a, it's a recipe for disaster. And there's going to be some fallout. Now you, I've already talked about this, right? Where, and I don't know, I get it. Some of you are like, Oh my goodness, I'm so sick of talking about COVID -19.

Rachel Denning (15:04.237)
and all this, can we talk about something else? And yes, but I had to do this just out of my own conscience. I just had to do it because of love. You're not on vacation. Stop acting like you're on vacation. I love that things are resetting. I think that's a great thing. A lot of people are home. They have time now. Our lives are so insanely busy. This is a beautiful thing to be home.

the kids, kids have to be home where they're constantly gone and their activities with their friends. Ah, it's really nice. And it's a lot more peaceful, a lot more family centered walking around my neighborhood. You see all these families out doing things together, which literally a family just walked in front of me right now. I've never seen that guy. He is all I've literally never seen him. I see his wife and his kids occasionally, but I've never seen him and they're just together. This playing is so cute. It's all their little kids. There's a lot of things.

This is going to force a reset. And it's part of, if you guys have ever read the book, The Fourth Turning, societies go through these cycles. And it's usually every 80 to 90 years, they go through these cycles. And the third turning is like an unraveling where things are getting chaotic. And the way the book points it out, I mean, these guys are just kind of big, they're studying history and humanity and cycles.

And they pointed out it's just like a lot of individualism, a lot of selfishness, a lot of immorality and inappropriate behavior. Like nobody's interested in having kids. Nobody's interested in, in the greater good of humanity. They're just kind of interested in doing their own thing. They're teaching a lot of moral relativism and a lot of, you know, do whatever you think's right for you. Right. And that's, that's the pattern throughout history of, of the unraveling. And then of course, right after the unraveling comes what's the fourth turning is crisis.

And after a major crisis, it literally resets the society. And they start over with the first turning, which is now rebuilding. Right. So if you look, if you look at the patterns for the last couple of decades, like it just follows the pattern of history. And a lot of people for the last decade have been calling it out. Like, Hey, the crisis is coming and it's going to be way bigger than than what they thought. Some people thought it was 2008, but.

Rachel Denning (17:26.381)
I may be wrong. I hope I am my friends. I hope I'm dead wrong. But I think what's coming is going to put 2008 to shame.

And I don't share that to be fearful. Those of you listening to this, and I hope you share it with your friends and family, I hope you just get it out there because we need to be thinking about this. And even if I'm wrong, I hope I'm wrong. We need to be thinking through it all. We need to see all the angles and the impact. How it might impact our immediate family and our neighbors and our communities, our church groups, our businesses.

I mean, we need to think through this and we need to be prepared. And if this doesn't bring it, it'll happen at some point. I mean, that's just the story of humanity. Economies, they grow and they shrink and sicknesses come and they go. And if you study history, I just finished a couple of history books just recently and it was fascinating just watching them go through these cycles and seasons. You know, in a few chapters, I read about a few decades.

And you just, you get to see the picture of their life quickly and the ups and downs and the struggles and trials and, and the influenza coming through and taking out 30 % of their community gets the fever, yellow fever, dysentery. It was just, it was, it was just part of life and it's so cruel and it seems so hard, but study history. If you got free time, my friends, which a lot of us do spend some time in the next little bit, just studying history.

Just get some great history books and study about lives of great men and women and cycles of history and patterns and watch what happens when you sit down with an audio book or a book and spend a few hours, which covers maybe a few decades or even a couple centuries and watch the patterns of humanity and society and civilization. They all go through these things and it's gut wrenching. It's hard. You're like,

Rachel Denning (19:36.269)
Okay, point out a time period in life when it hasn't happened. I think we're kind of in the space where we hope nothing bad happens to us. That we think now we're kind of immune to it. Like for somehow because of all our modern technology and all the great things we have that somehow this isn't gonna happen to us. It's been true for all other humans but not us. And again, I'm not a pessimist here.

And I'm not trying to bring the rain cloud and I'm not trying to bring fear on anybody. I for in fact, I want to bring hope, but my warning, my warning voice, I just felt this cause love I've been giving hugs to everybody, but like, love you guys, but Hey, let's take this seriously. You ought to be hustling right now instead of on vacation. So please, I beg you stop acting like you're on vacation and get to work. Yes.

take some R &R. Some of you need to catch up on sleep. Some of you need to catch up on family time. But I feel a huge sense of urgency. A call to arms, a call to action. Get off the couch.

People at home right now, they are just logging the hours of TV, news, junk food, video games, social media scrolling.

Rachel Denning (21:09.165)
And I got to raise a warning voice. We can't sit around like everything's like we're on spring break. The whole world's on spring break together. And how cute, how fun. Yay. This will blow over in just a couple of days and we're all back to life as normal. It won't be. It can't be. What's already been put in place. It can't be that way. And the big the big governments and the big businesses, they know this. If you see if you have friends, if you have friends or you know people.

who are at the top of big businesses, they are scrambling. Okay, the CEOs, the CFOs, the presidents, the business owners, they are scrambling right now. They're working around the clock. Some of these guys, and it's because I've talked to them. And they're just trying to do anything they can to keep their own business above water. Keep it from drowning, right? Keep it from falling apart. They're having to let people go. They're having to cut hours drastically.

I mean, they're, they're, they're hustling. Now, obviously there's some industries that are going to be rock solid and not be faced through this and God bless you. What a wonderful, awesome blessing that is fantastic. And we are genuinely happy for you. If you're in an industry that's deemed essential and you're doing well, man. Wow. We're so happy for you. And we love that love, love, love it to you. I invite you to consider.

your opportunities, privileges and responsibilities to help those who are not. And so you, if you're listening to this and you think, well, no, I'm still going to be working through this. I'm not going to be phased that I'm going to ask you to step it up too. I think everyone right now, if we're going to come out of this any way, shape or form in a decent shape, we've got to be hustling right now. None of us, ain't nobody got time to be sitting around doing nothing, acting like you're on vacation.

You ought to be making phone calls. You ought to be scrambling. See how you can do your business virtually. And I know, I know some of you listening to this or doctors and dentists and, uh, your, your sales reps and you, you work with people. A lot of you do, do you close deals and you do relationship service in person? I'm telling all of you don't let up. In fact, I would double down if you're doing, you know, if you're used to contacting 25 or 50 people a day,

Rachel Denning (23:36.461)
I would try to do 50 to 100. I'd be making phone calls, sending emails. I would be creating video presentations. I'd be getting on and creating little, little like infographics or PowerPoint presentations that you can share. I would be going gangbusters if I were you.

like hustling. And again, I keep saying this man.

It's coming. And a lot of people are going to be hurting. And a lot of people are going to end up out of work. And further in debt, or if they get through it by the skin of their teeth, just saying, where does that phrase come from? I just thought of that. I don't know. If we just barely sneak through this.

the ones who spend this time gaining knowledge and improving their skills and improving themselves and hustling and working and trying to stir up some results. They're going to have so much the advantage. You with me? Whoa. Those who hustle are going to have a, and that's the same in every part of life.

Those who do their extra training, you know, athletes who do the extra training while their other teammates or the other players are taking it easy and out partying with their friends. The ones who do the extra training, well, they rise to the top. The musicians and this comes from the extraordinary book called Talent is Overrated. Also the book called So Good They Can't Ignore You. Wow, man, there's and then the book Mastery by George Leonard, all three of those fantastic books, right?

Rachel Denning (25:25.549)
points out that the best of the best are training more. That's just it. They train way more. The people who want to be phenomenal musicians, they're actually spending an average of six hours a day practicing their instrument. And then they find that they're not just practicing, they're practicing hard. It's not just hour for hour, because then they found if they tracked all these people, and they found that, you know, they put in the same amount of hours, you know, 10, 10, 20 ,000 hours, but they were markedly different.

Like, wait a minute, they both put in 15 ,000 hours of practice. Why is one so obviously better than the other? And they went and watched them practice. Like, okay, show me your practice hours. What does an hour of practice look like for you? And it was intense. They were sweating, they were straining, they were pushing. Every time they practice, they were trying to get better, where the others were just practicing. They were just working on their thing. And they often just practiced what they were comfortable with. They avoided...

The the parts of their craft that they were uncomfortable with that were hard for them So they practice the things they were already good at You see I'm saying that's gonna play out here That is going to play out here and So all of you, please this this is a loving plea a call to arms a call to action please stop acting like you're on vacation and get to work and help your kids and

like understand this in a healthy, positive way. We ought to be reading great books and practicing our skill set. We ought to be gaining skills. We ought to be coming out of this better than we went in. And please don't take this lightly. And if, and if I'm wrong, if I'm wrong and everything rolls out like now we're all good. Like it was a little hiccup. We just roll on same. If I'm wrong, then you'll still be better off. You'll still be smarter and more skilled and more agile.

and you'll be more ready to excel and learn. But from all I'm seeing from economists and forecasters and big thinkers and just what I know from human beings and how we think and act and behave and from what I know like world economies, there's going to be so much suffering. And again, here's another thing I might be...

Rachel Denning (27:52.557)
wrong about. I think we ought to go back to work. I think healthy people ought to go back to work. And those who are at risk protect them. And those who are healthy and get sick, kind of go home and be sick. But I think if we're healthy, we ought to get back to work. And maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm wrong about that. But I don't know. This is kind of like, hey, I just want to share my thoughts here, in case it's of value to any of you.

but please don't act like you're on vacation. Take a little R and R, have some family time, have some self time, but give back to your habits. Give back to your work. Stir up some results, make yourself better. I guess I would share this message any time of year, any time of life, like we can always be making ourselves better. But man, I think it would just be irresponsible of us to think.

And to say, I can't believe she said that, to say that nothing's going to happen to the economy and everything's going to be okay. My take is the next few months are going to be some of the hardest that many of us have ever faced.

And I feel strongly about that. And so we need to build up some serious momentum so that we can hit that hill running. You with me? Like build up some momentum. Do yourself a favor. Do your family a favor. Do your friends a favor. Share this message. Share this podcast. Just take a screenshot of it. Share the link. Like let's, let's kind of warn people and encourage them. Like get after it, man. Don't take it easy right now. Don't coast. Don't drift.

Don't just sit around seeing what happens. Start creating the results you want. Start getting after, start hustling because what's going to happen is it's going to be too late for too many people in a week or two or three or five when they finally, it hits home so hard. They're like, Oh no, Oh no. Now what? That's when they'll start hustling.

Rachel Denning (30:02.253)
And those of you who listen will already have weeks, be weeks ahead of the game. So get scrambling, do whatever you can, be creative, be innovative, look for new ways to do your business. Even, even stuff that hasn't been done. I mean, start, start doing like meet with your patients or your clients virtually, even if you haven't done it before, see how you can figure it out.

like creating a little side hustle or something like you figure this out, whatever you got to do, like get after it. So when it, when it finally, everything kind of hits and goes, Whoa, what's this? Like we're already on the ground running. We're already moving. We're already warmed up and ready to fight, right? When the fight shows up. So love you guys, man. This is all coming from literally coming from just the goodness of my heart and from years of study and experience and travel, meeting with all kinds of people and just getting the privilege to

coach and work with people in all kinds of businesses and industries. I just want to, I really just want to help. I really do. And so I hope, I hope you receive that. And this whole message in the goodness and the hope it's coming from. This is a message of hope and encouragement to inspire you, lift you up, motivate you like, let's get after this, let's go. It's not, it's not fear. It's not discouragement. It's not, whoa, it's not darkness or, you know, the rain cloud or fear. It's none of those things.

It's like, Hey, this is a serious situation. I think the economic situation is far more serious than the virus situation. Really do. Really do. And again, I could be wrong, but I think on this one, we're going to feel it. So the more we can do to prepare ourselves, the better. Always. That's just the great principle all the time. Let's be ready. Always better to be ready and prepared.

So let's get after my friends. Remember, every day we're training for greatness. Every day we're training for greatness. Stop acting like you're on vacation. Fist bumps for everybody. High fives. Train for greatness. Reach upward.