510. 7 Recession-Proof Strategies for Building Wealth in a Down Market

The ONE Thing

NOVA Media

Entrepreneurship, Business, Careers

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 16 June 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We spend a lot of time worrying about uncertainty—tariffs, market volatility, the looming threat of a recession. But what if these aren’t just obstacles, but some of the greatest opportunities for your business or career? History shows that recessions often create more millionaires than any other time and open the door for companies to leap ahead. In this episode, I break down the seven strategies you can use to become recession-proof. These are the same ideas that helped Keller Williams not just survive the Great Recession, but emerge as the #1 company in our industry. We talk about how to develop a resilient mindset, get lean and cut unnecessary expenses, and focus ruthlessly on what actually moves the needle. I walk you through practical exercises—like the ABCs of expenses—and challenge you to find your margin so you can weather any market. We’ll cover how to stay agile and adapt your business model for the market ahead, not the one you’re leaving behind. You’ll hear why being connected—to your team, your network, your vendors, and even your competitors—is more important than ever. And we dig into the importance of becoming irreplaceable to your clients, plus how to become a beacon of leadership when everyone else is running for cover. The truth is, change is coming whether we like it or not. The only question is: will you be ready to seize the opportunity? Challenge of the Week: Set aside an hour to do the ABCs of expenses. Grab three months of statements and label every expense as an A (absolutely essential), B (optional), or C (stuff you can cut right now). Take action to reduce or eliminate your Bs and Cs—your business and your bank account will thank you. *** To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: the1thing.com/pods. We talk about: Why uncertainty and recessions can be your biggest opportunity Seven strategies to thrive and gain market share in tough times How to cut costs, get focused, and become irreplaceable Links & Tools from This Episode: Read Shift: How Top Real Estate Agents Tackle Tough Times by Gary Keller, Jay Papasan, and Dave Jenks Read Grit by Angela Duckworth Read Antifragile by Nassim Taleb Free Resources Want to be a guest or share feedback? Email [email protected] or send us an audio note at Speakpipe.com/the1thing. Produced by NOVA

Transcript

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0:00.0	What if I told you that the uncertainty that everybody's so worried about, the tariffs, the market
0:05.4	volatility, the possibility of an impending recession, might actually be one of your biggest
0:10.6	opportunities in business and for your career in the next decade? Well, it's kind of the truth.
0:16.0	If you look at history, you'll see that recessions, they often create more millionaires than the other time.
0:21.7	That's also when companies get to bound forward, take market share, and overtake their competitors.
0:27.7	Uncertain times create lots of opportunity if you know how to look.
0:33.2	Now, here at Keller Williams, where I've been working for almost three decades now, we went through the Great Recession.
0:39.5	We went into it as the number four company in a distant fourth.
0:42.9	We came out of the Great Recession as the number one company by every measure and almost twice as big as the number two.
0:49.9	So we ran a play that not only helped us regain our profitability, but also gained market share in one of the toughest markets in our industry since the Great Depression.
1:00.1	Gary and I wrote a book called Shift with our previous partner, Dave Jinx, that would on to be a bestseller, which is all about navigating recessions.
1:07.8	How do we, as business people, identify the 20% of the 20% of the 20% really the
1:14.0	essential steps so that we can become recession proof? And that's what this podcast is about.
1:19.8	I'm going to share seven strategies on how you can become and your business can become
1:23.7	recession proof. A lot of people are afraid of change. And I think if Gary were here,
1:29.1	he would tell us, don't fear change. Make it essential to your strategy. When you just assume that
1:34.3	it's coming, because I guarantee you, it's not a matter of if we'll have a recession. It's just when.
1:39.9	Markets go up, markets go down. If they go up for long enough, it will cause them to go down. If they go down for long enough, it will cause them to go down.
1:44.3	If they go down for long enough, it will cause them to go up. That's how cycles work.
1:48.5	So it's coming. The question is, are you prepared? A lot of folks look up right now, and they want
1:54.8	to put on their bear suit and go into hibernation and just wish it all away. But not you. You're one of the one thingers out there. You're
2:02.0	focused on excelling and getting the best out of this life. So let's dive in right now and tackle
	...

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