Weathering The Storm: How to Stay Afloat when Life Won’t Let Up

The ONE Thing

NOVA Media

Business, Careers, Entrepreneurship

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 12 January 2026

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How do you stay afloat when everything is falling apart? Life can - and will - hit you hard. And how can you lead others when you feel like you can’t lead yourself? This week, Jay sits down for an interview with Tiffany Fykes and Sarah Reynolds from Empire Building, to share some of the deeply personal hardships he has navigated in the past several years, and opens up about what it really looks like to lead when your systems, confidence, and energy are all under strain. Rather than pretending strength means pushing through alone, Jay shares how adversity can become an ally if you’re willing to learn from it. He introduces the idea of building “lighthouses”: simple frameworks, reframes, and support systems that help you navigate future storms with more clarity and less damage. You’ll hear why reframing self-talk matters most when standards feel impossible, how recalibrating expectations can keep you moving forward, and why re-engineering your village is essential for sustainable leadership. This conversation is an honest reminder that extraordinary results don’t come from avoiding storms, but from learning how to lead through them with grace, transparency, and purpose. Challenge of the Week: Take one challenge you’re facing right now and turn it into a solution. Then ask: can this solution become a simple framework, checklist, or ritual for my future self? We talk about: [00:00] Introduction to Empire Building and Jay Papasan[03:38] Jay's Personal Storm[10:00] Building Lighthouses and Helping Others[15:50] Reframing Standards and Recalibrating Priorities [20:42] What Does “Doing Your Best” Actually Mean Right Now[24:17] How Do You Re-Engineer Your Support System[34:00] What Changes When You Build Rituals of Connection[37:46] Why Coaching is so Important *** To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: the1thing.com/pods. We talk about: How to reframe adversity without lowering your standards Why done is good and good is great in hard seasons The power of intentionally rebuilding your support system Links & Tools from This Episode: The ONE Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan Good Inside by Dr. Becky Kennedy Empire Building podcast Free Resources Want to be a guest or share feedback? Email podcast@the1thing.com or send us an audio note at Speakpipe.com/the1thing. Produced by NOVA

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Have you ever heard the old saying that life will keep teaching the lesson until you finally learn it?
0:05.8	Well, we're kind of going to go down that path in this episode with my friend Stephanie and Sarah.
0:10.5	Life is going to happen to us. And it seems like since 2020, life just keeps coming at us at faster and faster speed.
0:17.3	And if you're a business owner, an entrepreneur, it's been really crazy between the market, everything
0:22.1	that's happening. And then, you know, life doesn't let up. When bad stuff is happening, I mean,
0:27.0	I find it usually happens in threes and sometimes in multiples of threes. You know, your kids get sick.
0:31.9	They get the strep float or they get the flu right on that day that you couldn't miss that meeting.
0:36.0	You have to miss because your
0:37.7	priority shifted. We all are dealing with a lot. How we deal with it matters. I'm going to introduce
0:44.0	with Tiffany and Sarah the idea that maybe adversity can be your ally. The same challenges that can
0:49.7	stop us in our tracks can help us make a leap forward if we approach them differently. And we're going to
0:55.4	explore that through this concept of building lighthouses in this episode. And I'll share some of
1:00.2	the really tough stuff that I've been through, some of the lighthouses I've built to help me
1:05.4	navigate that in the future, but also help others. So you've ever wondered how to lead yourself when everything
1:11.9	was coming apart and how to lead others, hopefully you'll find some answers in this episode.
1:26.5	I'm Jay Papazan, and this is the One Thing, your weekly guide to the simple steps that lead to extraordinary results.
1:35.3	Hi, everyone, and welcome to a new week of the Empire Building podcast.
1:41.3	And today is so special. I'm actually, my studio today is at my house. And I yell to all my
1:47.8	kids, be quiet, guys. I've got a New York Times bestselling author about to enter our studio. And me and
1:55.9	Tiffany are super excited today to have an empire building studio, Jay Papazan, and he is the founder of the
2:05.2	One Thing Company, which arguably has had the greatest impact on both George and I's life.
2:12.6	And so we are so excited to...
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NOVA Media, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NOVA Media and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.