From Bankruptcy to Billions: The Business Comeback Stories Every Business Owner Needs to Hear - Part 2

0:01 Welcome to the coaching equation brought to you by empire partners and hosted by Ryan Lang and Brooke Bishop. Our mission is to help you build a profitable and impactful coaching business by cutting through the noise and all the expert advice to deliver tried and true actionable insights that you can deploy in your business today. Each week, we bring on expert guests, unveil cutting-edge tactics and strategies, and share the secrets and stories that we've gathered from working with the most successful coaching companies on earth. Welcome back to the Coaching Equation Podcast. I'm your host, Ryan Lang, CEO and co-founder of Empire Partners, alongside my co-founder and co-host, Brooke Bishop.

0:46 And it's part two of this two-part series where we detail five amazing stories of business comebacks from almost certain demise to... to not just success, but absolutely epic success. In episode one, we covered two amazing stories of Steve Jobs and Elon Musk. And in this episode, I'm super excited about this one because these are three stories that I think a lot of people really haven't heard Um, two out of the three for sure. I had definitely not heard mega surprises coming in this episode. And I think some of the biggest distinctions and takeaways that we've had honestly all year long between the two episodes.

1:30 Now, if you haven't listened to episode one. go back and listen to episode one because you're going to want to get those stories. You're going to want to get the context of what we're talking about here. If you have, you're in the right spot because this second episode is going to be an amazing follow-up. It's a great conclusion to this little mini-series, if we can call it that. Anyhow, let's not waste any more time. Let's dive in. This is the Coaching Equation Podcast. Welcome back to the Coaching Equation Podcast. I'm your host, Ryan Lang, CEO and co-founder of Empire Partners, alongside my co-founder and co-host, Brooke Bishop. What's up, man? What's up? Hello again. Welcome back. Yep. Welcome back to part two of this awesomeness.

2:16 Last episode, we got a chance to... touch on a couple of incredible stories around Steve Jobs and Elon Musk. And we're picking up where we left off. We've got three more for you in this episode today. And and the thing I love about these three, I knew a little bit about the first two, a little bit. But two out of these three, I had no idea about. And they absolutely floored me. So I'm super excited to dive in and and dig in on all of this. Before we do, man, any thoughts or reflections that you had after last episode as we lead into this one? No, it's... Well, I shouldn't say no.

2:58 Yes. Yes, I do. Actually, a couple of things that was really cool. We had quite a few people who reached out who were so stoked on the last one. And they said they were super amped for this one because they wanted to hear the rest of the stories. And they just found... People found them so inspirational just in their moments of... wanting to throw in the towel or feeling like they weren't doing the right things or weren't moving fast enough. Um, and it's just, it's such a powerful piece to the puzzle for us to look at other people who were down and out, who made big plays, their back was against the wall and they turned the ship around. Um, you know, I'm sure there's infinite stories of people who, who quit when it got tough. And so for just us in our industry, you know, for coaches, consultants, therapists, um, there's so many days where we have to hold space for so many people.

3:46 And it's the reality is we have to look in the mirror and we need somebody to hold space for us as well. Right? So it's, it's not that we're expected to be perfect all the time. And so I just, I love the fact that you, you brought this into the fold to kind of go, okay, for those that are out helping the tip of the spear that are out there doing their best to hold space for everyone else. let's have a couple episodes where we hold space for, for our peeps. Um, and let's bring in some amazing inspirational stories just to, to light a fire inside of, of all of our, our humans that are out there. So yeah. Amen. Excited for today. Amen to that. All right. Well, let's go ahead and dive in. Okay. So first one of the day today, 1973.

4:27 Fred Smith was the CEO of FedEx. And in 1973, he was running into a little bit of a problem, which was that the company had $5,000 in the bank. $5,000 left. And think about a behemoth like FedEx for a minute. Fucking $5,000 in the bank. And here's the deal. Obviously, they're running packages all over the place in different ways. Even back then, they needed $24,000 to pay the fuel bill that was coming due. And they had $5,000 in the bank. So he had just gone off and pitched a group for more funding.

5:12 They said no. And they basically were in a spot at that point where once the funding got denied, they're staring bankruptcy in the face. Like it was a real possibility at that point. And so where like most people would probably hire a bankruptcy attorney and like start that process, Fred decided to do something slightly different. And he took a detour to Las Vegas. So our recommendation for the day, if you're down at. Oh, no, that's not what we're.

5:52 Yeah. Disclaimer. We're not recommending that you go to Vegas if you if you need money. But he takes a detour. He goes to Vegas and he wins twenty seven thousand dollars playing Jack Blackjack. the fuck out of here so $27,000 he wins and he wired it back to FedEx they were able to pay the fuel bill and here's the thing you know he said I love that he said this about that whole situation he was like look look You know, that $27,000 wasn't like it, you know, fixed the whole problem, you know, all the problems.

6:37 But here was the thing. It was a reminder that things could get better. And I think so often that's just what we're looking for, right? It's like... And well, that's probably what we should be looking for. It's like even if the whole problem is not solved, just a little bit of a nugget that says, hey, you know what? There's a crack in the door here. This maybe isn't as bad as I thought it was. Or there are ways that I could figure this out, including going to Vegas and winning 27 grand, you know, playing blackjack. But here's the thing. You know, what's crazy about this is after he got that one little win, he didn't quit trying to get funding and he's able to get $11 million in funding.

7:23 So the one win bought him the fuel. But that then gave him kind of the fire and the confidence to keep going and go out and secure 11 million. And today, the company in 1973 that have $5,000 in the bank, you know, does about $69.7 billion in revenue. Fuel costs a bit more today than it did back then. Let's be. It did. Indeed. It's true. There's been a little bit of inflation. That's huge. It's interesting because even as you're saying that, you know, we talk so much about state management and like managing your state.

8:04 And when you're in a shitty state or when you're in a scarcity state or when you're in desperation state, you don't usually come up with very good answers. Right. So here, here, his back was against the wall and he's just kind of like, fuck it. Let's just, let's go play some blackjack and let's see what happens. I mean, he's either going to win or he's gonna have to file bankruptcy anyways. So you might at least have one good night of fun and see which way the cards fall literally. And here it gave him the juice to kind of go, okay, put them in a better state of opportunity. And okay, I am a winner and I can actually, I can get some victories under my belt. There was, there was somebody who Shoot, I can't remember who it was. Maybe it was, I don't know who said it, but it was basically something to the effect of, you know, you can lose seven times, but if you win three, you're going to be successful.

8:54 Right? Because you can lose over and over and over and over again. The losses are going to be equal, but the victories, who knows how big those victories can be. And so if one out of those three victories is big, it'll completely trump the other nine. Right? I don't know if that math made sense, but it made sense in my head. So now I, I love this. And just in terms of the state management piece and just staying in the game, just looking for those little victories. And then at some point there's going to be a big pop that changes the game. Yeah, well, I totally agree. And I think that right out of the gates, one of the things it's so interesting because I think so often we look at, you know, people. who have done incredible things and we think that there's something superhuman, you know, about them.

9:39 And there's not. They just truly, it's in moments like this, you know, what kind of a decision do you decide to make? Most people would have just sunk down into the hole, thrown their hands up and went, well, guess we're just fucked. You know, not going to make it out of this one. And instead, even though, again, the actual the actual action that he decided to take is somewhat questionable at the end of the day. The point of it is not the action that he decided to take. It's that he decided to take the action. That's the point. It's the willingness to to be in the middle of a shitstorm and stand in the middle of it and go, hmm.

10:22 Okay, well, let's just keep going. There's some way. I don't know what it is, but let's just keep going. Because here's the thing. In that moment, you're down to $5,000 in the bank. You can't pay the bill. You just got denied for funding. You're facing bankruptcy. Well, what's wild about this is most people, even though it's like, what do you have to lose at this point? What's left to lose? Even in that situation, most people would still go ahead and pack it in. And that's not what he did. I think one of the other things that I love about this one is that – It really is having that little shred of proof that something can and will get better.

11:10 And I think life, not just business, but life is about momentum, isn't it? At the end of the day, it's just get a little momentum. And momentum comes, guess what? From making a decision. One decision. Yeah. creates momentum. And then you make another one. And then you make another one. And the killer of momentum is indecision. And when you're indecisive, you're already making a decision not to make a decision. And it halts all progress. It pretty much puts you talking about state management. You want to find a really quick and easy way to start experiencing depression and anxiety and fear and worry.

11:50 Stay in indecision. And I just love this one because it was an example of a guy who made a decision literally on his way home from getting told no, you know, that changed, you know, that turned $5,000 into $69.7 billion. Per year, not just cumulative per year. That's crazy. Yeah. And there's an interesting undercurrent too, because I think there's a huge piece of how we define failure, right? And I think there's just, to your point of like, there's a certain dynamic that kicks into our brain where it's like, okay, am I going to look at this as the end? Yeah. Or am I going to look at this and go, what else can I do?

12:33 What is it going to mean? How is this going to define me? How do I show up in the midst of this? Is it that we're down to that last wire where we got nothing to lose? And it's like, shit, bet it on black. Let's go. Or is it one of those things where when we really step back, I know we've had a couple people we've talked to this last couple weeks. It's like when we really get under the hood, so let me kind of set the stage. In that first initial conversation, they're in fear that their finances are tight or they're not getting the momentum that they want or their business isn't where they think it should be at. You really peel back the curtain and you really look at their world and you really look at their circumstances and you really look at their current conditions. I'm putting air quotes around the conditions.

13:15 Right. But like when you really get under there, it's like, oh, shit, my world's actually not that bad. I'm actually doing really good. I'm actually way further ahead than the mass majority of humanity. And there's this piece where I think we get caught so often that we're making comparisons. Yeah. And oftentimes we're comparing to others many times. We're also comparing to others and we have no freaking clue what their real life situation or circumstances are. Yep. More times than not, we're comparing ourselves to where we think we should be based on some arbitrary thing that we came up with at some point in time or something our parents projected into our brains when we were little or whatever the heck it is. Yeah. But that comparison game is honestly, it's an Achilles heel in this game.

13:55 Yep. Yep. I agree. I completely agree. It's incessant. And it quite honestly, just that's the I mean, it's probably one of the biggest killers of dreams, you know, beyond the shadow of a doubt. I agree with you 100%. 100%. All right. Loved this one. This was such a great story. What's our next one? What's the next one? Yeah, shout out. Shout out to Fred. Okay. So next one. This is kind of a fun one because I know this is sort of a, you know, bit of a favorite brand for both of us.

14:38 We have, you know, kind of tugs at our heartstrings a little bit. But Lego. Yeah. 2003, I love Legos. I've loved Legos since I was a little kid. I still love Legos. Same. My kids love Legos. Legos are amazing. Legos are amazing. So in 2003, the company... had, um, they basically were hemorrhaging money. They posted a $300 million loss in 2003. Say that number again. 300 million. 300 million dollar loss in a year. Yeah. And think about this. Speaking of inflation, that was 22 years ago.

15:21 It'd be a lot more. When you think of, and I'm just going through all the people over the history of time of like, oh man, to invest $5,000 or $10,000 into my business. Oh, man, that's that's that's going to make me sweat. Three hundred million dollar loss in one year. Oh, yeah. Oh, yep. So, oh, three, they lose three hundred million. That took their their overall debt to eight hundred million. And once again, I'm going to circle back to this. I know I've had my moments, you've had your moments. We've both had countless moments with people who are melting down about the financial mountains that they have to climb.

16:09 No one listening to this right now is facing $800 million in debt. I guarantee it, no one. I'm going to go out on a limb. So they're on the brink of this fire sale. And what was interesting about it is that – You know, like I love the quote. I think this was Steve Jobs actually said, you know, you can always connect the dots looking backwards, but you can never connect them looking forward. And what had happened up to that point to bring them to that moment is they started expanding into fucking everything. They're doing theme parks, video games, clothing, watches, everything.

16:52 Uh, do you imagine thinking of buying a Lego clothing or Lego watch? Like who, who was sitting at that table? That's a good idea. Right. They literally had gotten to the point. The nut, this number is staggering. They were making over 12,000 different Lego elements. Oh, when just manufacturing, think of that means you have to have a different machine or you have components for machine 12,000. Yep. Yep. Good night. Brings me back to one of my other favorite quotes, which is the path to hell is paved through the pursuit of volume. 12,000 different Lego elements.

17:34 So basically, they're drowning out the iconic brand that we all came to know and love. So... They get a new CEO, Juergen Vig Nudstorp. I had to say that slowly just to make sure I didn't butcher it. And he does something that most people wouldn't do, but is without question exactly the move in that moment. And he immediately, immediately starts taking measures to make Lego smaller. He rips out a whole bunch of the bullshit, anything that's losing money. He sold the Legoland parks.

18:17 He basically got the company back to what it did in the first place. He got back to keeping the main thing the main thing, just building the simple little bricks that click in place and, you know, fire up our imaginations and that we all know and love. So fast forward to 2015. Lego's operating margin was back above 25%. And in the first half, the first half of 2015, they became the world's largest toy company. By bringing in revenue of $2.1 billion in sales.

18:58 That's a lot of plastic. Surpassing Mattel. Wow. Who makes all kinds of different shit. Makes everything. Mm-hmm. And the recovery basically kind of comes full circle. By 2023, Lego reported $10 billion in revenue, making them one of the single most valuable toy brands globally with a brand value of $8 billion. Are they still privately held? Because I know it was a family-owned company for a long time. Did they ever go public? That's a good question. I honestly don't know that. I might have to go. I don't think they did. Dr. Google on that one.

19:39 But that's the same numbers. It's pretty bananas. So think about this. They went from $800 million in debt to over $10 billion in annual revenue. Insanity. So much less than in that. Let's unpack this one. Yeah, it's an interesting one. It triggers a thought. Funny that I say trigger. Triggers a thought. Just back with Tony Robbins with Business Mastery. He teaches this whole concept of seven triggers of a crisis. And there's these seven different components.

20:20 Maybe we do another episode on that. I think it'd be a cool one to do. But there's these seven things that, you know, it took out Blockbuster, it took out Napster, it took out Garmin, it took out, do you remember Borders? I don't remember Borders, Books and Bistro. But it took out a huge part of IBM, right? So there's these seven things that can take you out. They were in the midst of that and... Kudos to them, man. They pivoted and got clear around what was hurting their world, streamlined it, simplified it, went all in on what made them magical. And holy crap, what a freaking success story of epic.

21:00 literally epic numbers. No kidding. You know, I, the, the, there are a couple of things that really hit me about this one. And it's, it's very interesting because this is, this is apropos for, for us as it is for anybody listening to this, but it's especially pertinent for us right now. One of the things that we've been talking about a lot internally is just because we can, doesn't mean we should. And this is the danger that so many of us get into when, you know, we're creative thinkers is we get into this space where we just go, oh, my God, it would be so cool if we ABC XYZ.

21:45 Oh, we could go do this. Oh, we could go do that. Legos like, oh, we make bricks. Oh, we can make watches. We can make clothes. We could open fucking theme parks. Yeah. And so what I love about this is it is such a great example of what happens, the magic that happens when you go deep instead of wide. And I think it it like it forces a story like this really forces all of us to think really clearly about like, OK, what really is the thing that we do better than anybody? Lego makes Legos better than anybody.

22:28 I mean, you know, like there have been imitators, plenty of them. And Lego is still the only real Lego in the world. They are privately held, by the way. They are. Fascinating. Wow. So there's one family. So the Christiansen family, they control 75% of the company and their foundation controls 25%. Could you imagine a company that big? Holy mother of Moses. Those folks are doing okay. Guessing that their house is not made of Legos. I think their kid's college fund is paid for.

23:10 Probably all right. Yeah, probably all right. But, you know, I think this is – I think this really – a story like this forces us to look at like what do we do better than anybody? How can we double, triple down on that? And I think one of the things that is definitely a mistake here is – If I were to bet, I don't know this for a fact, by the way, but I'm going to bet. I believe most of the time that we get in trouble in business when we're creating new things and new products is we look around and we go, oh, it would be really cool if we this. Oh. You know, so-and-so is doing this.

23:51 We could do that, too. Or we think our customers or our clients would like this. And what my guess is, is that Lego wasn't really asking their customers what they wanted or needed next. And it sounds like they're trying to be Disney. That's what they were trying to, they made a pivot of who they were. They lost their identity. Yep. That's exactly right. And I think where, uh, what I would say is that it doesn't mean that we don't ever create anything new. That's not what this is about. But what it is about is I think we've got to be really, really smart and intentional that. When we're going to create something new, not just doing it because we can or because it would be cool or because we see somebody else doing it.

24:40 But actually, especially in the in the context of the business owners that we're talking to on this podcast right now, if you're listening to this. Yeah. go to your customers and ask what they want. Like what would be the next thing that would help them better do what they want to do underneath your umbrella that you could actually execute on that would make sense that you wouldn't hate doing? Yeah. The undercurrent, if I'm catching what you're throwing down, there's a huge difference between reacting and responding. Yeah. And it's usually when, when shit gets tough or when things are getting pinched or when we're backs against the wall, most people react.

25:24 And that's usually what bites them in the ass, right? So even if you look at martial arts, if you're reacting to something versus responding to something, that's a totally different animal. When you look at what these guys did in their business, it looks like for a long time they were reacting. Oh, how do we compete with Disney? Let's react to that. And I don't know if that's what they were doing, but it sounds like that's what they were doing. Yeah. But as soon as they had somebody who came in and went, wait, wait, wait, who are we? What are we doing? What is our what is the mountain that we're taking control of here and locking in and aligning all the way around that and going betting the farm against it? I mean, that that's huge. And I can't tell you, I mean, how many times do we get, we call it squirrel syndrome, right? Yep. If we really unpack it, it's reactionary.

26:06 How many people do we talk to in a given week or month where it's like, stop reacting in your business. Stop seeing the shiny object. Like, yes, those tactics are there. Put them in your freaking parking lot. If you don't know what a parking lot is, hit us up. We'll help you figure that out. It's not where you park your car, by the way. But there's this dynamic of like, okay, where am I? Where am I going? Who do I need to become? What do I need to put in order to stay in alignment and burn the freaking boats? And kudos to Lego, man. And it's so funny you brought it up because, dude, I, as an only child for most of my childhood, I lived in Lego, like my Lego world. My room was Lego crazy.

26:46 It was Legos and He-Man. So my He-Man, they found their ways into the Lego world. So that was where it was really. Castle Grayskull made out of Legos. She was hot. Let's just call it what it was. I mean, you're not lying. You're not lying, Jack. Yeah, it's so good. All right. So let's dive into the last one, the final one. This one is fantastic. So March 2020. Yeah. I think most of us can kind of remember what was going on March 2020. I was graduating high school. COVID happens and, you know, there's this COVID.

27:28 I was not graduating 2020. That was really bad math. I was like, wait a minute. What's up, guys? Were you on that delayed? I look way freaking older than I am. You're on that 20-year plan. The Van Wilder approach to high school. Yeah, what was the one with the movie with Brad Pitt where he reverses, or he ages in reverse? Oh, that's Benjamin Button. Yeah, Benjamin Button. Yeah, that's me. Curious case of Benjamin Button. I gotta watch the movie. That's been a while. It has been a while. I just totally derailed you. What are we talking about? 2020.

28:09 Yeah, it's okay. Got it. That's all right. Yeah. Can we please start the story now? Okay. So 2020, there was this company that was doing pretty good up till then called Airbnb. You might be familiar with that. So COVID happens. And check this out. You want to talk about a crisis? Airbnb's revenue dropped 80% in eight weeks. Okay. How much does that suck? I mean, seriously, imagine losing 80% of your revenue in eight weeks.

28:51 So basically, the forecast right around that time – They're showing Airbnb, projecting Airbnb to come in with probably less than 50% of their 2019 sales. So that would have equated to a $600 million year-to-date loss. Oh. Yep. And they're kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place. Nobody's traveling, and they can't do shit about it. So they're entirely – and think about this, you guys.

29:31 You build a dream. It's amazing. Everybody loves it. And then your entire business model, not just like the way you do – the whole business model is crushed overnight. So – The CEO, Brian Chesky, he does a couple of things in the face of all this mess. He somehow, I don't know how, but somehow found a way to raise $2 billion in credit and equity. He went crazy cost-cutting and slashed their costs by about 25%. But they made a really interesting pivot that might seem small on the surface, but was absolutely huge.

30:17 They pivoted to local stays. Airbnb used to be all about, oh, go off, go everywhere, you know, yeah, go everywhere, you know, international, all of this stuff. They pivoted the entire thing to local stays. People can't travel to other countries, even state to state, especially at the beginning of COVID, it was very difficult. And so Airbnb makes this hard left turn and they go helping people discover their own backyards in a moment where I think back to that time, like how cooped up we are. We all were, you know, how unbelievable this scenario and situation was that we were all facing just to get out a little bit meant so much.

31:06 And that's what they ended up providing. They doubled down on local experiences. So eight months later in December, this is so crazy. Eight months later in December of 2020, Airbnb actually does their official IPO at an $86 billion valuation. It was the largest IPO of that entire year. Holy crap. Again, like something totally beyond your control. Like they weren't making dumbass decisions like Lego had been making.

31:48 Something completely out of their control. Something else swept out their leg. Yeah. Yeah. Decimates their entire business. They lose 80% of revenue in eight weeks. They're facing a $600 million year-to-date loss at that point. Eight months later. The largest IPO of the year in a year where travel was almost impossible. Did you hear the story about how they started? I don't know the story of how they started. No. So we actually got to meet the founder. This was, I don't know, probably 10 years ago now. Dude. So they started, they were living in San Francisco at the time and they were doing some other kind of startup that was not happening.

32:29 It wasn't moving very fast. And they're like, crap, we have to pay our rent. It was the guy, the founder and like two other buddies, they were renting an apartment together in San Francisco. And they're like, our startup is not making any money. Like, how the hell are we going to pay our rent this month? And they're like, well, so Obama was coming through for his campaign. Like, well, we have all these people who are coming through for the, you know, Democratic convention or whatever the heck it was. And so they go, well, why don't we just throw some ads on Craigslist and see if we can rent our couch to some of the people who are coming in because all the hotels were booked up. Yeah. And they're like, well, there was no hotels. And so they, they rented the couch. And then they're like, well, shoot, hey, like, Bill, can you go to your state, your buddy's house for the weekend?

33:10 Like, can we rent out your room? So they rented out that room and they did it to all all three of their rooms and the couch. And they jacked up the price compared because there was nowhere else for anyone to go. And that's what spawned the idea of like, wait, holy crap. What if we rent this out? It started out with renting out rooms and couches. And then it moved into let's rent out full houses. And that's where Airbnb came from was they literally couldn't pay their rent. So it makes sense. You fast forward in time where they're like, well, shit, if we created this whole thing from we couldn't pay our rent to let's rent out couches to we can't we can't travel at all. Kudos to them for for pivoting. Well, yeah, I love, first of all, I love the way they started.

33:54 So it goes back to the core of entrepreneurship, right? It's solving a problem, you know, it's just finding a creative way to solve a problem. It just triggered a thought too. So two of our members, actually, so huge shout out to Kevin and Kristen who are on our crew. Did he get to share, has he shared this story with you about what happened to them when COVID hit? Yeah. I don't know that he did. So they, so Kevin and Kristen. So if you guys want to check out their world, freaking cool human beings, man. So they run a company called Nibble and it's, I believe the domain is NBLL.com if I'm not mistaken. But if you check out Nibble, so they, back when COVID hit, they were actually rocking as a company.

34:36 They had, I think 10 or 12 kitchens across the country and they were doing very high end catering. They went to zero. Couldn't, couldn't cater who was having events and you run kitchens and you have staff across the whole country. Like they literally went from one of the top catering companies in the country to you cannot do business. And they had over, I think 180 staff and immediately they went to zero because what were they going to do? So they, the pivot that they did is they went into food delivery and, And where they pivoted to, there's two things that they pivoted to, which is freaking brilliant.

35:17 They pivoted into senior living because no one was allowed to go visit, but those seniors needed, they needed food. So their families couldn't come provide them food. So they started delivering food. And the other was schools. Because the quality of food that was getting distributed around the country went to shit. And so they went, hey, what are all the local schools that we can go deliver to? And dude, they have completely shifted their entire business. They're back right now. They've got, I think, eight or nine kitchens now around the country. They deliver over 60,000 meals per month. That's incredible. The reason they're in our world, I mean, I know you know this piece of it, but they came into our world because they've created a company called The 120 Life for people committed to living to 120 years old.

36:00 And, like, how cool is that to go from literally she was the head chef for four seasons to, like, delivering, doing the most amazing catering on earth to... Oh, shit. Let's completely change the whole game. So, yeah, just just a little shout out to one of our our cool, cool peeps in our world. But 100 percent. Yeah, they're amazing. And and it's another great example, though, I think of I mean. here's the thing. You just referenced it before we got to this story, you know, seven triggers of a crisis. And, and look, there are going to be moments where I, I don't care how much you, you fricking kumbaya on, on the, the, the couch and, you know, manifest this and that you're going to get your ass handed to you sometimes through no fault of your own, you know?

36:52 And yeah, So once again, I think that there are a couple of things that really jump out at me about the Airbnb story. One is I think it's a great example of... feeling, because here's the thing, I think that sometimes in, and certainly there are examples of this and sometimes like you do need to know when to throw in the towel on a business idea that's not working and stuff like that. Like I think, you know, some, some of the best entrepreneurs are able to do that very quickly when others are holding on. But yeah, I think that one of the things that I really love about this one is the is the power of belief in the fact that there's just there's we're not we're not resolute yet that this doesn't work.

37:45 We just need to do it a different way. And, again, in that moment, it just would have been so easy for Airbnb to just go, well, we're screwed. Like, we don't know when this pandemic is going to end. Because think about that. In 2020, we literally didn't know. Every week. No, we had no idea. We didn't know if this was going to be what our lives were going to be like, you know, for forever. I mean, we had no idea. And I think that that's so powerful, just the belief that like, okay, you know what? I'm not ready to say that this doesn't work. There's just a different way that I need to find to do it. Yeah. I think is really, really, really powerful.

38:26 And beyond that, I think it's really powerful to just recognize that those things are going to happen, and you do have to figure out what you're gonna do about it when it does happen, because that's really what it's about. So many people, and we know this, Brooke, like we, so many people sleepwalk through life believing that everything happens to them. Uh, and I know I'm preaching to the choir for everybody listening right now. And I say that, you know, we, we, we all believe, you know, we believe that this is happening for us, but I think that the, the, the foundation of that belief starts with the idea that if something happens, I mean, look at Kevin and Kristen, what an, what a beautiful opportunity, um, and, uh, and, uh, and, uh, and, uh, and, uh, and, uh, and, uh, and, uh, and, uh, and, that they were afforded because that happened.

39:12 You know, for Airbnb, what a beautiful opportunity that they were afforded because that happened. And I think it's a great example of using something external, an external disaster that turns into the catalyst or the turning point for the massive success that the business becomes. And it hits one of my favorite business quotes, which is, change your offer, change your life. Mm. If you look at, obviously, FedEx, a little bit different. They're in a financial pinch. They didn't change their offer. They just had to figure out how to change their metrics. But you look at Lego, theirs wasn't even change your offer to something new.

39:56 It was change your offer back to what you're amazing at. You look at Airbnb, and theirs was definitely a massive change. Subtle on the surface, but huge in terms of how they had to run their world. The cool thing about that, too, if you think about it, So here they pivoted for moments of, of we'll just call it crazy. When the world turned back, they're able to unlock that business model that was there beforehand. So now they got both. Right. They can own. That's fricking gangster. Yeah. It is bananas. It is 100% bananas. I love this, dude. So this was awesome, dude. I think we got to do more stuff like this. I really enjoyed this. I hope you listening enjoyed it as well.

40:39 And just to kind of put a cap on this, I want to sort of throw down a little bit of a challenge because I don't want to just exit stage left and leave this here. I was already walking. I know you would. You're like, you're out the door already. Gotta go. So I just, I want you to think about like, what, what, what is the, what is the impossible right now? What's the big thing that you're facing right now, no matter where it is, whether it is in business, whether it's in life, whatever. and actually started using it as the tool to make that hard pivot.

41:24 And, you know, I want you to think about like, on the other side of that, a few things to a few things for you to actually do and ponder in addition to this. First of all, What is your one thing? Let's think about going back to the first story. One of the reasons that Apple made such a turnaround is they started by really kicking ass with the Mac again. Those colored iMacs. And then that pivoted in the other things that their customers actually wanted and needed that they were able to do well. Lego, the one thing. What's your one thing? Yeah.

42:04 And if you're thinking about other things, if you're doing your one thing really well right now and you're thinking that you should have more, ask first. The other thing is how would you show up? Because here's the big one. Let's go back to Fred Smith for a minute. Fred Smith decides to go to Vegas. He's not thinking about failure when he decides to go to Vegas. He's thinking, fuck it. Let's go all in. So my question to you as you leave this episode is what would you do? How would you show up? How would you act if you knew that there was no failure, that you couldn't fail? That if you just show up and decide to play the next day and commit to finding the way, that it is available to you and you will find it.

42:54 These five stories prove that beyond the shadow of a doubt. Like whatever you're facing, here's the thing. I love this because the last two weeks, I've been thinking about these stories so much. Every time I have a problem, I'm like, well, I... I didn't just, you know, I didn't just lose $600 million. I don't have a debt of $800 million that I'm trying to dig out of. You know, these are simple problems in the grand scheme of things. But what would you do if there was no failure? And, you know, all of the ways were really actually available to you if you just showed up and decided to go and find them. Any last words of wisdom before we depart, my man?

43:34 No, I love the challenge that you gave everybody. So I'm going to take it on too. I dig it. Awesome sauce. All right. We hope you enjoyed this. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Coaching Equation Podcast. Until next time, take care. Take care, everybody. Thank you for listening to this episode of The Coaching Equation. Please hit subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. And if you got value out of this episode, we would be so grateful if you would share it out with a friend and leave us a review on iTunes or your favorite platform. To learn more about Empire Partners or to inquire about working with Ryan and Brooke, please visit www.empirepartners.io forward slash go.