😷 My take on this COVID19 crisis
But first, a story.
Promise me you won’t judge.
In 2017, my company was wrecked with one million dollar of debt.
How did it happen?
Well, a series of poor business decisions.
One of which was overborrowing from the banks to expand our business regionally.
Five to be exact.
Unfortunately, our expansions failed.
No money was made.
And we ended up in debt.
Trainers were chasing me like for their fees.
Banks were threatening to sue me for late payments.
Our landlord also served notice to kick us out of our two storey office.
And our employees left one after another.
As you can imagine, it was an extremely stressful period for me.
I cried myself to sleep for many nights.
Lost a lot of weight too.
Every day I will wish for this crisis to go away, wishing for it to just be nightmare.
But every morning, I will wake up with a heavy heart – “how am I ever going to clear this one million dollar debt?”
When this business crisis happened, my parents had no idea.
Neither did my clients or friends.
I was too embarrassed to tell anyone.
But now looking back five years later, I was glad for this “crisis”.
Three reasons.
(1) This “crisis” woke me up to the importance of financial prudence.
You can’t spend all the money you make.
Even if it is for business expansion.
You got to keep some money for rainy days.
(2) This “crisis” opened me up to the world
of online learning.
Back then, I was so stubborn.
I believe people only learn best in person.
Which is why we went all in to set up physical offices in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, Shanghai, etc.
Burnt a lot of money in the process.
But because of this “crisis”, I decided to digitalise all my training programs and was early in the online training game.
(3) This “crisis” also made me realise that my biggest asset is my personal brand.
In spite of failing in my business expansion, I was still doing well as a trainer/speaker.
My corporate clients were super supportive of me and gave me a lot of work to do.
Some of the assignments were large scale and amounted to six figures revenue.
This is why I could eventually paid off the debt.
This is also why I am a strong proponent of personal branding.
Your business partners can leave you.
Even your team can leave you.
But if you have a strong personal brand, you will always be in business!
If not for the 2017 “crisis”, I won’t have been prepared for the 2020 crisis.
The same crisis we are still going through right now.
COVID19.
Because I started saving 50% of my revenue, we had sufficient cash to tide us through the first few months of the COVID19 crisis.
We even invested the money to build a home studio so I can continue creating content on social media.
And because I was already teaching online, there was a HUGE SPIKE in the number of sign-ups for my online programs during COVID19 crisis.
So while my peers were struggling, I was actually doing better than the year before.
And finally, because I continued to invest in my personal brand, I am still in business in spite of this crisis.
In fact, my clients have also evolved.
I am no longer just working with local offices.
I am also working with the regional and global offices, talking to the top people.
So why am I taking the time to tell you about my embarrassing story?
Because I want you to know that whatever “bad” thing you may be going through right now – like this COVID19 crisis – could actually turn out to be a blessing in disguise.
In the end, it is our RESPONSE to an event - good or bad - that determines its outcome.
When I was in a million dollar debt (event), I could have responded in a negative way (lay blame or give up) and the outcome would have been disastrous.
But instead, I did my best to respond in as positive a way as possible.
I told myself to LEARN from it and IMPROVE from there on.
And I did.
Which is why I am now in a much better place than before.
So remember, it is your response to the event – good or bad – that determines
the outcome.
You have two choices now.
Respond negatively to COVID19 crisis and suffer.
OR
Respond positively to COVID19 “crisis” and thrive.
If you ask me I would suggest you go for option two.
Your #1 fan,
Eric Feng
P.S. If this email has resonated with you, feel free to forward it to your friends.
Better yet, screen shot your favorite parts and share on social media. Tag me so I can get to know you!
P.P.S I recently gave away a free module from my LinkedIn Selling Secrets.
If you are struggling to find leads on LinkedIn, this module will help.
