You see, I am making this video.

I do not have my typical camera crew with me

or fancy lights or fancy productions.

This is simply me talking to you through my iPhone,

and my wife, Jenny, is actually holding this camera.

You see, I know that I have a huge following

on social media, and I know for a fact,

a lot of my fans, a lot of my students,

they are being impacted by the coronavirus.

I also know that a lot of my friends who are entrepreneurs,

who are business owners, they are struggling.

I know that a lot of them are closing their doors.

A lot of them are going out of business.

These are very challenging times.

Some of the videos that you saw on my channel, my YouTube,

they were actually pre-recorded a few weeks ago,

and this video, here, is real time, what's happening.

Now, I am not going to give you a raw raw motivational talk

because that's not what's needed right now.

What's needed right now

are practical (claps hands) strategies that you can apply

in your life and in your business that makes a difference.

At times like these,

there's a lot of fear in the marketplace.

There's a lot of fear out there.

People are panicking.

It is exactly at times like these that they need leadership,

not from me, but from you, that they need leadership

from you as a father, as a mother, as a son,

as a daughter, as a business owner,

they need a leader like you, that you need to step up.

You need to take charge of the situation

because they're looking towards you.

They're counting on you to provide leadership,

to provide clarity, to provide confidence,

to provide that vision where we are going,

how are we going to overcome this.

Now, I'm not going to tell you that everything's going to be fine.

In fact, things are not going to be fine.

Things are about to get a lot worse.

You see, this is not the first time I've

experienced something like this.

Maybe not to this degree,

but I have experienced a few major panics like this

during my life and my business career.

The first one was back in 1997.

Back then, I immigrated to Canada,

and I was here for a couple years already.

In 1997, when Hong Kong returned to China,

that triggered the Asia financial crisis,

and within a very short period of time,

my father actually went bankrupt

because of the financial crisis.

So I know, first hand, what it's like to be a victim

of a financial crisis, what kind of damage

that it could do to a family, to your loved ones.

You see, because of that, I learned to be self-reliant.

I learned that even sometimes in life,

you cannot count on even your own father to provide

for you, that we had to be self-reliant.

The only person that we could count on is ourself.

That I needed to step up as a son to provide

for my mom and for my family.

And in 2001, 9/11, I remember it, you remember it.

I vividly remember, I woke up in the morning.

My mom was saying to me, "Dan, turn on the TV."

I turned on the TV, and I saw the plane crash

into the World Trade Center.

I couldn't believe it.

I thought it was a movie.

I couldn't believe.

I've never seen anything like that.

And while I was in disbelief, slowly,

I came to the realization, "Wow, this really happened."

And then, of course, as you know,

the stock market plummeted,

also triggered a financial crisis during that time.

And I was a business owner, young entrepreneur,

not knowing a whole lot, struggling in debt.

It was a very tough time, very very tough time.

But then, a few years later, 2002, SARS hit Hong Kong.

Now, if you know my background, my history,

you know I was born in Hong Kong.

All my family is in Hong Kong.

My mom was with me here at the time.

My father was still in Hong Kong.

So it was very, very difficult to see.

That's why my heart goes to the nurses,

the doctors, the food truck drivers, the policemen,

because I know how hard it is.

In fact, one of my childhood friend's mom actually worked

in a hospital during the time of SARS.

It was a very difficult time.

So this is not the first time I've witnessed

and seen something like this.

So if you've been impacted by the coronavirus,

here's some strategies for you.

It might not solve all your problems,

but my goal is to give you a little bit more clarity

or maybe to help you to figure out

where you should go from here.

Number one, and that is don't get paid

for your time, get paid for your skills.

I've been talking about this for years now.

In fact, I wrote a book about it last year

called "Unlock It," that we are transitioning

from the job economy to now the skill economy.

That the job economy, it's dead.

The old model of going to school, getting good grades,

and get a job and work that job for 30 years,

that model, it's outdated.

Now, we are in the skill economy,

meaning that you need to embrace the idea

of being more like free agent, more like a freelancer,

more like an independent contractor,

more like a remote talent so that you are not counting on,

and you cannot count on the government

to solve all these problems for you,

that they will rescue you, or you are relying

on a company to take care of you.

The only person that you can rely on

is yourself and your skillset.

So maybe, lets say you are a graphic designer,

and you've been always working for a company.

During a crisis like this,

maybe it's time to embrace a new model

that maybe you'll be more a freelancer,

more like a freelancer model

that you are now working with different companies.

You're still applying your skillsets, your expertise,

but now, you can work with more people

instead of just relying on one company.

That is the old model.

The new model is different.

Now, if you don't have those skillsets,

and maybe you are a waiter, you are a waitress.

Nothing wrong with that.

But the question you have to ask yourself is do you want

to be a waiter or a waitress for the rest of your life?

If waiting is the skillset that you have or the people skill

is the skill that you have, that is good.

But knowing that, you learn that skill.

It also means that you could learn other skillsets.

It's at times like these you have to ask yourself,

"Okay, what kind of new skillsets do I need to develop?"

That you're no longer just getting paid

for your time just for, by being there,

but actually your skillset.

You see, in the job economy, you get paid for your time.

But in skill economy, you get paid for results.

What kind of results can you deliver?

How can you deliver those results more efficiently,

more effectively than most other people?

Those are the key questions that you need to ask.

Number two, double down on your learning.

You see, most people, during time off,

self-isolation, what do they do?

They watch Netflix, they watch TV.

They play video games.

That's their choice.

But wouldn't it be smarter to now take these times

that you normally wouldn't have, go listen to that podcast.

Watch more educational videos.

Learning, take some courses online.

Learn from other people.

Read a book, read a Kindle.

Do something to upgrade your skills.

Now is the time to learn.

Now is not the time to waste time.

See, the world kind of, at the moment,

kind of freeze, everything kind of slows down.

Everybody slows down.

Now it's time for you to prepare yourself emotionally

but also mentally, as well, so that when things return

back to kind of normal, you're there.

You're prepared.

It's very, very critical.

Don't waste time.

The reason you want to keep learning during times like these

because if you want to keep your job,

if you want to get a new job, these skillsets will serve you.

You need those additional skillsets, additional knowledge,

if you were to survive and thrive in times like these.

Number three, expand, don't contract.

Maybe you need to change the way

that you sell as a business owner.

Maybe you need to change the way who you sell it to.

Maybe different target market.

Maybe different price point.

But we need to do something

as an entrepreneur, as a business owner.

Do you know that a lot of great companies today,

they were actually launched during recession?

IBM, Microsoft, General Motors, Disney, General Electrics.

A lot of these great companies,

they were launched during the recession.

Why?

Because during the recession, everybody,

they are hiding in their bunkers.

They are afraid.

Everybody is panicking, but as a smart entrepreneur,

if you're smart, you'll also see opportunities.

You see there's a way that you could expand

if you could survive, if you have the resources,

if you know how to allocate your resources, now is the time.

Because everybody else, they freeze.

If you are the one that's active,

you're proactive in the marketplace and you're expanding,

you're advertising, you're marketing more,

you would get more tension in the marketplace.

And when this blows over,

you would have dominate your industry.

Now, easy to say, not easy to do.

I understand that.

But you have to ask yourself, and you have to have

that communication with your team, and say,

"Hey, this is what is happening.

"This is what's going on."

Right?

A powerful question that you could ask with your team,

and this is the same question that I pose

to my team is this, "How could we double our revenue

"with 50% of our resources?

"How could we double our revenue with 50% of resources?"

See, it's a thinking question, and now, it expands our mind.

Okay, what do we need to do?

When the world panics, we expand.

That's what a true entrepreneur does.

When the world panics, we expand.

Also, communicate, over communicate with your vendors.

Over communicate with your customers.

Over communicate with your employees.

Because if now, they are working remotely,

they are working from home,

you don't have that face-to-face interaction.

It is more important than ever to actually over communicate

because again, they need your leadership.

They need to know what is going on.

They need to know what you're thinking.

They need to know what each other is thinking.

Now it's time to unite as a team,

to work as a team together, and to move forward.

So expand, don't contract.

Number four, cut your losses.

There are businesses we could pivot, we could self-correct,

we could re-engineer, we could re-structure, yes.