March 14 - The #1 driver for turning uncertainty into opportunity
How do we take the uncertainties we face and translate them into caring action for your family, your company, your customers and communities...that delivers success and thriving? The answer is closer than you might expect.
🎧 Listen here, or listen on Spotify
In this Issue
- 💖 Lead with love, not fear—small, caring actions create big impact.
- 🧠 Mindset matters—fear leads to blame, love drives progress.
- 🚀 Act, don’t wait—opportunities come to those who adapt.
- 📉 Economic shifts—stagflation, debt, and market changes require smart choices.
- 🔄 Drive change—data modernization needs leadership and buy-in.
[perspective]
🧭 Navigating Uncertainty - With Love
Right now, we are all navigating an era of accelerating change—from economic uncertainty and shifting job markets to rapid technological advancements. In times like these, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed or hesitant. But as individuals who deeply care—about our families, careers, customers, businesses, patients, and communities—We have a choice to be driven by love or by fear.
- Some of you are helping your newborns and small children take their first steps in life.
- Some of you are providing similar nurture for a young company that you are trying to build.
- Some of you are trying to upskill and empower a team
- Many of you have customers or patients you care deeply about.
- Or maybe groups or communities or ecosystems that you want to help.
How do we take the uncertainties we face and translate them into caring action for your family, your company, your customers and communities...and even for your own career and thriving?
The answer is closer than you might expect. Its wrapped up in this question:
What’s driving you? And how do you find the right motivation?
Here's what we mean:
If we are motivated by fear or anger, we'll react to uncertainty in less helpful, less effective ways. Our behaviors will be driven by resentment and prone to overreaction. Which tends to make things worse. Fear and resentment will also often cause us to over estimate what is not in our control, while overlooking what actually is in our control, what things we can take action on. Instead of embracing responsibility and taking control of what we can, we instead lapse into a passive non-accountable mindset. Saying things to ourselves like, "Well those people are screwing everything up so I can't do anything because everything is so chaotic right now."
That's not the mindset you want to take.
Your biggest opportunities, your biggest wins often start under less than ideal conditions, where things might feel absolutely nuts. When it feels like the world has gone crazy, that's your chance to do good.
Don't think in terms of doing something big. Think small. The truly big and beneficial impacts come from a series of small actions.
And what is the driver for this? What would keep you going through that series of small actions long enough for the great results to come?
Love.
This is where clarity starts.
If I look out at the headlines and the world and ask "how do I stop this madness?" my plans this week will likely devolve into doomscrolling and resentment. Driven by fear and anger.
If I look out at the world and say, "What are the best things I can do for the people, the family, the team, the customers I care about?" then I will be working from a different mindset. A mindset of Love, not fear or anger. And I'll notice opportunities and insights I would have otherwise missed.
The best way to protect those we care about is to process uncertainty with insight and action—understanding the key economic signals, making informed financial decisions, and adapting to the changes that impact our personal and professional lives.
- If you’re investing, staying disciplined with strategies like dollar-cost averaging can help navigate volatility.
- If you’re managing a business, focusing on financial resilience and customer needs is critical.
- If you’re leading a team, clarity and adaptability will define your success.
- If you’re supporting a family, smart financial planning and intentional career moves will provide stability.
🚨 Beware of messages that suggest delay. Sitting on the sidelines, waiting for uncertainty to pass, often leads to missed opportunities. The future belongs to those who prepare, pivot, and take wise action today.
Here’s the secret:
When you're driven by love, you don't have to predict the future, you don’t have to dread the future, because you're the one building it.
And instead of passively worrying about the future, we take small steps every day to make it better. If we allow fear, resentment or anger to be the driver, we probably won’t take the right actions as consistently as we need to, to get good results. We’ll fall into a cycle of trying, getting frustrated, then abandoning our task for a while, and then coming back later to make another attempt - after time and opportunities have been lost.
But if we do what we do out of love - it puts us on a path of steady consistently taking the right actions and this makes all the difference over time.
So often here in the 21st century our lives require us to process uncertainty. But we have the opportunity to translate that uncertainty into action driven by love for all of the important people, teams and causes in our lives.
What steps will you take now to ensure that your family, your business, and your community can thrive in this environment?
Reach out! I’d love to talk more and hear what you are focused on - you can dm me on LinkedIn.
[macro-economics]
Trending: Stagflation, Correction, Recession
The GDP Consensus Forecast suggests we are in a "stagflation" period (high inflation, low growth), as the S&P 500 entered "correction territory." A market is typically considered to be in correction when it is down 10% or more from most recent highs. A bear market is 20% or more. Goldman Sachs says there's an increased chance of a recession in the coming year.
The latest inflation numbers showed inflation at 2.8% - slightly lower than expected. While this is welcome news, it's important to remember that this is an average that doesn't necessarily spell relief for household budgets:
- Eating out up 3.7% over one year ago.
- Prescriptions up 4.6%
- Nursing home care up 4.1%
- Health insurance up 3.9%
No surprise then that the Consumer Confidence Index dropped sharply in February, with the Expectations Index portion of the measure dropping below the 80 point threshold that usually signals a recession. Surging layoffs don't help.
US credit card delinquencies are at a 13 year high - average rate on credit cards is now 21% - the highest in modern history. In 2021 it was less than 15%.
Related: See the Budget tool and tips at Personal Finance: Steps to financial security.
States fortunes increasingly tied to US Gov debt
State and local governments are now the 2nd largest holders of US treasuries, far ahead of foreign governments. The complete implications of this are not yet clear, but this does make states and local governments increasingly dependent on federal economic policy.
Even crypto has the blues...
While the unprecedented White House Crypto Summit grabbed headlines this past week, the most significant regulatory change flew under the radar. In a pivotal shift, the CFTC issued new guidance giving banks greater freedom to innovate and offer new crypto products, without the previous "mandatory consultation" rule. This shift is likely to pave the way for greater crypto adoption and financial innovation in the banking space. In spite of this positive note, institutional investors have moved more than $4B out of Crypto ETFs in the last month, unnerved by the erratic policy impacts to markets.
📉 S3T Full Access Members: Check the S3T Economic Dashboard for the latest on the top 500+ US & International real-time economic indicators.
[change leadership learning series]
This week's lesson: Gaining buy-in for data modernization:
Some of the world's most transformative AI use cases are waiting for data that is currently locked up inside legacy platforms and policies.
But data modernizations are fraught with complexity, costs, and perhaps worst of all politics. In this change leadership learning segment you'll learn how to inspire and guide an organization to leave behind its status quo and embark on a data modernization journey. This is by no means easy and the key insights and skills. You will learn here will increase your chances for success.
Congratulations to all of you who have been studying and applying each weekly segment in the Change Leadership Learning Series - since the first lesson in October 2024! this marks the final lesson in the series. Next week we will do a recap.
Click here for an overview of the full Change Leadership Learning Series.
[playbooks]
- Spend Wisely in a Hype-Driven World
- Gaining Buy-in for Data Modernization
- Flipping the Script: Understanding and Changing Internal & Macro Narratives
- Shift to effective gatekeeping in the age of generative AI
- How to Stop Zombie Projects from Sapping your Focus and Resources
- Harmonize Different Kinds of Expertise to Achieve Success
- Addressing issues related to uneven accountability
- Validating AI use cases
- 6 Proven Ways to Resolve Conflicts
See Full List of S3T Playbooks
Opinions expressed are those of the individuals and do not reflect the official positions of companies or organizations those individuals may be affiliated with. Not financial, investment or legal advice, and no offers for securities or investment opportunities are intended. Mentions should not be construed as endorsements. Authors or guests may hold assets discussed or may have interests in companies mentioned.
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