Stop Reacting To The Downturn And Start Leading Through It

The momentum you’re missing might not be a market problem—it might be a leadership problem. We dig into why motivation used to flow from the top down and how, lately, apathy has been trickling up and disarming the very people meant to set the standard. Instead of accepting a slow season as destiny, we show how to stop reacting, start responding, and turn a challenging market into a training ground for better systems, sharper messaging, and deeper consistency.

We unpack the difference between a reaction and a response, then translate that into concrete leadership moves: revive your learning rhythm, bring back outside voices, test new offers, and update your communication for today’s buyer. You’ll hear why half-measures fail, how to fully commit to a new channel or tactic, and where AI-powered writing can remove friction without flattening your voice. If you’ve felt the pull to do less because your team is quiet, this conversation reframes your role: leaders go first, especially when the energy dips.

Across the episode, we share personal pivots that worked this year, from rethinking outreach to leveraging ChatGPT with proven frameworks. We talk candidly about cycles in consumer behavior, the danger of nostalgia, and the simple habits that protect your belief and output—meditation, movement, and measured experiments. The goal isn’t to grind harder for its own sake; it’s to pair strong energy with right-fit strategy so your effort compounds again.

If this resonates, share it with a leader who’s ready to raise the standard. Subscribe for more real-world coaching, leave a review to tell us what landed, and tag us with the one change you’ll make this week. Your future team is watching who you choose to be right now.

If you would like to learn more about working with Josh, and the Legacy Leadership Coaching Certification, visit JoshCoats.com!

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Hello, what's up, my friends?
My name is Josh.
I'm your push coach.
So freaking excited to talk toyou today.
Man, last episode was fire.
If you did not listen, you needto go check it out like right
away because I talked about howthe industry has changed.
And honestly, if I if I'm justbeing super real, why some

(00:24):
people are having to shut thedoors.
And this is not me trying to beinsensitive to people going
through hard times, like hardtimes suck.
This is me trying to shine alight and say, listen, this is
what we are going to have to doif we want to get through this.
There are some very specificchanges we're going to have to

(00:44):
make.
And so I hit on the threedifferent things on the last
episode.
And today I really want to leana little bit heavier into one
specific thing, and that is theleadership side of things.
One of the things that I'veheard over and over in the last
year is that people do not wantto work like they used to.
People aren't motivated, peopledon't want to show up.

(01:06):
And I've listened to leaderafter leader after leader be
like, well, I mean, honestly, ifthey're not going to show up,
then I'm not going to show up.
And sometimes they're sayingthat directly.
Sometimes they're saying it moreindirectly.
And here's kind of what I'veseen.
Used to, back in the good olddays, there was something that I
would call like the trickle-downeffect.
So this is actually me stealingsome terminology from some like

(01:30):
economy/slash politicalterminology.
So this is something I learned,I don't know, like American
history back in high school.
There's basically a trickle-downeffect, which is like this idea
that if you give enough breaksand enough money to the super
wealthy people that ownbusinesses, then that will
essentially trickle down toother people.
Okay.

(01:51):
Just to be clear, I'm notactually talking about politics
or economics in any way.
It's just some terminology thatlike made sense for this
specific thing.
So used to in the industry,there was kind of a trickle-down
effect.
And here's what I mean by thiswe would have top leaders that
were super motivated, superpassionate, super hungry,

(02:13):
signing up for training, youknow, finding ways to get their
team in front of other people,finding ways to constantly bring
in speakers or books or whateverthat is.
And essentially what washappening was the upline really
kind of created this wave ofmomentum for people that were

(02:34):
underneath them.
Okay.
And what I've seen over the lastyear is that as we've gone
through some harder times in theeconomy, in the industry, and
people are just more frustrated,what I've seen happen is a lot
of people at like lower levelsjust kind of like completely
peace out.
Okay.
And that's always happened, bythe way.

(02:56):
There's always been people thathave been peace out.
There's always been people thathave quit.
But now here's what's going on.
Instead of the higher levelleaders creating like the
standard, if you will, and thenit getting passed down to
others, what I see happening isthere's so many people at lower

(03:16):
levels that are piecing out,less motivated, less excited,
less energized, that it'strickling up to the high-level
people.
So the six and the seven figureearners that used to be like,
listen, we're gonna put on arally cap and figure this out,
are now the people that aremaking the same excuses that

(03:36):
they're complaining about othersmaking.
So I hear top leaders that arelike, well, you don't get it.
People aren't showing up likethey used to.
And me, I'm kind of like, okay,that might be true, but it kind
of sounds to me like you're nowshowing up less than you used

(03:57):
to.
It kind of sounds to me likeyou're using other people not
showing up the way they used toas an excuse for you to no
longer show up the way that youused to.
And that just breaks my heart.
It really, really, really doesbreak my heart because the
people who are called to lead,it just seems to me like so many

(04:21):
of them are taking steps back.
And and and this is what I'vebeen saying for several months
now.
The industry is not in troublebecause of the economy.
Every single business on theplanet is dealing with that.
Everyone is.
So, like, if you're like, oh myGod, our company numbers are

(04:41):
down, guess what?
Every company, not just in thisindustry, in every industry, has
down numbers this year.
If you're like, oh my God, it'sour industry, companies are
shutting down, guess what?
Starbucks is literally closingstores as we speak.
This is not a your companyproblem.

(05:02):
This is not a your industryproblem.
But I will say, when youaccidentally start looking and
thinking too much about thedownside, you actually start to
become a part of the problem ofyour industry and your company

(05:22):
and your business starting to godown.
There's a really big differencebetween we're all just down
because of the economy versusyou having such a negative
response to that that youaccidentally double the effects
of a down season.
And I don't know about you guys,but like if we're already in a

(05:42):
down season just by default, Idon't want to do anything to
make it worse.
But that's what I see peopledoing right now.
People are so discouraged and sofrustrated that instead of
asking, how can we grow andevolve in spite of what's going
on?
People are kind of just saying,well, this is just what it is.

(06:04):
There's nothing I can do aboutit.
And then tell me this.
What happens when the industryis already a little more
challenging, the economy isalready a little more
challenging, online is a littlebit more challenging, and then
leaders, because of thechallenge, stop even trying to
learn, stop even trying to.

(06:26):
Remember what I said earlier,used to the top leaders were the
ones reading the books, takingthe courses, bringing in
speakers, doing all of thesethings.
What happens when things arealready rough and leaders stop
doing all of those things?
We can accidentally end upmanifesting the very thing we
are afraid of when we respond tothe negativity, or I should say,

(06:51):
react to the negativity insteadof responding.
A reaction means an unconscious,like, oh my God, the world is
falling apart, I don't even knowwhat to do.
That would be a reaction.
A response would be, hey, theworld is changing.
I need to change too.
The world is changing, the worldis different.

(07:12):
So I guess I need to go learn, Ineed to grow, I need to find new
ways of doing things.
And one of the things that, likeI mentioned in the last episode,
one of the reasons I took offthe summer from the podcast was
to essentially make sure I wasdoing that with my clients and
teaching them how to evolve inthis new world that we're living
in.

(07:32):
If you don't know how to evolveto the new world, here's what
can happen real quickly, okay?
There was a lot of people.
Well, when I first started 2015,2016, when my business first
took off, there was a lot ofpeople that were taking off
because of social media.
And then there were these otherpeople that were hiring me

(07:54):
because they had builtbusinesses in person and were
trying to figure out socialmedia.
They were trying to like makethe shift from the old
generation to the newgeneration.

And I'll be super honest (08:05):
90% of the people that hired me to try
to make that shift were neverwilling to do what it actually
took because they got spoiled byhow it worked to do things in
person.
They they were like, this isexactly what I do.
I just wake up and I do theseexact things.

(08:25):
And then that stopped workingfor some of these people.
Not for other, by the way,there's still people building in
person.
I'm not saying that no longerworks, but for these specific
people, it stopped working.
And instead of fully embracingthe new season, they kind of
just like they kind of just likedipped one toe in.
And because they just dipped onetoe in, they never actually did

(08:48):
enough to fully learn and growand change to the new way of
things.
And so they got left behind.
And these were people, some ofthe people that hired me had
made millions of dollarsbuilding their businesses in
person, and we're just neverquite willing to learn that next
thing.
And and this is something thatwe as humans are all very guilty

(09:11):
of.
We're very guilty of gettingreally good at doing things one
way, and then when we'rechallenged with a new way, we
reject it.
And some of it's just our ownentitlement, you know, we're
like, I don't want to have towork hard or I already learned,
I already worked hard to learnthings one way.
Why should I have to like workhard to learn a new way?

(09:34):
And the reality is, if you wantto be around for more than five
or 10 years, honestly, probablyevery five to 10 years.
And if I had to guess, we'regonna have to do this even more
regularly now, but for sure,every five to 10 years, we're
all gonna have to learn a newway of doing things because
society does not stay the same.

(09:56):
If you watch fashion, it changesevery five to 10 years.
And so we as a society arebuying habits, the way we look
at the world, the way um the waywe look at our purchases, the
way we look at our goals and ourhabits.
All of this changes every fiveto 10 years.

(10:16):
So if you are not the person whois willing to grow and adapt and
learn and change, there's areally good chance you're also
gonna get left behind.
And I don't say that as any typeof a fear or judgment or shame.
I say that as a warning to allof us that we all have to be
willing to grow.
And I'll I'll be the first toadmit I didn't love it either.

(10:39):
I wanted everything to stay thesame.
I wanted to keep running theexact same ads and writing the
exact same emails and putting onthe exact same events.
And I will just tell you, I hadto change a lot this year.
But thankfully, because I waswilling to, I was willing to get
on the phone with friends, I waswilling to ask hard questions, I

(11:00):
was willing to try new things, Iwas able to figure out some new
things that worked reallyfreaking well.
So here's my challenge to youdon't stop learning, growing,
and evolving.
Don't use the fact that thingshave changed as some type of a
reason to stay the same.
Instead, use it as fuel to say,I need to become better for the

(11:23):
people that I want to help.
I need to become better for thepeople I want to help.
And if you're interested inlearning some of the new ways of
marketing, some of the new waysthat are working on social media
right now, you definitely needto check out my Legacy
Leadership University.

(11:44):
It's a$45 a month program thatyou can cancel anytime.
And we are focused so heavily onthe new messaging that is
working right now.
And what's even cooler is 90% ofwhat I'm teaching is how to use
it in Chat GPT so that you'renot having to do all the heavy
lifting.

(12:05):
I've just found that there arethere's just a lot of people
who, regardless of how welltheir intentions are and how
much they want to help people,they're just not great at
writing.
And so what I'm teaching peopleto do is how to take my writing
structures and methods and plugthem into ChatGPT to make sure
you get the help that you need.

(12:25):
So if you can learn theprinciples and the methods, you
no longer have to be the perfectwriter.
I can teach you how to have ChatGPT do a lot of that for you.
So if you want to evolve, if youwant to grow, if you want to
keep moving forward, check itout.
You can go to joshcoates.com.
There's a spot right there onthe homepage to check out
information for the LegacyLeadership University.

(12:46):
Regardless of whether you joinme or don't join me, I want to
challenge you.
Do not stay stagnant.
And I want to remind you ofsomething that I've said for
years.
The best version of you willalways figure it out.
The worst version of you juststands absolutely no chance.
So if you're frustrated rightnow, if you're feeling

(13:09):
discouraged, if nothing else,make sure and invest in
yourself.
Get locked in on your personalgrowth, on your self-care, on
whatever it is you do to fuelyourself.
I've been spending extra timemeditating.
I've been spending extra time inthe pool.
And I will just tell you whenyou can combine the right

(13:31):
beliefs with the right energyand the right strategy, some
really good things can happen.
I love you so much.
I believe in you so much.
Have such an amazing day, and Iwill see you next time.