[00:00:00] Welcome back to the Effortless Closing Podcast. Today we're talking about something big, something timely, something every entrepreneur needs to hear because we are officially in the final eight months of the year.
And if you've been paying attention, you know we're headed straight into a storm of, well, a lot of uncertainty. Politics, the economy, consumer confidence, you name it, it's all un shaky grounds right now. But here's the wild thing, uncertainty. It's not the enemy. In fact, for entrepreneurs like us, it's actually one of the greatest opportunities you'll ever have.
But only if you know how to move forward now and position yourself as the expert people are looking for. So today's episode is a little different and I hope you enjoy it. I'm going full, POV point of view, talking directly to you about what's coming. What it means for your business and how you can get ahead of all this chaos to create consistency, effortless revenue no matter what the world throws your way.
You ready? [00:01:00] If you're new here. Hi, I'm Christina Kokologiannakis. I'm a revenue coach, business strategist, and the creator of the Effortless Closing Machine. A proven system that helps entrepreneurs simplify their business, attract high value clients, and generate consistent effortless revenue.
If you're just starting your journey to easier sales and higher income, my self study program, the Effortless Closing Machine, will help you build a foundation that actually works. Without the hustle and if you're already in business, but struggling to break into that next level. My private one-on-one coaching is where we deep dive to optimize your offers, systems, and strategies so you can close another a hundred K in sales fast.
Because no matter where you're starting from, my goal is to help you make all your efforts work in half the time, no matter the market. Alright, let's dive into my POV for this episode. Let's start and talk about what's coming. You can feel it in air, can't you? Something shifting. We're not just inching towards the end of the year, we're barreling [00:02:00] into it with tarrifs being tossed around like poker chips and entrepreneurs everywhere, quietly wondering, is my business built to handle what's next?
Am I built to withstand this? I was reading about it the other night, how Trump's return to political spotlight is already stirring up global trade tensions, how China is now positioning itself as the go-to powerhouse for other nations. How one day we're hearing about tariffs, then no tariffs, then tariffs again, but only on some things.
It's kind of a game of economic whack-a-mole, whether you like him or not, let's be honest, Trump has a game plan. You might not always know what it is until it hits you in the wallet. All industries are bracing for impact, and whether you're in retail consulting, real estate, or online education, it all trickles down to us because when uncertainty spikes, people pause.
When the economy feels tight, decision making slows, and when the headlines are loud, buyers get quiet. This isn't speculation. It's a pattern. I've seen it before and I've lived it [00:03:00] before. Back when the market dipped in 2020, I watched brilliant entrepreneurs, people with so much heart and talent, put their heads down and wait for the storm to pass.
But storms don't pass on a schedule. They linger, they loop, and if your business is built on everything being calm. It doesn't take much for the whole thing to wobble. Here's the wild part though. The ones who didn't wait, the ones who use the chaos to tighten their message, dial in their offer and focus on what they could control, well, they soared.
I know because I was one of them. I stopped listening to all the noise and ask myself. Where's the opportunities hiding right now? How do I tap into them? And you know what I did? I remodeled my house while living in it during a pandemic. Yes, I did. I had a 1-year-old and three other kids home with me 24 7.
While I did all of that, and even though there was chaos in the house, chaos in the world. I had immense clarity in my business, [00:04:00] and that year it ended up being one of my most profitable years, yet I optimized like crazy so that everything in life could be crazy, but my business, it continued to build revenue like a well oiled machine.
While so many others were frozen by fear, I was finding the opportunity that we're just sitting there waiting for someone to grab them. The people who soared, they didn't wait for things to settle. They created calm inside their business. Even when the world was anything. But they came out the other side with stronger revenue, clearer positioning, and clients who trusted them because they showed up when it mattered most.
And that's what I want for you because these next eight months, they're not going to be normal. Not with tariffs, not with politics, not with the collective bracing for the big what if. But that doesn't mean these can't be your breakthrough months. Let me show you how to find your revenue when all seems lost.
You know what? No one really talks [00:05:00] about what uncertainty feels like in your body. It's not just mental. It's really physical too. That's the tightness in your chest, the tension in your jaw, that low buzz of anxiety, you can't quite name, but it keeps you refreshing your inbox.
, second guessing your offer, rewriting your Instagram bio at midnight. Like that's the thing that's going to fix everything, right? It feels like it will, but it promise you it doesn't. I know. I joke about. It sometimes, but it's so real because when things outside of you feel shaky, politics, the economy, the market, you start to feel like you need to do something, anything.
Not to lose that momentum, not to be the one who didn't adapt fast enough. But can I tell you something? I've learned the hard way. The fastest way to get lost in your business is to panic your way through it. Or to give up and wait for the market to get better. And the only way to truly find your way forward is to come back to yourself, to your own clarity, to your own compass, to your own quiet, knowing that is your [00:06:00] guiding light.
I remember sitting on my bedroom floor during one of the hardest seasons in my business. The world felt so heavy. My clients were nervous. My numbers weren't doing what I expected. And to be honest, there was a lot of tears. I didn't wanna give up. I couldn't give up, but I could feel this old part of me starting to rise the part that wanted to scramble, throw out a flash sale, build a new offer, drop my prices to pennies, do anything just to feel in control.
Again, it's almost like an entrepreneur's. Survival instinct, right? Like you just feel like you just gotta do it. But I paused. I sat there in the quiet, dark. It was dark, and I slowly was calming myself back to a state of rational thinking. And I asked myself one question that changed everything. What if nothing is broken?
What if I just need to see it differently? And when I really looked beneath the noise, beneath the fear, I saw it. I didn't need to create something new. I needed to [00:07:00] trust what I've already built to tighten it, to clarify it, to stop searching for the next thing and start refining the thing I already had.
That's when everything shifted. Not overnight, not magically, but steadily. Powerfully because I wasn't operating from fear anymore. I was leading from vision and that year I ended up taking home one of my highest incomes I've ever had. That's what I want for you right now.
If you're feeling stuck, scattered, or unsure of what to do next, it's not because you're behind. It's not because you need to blow up your business. It's probably just because you've gotten disconnected from your own guiding light. The part of you that remembers who you are, what you care about, what you are here to create, and who you are here to serve. You don't need someone else's playbook right now. You need to reconnect with your own truth because here's the quiet reality. Most people won't say The market isn't your biggest threat right now. Your own self doubt [00:08:00] is it's you and the good news. That's something that you can shift, like today, you shift it by getting, still by, getting honest, by noticing the places in your businesses still feel alive, even if they're small and saying That right there, that's what I'm going to build on. Because in chaos people don't look for noise. They look for certainty, and when you find that certainty in yourself, your audience, they will feel it too.
That's when they start to follow you, trust you buy from you because they'll know she's not reacting, she's rooted, and that that is the kind of business that lasts. Okay. There's something I've been sitting on with lately, and I think it's time to just say it out loud to you. I believe we're headed into a recession maybe in the next six months, but for sure next year, and it might not be labeled that way yet.
The headlines are still mixed, and depending on who you're listening to, we're either on the edge of something big or everything's just fine, but [00:09:00] emotionally you can feel it, right. I can feel it. The energy in the world feels tight, hesitant, unsure. People are tightening up, holding back second guessing decisions they would've made without blinking a year ago.
Let me tell you what I've been seeing that's making me feel this way because I want you to be able to spot it too. So, oh, my cute little son just turned 13, so if you don't know, I have one girl and three boys. So my little guy, he turned 13. I know. I can't even believe it either. He is now a teenager, which is so crazy for me.
Okay, so he's gluten-free and dairy-free because of allergies. Every year we go to the special bakery in Los Gatos, California called Icing on the Cake. If you ever visit Los Gatos, I'm gonna give a shout out to them. Go stop in and try their stuff. It's phenomenal, especially if you are gluten free. Or dairy free, like if you're a vegan as well.
They have a lot of cool options, and the best thing is they have vegan and gluten-free, which is important for my son [00:10:00] and for me. So it's a charming little place. And it's really cool, but it's not cheap, so it's like $4 and 50 cents for a cupcake. And the cake that we've got, which was uh, vegan and gluten-free was $70 for an eight inch round with no special decorations.
But people love it. I love it. Normally the line is out the door. I'm talking wrapping around the building, like they only let 10 or 15 people inside at a time. It's a really small shop. But when I went to pick up his cake this time at prime time on a Saturday morning, it shocked me the store was empty.
And that gave me pause. Because Los Gatos is a wealthy area, people there usually have a lot of expandable income, and yet. No lying, no crab. So I thought about it. I was like, that's weird. Well, later that night, we took him to his favorite place for dinner, FKO de Cho, and it's a high-end Brazilian steakhouse in Santana Row.
This is another spot that's always packed, especially on a Saturday night, and with six of us, we usually get shoved in the back room in a corner, which drives me [00:11:00] crazy, honestly, I hate it. But this time we were surprised to be seated in the main dining room. The place was half empty. This was prime time, like evening on a Saturday night, we got a prime table.
It made the evening amazing. I mean, it was just wonderful. But again, I took a pause. So here's my challenge for you. Look around at the places that are usually packed, your favorite bakery, your hair salon, your go-to restaurant, or your nail spot. Are they emptier than usual? That tells you everything you need to know about the market right now.
I also tell people, here's another way of doing it, right? Because I had someone who goes, I don't go to all these places. I eat at home. I don't do these things. Okay, go to Target, go to Walmart, go to the stores, the the bigger box stores that you shop at. You can even do, I love Nordstrom's. But what I get very weary is when I go to Nordstrom's, and Nordstrom's never has racks around, right?
Because it's a high end [00:12:00] luxury department store. They never have a ton of, like when I'm talking racks, I'm talking like the overflow racks. They never have them. But when I start seeing them. It gives me pause because I'm like, why do they have so much over inventory and then all of a sudden I'll come back later and it's like 40% off, 60% off.
Well, that means they have too much inventory and what's happening? Things are not selling. People are not buying. Okay. That's what I really, really want you to start looking at. I had to go buy some tile, and the tile store said they're not keeping inventory because people aren't buying right now, so I have to get it shipped from the supplier at two to three weeks out.
Again, it gives me pause. Why are they not keeping inventory? Right? These normal, these stores that normally have inventory aren't because they're afraid they're not gonna be able to sell it. They're not pre-buying it. Okay? So this really, really, really gives you a good insight into the market.
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If you think about it, it feels like there's a collective breath being held and no one's quite sure [00:16:00] when to excel.
Right? And I have this, I have felt this before. Honestly, the first time was in 2008 when the housing market collapsed and the economy fell apart with it. I remember feeling so clearly. One minute, everybody was buying, deals were closing, life was moving, and then. It was like someone hit pause in the entire industry.
Buyers vanished. Confidence disappeared, and for a lot of people, everything they built started to unravel. that season, that's where I learned everything, and that's where it changed me. It was one of the hardest times of my life. I was pregnant with my daughter and having complications and I couldn't work.
Then right there in the middle of all of it, my husband got let go of his job. We went from doing just fine to being completely unprepared, and I promised myself I would never be caught off guard like that again because I saw it up close. What happens when you're not watching the economy, when you're not preparing to stay ahead of the chaos?
And I meant it when I [00:17:00] said I would never let it happen to me again. Then came 20, 20 different circumstances, same energy, uncertainty, panic, people pulling back, but this time. Would you believe it? I was ready. I wasn't pregnant. I had just had my fourth baby, six months earlier, the world shut down and no one saw it coming, but I didn't freeze.
I made a plan. I started adjusting, and while everything around me felt like it was falling apart, I could see the path forward. I had already walked through this once. I knew what to do and what to look for, because here's the truth, no one talks about during these seasons. Not everyone freezes. The people who see it coming and plan for it, they move through it with ease.
There is always a group of people who are still searching, still moving, still looking for something, someone to help them figure out how to keep going. They're not allowed majority, but they are out there. And they're not investing outta panic. They're investing with urgency because they know [00:18:00] just like you, that if you can find opportunity now and keep moving ahead, that they will be 10 steps ahead after the storm.
This group I want you to pay attention to, and that's the group I also. Want you to belong to the ones who are still leaning forward, the ones who are looking for certainty, direction, and someone they can trust to lead them. And when I say there's opportunities in this season, that's what I mean. While most of the market is pulling back the smart entrepreneurs, they lean in, they stop chasing the masses and start building for the ones who are still ready, still committed, still searching.
And this is where clarity becomes everything. If your message is clear, if your offer speaks to real urgent problems, if your energy is steady and not scattered, they'll find you and they will buy from you, not because you pressured them, not because you posted 10 times a day, but because you were the one of the few who actually [00:19:00] understood what they needed.
And you said it with calm and confident clarity. That's what this moment is asking. From you. Not panic, not perfection, just presence. Just you being brave enough to see the fear for what it is and lead along the way. Because while everyone else is waiting for the storm to pass, you could already be planting seeds for what's next.
So tune out the voices screaming that the sky is falling, and tune into the people who can help you move through the storm with strategy, clarity, and courage. People. Like me, because that's the difference between the ones who just survive a downturn
and the ones who grow right through it and come out ahead. So let's talk about what you actually do with all of this, because maybe you're listening right now and thinking, okay, Christina, I get it. Things are shifting. The market feels weird. People are holding back. But what do I do with that? How do I actually move forward without making the wrong move?
First, take a breath. [00:20:00] This isn't about burning everything down and reinventing your whole business overnight. You don't need to create five new offers. You don't need to suddenly start dancing on TikTok, and you definitely don't need to add 10 more things to your plate just to prove you're keeping up.
You don't need to do more. You need to go deeper. This is the moment to double down on what's already working or what should be working, but hasn't been getting the attention it deserves. I want you to take a good, honest look at your messaging. If someone landed on your Instagram bio, your website, or your sales page, would they instantly get what you do and why it matters right now, because clarity is currency in uncertain times.
If someone has to scroll and decode what you offer, they're gone, not because you are not. Incredible. But because their brain is already overloaded and in this climate, they don't have time to figure it out. So your job right now is to make it crystal clear. What do you solve? Who is it for, and why is it essential in this exact moment?[00:21:00]
Then let's talk about your offer. Is it solving the same problem people are facing today? Or is it solving the problem they had six months ago before things got weird? You might not need to change your offer, you might just need to reframe it. You might need to shift how you talk about it. It's a big one.
Okay. So like if you have an offer where someone you're saying, Hey, you know, um, are you struggling to get three new clients, um, to teach 'em piano or whatever, you know, you're focusing on. Right now, they may be thinking, how do I streamline my business to just make those three clients still work because everything's gotten really expensive.
Or maybe they're saying everyone disappeared. How do I restructure what I have to find new people? The people I'm doing now won't pay for it. So you have to really get clear about who it is and, and who you wanna talk to, because that's who's gonna invest in it right now. Right. Because six months ago, maybe people were excited about growth and visibility or [00:22:00] scaling, but now they just want simplicity.
They want stability. They want a reliable way to bring in income, attract the right clients, and make smart moves without burning out. This doesn't mean your offer is wrong, it just means you need to speak to it differently. Position it for this version of your buyer, not the one you built for last year.
And finally, consistency, not just in your content, although that matters, but consistency in your presence, your energy, your leadership. Because right now, people are watching, they're lurking, they're quietly observing. Who is steady, who is helpful, who is trustworthy. That doesn't mean you need to be everywhere or beyond 24 7, but it does mean you need to stay in motion.
Keep showing up with value. Keep speaking directly to the people who are still searching for support, and most importantly, keep showing them that you're still here. You're still building. You're still believing because that kind of energy, well, it's contagious. That's what people [00:23:00] want to follow and when they feel that from you, when your voice cuts through that noise with calm, confident direction, they buy not from fear.
From trust. So if you're wondering where to focus right now, focus here. Clarity is in your message. Relevance is in your offer. Consistency is in your presence. That's what builds stability in an unstable market. That's what helps you rise while others stall out, and that's what positions you not just to survive this next season. But to come out ahead of it clearer, stronger, and more rooted in your power than ever before. If there's one thing I want you to walk away from today's episode, it's this, you have more power than you think you do, no matter what the headlines say, no matter who's in the office, no matter how loud the market gets or how uncertain things feel, you still get to decide how you lead. How cool is that? How you show up, how you built, it's all up to you. And I [00:24:00] need you to stop giving your attention to the people who are screaming that the sky is falling.
'cause they're always going to be screaming it while they're stuck in their loop of panic and drama, which, let's be honest, it has its own kind of selling power. There's a quieter group, people like me. Who are sitting here saying, this is exactly the moment to get focused. This is the time to clean up your messaging, tighten up your offer, and build something that doesn't just survive change.
It's built for it. Let's optimize for revenue no matter what the market does. This is the time to get in rooms and spaces that calm your nervous system and sharpen your strategies to be around people who aren't reacting, but preparing, who aren't selling fear. But offering clarity, because here's what I know.
After living through 2008 and navigating 2020 and watching the early signs of what's happening right now, the entrepreneurs who rise in times like this, they're not the ones doing the most. They're the ones who are optimizing, simplifying, [00:25:00] getting incredibly clear on what they offer and who they're here to serve.
That's the work, and if you do it now, while everyone else is frozen. You won't just make it through the next eight to 12 months, you'll be miles ahead of the ones who pause, the ones who waited, the ones who were too distracted by the noise to see the opportunities sitting right in front of them. So this is your invitation.
Unplug from the chaos. Stop giving your energy to fear and get into the world of people who are building smart, strong businesses that actually work regardless of what's happening in the economy. That's what we're doing here. That's what I do. And if you're ready to get your business optimized, check out my beta one-to-one coaching program, a private three month container designed to help you add another a hundred thousand dollars in revenue.
No matter the market details are in the show notes. So check it out. But it all starts right here. Get clarity, get your strategy dialed [00:26:00] in, and a decision to lead differently. Until next time, stay calm, stay clear, and stay in motion. You've got this.
