Dan Martell - May 23, 2025


How to Survive & Get Rich in the 2026 Recession


Episode Stats


Length

10 minutes

Words per minute

220.644

Word count

2,211

Sentence count

129

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Toxicity

3

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, I talk about how to prepare for a recession and how to get rich in a recession. I talk through the 5 simple steps I took in 2008, 2009, and 2010 and how you can do the same in this recession even if you're starting at zero.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
00:00:00.000 All the indicators are now pointing to a recession.
00:00:03.320 Tariffs are ripping through the economy,
00:00:05.060 markets are volatile,
00:00:06.580 and everyone's hopes to get rich are slowly dying.
00:00:09.560 The world is gonna change forever,
00:00:11.000 but this isn't my first rodeo.
00:00:12.540 I've gone through three major recessions
00:00:14.400 in 2000, 2008, and 2020,
00:00:17.600 and I was able to build wealth
00:00:19.500 despite the whole market slowing down.
00:00:22.100 And I don't want you to be left behind.
00:00:24.040 I'm gonna share the five simple steps
00:00:25.900 that I'm personally following
00:00:27.200 to take advantage of this window of opportunity
00:00:29.420 and how you can use these same steps
00:00:31.940 to get rich in this recession,
00:00:33.760 even if you're starting at zero.
00:00:35.320 Starting with step number one, run your numbers.
00:00:38.700 Don't stare at the light coming straight at you
00:00:41.480 and get hit by the train.
00:00:43.080 Most people would rather stick their head in the fricking sand 0.97
00:00:46.380 and pretend like the rest of the world isn't getting crazy. 0.77
00:00:49.380 If you take one thing away from this video,
00:00:51.800 it's control the controllables.
00:00:54.060 Hard times make hard decisions easy
00:00:56.520 because nobody's gonna be upset at you.
00:00:58.360 Everybody else sees the same stuff you're seeing.
00:01:00.400 And it might be the first time
00:01:01.680 that you give yourself permission
00:01:03.100 to do the thing you know you should probably be doing.
00:01:05.720 When you're faced with uncertainty,
00:01:07.720 you need to make precise bets.
00:01:10.080 You absolutely have to cut the fat
00:01:12.200 without damaging the muscle.
00:01:14.320 It means make decisions
00:01:16.220 to understand where your money's going,
00:01:18.420 but don't cut things that'll make it harder
00:01:20.500 for you to get reset afterwards.
00:01:22.700 So yes, continue to read books, invest in your education.
00:01:25.860 Yes, continue to invest in your health.
00:01:27.520 Don't cut those things because those make you better.
00:01:30.320 They're the engine of your growth.
00:01:32.400 But all the other stuff, these elaborate vacations,
00:01:35.180 these crazy dinners, these splurging on clothes,
00:01:38.340 like some people are paying for membership
00:01:40.320 and subscriptions to things they haven't used in months.
00:01:42.840 They don't even know they're paying for them.
00:01:44.360 It's like death by a thousand memberships.
00:01:46.300 Just pull back, understand where you're bleeding cash
00:01:49.480 that you shouldn't be, clean up the holes,
00:01:51.800 cancel the memberships and focus on you.
00:01:54.220 Just processing your credit card statement
00:01:56.540 and canceling the things that you don't even recognize,
00:01:59.100 probably a good move.
00:02:00.560 Run your numbers, create that spreadsheet,
00:02:02.700 update the spreadsheet so that you know
00:02:04.440 where the money's coming in and where it's going out
00:02:06.200 and then just make decisions
00:02:07.500 if that's the right thing for you
00:02:08.960 based on what's happening right now.
00:02:10.440 That brings us to step two, build your three-phase plan.
00:02:13.520 When 2020 hit, I had the privilege
00:02:15.440 of coaching thousands of software CEOs
00:02:17.820 through this uncertain market.
00:02:19.760 We didn't know what was gonna happen,
00:02:21.680 when it was gonna happen, how bad it was gonna get.
00:02:23.800 Many of my clients actually had their clients,
00:02:26.720 whole businesses shut down,
00:02:28.100 restaurants, gyms, retail stores.
00:02:30.620 Those were the people paying for their software solutions.
00:02:33.180 And here I was having to help guide them through the fog.
00:02:37.020 So it doesn't matter if you're running a business
00:02:38.420 or you're running a household,
00:02:39.840 make decisions without emotion
00:02:42.040 before you have to make the decision.
00:02:44.260 And that's what I taught them.
00:02:45.320 That three-phase plan allowed them to move confidently
00:02:48.520 without being wasteful and then come back swinging
00:02:51.520 once things turned around.
00:02:52.740 So this is how you build your three-phase plan.
00:02:55.160 Phase one, this is where you may not get
00:02:57.400 that bonus you expected,
00:02:58.700 and then you just gotta start thinking about,
00:03:00.420 maybe you gotta cut those nice-to-have expenses.
00:03:02.820 Phase two is maybe there's some challenges in the business
00:03:05.220 and everybody's gotta take a salary cut.
00:03:06.840 Maybe it's temporary, maybe it's long-term.
00:03:08.380 That's when you start cutting anything
00:03:09.980 you don't need to live.
00:03:11.300 Phase three is you lose your job.
00:03:13.640 And at that point, I call that the ripcord method.
00:03:15.860 That's where we have to decide without delaying
00:03:18.340 what we're gonna do in that moment.
00:03:20.100 And it might not be pretty,
00:03:21.160 it might mean moving in with your parents
00:03:22.660 or some other decisions, but you have to make the decision.
00:03:25.560 The key is to make the phase plan
00:03:27.060 so that you can make the decision without the emotion
00:03:29.440 because in the moment you might decide to hold on
00:03:31.980 and that's gonna create a lot more pain
00:03:33.680 when you just have to acknowledge what it is
00:03:35.500 and already have made the decision.
00:03:37.000 These are the steps that were taken now that this happened.
00:03:39.760 So for example, my brother and I,
00:03:41.180 we made an agreement a long time ago
00:03:42.540 that if one of us goes crazy
00:03:44.520 and for whatever reason goes bankrupt
00:03:46.100 and they have no more money,
00:03:47.340 essentially we're allowed to sleep
00:03:48.280 at the other person's house.
00:03:49.480 I mean, we used to joke on the couch,
00:03:50.680 but now obviously we all have guest rooms
00:03:52.300 that decision allows both of us to absolutely push as hard as we can because we know worst case
00:03:59.140 our kids get to hang out with their cousins we get to full reset to build it'll take probably
00:04:03.540 six months to get back where we're at and from that we get to learn the lesson and move forward
00:04:07.820 and then the best part about this is it allows us to build without fear that brings us to step three
00:04:13.020 monetize your assets recessions don't kill businesses ignoring the untapped value does
00:04:19.740 You really only have two things.
00:04:21.260 You have your time and you have your resources.
00:04:23.520 I'm talking about looking at all the things you own
00:04:26.100 and saying, how can I make this make me money?
00:04:28.300 Like I said, you might decide,
00:04:29.940 hey, I'm gonna move in with my parents
00:04:31.160 and rent out our house.
00:04:32.460 You might decide to put one of your extra cars on Turo.
00:04:35.000 It's your call what level of cutting
00:04:36.920 or resourcefulness you get.
00:04:38.340 I met a guy the other day who is a mortgage broker
00:04:40.660 and he was driving our Uber and he had no problem saying,
00:04:43.380 hey, things are slow right now, I'm driving Uber.
00:04:45.900 It helps me have a little extra money
00:04:47.640 so we can pay for our vacation
00:04:48.920 to go visit the family once a year
00:04:50.220 and also gets me out of the house
00:04:51.600 and my wife is really happy, you know?
00:04:52.840 And he kind of joked about that,
00:04:54.000 but you might decide to do the same thing.
00:04:55.660 You might have a business
00:04:56.540 and you have a pretty big team
00:04:57.640 and you're worried about having to lay people off.
00:04:59.340 Well, what if you allowed people
00:05:00.520 to consult with your team?
00:05:02.120 What if you monetize their knowledge?
00:05:03.740 What if you created workshops with those people?
00:05:05.620 You could work on an arrangement
00:05:06.620 where you get some income, they make some money.
00:05:08.460 You might decide to rent some space.
00:05:10.320 I don't know what it is,
00:05:11.720 but there's something about your life,
00:05:13.480 either your time, you might start moonlighting,
00:05:15.560 you might start focusing on online
00:05:17.060 or your resources, you might decide to do a yard sale
00:05:20.120 that'll allow you to stay in it without having to reset.
00:05:24.520 When bad things happen to people,
00:05:26.260 it's not that the bad thing happened,
00:05:27.940 it's how they reacted.
00:05:29.280 The ones that did a full reset to try to build from zero,
00:05:32.400 they lost all that momentum.
00:05:33.760 The ones that decided to say,
00:05:35.080 hey, we're gonna protect what we've created so far.
00:05:36.900 It may not thrive, it may not grow,
00:05:39.040 but we're not gonna get kicked out of the game.
00:05:41.080 And then from that place, once the market comes back,
00:05:43.840 you get to ride it up.
00:05:45.100 that's what differentiates the winners from the losers most people think having courage means
00:05:50.120 making decisions when you're not scared the truth is is courage requires you to be scared and make
00:05:54.140 a decision either way that brings us to step four sharpen your axe in 2020 when everybody was looking
00:05:59.620 at the world and wondering what was going to happen a lot of people retreated all the way back
00:06:04.360 and what i did instead is said hey what works what do i know will be true in the future i may not be
00:06:09.640 able to grow but i can prepare i can get stronger so i got ready i sat there and said okay how do
00:06:15.080 do I invest in myself? How do I personally get better? How do I ensure that I'm building a strong
00:06:20.440 foundation to be able to build from? The reason this works is that compounding growth only works
00:06:26.000 if you have something to compound. So that's why you have to get better so that you have a stronger
00:06:29.940 foundation to be able to push from. You've never gotten better when things were good. I've never
00:06:34.780 gotten better when things are good. I've only experienced real growth when there was pressure.
00:06:39.500 In my kid's room, there's this poster with a diamond. It says no pressure, no diamonds. It's
00:06:44.680 kind of like the butterfly. Did you know when the caterpillar goes in the cocoon and it's struggling
00:06:49.220 to get out of the cocoon, if you came along, you tried to help it out, you would actually deform
00:06:53.100 the butterfly. It would probably kill it because it needs to go through that process of struggle 0.68
00:06:58.580 and challenges so that it can come out as a butterfly. So right now, the best thing you could
00:07:03.820 do is actually embrace the challenge and understand you're just solidifying the foundation. You're
00:07:09.140 sharpening the saw. You're getting ready for the next step. When it gets tough, you got to get tough.
00:07:14.260 most people will just go through challenges.
00:07:17.440 I want you to grow through challenges.
00:07:19.520 The idea of saying, look,
00:07:20.800 I can't help that this world is doing what it's doing
00:07:23.360 and these situations are happening
00:07:24.700 and this decision was made and it affects me
00:07:26.980 and I can go through that challenge and change
00:07:30.280 or I can grow through it
00:07:32.380 so I can come out the other side better.
00:07:34.240 And that brings us to step five.
00:07:35.920 When skies clear, strike hard.
00:07:38.460 The greatest returns come from the biggest downturns.
00:07:42.240 When crowds retreat, wise men advance.
00:07:45.620 It's just like this time I went rally car racing
00:07:47.600 and the instructor said,
00:07:49.100 in like a lamb, out like a lion.
00:07:51.100 And I was like, what the freak does that mean?
00:07:52.880 Turns out when you come into the corner,
00:07:54.620 you wanna be super slow, super calculated,
00:07:57.060 and then turn into the turn.
00:07:58.520 But as soon as you get the apex,
00:08:00.380 you power on aggressively.
00:08:02.720 So you have your plan, you adjust.
00:08:04.420 As soon as you see the clouds part
00:08:06.280 and the sun shines through, you attack it.
00:08:09.080 You move full force.
00:08:10.040 You take advantage of the opportunities.
00:08:11.540 you ask for a raise, you ask for new opportunities, you push. You got to get in the jet stream. I
00:08:16.980 don't know if you know this, it's faster to go from one side of the country to the other side
00:08:20.400 because you're in the jet stream, you're in flow. This has always been true. And Warren Buffett
00:08:24.320 talks about all the time is that markets are markets. They go up, they come down. If it's
00:08:28.360 down right now, trust me, it will go up and you want to be the person ready to take advantage of.
00:08:33.120 Think about it. You take a world-class entrepreneur, you take everything away from
00:08:36.500 them. You drop them in the middle of the Amazon jungle. You come back in five years,
00:08:40.320 I know what you'll find. You'll literally find a person with a team and they built this whole
00:08:44.600 temple and the whole thing's going. Why? Because winners win. I want you to be one of those people
00:08:49.640 that come in like a lamb prepared and out like a f***ing lion. You want to be cautious because 0.99
00:08:54.860 the key is you got to protect your psychology. You don't want to be scared. You don't want to
00:08:58.680 get on the defense. You don't want to be thinking that the whole sky is falling. And the same thing
00:09:02.540 when things turn around, you don't want to be too quick to react. So I always try to find two data
00:09:07.620 points, three data points of positivity that tell me now's a good time to move forward. If you wait
00:09:13.420 too long, everybody else saw the same thing and they've already taken advantage of it. So you have
00:09:17.140 to be early. That's why I'm so excited to share this with you because I know it could absolutely
00:09:21.780 transform your life. But all that being said, this is the key. Don't freeze. Make decisions.
00:09:29.300 Control the controllables. Control when you work out, what food you put in your mouth,
00:09:33.300 what you focus on. Those are things, not the news, not your social media, not eating for comfort.
00:09:39.420 You can control the things only you control. Make the list. Dump it out. What can you do to attack
00:09:44.400 the list? Hit it hard. Progress in any part of our life equals fulfillment. Forward movement.
00:09:51.060 There's trillions of dollars exchanged every day in this economy. My invitation to you is go get
00:09:55.960 some. So if you want to learn how to build a business from zero to a million, click the link
00:10:00.320 and I'll see you on the other side.