Your Company Is Going to Fail. Know How To Land On Your Feet - Work with Erika Ayers Badan

Episode Summary

Podcast: Work with Erika Ayers Badan
Host: Erika Ayers Badan
Episode: Your Company Is Going to Fail. Know How To Land On Your Feet
Date: January 7, 2026

Overview:

This episode is an unfiltered, deeply personal monologue where Erika Ayers Badan shares hard-earned wisdom on navigating professional failure and company collapse. Drawing from a particularly difficult month in her own career, Erika reframes failure as a universal and invaluable learning experience. Through candid insights and practical strategies, she encourages listeners not just to survive upheaval in their careers, but to land on their feet—building resilience, self-awareness, and momentum for future success.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Rebounding Is the Essential Corporate Skill

[00:00] Erika opens by declaring that in today’s workplace climate, “the best corporate skill set you can have right now is the ability to rebound.”
The skyrocketing prevalence of company upheavals, layoffs, and failures is the “new normal.”
It’s less about preventing disaster and more about controlling your response: “what you can control is how you land on your feet.”

2. Failure Happens—And That’s Normal

[01:09] Erika recounts experiencing “the shittiest month in my career,” underscoring that setbacks are universal.
Key insight: “Failure is a great thing. It is such an intense teacher, and that’s such a gift because it forces you to learn and feel and act simultaneously. And it is a mega, mega accelerant.” ([01:42])
Rather than hiding from failure, Erika advocates for embracing and speaking openly about it—she shares her own reluctance, then resolve, to post a candid Substack about her recent experiences.

3. Reject Victimhood—Take Ownership

[03:33] “If you blame everyone else, if you’re a victim to what everyone else does or wants or thinks, you are never going to be able to steel yourself to land on your own feet in a direction that you want to go.”
Professional missteps are collective and systemic as much as personal; the important thing is owning your part and focusing on the controllables.

4. Start Small—Do the Little Things Well

Amid crisis, paralysis and disorientation are natural.
Strategy: “If you just put one foot in front of the other and you focus on the small things and you do the small things well… you find yourself. It’s like little by little becomes a lot. Like, you find yourself in a good, right place.” ([05:45])
Seek out advice from people “infinitely smarter than me” and consistently contribute in small, positive ways.

5. Don’t Be Rash—Avoid Immediate Reactions

“Trying to avoid being rash is really important.” ([07:00])
Inflammatory or impulsive actions, especially ones shared online, can have lasting negative consequences:
- “The people ingesting it will remember.” ([08:02])
Silence and patience yield more options than dramatic or emotional outbursts. Erika advises sleeping on big decisions and not letting a temporary emotion dictate permanent consequences.

6. The Myth of the Urgent Next Step

The pressure to “figure out what I’m going to do next” is intense but often counterproductive post-failure.
“That’s the single worst thing I could do.” ([10:50])
Instead, centering yourself, keeping integrity with those around you, and staying calm set the groundwork for a strong rebound.

7. Learning to Fall—and Get Up Again

The inevitability of mistakes and setbacks doesn’t diminish your value; what matters is how you recover:
- “The single best thing that you can do is to remember you’re going to land on your feet and do whatever you need to to make sure you’re standing up when you fall.” ([12:00])
Repeatedly falling and getting up breeds “so, so much stronger” professionals in the long run.

8. Perspective: Focus on ‘What Could Be’

Let go of the past (“there really isn’t any ‘was’”) and focus on future possibilities.
- “Being able to have clarity of mind to the could be and being able to have persistence and the diligence of action to get there, I think, is one of the greatest, greatest things you can take with you.” ([14:09])

9. An Exercise for the Year: Treat Life as a Movie

[15:10] Inspired by another podcast, Erika offers a reflective tool:
- “If your life was a movie and your career was a movie, what are people screaming right now? … And then also be deliberate and thoughtful and graceful and persistent in what you want to achieve, irrespective of if your company’s going gangbusters or if your company’s a disaster.”
The only true domain of control is “how you step through it.”

10. Small Acts, Consistently Done, Build Resilience

Recalling a personal mantra: “Mine was showing up. Like sticking to your guns on that is actually the little thing that’s going to propel you through it.” ([17:20])

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On normalizing failure:
- “Failure happens to everybody. I wrote a whole book on it. Failure is a great thing. … It is a mega, mega accelerant.” ([01:19])
On personal responsibility:
- “Did I contribute to things that went wrong at this company? 1 million percent.” ([03:23])
On resisting victimhood:
- “If you blame everyone else… you are never going to be able to steel yourself to land on your own feet in a direction that you want to go.” ([03:40])
On focusing on the small things:
- “If you just put one foot in front of the other and you focus on the small things…and you contribute in whatever way you can, you find yourself.” ([05:45])
On immediate reaction:
- “Silence makes no mistakes. And when you take a beat, you take a breath, you take a night’s sleep…It really actually behooves you much better…” ([09:45])
On future focus:
- “There really isn’t any was. And it’s really just about what could be.” ([14:27])
On persistence:
- “Sticking to your guns … is actually the little thing that’s going to propel you through it.” ([17:20])

Important Segment Timestamps

00:00–01:19: Rebounding as the essential workplace skill; the new normal of instability
01:19–03:40: Accepting failure as a universal experience; taking responsibility
03:40–05:45: Don’t be a victim; own your part; managing small tasks during hardship
05:45–08:02: Focus on small wins, surround yourself with good advice
08:02–10:50: The dangers of rashness; avoid immediate reactions
10:50–14:27: Managing pressure to “figure out the next step”; future-focused resilience
15:10–17:20: “Movie audience” exercise for self-reflection; consistent small acts; closing messages

Final Message

Erika closes on a note of encouragement, reminding listeners that while failure is inevitable, the capacity to land on your feet—and the choices you make in the aftermath—matter most. “Good luck with your failure, great luck landing on your feet, and we will see you back here on Sunday with more good stuff.” ([18:10])

Transcript

A (0:00)

The best corporate skill set you can have right now is the ability to rebound. Rebounding is the greatest skill you can possibly have at work. Now. Work. Welcome back to work. It's January 2026. This is the Work podcast, and this is unsolicited advice. I'm coming off, I would argue, the shittiest month in my career. I'm still standing. I'm here to tell and to show for it. And I'm gonna give you the benefit of what I learned, because I think the reality is your company failing, your career faltering, shit going sideways, people letting you down, feeling disappointed, having the rug pulled out from under you, your company going under, your company losing its funding. That's the new normal. I don't think your bank pulling all your company's money in the middle of the night is the new normal, but beyond that, the rest of it. And the reality is, you're going to be faced with that in your career. Everybody is faced with it. It is normal. It's not you. You didn't do something wrong. You weren't not enough. It wasn't because you weren't great enough or smart enough or saw around corners enough. Of course everyone contributes to companies succeeding in the same way everyone contributes to companies failing. But for a lot of times and because of a lot of reasons, companies are predisposed to succeeding because of the industry they're in, because of the subject, because of their business model. And the same things for companies that fail. They have a lot of overhead, they can't get out of their debt, they've got legacy systems, they're not on top of trends. But the reality is you can't control any of that. But what you can control is how you land on your feet. My big takeaways from this last month for anybody in the workplace is one is failure happens to everybody. I wrote a whole book on it. Failure is a great thing. It is such an intense teacher, and that's such a gift because it forces you to learn and feel and act simultaneously. And it is a mega, mega accelerant. So the first is, don't be afraid of failure. Don't hide from failure. I was going through this. I've been writing this substack that I posted this week for like, 17 days. And everyone's like, don't publish it. Don't publish it. Why would you talk about that? Don't publish it. And I'm like, it fucking happened to me, so I'm going to talk about it. And I think it's a good thing to talk about. So, one is, don't hide from the problem. Two is don't be a victim to the problem. Like, sure, did I contribute to things that went wrong at this company? 1 million percent. Did I contribute to things that went wrong at Barstool Sports? 1,000,000%. Did I contribute to things that went right or wrong at Microsoft 100 years ago? 100%. That's true of everybody. If you blame everyone else, if you're a victim to what everyone else does or wants or thinks, you are never going to be able to steel yourself to land on your own feet in a direction that you want to go. So take ownership of where you are at a given moment in time. I think that's super, super important. The third thing is, like, the small task matters. And in a time of strife or crisis or when things feel bad or when things are going wrong, it's really easy to just kind of be like deer in headlights and to feel numb and to feel disoriented. Like, I've felt disoriented for months at this point. But the reality is that what I realized is nobody's gonna point me in the right direction. I'm gonna surround myself with the best pieces of advice I can get. I'm going to get as close as humanly possible to people who are infinitely smarter than me, and I am going to chart my foot forward. And the reality is, if you just put one foot in front of the other and you focus on the small things and you do the small things well, and you contribute in whatever way you can, you find yourself. It's like little by little becomes a lot. Like, you find yourself in a good, right place. So that's my next point. I think the next learning is don't be rash. I think it's super easy to let your emotions get the most of you. And that's also normal. Like, it's normal to be angry. It's normal to be ashamed. It's normal to be upset. It's normal to feel scared. It's normal to have anxiety. It's normal to be afraid. It's normal to be uncertain. But trying to avoid being rash is really important. The reason I share that is when you make rash decisions and you do so on the Internet, or you do so in places where those decisions are ingested by other people, other people on the Internet, don't forget those decisions. So try not to be rash, because you may be feeling something in a moment that you might not be feeling tomorrow, and you certainly probably won't be feeling a month from now, let alone a year from now. But the people ingesting it will remember. So that's kind of the next one. I think the last point on being rash is that having an immediate reaction can feel powerful. I know I have that, like, bubble up inside of me, and I want to, like, I want to do something right that second or right in that moment, or have an outsized reaction to something. But. But the reality is that's actually the greatest thing that can hurt you is being rash and mistaking that moment that feels like power for what actually could be your greatest mistake. Like, silence makes no mistakes. And when you take a beat, you take a breath, you take a night's sleep, you have a think on things. It really actually behooves you much better because you still have the. The ember that was burning inside of you, but you don't have the fire as a result of it. You haven't burned the brush as a result. And ultimately that gives you the most options. Like, I think people talk about this a lot where it's things that seem like they're this big right now, a year from now are going to be this big. And you got to keep that in mind, which is that's just how the world work. That's just how life works. That's how time works. And not taking too big of a step to quickly is really, really important. I struggle with this a lot. People are like, what are you going to do next? What are you going to do now? What are you going to do next? And I'm like, oh, my God, I got to figure out what I'm going to do next. I have to figure out what I'm going to do now. And the reality is, that's the single worst thing I could do. And for anybody in their career who is finding themselves at an impasse, or a moment where you lost your job, or a moment where the rug gets pulled out from under you, or the moment you find yourself in the middle of failure, taking a beat, focusing on the small things, having integrity to the people around you as you do that, and having a sense of being calm and centered as you step through it, no matter how small, Those are actually the steps that are going to point you and put you in the right direction so that you can land on your feet. And the reality is, the single best thing that you can do is to remember you're going to land on your feet and do whatever you need to to make sure you're standing up when you fall. And when you fall you get right back up again, and you know what, you're going to fall again, and it's going to happen at some point when you least expect it, in a time where you didn't see it coming. If you know how to fall and get back up again, if you know how to jump and land on your feet, if you know how to not derail yourself or everyone around you or the process that you're in, you will be so, so much stronger from that experience. That's my message to anybody out there spending the month of January thinking about what was or who is thinking about what could be or what should have been. There's really no should have been. There really isn't any was. And it's really just about what could be. And being able to have clarity of mind to the could be and being able to have persistence and the diligence of action to get there, I think is one of the greatest, greatest things you can take with you. And it's one of the greatest things that I'm taking with me from arguably the worst month of my career ever. So that's my two cents on that. I was watching a podcast the other day, and the person was talking about habits and resolutions and how to think about your year ahead and your future. And the piece of advice that the guy had was, if your life was a movie and your career was a movie, what are people screaming right now? What's the audience saying? Like, the killer's in the closet, or leave that job, your boss is a psycho, or take the promotion or jump ship and start a new career or whatever that may be. And I think one good thing, instead of having a bunch of resolutions about I'm going to do this, I'm going to be that I'm going to, going to, going to, going to, going to. It's actually like, take a step back. What's the audience shouting at you? Which I loved. Like, what are they throwing up at your big screen? And then also be deliberate and thoughtful and graceful and persistent in what you want to achieve, irrespective of if your company's going gangbusters or if your company's a disaster or your company's faltering or your manager sucks, or you want to do XYZ ABC 1, 2, 3 different. It's hard to control any of those things. The only thing you can control is how you step through it. And sometimes, you know, I was reminded of this over the holiday, is that sticking to your guns on a couple things. Mine was showing up, like sticking to your guns on. That is actually the little thing that's going to propel you through it. Now, work. All right, so that's it for work. Good luck with your failure, great luck landing on your feet, and we will see you back here on Sunday with more good stuff.