The Supreme Court decided the White House administration can continue with the federal layoffs. It is likely the layoffs are imminent. This will have a major impact on the economy and affect the lives of Americans everywhere.

This is not a surprise – people knew months ago this was going to happen and the worst-case scenario. If they did not prep or have a Plan B, it’s hard to feel sorry for anyone who didn’t prepare – that’s their fault. No one was feeling sorry for not planning for what was predictable.

People should have been selling assets, saving money, had an escape plan to Thailand prepared, establishing a food reserve, and more. I will be honest, renting was a lot better strategy than owning a home during these times – I’m learning it’s better to be agile and pick up your stuff and move where you have to on a short notice.

Here is what going to happen to federal employees who are laid off. First, they going to find the private sector job market does not care about them. Then they are going to realize how expensive it was to live in places like DMV.  After that, they are going to find out all the California and New York people already moved to flyover states and raised the real estate to unaffordable levels.

There are not a lot of options going on for laid off federal workers if they think they can just land a job somewhere else. Many of the federal workers are out of touch to the private sector and how competitive and automated it has become.

Let’s talk about the scenario and the reality. The scenario is a federal worker take their skills and knowledge to the private sector as a consultant or start their own consultancy. They help small businesses or large enterprises navigate through tariffs or taking advantage of trade deals.

The reality is that many of them don’t have such skills and sat on their butt working at a federal job and socializing. They were feeling those stable government paychecks, and it spoiled them with a sense of entitlement. Just BS on the federal job until the next direct deposit hit the bank account. That’s why no one wants them or desires them in the private sector.

If you are in this situation, or are going to be impacted by this situation, you have to start the Plan B and prep and not keep living with your finger in the air. You need to put your finger to the wind and move accordingly and with confidence of having a strategy in place.

The first thing that must be understood, no matter your age or experience – generative AI skills is revolutionizing the ability to create compelling content to package and sell. You are in the 21st century and that means you need digital skills as a backup plan. This will allow you to start creating digital value to license, sell, service as an entrepreneur.

The second technology is workflow automation, and I will cover this very soon. This is using platforms like N8N or Jenkins – both are free to download and install on your Windows or Mac. You can automate tasks or consult firms on how to automate tasks or streamline processes as a consulting gig as well.

The third is what I spoke of with the outpost model that was a very popular article. You create a data processing center that can crunch numbers for SME and use AI and return reports back to them. This can be checking how many visits and at what time and record their basket mix to find trends. This is a data consultant.

The other option is the Plan B directive – be able to get to Da Nang, Vietnam or Hua Hin, Thailand and find a cheap tropical place to escape to. If rent is $600 to $700 a month – that’s $7,200 to $8,400 for the whole year and you should have been raised that amount selling off assets and saving coins. That gives you time to build up your digital skills while enjoying the beautiful landscape of Vietnam or Thailand.

Here is what you and I need to accept – we not returning to jobs like we know it. We are going to need digital skills or trade skills to fall back on and likely we will be using those to work more than one job. There will be a new breed of value creators and I been profiling them on this blog, while some of these folks where goofing off following YouTube characters doing reaction videos.

The guy in West Virginia in a mountain cabin processing sports news with AI and sending those clips to sports bars around the world. The sista in Bangkok at a café in Asoke creating a comic strip about a private detective in Portland using AI prompts to solve crimes. A young son of parents who living in Dubai creating a wholesale exchange of used cars to import from United States into the UAE, Oman, and Qatar.

You going to need a personal revenue strategy mix in the world we living in today. You cannot rely on one job and trust that one job – people will lose their lives sticking to that line of thought. The market has always been brutal and unforgiving. This layoff wave from the federal job market is going to be just as brutal.

And you have to be brutally hustling to find a way to keep money coming in and that means you need skills and create value the current landscape of AI and trade skills are in demand.