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I’ve been hearing a lot of reasons people ✌️don’t need✌️ strategies and I wanna talk about ‘em!
First up: “We’re not ready yet. We need to be further along before we’re ready to get that serious.”
tl;dr on why it doesn’t hold up: Because your strategy isn’t just for the last mile. It’s for heading in the right direction.
Story time: (You know I love a good analogy. Hang with me for a sec.) Once when my now husband and I were dating, we took this legendary road trip from Atlanta to Chicago for his birthday. We’d planned to meet up with my sister there and we drove overnight so we could get to the city in time for his birthday breakfast.
When we left Atlanta, we didn’t know where our first stop in Chicago would be. But that doesn’t mean that we just took off in whichever direction had the least traffic while totally disregarding gps or, ya know, geography.
This is what it feels like to me when I hear leaders tell me they don’t need a strategy yet because the need to “gain a little momentum first” or “get a little further down the road” before they make that investment.
Your strategy for growth should be helping you head in the right direction from the beginning - not just helping you navigate at the street level when you get “close enough”.
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From Atlanta, my best choice for getting to Chicago is to take I-75 which runs Northwest-South. But I have to drive through the worst traffic in the city to get over there. If we had opted for the fastest moving option to just launch this thing for the sake of getting started or “to get the project off the ground”, we would have gotten on I-20 and headed east - the exact opposite direction of Chicago.
birthday celebration with at Lou Malnati’s, approximately 1 lifetime ago.
Do you hear what I’m saying? I’ve worked with clients who have a LOT to recover - harm to repair, funds to recoup, programs or products to scrap - because they chased “progress” in the wrong direction. And if that’s where you’ve ended up, hear me say this: it’s not too late to recover.
In fact, the growth diagnostic is designed just for this purpose - for rekindling where you initially planned to take your organization, evaluating where you are now (no matter how big or small your detours have been), and understanding how to begin rerouting your growth.
But if you’re on the earlier stages of this proverbial road trip, please know that you don’t have to pick your specific brunch spot in order to plan your route. If that’s what’s keeping you from being intentional about where you’re going, there’s room to pick a slightly broader, still intentional destination.
How to put this to work
Let’s commit to the analogy.
How precise is your “route” at this point? Is your growth strategy taking you to a particular city? a specific brunch spot? or just looking for the fastest moving lanes? I’m not asking you for a “right” answer here just a real one. When you consider the general trajectory you’ve planned to grow your business, how broad or specific is it?
Now let’s evaluate your vision -where you’re hoping to end up, how specific is that? Is it defined to the road trip equivalent of a street address? or a metro area? or maybe it’s more like “west-ish”.
Compare the difference. Ideally, these should match and should be narrowing in focus.
If your vision needs to be more clearly defined, read this email and spend some time reflecting honestly on what’s most authentic to you
If your route or strategy needs to be more specific, ask yourself what parameters you need to set to your existing plans in order to honor where you actually want to end up.
Need help? sign up for a clarity workshop (for creatives, entrepreneurs, & early stage founders) or a growth diagnostic (for established organizations).
This Cool Thing I Found -
random goodies I found while writing this email
Events, free stuff, or cool links I’ve found lately.
🗺️📍Interstate Map
This cool interactive map of the US Interstate system sucked me in for longer than I care to admit. Go play with it if you’re into such things.
📸 📸Dupe Photo
a new-to-me source for royalty free images “that you actually want to use”. Take a look.
Cheering for you,
I’m Laura Green - a strategist empowering creative leaders to build businesses they love. My work focuses providing you actionable insights and customized strategies to find more impact and less friction. I want you to have the clarity, confidence, and energy to make good stuff happen, to drive profit, and to get back to doing the work you love. As for me - I love charts, good beer, nerdy nature books, and sneakers. When I’m not spinning up spreadsheets, you can find me gardening, hanging with my wonderfully wild kids, or sneaking in a nap. ✌️