Too much room for magic

Did someone forward this to you? How kind of them! Subscribe here.

With support from featured sponsor The Co-Promotion Club

Did you hear? I’m walking through symptom checkers for the 3 scenarios I see most in Clarity Workshops. We love a good symptom checker because it gives us answers about what’s up. Sure, they can get out of hand quickly - I actually do not think your business has cancer. But you might be experiencing a diagnosable, curable tension. Last week, we talked about disconnected vision. This week, diagnosis 2 of 3:

Diagnosis: Missing or misaligned strategies

Organizations in this scenario have meaningful visions that compel leaders and teams. Strong systems mean they’re also well organized, efficient, and productive. But these folks leave too much room for magic. They get to work - project management systems in tow and vision in mind - and believe that magically one day they'll get there. That doesn’t usually work.

Strategies are there to light the way. They are guides and benchmarks to show you exactly how your productivity gets you closer to the vision you so carefully cultivated.

Causes:

Most of the time, I see strategy absent organizations because leaders have big questions about what’s going to work and how. Leaders mistakenly assume that strategy is incompatible with experimentation, curiosity, and play.

Sometimes, leaders mistake systems for strategies. Systems help you get things done and they can make it easy to see productivity in real time. These components work together but they’re not the same.

For those reasons or others, leaders may feel like “strategy” just isn’t their style.

Symptoms:

In the case of missing or misaligned strategies, you may see some or all of the following symptoms:

• You and your team are efficient and you have a clear “why” but you have to revisit this frequently to keep motivated & boost morale.

• You complete a lot of tasks but you’re not sure if you’re closer to your vision than you were when you started, or even a few months ago.

• Despite robust systems & workflows you feel discouraged or unclear about how quickly these are helping you build towards success.

• Productivity is easy to manage but progress towards your vision is confusing.

• It’s unclear how the work on your to do list right now helps you get closer to your vision.

• Future milestones are missing, ambiguous, or uninspired.

• You’re not sure this business can achieve what you wanted it to. You’re spinning your wheels and fighting busyness & burnout.

If that sounds like you then lean in a little and hear me say this in my clearest and gentlest tone: The intersection of your vision and your skills is what we need from you. That is too precious to risk pouring your time and energy into a path that doesn’t propel you towards your vision.

Treatment:

Let’s get you a game plan. I say this ad nauseam but - you cannot have an aligned strategy if you haven’t identified where it’s taking you. It should be propelling you toward your vision. Step one to strategy is vision. Always. (This is why I’m a strategist who talks about vision more than anything else.) Check last week’s issue for more on that.

Once you’ve got that part locked down, strategy is really just a math problem. Subtract where you are now from where you want to end up and then map out the difference.

How to put this to work:

1. Find your checkpoints:

   Consider what milestones you have to hit to be able to achieve your vision. Be very specific here. In recent Clarity Workshops, these checkpoints often including piloting or streamlining service and then intentionally propping up & scaling another one. Premium subscribers can revisit 4 types of strategies to help you craft these.

2. Plot the route:

   What steps do you need to take to get from one milestone to the next? Don’t forget to start with where you are today. Consider what resources you need to put in place to be able to move along this journey.

3. Keep it simple & close:

   Again, don’t overcomplicate this. Ideally, you end up with 3 to 5 big picture steps. Sketch them out or write them down and keep them where you can access them often. Next time you’re unsure that your to do list matters to your vision - check it!

This Cool Thing Janna Found

Resources curated by the spectacular Janna Carlson, founder of the Co-Promotion Club

👍 Loyalty > Likes

Janna’s 5 minute podcast episode about how she’s built her business using referrals instead of social media.

☕️ Coffee chats to referral partners

This relationship database on Airtable that makes it easy to go from 1-time chats to partnership that referral.

🙌 Get HYPE

Hype is a low-cost community that drives mutual social engagement, primarily on LinkedIn. Easy to use and helps posts that aren't picked up by the algorithm.

I’m Laura Green - a strategist empowering creative leaders to build businesses they love. My work focuses on crafting actionable insights, scalable strategies, and proven systems 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. ✌️