As a business owner or leader, it’s incredibly easy to get caught up in the busy-ness of business. We get so caught up in the ‘DO’ it’s hard to focus on what to ‘DO NEXT’ that is proactive and linked to a strategy. This is where many businesses typically regress to the mean and do what feels safe and familiar, rather than stretching their boundaries and evolving to the next stage of growth. “Do what you’ve always done, and you’ll get what you’ve always got” - this statement used to ring true, but now I believe this even provides diminishing return in a fast paced business environment that waits for no one. It’s time to create leverage and opportunity.

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…and where to focus your energy for the best output

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On August 5, 1949, thirteen men died battling a relatively small blaze that turned deadly at Mann Gulch. Upon investigating the circumstances of why most of the smoke jumpers (firefighters who parachute into the back country to fight fires) died while three lived, the U.S. Forest Service came to some startling conclusions.

In hindsight, it seems obvious they made a catastrophic mistake in judgement, but because they hadn’t been trained to think about outrunning a fire, they had no alternative models for behavior.

Here it is on a bumper sticker: When the environment radically changes and you are confronted with moments of uncertainty and danger, clinging to the old “right” way might seem like a good idea, but it can frequently be deadly.

Original Credit: Keith Cunningham, The Road Less Stupid

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It really is that simple...

I’ll be honest - I think business owners are biologically wired to create more problems to solve.

We find discomfort in stillness.

We are restless beings that are always looking to find the edge that will take us (and our clients) to new heights.

When we think about growing the business, we get excited, motivated and inspired and want to direct that energy into activities that will get the fire burning.

Often that can show up in terms of wanting to run marketing campaigns, promotions, or launch new products, offers, and collaborations.

Nothing is wrong with any of that - in fact, it’s incredibly exciting.

However, when we look at the big picture - at any time, we have a finite amount of time, energy, and resources to commit to any one time.

We have to be honest with the cost of the opportunity.

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The importance of strength multipliers in marketing strategy

Last week I spoke about how goals are not plans, they are just ideas.

To follow that up - we need to look at the question of HOW we actually start making a plan that makes sense for OUR businesses.

It starts with taking stock of what is already working, and understanding our opportunities for leverage.

I can’t count how many times I’ve had introductory meetings with people that want to talk about paid advertising, automation, and building a greater marketing ecosystem to grow their business…

...but then proceed to list off a bunch of tools or platforms that ‘we need to be on ____’ because ‘that’s where everyone is’

Yes, these help - but without an aligned marketing process and strategy this is typically the quickest way to run in the wrong direction, and engage in marketing activities that you don’t need.

To avoid this common pitfall, we need to start by leveraging strength multipliers.

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One of the most common things I hear business owners talk about is hitting X number of revenue within Y amount of time.

Now, I’m not discounting goal setting itself - it’s incredibly important to create a North Star to orientate towards.

Without this, we breed complacency and simply operate from a state of idly bobbing our head above water.

However, the importance of setting goals pales in comparison to the art of strategic planning, and the science of executing it properly.

Too often, we announce lofty goals in states of emotion, but rarely do we employ logic into how we’re going to get it done.

Without a logical line of thinking, and documenting a plan - the goal just remains an idea, and the numbers our goals are tied to continue to fluctuate or plateau…

In my latest article - I tackle a few key points in how to ask the right questions to build the right strategy for your desired trajectory…

• Understanding the importance of diagnosing present state and trajectory

• The notion of the big leap.

• Flurried bursts of activity vs. focused, steady execution

• The use of Strength Multipliers

• Tactics used as a companion to a working system, not a stand alone solution

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When it comes to making decisions, we are governed by our emotions, THEN we look to regulate or rationalise with logic.

In fact, studies in the journal Nature Neuroscience have pinpointed the limbic system, and the amygdala are more active in the decision making process when purchasing - both of these are emotionally driven.

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Many business owners would lament that when asked to list out the problems in their business, they’d run out of room…

Not enough sales

Not enough customers

Not enough people know about us

Not enough profit

Not enough cash on hand

If they could just solve this problem, life would be easier.

As a society — we love talking about our problems, and while I’m a firm believer that it’s better to vocalise them (better out, than in), we typically will only proceed to describe the symptom in every which way.

We get better at telling the story of our problems, rather than solving them.

It’s this excuse laden existence that only succeeds in promoting a victim mentality within.

But as luck would have it, there are more factors at play than re-adjusting the rubik’s cube.

It starts from going through the process of separating the symptom, from the problem.

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The thing to note here, that both of these ‘selves’ exist within us, they grow in direct proportion to how much they are fed.

As Timothy Gallwey states in the ‘Inner Game Of Tennis’

“Our self judgements become self fulfilling prophecies.

Repeat this often enough, and this communication becomes an expectation.

Over time, this only becomes strengthened with conviction, and we will live to these expectations.”

He believes there are two selves within us all - the ‘teller’ and the ‘doer’.

When we know how to manage this relationship, and we feed and train it constructively, we have more agency over our business, and our future.

There are seasons to business, and to life - and we need to understand when to plant the seeds, when to allow for growth, and when to harvest for maximum yield.

Strategy isn’t a twelve month plan with a list of tasks, to-do lists, and revenue targets.

Knowing things as they are is the precondition for doing things well, and this comes from a deep understanding of the market need, the key pillars of marketing and business, and creating an alignment with your Offering, and curating the right Presence across your marketing channels.

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“Fear is like fire.

You can make it work for you:

It can warm you in winter, cook your food when you’re hungry, give you light when you are in the dark, and produce energy.

Let it go out of control and it can hurt you…

Fear is a friend of exceptional people”.

Part of going on the journey of building great marketing strategy, is understanding that the body (or business), will only go as far as the mind will allow it.

Further, the business will only grow as far as the leader will allow it.

It is entirely easy to ‘wait’ for a normal to re-emerge.

We cannot rely on our usual methods of creating demand and generating opportunities.

Take this time to strategise - it will give you a resounding confidence that permeates through your marketing activities, and sales conversations.

Don’t let the fear of losing, be greater than the excitement of winning

It is time to step forward into the new arena - with the strategy and tenacity to emerge victorious.

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Just the other day I was re-reading one of the most influential books I’ve come across in my career, Never Eat Alone, by Keith Ferrazzi.

A master of managing relationships, a former Chief Marketing Officer at Deloitte, and Silicon Valley CEO; he is renowned for being a thought leader in building your network, and more importantly, keeping it strong.

One of my favourite lines from the book is;

“If 80% of success is just showing up, then 80% of building and maintaining relationships is just staying in touch”

These days, we are so overwhelmed with information and overflowing to-do lists that it is rare for people to pause and reflect when making decisions...

So, naturally, when we need something we revert to the shallowest part of our memory bank and choose the first option that is most trustworthy - it’s called recency bias.

If you allow your relationships to go cold, they will inevitably choose someone else that is occupying that piece of real estate in their mind.

When this happens, we need to ask;

“Was I putting myself out there, or was I waiting to be found?”

The findings from this book are something I revisit daily, it helps ensure that there is consistency, no matter the market, or the current conditions.

I shared 8 actionable insights in this article

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There is this broken ‘conventional wisdom’ that people adopt that suggests that success comes from pricing for ‘everyone’.

This then generates volume, and revenue, and ultimately grows the business.

But as business owners know, revenue is only one factor in the equation - there is a lot more that lies below the surface.

And, we all know what happens when there are unexpected interruptions to volume.

When our pricing strategy is not aligned with the desired direction of the business, a myriad of problems present themselves.

It begins with a condition known as ‘too hungry to eat’

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Sports psychologists did a study with professional athletes that were struck with a serious injury - unable to DO what they are being paid to do.

Initially, these athletes suffered a big setback mentally.

They reported feeling isolated; they experienced emotional disruption, and overall doubts about their athletic ability.

Yet after they acknowledged their situation and came to terms with it, and committed to their rehabilitation plan - each athlete reported gaining a desire to help others, to be part of their community with an additional perspective, and further realisation of their own strengths.

In other words, every fear and doubt they felt during the injury turned into greater abilities in those exact areas.

It’s a concept called Adversarial Growth - literally, growing from Adversity.

In these scenarios, the researchers found that the obstacle actually propelled the athletes to an entirely new level of functioning.

The extent of the struggle determined the extent of the growth, the obstacle became the advantage.

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In the 1920’s, Post was the category leader in the ready-to-eat cereal game.

In the 1930’s, Kellogg’s was moving in and created competition in the market.

At the time, breakfast cereal was still a relatively new concept.

People didn’t really understand ‘ready-made’ cereal.

At the time people were eating oatmeal, cream of wheat, and sometimes even salted meat and pickles for breakfast — which was wreaking havoc on their digestive systems.

So, when the Great Depression hit, no one had the playbook for how to continue growing consumer demand when community confidence (and resources) were drying up

Because of a single proactive decision back in the 1930’s — Kellogg’s made a crucial decision which increased market position, and lead to billions of increased sales over the past 90 years, with some of the most iconic brands in the world.

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I recently read this on James Clears 3-2-1 newsletter, and it is the most powerful three lines I have read in weeks.

"The most useful form of patience is persistence.

Patience implies waiting for things to improve on their own.

Persistence implies keeping your head down and continuing to work when things take longer than you expect."

To follow this, our decisions can’t always be from a place of holding good cards, but sometimes it needs to be from playing a poor hand well.

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Would you rather proactively make decisions from a point of strength and capitalise on your opportunities.⠀ ⠀

Or scramble for the leftovers?

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In the school of business, most owners are majoring in minor activities.

Everyone is busy doing everything.

But…

...if you asked the deeper question of why they’re busy, and what they’re busy doing - I would be genuinely shocked if over 30% was attributed to the vital few activities that actually yielded results.

Most would lament they are extremely unsatisfied with the outcome, from their inputs.

In the marketing world, balanced decisions come from understanding the metrics that lead to a sale, and from there, creating a structure of how to consistently walk the right clients through this journey, while ensuring the math continues to stack up, profitably.

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The marketing landscape is a wasteland.

Of money...

… and of opportunity.

Here’s why…

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Traditional approaches to strategy are often seen as the answer to change and uncertainty - they assume a stable and predictable world.

In today’s world - ‘we’ve always done it this way’ is the precursor to defeat (in close company with mountains of stress brought from poor decision)

They map out revenue goals in the canopy, but they fail to create the branches that allow for the climb up.

I.e. they want to hit XX in sales revenue, but don’t understand the ‘cost’ of growth, and the investment required to achieve the target. In addition, there is no documentation around the process or the resources involved in developing a predictable campaign or system to scale them up. 

But not all is lost - to quote Anthony Greenbank; 

“To live through an impossible situation, you don't need the reflexes of a Grand Prix driver, the muscles of a Hercules, or the mind of an Einstein. 

You simply need to know what to do.” 

There IS still a way to establish better decision making and create predictability and sustainable growth within your business, driven by strategic marketing activities.

Adaptability is the new competitive advantage, and that’s what strategy in the new economy thrives in (this is a big topic within the Harvard Business community).

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