(0:00) When it comes to this year, being laser focused on overcoming your number one strategic problem.

(0:07) If you just focus on that, then you'll be in a great spot.

(0:12) This podcast business strategy is about the lessons I learned while building

(0:15) coltivar.com and turning around and growing million and billion dollar companies.

(0:19) My hope is that you use these strategies to grow your business and someday soon

(0:23) partner with us to build a more profitable and iconic company. Please share and enjoy.

(0:30) The vast majority of business leaders that I work with, they're very smart, they're capable,

(0:35) they have skills, they have capital.

(0:42) So why do they struggle when it comes to setting a strategy

(0:42) and then executing on that strategy to drive higher firm value? And as I thought through

(0:48) this question that I'm posing to you, I realized that the number one thing, the commonality among

(0:55) all organizations that struggle to drive real results comes down to a lack of focus.

(1:01) Over the last few weeks, I've been doing strategy revisits with our clients where I go into the

(1:07) business, I look at their strategy, I make sure that the strategic problem that they defined before

(1:11) is still relevant. And then I also look at the initiatives moving forward to ensure they're

(1:17) focused on the right initiatives to help them to overcome their strategic problem.

(1:21) And during this process, I reiterated the same message to these clients that I'm going to

(1:27) reiterate to you. And that is, it's focus. It comes down to focus.

(1:32) So I was talking to a client

(1:32) just last week and I said, look, I believe in your team. I believe in your skills. I believe

(1:38) in your capabilities.

(1:44) And I know that you can be very successful. I said, the biggest concern I have

(1:44) is not all that stuff. It's just your ability to focus and stay disciplined on the things that

(1:51) matter the most.

(1:58) Because let's face it, in this world, there are so many distractions.

(1:58) There's so much information coming at us. And in fact, think about chat GBT.

(2:03) I think it just

(2:03) exacerbates this problem because there is so much information at our fingertips. If you have a

(2:09) question, you just type in a prompt in chat GBT, and it may respond with a page full of information.

(2:16) So it's just data on top of data, which creates a lot of confusion for a lot of leaders,

(2:22) and it could lead people astray.

(2:27) Years ago, I was working with a CEO and he was running a very large

(2:27) organization. And probably one of the biggest things that he struggled with was the flavor

(2:33) of the day syndrome. And his team was very aware of it.

(2:38) And they got super frustrated because

(2:38) the CEO would attend conferences, listen to podcasts, read books, talk with his friends,

(2:45) attend peer groups, and do all these things, which are great. But then he would come back to the

(2:50) office and he would change up the strategy all the time. There'd be a new approach.

(2:56) There'd be

(2:56) a new tagline. He had changed the mission, vision, values, initiatives would come and go. And it just

(3:03) created a ton of confusion for the organization.

(3:09) And guess what? They were underperforming in all

(3:09) areas of the company. So just think about it. If I were to start playing the piano right now,

(3:16) and I do it for six months, and then I switch over to the drums, and then I switch over to

(3:20) the violin next year, and then I switch over to the cello, whatever it is, and I do this constantly,

(3:26) guess what? I'm going to be terrible at playing any instrument because I don't focus.

(3:32) So instead,

(3:32) it's like, spend the next 10 years of your life practicing the piano every single day and then

(3:38) become proficient. And then when you become proficient at that, you can move on to the

(3:42) next thing. But I see CEOs, they try something and they don't get immediate results.

(3:49) And therefore, they think that it's flawed. And so they move on to the next thing. And the more they do this,

(3:54) the more they start over, the poorer the performance actually ends up being.

(3:58) So when it comes down to it, it's all about doing more first, doing better second, and then doing

(4:05) new third, in that order. So whatever you're doing right now, just do more of it, right? Unless

(4:11) you're totally off track, unless you have the wrong initiatives, then sure, you need to recalibrate.

(4:17) But oftentimes, it's just about doing more.

(4:21) And then you have to go out there and you have to do

(4:21) better, like optimize what you're doing. So you're going to do more, you're going to learn

(4:25) where the inefficiencies are, and then you'll optimize, do better, right? And make improvements,

(4:30) and then make new after the fact. But too many of us, and I struggle with the same thing,

(4:38) we chase the new, right? The shiny object, the sexy new flavor of the day, and then we'll do

(4:45) better.

(4:51) And then we do more in that order or some variation thereof, and it's terrible.

(4:51) So when it comes to strategy, strategy is all about focusing. That's what it's all about.

(4:57) So if you just get rid of all the academic explanations, if you get rid of all the

(5:02) frameworks, everything, and let's just say you had a boil strategy down to its most basic part,

(5:09) it comes down to focus. It's focusing your limited resources on solving the number one constraint,

(5:16) which I call the strategic problem in your business. That's what it comes down to.

(5:21) So you can get rid of all the fancy terminology. You can get rid of all the frameworks,

(5:25) like I'm saying, and just focus on that, just solving constraints by disproportionately

(5:32) allocating your resources towards that constraint, and you'll be highly successful,

(5:38) way more successful than somebody who reads the Harvard Business Review, or listens to a podcast,

(5:43) or reads the latest strategy book off the press and switches gears and tries an entirely new

(5:50) framework. So when it comes to Coltivar, like what we do, we don't sell prediction strategy.

(5:55) We don't go out there and say, hey, look, we have these data points. We have these industry reports.

(5:59) Look over here, try this, try that.

(6:05) Instead, what we do is we come in and we say, here's a system,

(6:05) here's a proven system for identifying your strategic problem, setting initiatives,

(6:10) actions, and results to drive firm value. And we do it over and over again.

(6:16) When I was a teenager, I was working for a sprinkler and landscaping company.

(6:21) So they

(6:21) would go out and install automatic sprinkler systems for homes, for residences, right? So

(6:26) they could water their lawns. And in order to get work, what we do is we'd have a box full of flyers

(6:32) and we would go roll them up and we'd put them on people's garages or at their front door. And we

(6:38) would litter these new neighborhoods with our flyers and they were on fluorescent paper.

(6:43) And

(6:43) they said, here, call us. And here's a coupon, et cetera. And our whole purpose was to drum up

(6:49) more work.

(6:56) So I remember we would go out there and we would pass out flyers for an entire day,

(6:56) right? We'd hand out flyers and, you know, it'd be a lot of walking, but it is fun. And we would

(7:01) do this when work was starting to get slow. But I remember we'd break up in teams and there was

(7:06) another team handing out flyers in the same day.

(7:11) And I remember catching up with them and like,

(7:11) yeah, you know, we just, we've been handing out flyers in these neighborhoods and, you know,

(7:16) we're just not getting super great responses. It's like, well, how many flyers did you hand out? And

(7:21) it's like, oh, we handed out like over a hundred flyers, like over a hundred flyers. You have to

(7:26) hand out thousands of flyers, right? Thousands of flyers.

(7:32) The same thing is true with companies

(7:32) that I work with when it comes to driving growth and getting new customers in their business.

(7:37) Let's just say they're doing it through cold outreach. You know, I was talking to a company,

(7:42) you know, just the other week.

(7:46) And it's like, yeah, you know, we're, we're sending out like

(7:46) 50 emails a week. I'm like 50 emails. You need to be sending out like 5,000 emails a week.

(7:51) So that's what I mean by doing more, right? And then optimizing, doing better and then doing new

(7:57) in that order. So check this out when it comes to strategy, when it comes to driving firm value

(8:03) in your organization, avoid the temptation to just switch and go after the new flavor of the day.

(8:11) Okay. I can tell you every time you start over, you have to start from scratch. You're starting

(8:16) from zero. And if you're learning a new framework every, you know, two to three, six months or

(8:21) every year, then it's going to be super confusing for your team.

(8:27) I have one approach,

(8:27) one system to strategy. I've been using it for over a decade to turn around and grow businesses.

(8:32) That's what I implement in organizations.

(8:37) And I just stick with it over and over and over again.

(8:37) And guess what? Over the years, I realized things that I could do better or parts of the process

(8:42) that create a little bit of confusion is a little complicated. And I'd make refinements, right?

(8:47) That's part of optimizing, but very rarely do I introduce a new concept into the framework,

(8:53) because if I do, it just slows me down.

(8:59) It slows down my team and it just creates massive confusion.

(8:59) So if you just focus on setting your strategic problem, identifying the one, two, three

(9:05) initiatives that are really going to move the needle, help you to overcome your strategic problem.

(9:10) And then you define the actions.

(9:16) Remember your actions are your hypotheses for how you can best

(9:16) drive forward your initiative and then set results, right? To measure the advancement

(9:20) of your initiatives. If you just do that over and over again, I promise you, you'll see so

(9:27) much more success than if you just chase the new and shiny object. So focus, that's what it comes

(9:33) down to.

(9:38) I'll just share one more analogy with you before signing off. Think about like that

(9:38) mad professor, that inventor, right? That has crazy hair, right? They're all disheveled.

(9:43) Their shirt's like half untucked.

(9:47) Maybe their buttons don't even align on their shirt.

(9:47) They're a total mess. They don't match.

(9:51) And they accidentally like put their cat in the

(9:51) microwave before heading off to work because their mind was so focused on the research that

(9:57) they're conducting or the invention that they're trying to bring about that everything else is just

(10:04) like a distraction to them. It doesn't even exist. So when it comes to this year, like being laser

(10:10) focused on overcoming your number one strategic problem and the unit economics of your business,

(10:18) like the value drivers of your business, if you could just do that, you're like, hey, these are

(10:22) the three things we're focusing on.

(10:27) These are the three value drivers. And here's the number one

(10:27) problem we're going to solve. Like if you just do that with your team and be that mad scientist,

(10:33) who's like, I don't, what? Oh, I didn't even know that my shirt was untucked.

(10:37) I didn't even know

(10:37) that my pants weren't matching or that I'm even wearing pants or not wearing pants. Oh my gosh.

(10:42) But if you just focus on that and stay disciplined in everything else is a distraction and you can

(10:49) say no to it, then you'll be in a great spot.

(10:56) And that's what good CEOs do. CEOs say no to other

(10:56) things. And more importantly, CEOs protect the time of their employees, right? So they'll go

(11:03) to their employees and say, Hey, what are you working on? Nope.

(11:08) Get rid of A and C and E because

(11:08) those aren't important. Just eliminate them. And if you do that and you protect the time of your

(11:13) employees, guess what? You're going to build higher morale, more engagement because now all of a sudden

(11:18) employees are like, yeah, my CEO has my back and they're not going to constantly just add more and

(11:24) more and more and more stuff to my plate.

(11:30) Right? So that's really important because so many CEOs,

(11:30) they waste the time of their employees and then it creates distrust and lower engagement. But if

(11:37) as the CEO, if you just say, Hey, actually, you know, that project that you're working on,

(11:41) eliminate it. And they're like, what? Eliminate it.

(11:46) It's like, yeah, eliminate it because I want

(11:46) you focused over here. So I'm not saying when it comes to doing more work, you just overload

(11:52) your employees with more and more and more tasks. Instead, when I say more, like doing more better

(11:58) and then new in that order, what I'm referring to is focusing on just a few items, like a few actions

(12:07) that are really going to move the needle and just do more volume.

(12:12) So you get more reps in, you can

(12:12) learn. It's not like you go to the gym and you're like, yeah, you know, I did three reps, three curls,

(12:17) and now my biceps are bulging. No, you got to get in there and do the reps.

(12:21) You have to do like three

(12:21) sets of 10 or four sets of 10. You have to like put in the reps and the same thing is true in

(12:25) business. That's what's on my heart today.

(12:31) That's what I want to leave you with is focus because

(12:31) like I said, it makes all the difference in the world when it comes to strategy and that's what

(12:35) strategy comes down to. It's all about focus. All right.

(12:39) Have a great week. If you need help

(12:39) with any of this, please be sure to reach out at Coltivar.com. Cheers.