So in today's episode, I wanted to explore three reasons why your strategy might not be working as well for you as it could. I'm also going to be exploring this in greater depth during my free masterclass that takes place on Thursday, August 24th at 1 PM Eastern, it is called The 4 Keys to Unlocking Your Success as a Booked Out Transformational Coach. I have been putting all of the finishing touches on my masterclass slides and pulling together my outline over the last couple weeks, and I have to tell you, I am so excited to share this material with you. It is brand new. I've never taught this before, so you will be the very first person to hear this brand new approach to co-creating extraordinary change with and for your clients, while also making sure you have everything you need to have business that is sustainable, that is profitable, and that lights you up. So you are not going to want to miss this masterclass on Thursday, August 24th at 1 PM Eastern. That's 10 AM Pacific. I believe that is 6 PM for my friends in the UK. And again, we'll be diving into The 4 Keys to Unlocking Your Success as a Booked Out Transformational Coach. So to register for this free masterclass, head to coachwithclarity.com/4keys.

The beautiful thing is you can do the number 4. You can do the word 4: f-o-u-r. It will take you to the page where you can register. And no worries, if you are not able to attend live, there will be a replay available for a limited time but you have to register in advance in order to get that replay because I need to know what email to send it to. So head on over to coachwithclarity.com/4keys, you'll also find a link in the show notes. Go ahead and register for my brand new free masterclass, The 4 Keys to Unlocking Your Success as a Booked Out Transformational Coach. Again, that's coachwithclarity.com/4keys, and I cannot wait to see you on the 24th. We're gonna have such a good time. 

Okay. So let's dive right in. Let's talk about the 3 reasons why your strategy might not be working for you in your business right now. Reason number one is that what you think is a strategy may not actually be a strategy. It might actually be a tactic. So let's spend a minute differentiating between what a strategy is, and what a tactic is. And I wanna say from the beginning that if you are confused about what differentiates strategy from tactics, you are not alone. This is a concept that I think trips up a lot of us, myself included when I was first starting out. So let's take a moment to talk about what a tactic is. A tactic is a specific action you are taking that ideally is aligned with your goals, your strategy, and your vision. So a tactic is posting three times a week on LinkedIn or conducting 5 connection calls every week. These are action steps. These are tactics. A strategy on the other hand is more like a big picture bird's eye view of what you will be doing in order to achieve your goals. So we're not talking specific action steps. We're talking more about your overall plan. So, for example, let's use that posting on LinkedIn three times a week tactic, that might be a part of a larger strategy that is looking at increasing revenue by 30% through engagement on social media platforms. using a mix of educational, inspirational, and promotional content. So that's a strategy. We've kind of baked in a goal in there. We've about increasing revenue by 30%. The way we're going to do that is through social media engagement and by publishing content that focuses on education, inspiration, and promotion. That's strategic. And then the tactics we use would be, for example, posting on LinkedIn 3 times a week. And even within that, perhaps those 3 LinkedIn posts represent the 3 different types of content, the educational, the inspirational and the promotional. So strategy and tactics work together very closely, but I feel like in the coaching space and in the online entrepreneurial space in general, people don't often differentiate between strategy and tactics. They use those words interchangeably, and they're not the same thing. They're very different. So what that means is that sometimes I'll be working client, or I'll be coaching someone inside the Collective. And they're telling me about their strategy, but really what they're talking about are these individual tactics that they're trying. And they don't seem to be coordinated with each other. There's not really a through line. We're not sure of what it is they want or what their overarching goal is. They just know that they're supposed to be showing up on social media, or they're supposed to be networking. So they have these disparate tactics and they're not connected to an overarching strategy. So that's one mistake that I see people make. And, honestly, it's a mistake that I have made myself a especially in my early years as a business owner. We've confused strategy for tactics. And so when we're trying these tactics that aren't directly connected to an overarching strategic plan, things can feel disjointed. And again, we may not be seeing the return on our time, energy, or financial investment, and we feel like we're doing something wrong.

It is entirely possible that the tactic you're trying out is not the wrong tactic or it's not a bad tactic. It may just need to be anchored in a larger coordinated strategy. This is something that comes up not just on the business side of our coaching practices, but it can also affect how we coach our clients. If we are focused solely on the action steps that our clients are taking, but we're not doing the work of connecting it to a larger plan. And if we're not connecting it to what matters most to them, to their vision, to their values, then we're going to fall into the same trap. Our clients are going to be taking all sorts of action in their lives and their health and their relationships, whatever it is they're coming to you for. They're gonna be taking all these action steps, but they're gonna feel like nothing is really working. Nothing feels coordinated. Nothing feels connected. And it's likely because they're trying out these tactics without an underlying strategy to support it. And so as coaches, our role is to come in and help the client to develop a strategic plan to creating whatever change it is they want to see. And ideally, that's strategy is going to be anchored in their vision and their values. So that's mistake number 1: is thinking that what we are calling a strategy is actually a tactic. And we need to take a step back and come up with a more coordinated plan so that our efforts are connected, they're cohesive, and we know what it is we're doing and what it is we're measuring in order to achieve our goal. 

So here is the second mistake I see people making with their strategies. And, again, this is a mistake that I have made. It is a well intentioned mistake often, but a mistake nonetheless. And it happens when we are trying to take someone else's strategy and apply it to our business without taking into account the ways that our business may be different. And without looking at the subtle changes we may have to make in order for this strategy to be effective, Now if you've been in the coaching industry for any period of time, you have probably come across coaches, consultants, business experts, who want to sell you on their way of doing something. And maybe they frame their methodology or their approach as the best or the only way to do something. And so they have a strategic plan that they are selling as part of their course or their program or their coaching, and then they expect you to follow it to the letter. And there is no room for any sort of nuance. There's no opportunity to shape the strategy to better reflect your business, your goals, your values. It is one size fits all, but unfortunately, what happens with one size fits all strategies is they usually only fit the person who is teaching it and the person who is making money off of it. Several years ago, I was in a fairly well known group program. I'm not gonna name any names because that's not how we roll on the Coach with Clarity podcast, but I will say that it was a business oriented program. And the facilitator had a tried and tested approach to creating an offer and developing a group program. And It was so structured and so dogmatic that if you did not follow this plan to the letter, you were called out for doing it incorrectly. Honestly, it was a pretty toxic environment, and I'm really glad I'm no longer in that program. But I will never forget, the facilitator had a structure that involved having a certain number topics that you should teach in your program. Let's say the number was 8. Well, what if you wanted your program to have 9 or 7 or any other number other than 8? That was not okay because you were going against the facilitator's framework, and there was no room for argument. Either you were going to apply the strategy as given or you were going to fail. Literally, that was the messaging we heard in the coaching calls. It was very distressing, very disturbing. It made me wish I had not opted for the annual option, but that I had just paid month to month because I tell you what, if I had been a month to month member, I would have canceled immediately because I don't believe in any one size fits all strategy. Even with my own private coaching clients, even inside the Coach with Clarity Collective, I may provide examples, guidance, ideas, but they are not meant to be taken as “the gospel” that everyone needs to follow. In fact, even when I'm presenting a framework, like the one I'm going to present in my masterclass on 24th, even when I have templates and guides and all sorts of resources available to my clients, I really want them using it as a springboard, as inspiration for them to create whatever it is they need or want in their business. I never want any of my clients feeling like they have to do things exactly the way I do them or exactly the way that I have advised. I want my clients feeling like they can adapt and be flexible and change things to meet the needs of their clients or to meet the needs of their business.So if you find yourself being coached by someone or in a program with a facilitator, who is telling you there is only one way to do it. And if you're not doing it this way, you're wrong. Well, that's one reason why your strategy may not be working for you. In fact, I wanna give you permission right now to take any strategy that's out there. If it is not working for you, you are free to modify it so that it does. You have that permission, my friend. I don't care what anyone says. You do what you need to do in order to make something work for you and for your business.

Okay. So we've talked already about the difference between strategy and tactics and why that may be leading to a mistake with how you're using strategy in your business. We've talked about what happens when we are shoehorned into strategies created by other people that may not be working for our business. Now I wanna talk about the 3rd reason why your strategy may not be working for you and it's because it's not linked directly to what matters most to you. So I've hinted at this already in today's episode, that, ideally, our strategy is connected to our overarching vision. So what it is we want to see for our coaching practice what it is we want to see for our own lives, for the world as a whole, I believe in creating really big, even outlandish visions. Like, my vision for Coach with Clarity is a world that is centered in meaning, justice, and joy: and that we use the art and practice of coaching to help make that happen. That is a huge vision. I know that that is audacious. and yet that also is my guiding light so that when I am creating material for this podcast or if I am working on a presentation for the Collective. I am always thinking about that vision, and I'm asking myself, “How does this help create a world centered in meaning, justice, and joy, and how is it doing it through the art of coaching?” So if you have not yet created or articulated your own personal vision or your own business vision. I wanna encourage you to do that now. One of the best things you can do, actually, is to go to the websites for your favorite brands and see if they have a vision statement. Again, if you go to coachwithclarity.com, if you click on the Values tab, you are going to see that my vision statement is right there. And it's different, by the way, from a mission statement. The mission statement is how we do this. The vision statement is that description of our ideal outcome. So I want you to think about your vision, and if it’s helpful I want you to think about your mission as well. Let’s make sure that any strategy you are creating or modifying or applying in your business is consistent with your vision. And if we back out even more, one layer. Ideally, your vision is informed by your values or by the things that mean the most to you. 

Now if you are a longtime listener of the Coach with Clarity podcast, you know just how important values are to my work and to my life. Values represent what matters most to us. It's what gives us a sense of purpose and a sense of meaning. And that's why in my book ACT On Your Business, I talk about the 3 M’s, and the first m is meaning. It is so critically important that we are aware of what matters most to us because then we're able to ensure that our actions are consistent with our values. So that's why I spend so much time with my clients, and with the members of the Coach with Clarity Collective really looking at what your values are, what matters most to you. I have some really helpful values oriented activities in ACT On Your Business, which if you go to Amazon and search ACT On Your Business or if you search my name, my book will come right up. But, honestly, you could also do a Google search for values identification or values clarification exercises, and you'll find some really good ones there as well. But when you know what matters most to you, when you know what your values are, and you allow your values to inform your vision of what you want the world to look like and what you want your business to look like. From there, you can articulate how you will do that, so what your mission is. And then you can start to create a strategy that will bring your vision to life and that is anchored in your values. The beautiful thing about values is that they are inherently neutral. There is not a good value or a bad value and you may hold a different set of values than I do. And that doesn't mean that you're right and I'm wrong or that I'm right and that you're wrong. It just means have different approaches to the world and how we view it. And so we have different values, different lenses through which we see the world. That's also why we may need different strategies in our coaching business. And this is something I am going to dive into and greater depth in my upcoming masterclass. So again, head to coachwithclarity.com/4keys to register for it. I guarantee you, you will walk away with at least one new idea or one new way of looking at your business. 

So my friend, we have looked at three reasons why your strategy may not be working as effectively for you as it could be or as you might wanna to. The first reason is that we may be confusing strategy with tactics. And so perhaps it's a tactic that's not working for you, or maybe it's a tactic that is not anchored in a larger strategy. The second mistake is trying to shoe horn someone else's strategy into our business and make it work without modifying it to reflect our vision, our values, and our approach to our own business. And then the third mistake is that we may create strategies that are disconnected from our vision and our values. Maybe we haven't taken the time to clarify what really matters to us and what we want the world and our business to look like. So we do need to start with that foundational work about values, about vision. And then those together inform our mission, our strategy, and the specific actions or tactics that we use in order to bring our values and vision to life. And at this upcoming masterclass, I am going to be sharing a brand new framework, The 4 Keys to Unlocking Your Success as a Booked Out Transformational Coach, and I hope that you find it inspiring. I hope that it gives you a new way to look at the work that we do. And I also hope that you feel free to use it as inspiration for your own approach to your work. So come join me on Thursday, August 24th at 1 PM eastern for The 4 Keys to Unlocking Your Success as a Booked Out Transformational Coach. You can register at coachwithclarity.com/4keys. And, again, we will have that link for you in the show notes. 

Alright, my friend. That is it for me for this week's episode of the Coach of Clarity podcast.

I am positive I have a few more things to do to get ready for Thursday's masterclass, and I really hope I see you there. So until then, my name is Lee Chaix McDonough reminding you to get out there and show the world what it means to be a Coach with Clarity.