Latest / Work It Like A Mum / Bonus Episode: Ready to Scale? What Small Businesses Must Do to Thrive in 2026

Transcript

Bonus Episode: Ready to Scale? What Small Businesses Must Do to Thrive in 2026 · Work It Like A Mum

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, I'm Elizabeth Willis, and I'm obsessed with helping as many women as possible achieve their boldest dreams after kids.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: And helping you to navigate this messy and magical season of life.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a working mom with over 17 years of equipment experience, and I'm the founder of the investing in women showboard and community.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: In this show, I'm honored to be talking with remarkable women, redefining our working world across all areas of business.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: We covered all things coffee with your money.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: Sprinkled with the career advice.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: You wish you really had a cup of coffee or a glass of wine.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: Make sure you come asleep and get ready to get inspired and chase your oldest dreams on just survive Mondays.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: This is the Work It Like a Mum podcast.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: This episode is brought to you by Investing in Women.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: Investing in Women is a job board and recruitment agency helping you find your dream part-time or flexible job with the UK's most family-friendly and forward-thinking employers.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: Their site can help you find a professional and rewarding job that works for you.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: They're proud to partner with the UK's most family-friendly employers across a range of professional industries.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: Ready to find your perfect job?
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: Search their website at investinginwomen.co.uk to find your next part-time or flexible job opportunity.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: Now, back to the show.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: We've got Sam Cooper Gray, and she is an expert in helping small businesses to grow and thrive and be sustainable over the long term.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: And she has um got a brilliant presentation.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure people are going to be writing loads of notes.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: So please um please make sure you've got your notebook, your pens, um, because we're going to get some juices flowing in this um this webinar.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: But thanks so much, Sam, for joining us today.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: My pleasure, my pleasure.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really looking forward to it.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so before we start, do you want to give people a little bit of a background to you?
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Or yeah, absolutely.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: So um thank you for joining everyone.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Really nice to be here today and talk about thriving businesses.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: So very short background.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I was a corporate banker for 25 years at one of the big global banks and did a variety of roles, including running a strategy for um small businesses.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so I have spent a lot of time with small, medium scaling businesses over my career, and it's taught me a lot about how what the highs and lows are, and how to be really clear and sharpen your strategy to really achieve and deliver.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I am now a small business in my own right.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I left my big organization, my big corporate job last year, and um started my own strategy consultancy, really focused on supporting small businesses and how they can thrive in the UK.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: So very um short piece.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: In addition to that, I also am the chair of the Gender Index.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: So um I do a lot with female-led business and supporting um women who are trying to grow their businesses in an environment where they're only one in five.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: Well, is it only one in five businesses run by women?
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so one in five, so 19% of all businesses in the UK run by women.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um and however, they return.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um I I've got lots of stats I could give you, but they are very successful when they do it.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: So we should have more of them.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: Good, brilliant.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: Right, that's good to hear.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: As a female owned business, I like that.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: Brilliant.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, let's dive into your um so people that are watching get all the tips and the value that they're here for.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Amazing, brilliant.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I might ask, I you you will have to drive the slides for me later.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, is it not working for you?
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: I will kick off with um just a oh no no oh this might be my lack of skill.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh to the next one would be perfect.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Amazing, thank you.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: So um just a reality check.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the first reality check is it is hard to run a business.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't think anyone on the call is going to be surprised by that.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: But it is challenging.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: We are in really challenging times, you know.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: If you think about what we've um been through in the last couple of years in terms of COVID and trade wars and economic crises and war, it's an uncertain time to run a business.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: And when times are uncertain, one of the most important things you have to do is be really, really clear on what it is you're trying to achieve.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: If you look at 2026, one of the things that will make the difference between businesses being successful or not is a clarity of what you're doing, and that's because it's really hard to make decisions if you don't have a clarity, and it's also really easy to get pulled into things you're not 100% sure are going to help the business, if you're not really clear on where you're trying to go.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: So it is it's a really important element is to be clear on what you're achieving, and that basically is what strategy is.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I probably shouldn't say this because I ran a strategy consultancy, but strategy isn't complicated, it is quite straightforward when you when you work out what it is you're trying to achieve, and then you're what you're doing is and you're putting in the right pillars to be able to deliver on that.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: So, um, apologies, Liz, I don't seem to be able to move the slides.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I move to the next one.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: So, one of the most important things, there is a really clear process that you go through um when you're creating strategy, and one of those those pieces of you have to have an anchor, you have to know what you're trying to achieve and big challenge, but it's probably not as big as you think it is if you take the time to do it.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: And and this is where when you're a small business, running a business with a small team, you are in your business all the time, yeah, because it's busy and there's stuff to do, and there's always a new challenge, there's always business to be done.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: One of the hardest, the hardest thing about knowing what your anchor is and writing a strategy is having the confidence to take a step back from the day to day and take the time to do it.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't actually take that much time, but just that psychology of taking a step back, and we call it being on your business, not in there, but it's not as easy as it sounds, so it is really important to be able to do that well and on a semi-regular basis.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: So um, your anchor is the really important thing, and your anchor is what is the thing that drives you?
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: What's your your centre of gravity?
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a really good question that I I like to get all of my um clients to answer.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and if we can pop on to the next slide.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um and the and the question that I really like to ask is uh if you stripped back absolutely everything, what is the one thing that your business would be known for?
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: So you strip back everything, what is it your business you want your business to be known for?
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't matter what you're doing, but if you can identify that, that gives you a really clear anchor.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: So that gives you that thing, that gravitational pull to come back to and really helps you make decisions.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: So why is an anchor important?
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: And an anchor's important for a number of reasons.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, one is it enables you to make decisions.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: As anybody, as humans, it's very easy to get decision paralysis when you're busy.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's so many decisions to make.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: You either make all of them, probably not the best thing to do, or you make none of them, also probably not the best thing to do.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: It avoids you diluting your efforts.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: If you're really clear on what you're trying to achieve, really clear on that thing that you're known for, the thing you want to be, it stops you going off and doing other things, it stops you wasting investment and capital on things that aren't going to deliver.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: It interestingly also gives you permission to test things that might work.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: And the big thing that it avoids, and I've put it on the slide here, is what I call shiny object syndrome, which is if you're anything like me and you've got a passion for what you do, something that's kind of linked to what you do, and you meet someone and they've got a real passion for it, it's really tempted to go, oh, I want to get involved in this.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's also really hard if you don't have a clear anchor to know whether or not that's the right thing for your business.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: So that that avoidance of shiny object syndrome, I think, is probably one of the most important things because what we do is as humans, is we will get excited, especially if you've got anything, a brain, anything like me, that gets very excited by new things.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's very hard to ground yourself back to the thing you've decided to do.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't keep coming back to that thing, you just get too busy.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, any of us who've had that experience, we've just got to the end of the day, and it's like I've got so much more to do, and you're not sure what's the first thing to do, that probably means you've got some shiny objects in your list of to-dos.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have an anchor, it's very easy when a new opportunity comes to go, does that go back to my anchor?
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: And if the answer is no, really simple, don't do it.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: And and if you get to a point where you really want to do the shiny thing, that's fine because it might be a pivot that the business needs.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: So what you do at that point is you really go, oh, and this is still coming up.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: You then do a refresh of your anchor and your strategy.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: So strategy isn't set in stone, it's not about having one thing to do and only doing it, it's about saying, This is my anchor, this is my direction of travel.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: So you know where you're going, but that doesn't mean it's set in stone, it doesn't mean that you can't make adjustments to it, and that's a really important element of strategy.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: And and the analogy that I use when it comes to knowing what your anchor is, is for any of you who've ever watched or listened or read Alice in Wonderland, when she first meets the Cheshire cat, she's a she comes to a fork in the road, and the Cheshire cat appears.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: And the Cheshire cat says, she says to the Cheshire cat, which fork should I take?
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: And the cat says, Where are you trying to go, Alice?
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: And Alice says, I don't know.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so the cat says, then it doesn't matter what fork you take.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't have a very clear anchor to what you're trying to achieve, it doesn't matter which road you take, but whichever one you take is probably not going to be as successful as taking the one if you knew which direction you were going in.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you've got no where to go, no objective, then the decisions are really hard to make.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why that anchor is really important.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: And what I would also say is most people probably know what that anchor is if they give it a little bit of thought, and you can finesse it.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and if we jump to the next slide, I'll talk a little bit about what are the things that are important from a finessing perspective because it should be quite specific.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I really like ones that are financially linked, and there's a reason why I say that.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: It should be something which is your core purpose of your business, but it's a business, so it should also have some financial goals attached to it because what that does is it enables you to know if the strategies that you're setting are getting you to the goal you want to get to.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: So it should come, it could be should be focused on an outcome, it should be time-bound, so it should be I want to achieve this by this, even if it's within a bigger picture and it needs to be specific, and I would always put a financial goal in there, you don't have to, but for me, the financial decisions sit alongside the purpose decisions.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: So again, go back to if you stripped everything back, what is the one thing that you must be known for in 2026?
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: Most of you probably know what that is if you actually sat and thought about it and wrote it on a piece of paper.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't have to be pretty, it doesn't have to be beautifully written, it just has to be true to you, and you can then work with that as the starter for what you want to deliver from this year and beyond.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: And the anchor can be time bound to a longer period, it doesn't have to be short-term time bound, as in it doesn't have to be 2026, but it has to give you the ability to finesse that over the years, and then that's when strategy comes in because it's all very well and good saying, right, I've worked out what my mission is, my anchor.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's the what you're then in the how, and the how is really important.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so if we jump to um the next slide, you then are looking at what what are the strategies strategy, is what enables you to scale any idea, so it is very difficult to scale an idea if you aren't clear on what it is you're trying to achieve.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: And what the strategy enables you to do is keep keep to that anchor, it enables you to avoid shiny object syndrome, it enables you to say no to stuff, and one of the most important things we do in business is say no, it's really hard to do, but if it doesn't deliver on your objective, you have to question why you would do it.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: So when you get to the strategy piece, what you're doing is you're building a scalable plan, you are mapping out what you're going to spend your time doing at a high level with your mission.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: You then work out what are the pillars, what are the pathways that I want to be able to deliver on, and then we'll take you through to the actual doing strategy is really practical.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: Some people think about strategy as being um like up here, big picture, but it's not action, but it should be actionable.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: So each of each of your strategies, and I would say my guide would be don't ever have more than three, should be a unique part of your mission, of how you get to your mission.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's a unique lever to deliver on your mission or your anchor, and they should be deliverable within what you're trying to achieve.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: So that might be a good thing.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I was gonna say so strategy is what leads you to the anchor, rather than the strategy being the anchor.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's strategy is three things that maybe lead to your anchor.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, yeah.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: So people think of strategy as being the mission, it's not.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, okay.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, and and a lot of people do you think about strategy as being that, you know, the the mission, but it's not you your your mission is I want to be the most successful at this, or um I um let me walk you through these and then I'm gonna give you a really good example, but I'll give it three sections and then I'll give an example of how I do it in my business.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, if you were going on to play football or whatever, and you obviously want to win.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but is it like the ta strategies like the tactics that your coach would be saying, right?
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: You need to do this, you need you know, play like this to to win the game.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, oh I got that wrong.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: So the tactics are the actions, the strategy, and and it's really common because you're right, because most people think the strategy is the mission, yeah, and that the and that the tactics are the strategy, but they're not so your mission is this is what I'm anchored to.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: Your strategy, and again, if we jump to the next slide, this is this is this is how it it kind of hopes, this is how I frame it so that you can tell the difference.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, is strat um if you use the football analogy and their mission is to win the Premier League, right?
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's their mission.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: We want to win the Premier League, or we want to be um, you know, cup winning, whatever it is, um, in the next 12 months, 15 months, whatever.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: We want to, you know, not get relegated, whatever the mission is.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: The strategy is what are the big things we need to do to make that true?
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I would say for what one piece of strategy could be, um, and you're this is stretching the analogy because I don't know football very well, but we'll keep with the football analogy.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, could be fitness.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: So one of your strategic pathways could be we want to have the fittest team because fit teams will achieve better.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: We want all the team to be heightened fitness, right?
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's a strategy.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: And another strategy could be um the buying and selling.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: So we want to make sure we've got all of the right people in the team with the right skills across the team, including the bench.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: So, next strategy could be a lot, you know, the next pathway could be, you know, the makeup of the team, the buying and the selling of the team.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then a final strategy could be actually quite a lot of this is about belief in the team.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: So there could be we have a community outreach strategy to make our team successful where we connect better with our fans, right?
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: Each of those are strategies.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: The tactics, which is the next level down, is the doing.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: So strategy is still quite a big picture, which is why people mix up strategy and mission.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll be honest, it doesn't matter what you call it, it's what you do with it that matters.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: So, um, but what I would say is if you have a couple of things.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: One, if you have anything more, any more than three strategic pathways and then actions underneath them, you're not gonna deliver because it's too much to do.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: And also, if there's more than three, it's probably not a strategy.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because the reality is you need to be really pincer-focused on what you're gonna achieve.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: So anything outside those top three is a nice to have, not a must-have.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: And if it's a nice to have and it's not automatically going to get you to your goal, then you have to question why you're doing it.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: And and that's a really kind of important element, and I think um, so we move to the next slide.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now I want to talk about is the execution, and this is what tactics are, this is the doing, right?
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: So this is where the detail comes in.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: So at this point, what you've done so far is clear, but it's quite big picture.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what you're doing is hanging really active things onto each of those strategies, and again, I'm I I would describe it as a pyramid.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Your mission sits at the top, your three strategic pathways sit underneath.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: I would put no more than three major actions under each of those to get you to where you need to get to, to get you to your mission.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like three just practically, because otherwise you've got too much to do.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, because otherwise, just practically you've got too much to do.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so this is where it becomes really practical.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: So this is where it gets really practical.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: Is what are you doing, physically doing?
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: What are the key things you need to do?
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: What are the tactical moves you need to do to ensure that you deliver on what it is you said you wanted to achieve?
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: So if you think about let's go back to your footbill analogy.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: If one of your pillars is fitness.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: If you have a strategic pillar that's fitness, but you don't make the team go to the gym every day, they're not going to achieve their strategic pillar.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have a strategic pillar that's fitness and you don't look at their nutrition, they're probably not going to meet their anchor.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: But if you have a strategic pillar that is fitness, and you allow them some, you know, you you don't tell them exactly what exercise to do, they but you give them guidance, they'll probably still achieve it.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: So the tactics are the actual things that will make a difference.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: So if you keep to that analogy, your three tactics could be very trick, very clear nutritional goals, um X amount of time spent with a personal trainer to work on your personal needs and you know group practice together so that you're developing your uh fitness together.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: They could be your three tactics.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: Everything outside of those threes is a nice to have.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and if we keep with the sport analogy, there's an amazing um Olympian called um oh uh God, I can forget his name now.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: He's an Olympic rower, and um his name's Ben, and I can't remember his cell name, it's just gone from me.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and he was one of the eight who won at the Sydney Olympics in the Caucus AI's rowing, came from nowhere.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: No one thought the British British were gonna win, and they absolutely smashed it.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: And their team, one of their strategic pillars, so their mission was to win the Olympics.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: One of their strategic pillars was does it make the boat go faster?
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: So everything they did, every action they took off the back of that, is they asked themselves that question.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: So their strategy was we question what we do every day to whether it gets us to our goal.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so what they did then is they then had tactics in place around fitness, nutrition, the where they spent their time, how they slept.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: They then had a set of really clear tactics, all governed by that strategic pillar of does it make the boat go faster?
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: I went to a speech he gave 20 over 20 years ago, and I can still tell you exactly what he talked about.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: It was that powerful.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, nice.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I have tried very hard to live my life.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like I'm gonna write that up, even though obviously I'm not doing things like strategy based on does it and it's the the principle I'm not sure.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: Don't do it.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, does it make the boat go faster?
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like we should all just have that printed somewhere.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, absolutely, yeah.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: He's brilliant as well.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: If you can ever get to um Google him, his name is Ben, but I cannot remember surname.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: I think is it Angie or Google?
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: Does it make the boat go faster?
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: He runs an amazing um consultancy now.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, someone told us Ben Hunt Davis.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, I will look it up and let you know on.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: No, Rachel, Rachel said, is it Ben Hunt Davis?
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um and yeah, it is.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, brilliant.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: It is indeed.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Rachel.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so if we jump to the next page, so this is just a bit of detail.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: So this is literally what I've just been talking about, which is you break down each of the pathways, measurable, make sure it moves, and again ask that question is is this tactical tactic going to make the boat go faster?
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: I will steal his quote, and and and then the really, really important piece at this point is focused execution.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: So be really clear what you're gonna do and then do it and don't get shiny object syndrome.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: So um, you know, one of the things Liz, you and I have talked about, um, especially in context of obviously all the amazing work that you do, is about kind of recruitment and people and retention and the importance of that.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: So here let me set you a challenge then.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: So if one of a if a company is one of their strategic pillars, because they have lots of recruitment and their people are really important, is talent.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: What are the things that you would think about?
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: What are the active things people can do around recruitment, talent people?
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it's obviously identifying what roles you need to make your boat go faster.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: We'll just carry on and we'll come back to that challenge.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: No, you are you for are you back now?
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: Oh sorry.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: Are we back?
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, Liz, I lost you.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, that's fine.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I think obviously with recruitment, you need to find it.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, did I froze?
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: I think we all, yeah.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um with the the boat analogy, who do you need on your team to help you make your boat go faster?
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that's it, isn't it?
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: And making sure that those people then that are in your boat are in the right positions in your boat, are they actually performing at you know, at the level you need them to perform as well?
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_01: And how are you measuring that as well?
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: And if you've got the right people in the right seat on your boat, um, then what are you doing as well to keep them, make them happy, etc.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's it, isn't it?
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: And how are then, you know, if you're wanting to make a bigger boat, how are you then duplicating that amongst your staff as well, so you've you're developing leaders as well within your business, so it doesn't all fall to you because you don't want that to happen within your business either.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_01: You don't want to be doing, doing, doing all the time.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, as Sam said, definitely you need to be developing people as well.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: So actually, you kind of have to do all the time, you can work on the business, and I think that's it, isn't it?
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's the simplest thing.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: Right, people, right to make your boat go faster.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: And then if you've got those, how are you keeping, retaining, developing, developing those people so then they can duplicate that if you decide you want to make your boat bigger as well as faster?
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm love, I'm loving the sporting boating analogy we've we've completely embraced.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I think in a nutshell, when it comes to strategy, there's a couple of things that are really important.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: And the first one is don't overthink it.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think sometimes people think when we think about strategy, people think it's got to be really complicated, it's got to be really clever.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: Focus on what is our anchor for our business, what is the direction, which part, what which big place do we want to get to?
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: Then set out your three strategic directions.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: What are the three big things we would need to do in order to hit that objective?
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then be really clear for each of those pathways.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: What are the top three really clear actions we need to take to get us there?
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the thing that blows people's minds, but it's really, really important.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: Once you have set all of that, the only thing that matters are the tactics.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: So you've done all that work, you've set an anchor, you've um you've set your strategic pathways, you've got your really actionable, measurable tactics in place.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: That is what I would call your system.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: And James Clear will tell you, and he wrote um an amazing book on habits, he will tell he will say that you you rise to the level of your systems, so you achieve based on the systems you put in place.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: So say the um the football team set a goal, um, didn't set a goal, didn't set a strategy, but had all the right tactics in place to get to be the best.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: So they haven't done all of that work we've just talked about, but they actually knew what they wanted to do, and they had nine tactics which would have flown into a strategy if they'd had one, and they were consistent in delivering that.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: They were great with their partners, they spent time with their team, they trained them well, they got them to eat well, they made sure the actual football tactics and how they played the game was well.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: If they even if they didn't have the ambition to do well, if all of those tactics are the right tactics, they will do well.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: So it sounds counterintuitive, but once you've actually built all of those strategies and those anchors, you can literally then ignore them, which takes a whole lot of brain away.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like you don't have to worry about them.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: You then just go, right, I'm just gonna do the things I said I would do.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's a bit like you know, if if you have an ambition um to say here's a personal example.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: I really want to do high rocks.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: People are gonna think I'm crazy, I'm not very fit at the moment.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: And high rocks, if you don't know what high rocks is, go and Google it.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's crazy sport thing.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I'd really want to do it, and I've set myself a mission this year that I want to do high rocks.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now, that mission's lovely.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: If I do no tactics, I could set a strategy for that.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I could say, right, I'm gonna go to the uh, you know, I I need to have uh, you know, look at my fitness, I need to do this, I need to do that.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: If I don't do the tactics at the bottom, I'm never doing high rock because it will kill me.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: If I don't have the ambition to do high rocks, but I go to the gym and do weights on a regular basis, I run on a regular basis and I eat well, I will have the skills to do high rocks without the ambition.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well then it's up to you if you want to do it.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then it's up to you if you want to do it.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: So the really important thing is once you have come up with those tactics, it's all about execution.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's about doing it every day, yeah.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: And really keeping yourself honest with as a team, as a business, or even if it's a personal goal, have I done the thing I said I was gonna do?
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, do you know it's like mastering, isn't it?
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_01: Mastering the mundane, you said the mundane, master it.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, sorry I interrupted you.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I I would I would leave you with there is no secret source to really good strategy.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is it's it's really straightforward.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's about be very clear what you're trying to achieve.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, especially as we talked, you know, we talk um about thriving this year as a small business, right?
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: This is gonna be a challenging year economically likelihood, right?
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're very clear on your goal and you're very clear on the strategies you need to achieve that goal, and you put in your tactics, you can then just get on with it.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it means when you get if the business gets sideswiped by something they weren't expecting, that actually if you know those tactics will get you to where you want to, you do them.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: But what is another really important thing is is if the world completely shifts, you now have a way of shifting as well, without it being chaos.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_00: So if the world shifts and your goal becomes unattainable, your anchor just doesn't work anymore because you just the environment's changed.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: Have the confidence not to just panic and do something to go, okay, let's readjust.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: Do we still want the same anchor?
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yes or no?
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: The anchor might be the same, but your strategies might need to change.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: But do it actively rather than passively by accident, and then you just reset your tactics and you go again, and that that discipline, and I love that that that kind of discipline discipline of the mundane, as you said.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope that was helpful to people.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_01: Brilliant, it was so helpful.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so so much.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_01: I've I'm literally I've got all inspired.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you so much, Sam.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um thank you so much as well to everybody that has watched, whether live or on the replay.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_01: It was absolutely brilliant.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_01: I've learned so so much.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_01: Honestly, did not know about strategy, the pillars, tactics.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_01: So it's really clear.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so pleased we did it in January as well, when a lot of people are goal setting.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: Both personally and business, you can use you can use the principle, and then the key is just do the thing that you're supposed to do every day and it will make a difference.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna put something on my list that I've been putting off for a couple of weeks, and I'm gonna start doing it.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you so much.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_01: You've been really inspiring.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_00: My pleasure.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's been an absolute pleasure, and I hope that was helpful to everyone who's listening and watching.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening to another episode of the Work It Like a Mum podcast.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_01: If you enjoyed this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_01: And don't forget to share the link with a friend.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_01: If you're on LinkedIn, please send me a connection request at Elizabeth Willis and let me know your thoughts on this week's episode.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_01: You can also follow my recruitment site, Investing in Women, on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_01: Until next time, keep on chasing your biggest dreams.