Business Built With Strategy

The Missing Piece: How Presence Amplifies Your Business Strategy

• With Victoria E Strange

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Have you ever wondered why some businesses with brilliant plans still fail to gain traction? The missing ingredient might not be what you expect.

Welcome back to Business Built with Strategy! After a personal hiatus following the sudden loss of my father – who was not only my dad but my business mentor and hero – I'm returning with crucial insights about an overlooked aspect of entrepreneurial success.

Strategy alone simply isn't enough. While having a clear business strategy is undeniably important (without one, you're just winging it), many entrepreneurs mistakenly focus solely on creating the perfect plan while neglecting how they'll communicate and embody that strategy. Common pitfalls include confusing to-do lists for strategy, mindlessly copying competitors without understanding context, and changing direction too frequently due to lack of clear benchmarks.

What truly transforms a good business into a great one is the marriage of strategy with presence. Think about it: can you confidently pitch your business in any room? From casual coffee shop conversations to standing on stage before thousands? Your ability to communicate with authenticity and confidence is just as crucial as having a solid plan. Strategy without presence is merely a plan collecting dust; presence without strategy is confidence with no direction. Together, they create something powerful – a business that genuinely moves people.

I'm thrilled to announce I've been working on something special that fuses these two essential elements. If you've ever frozen when it came time to present your ideas or struggled to effectively communicate your vision, this upcoming offering is designed for you. Remember: strategy is the map, presence is the vehicle – and you need both to reach your destination. Subscribe now or join my email list to be first to hear the details!

Speaker 1:

Hello everyone. It's Victoria here and welcome back to another episode of Business Built with Strategy. So I know it's been a couple of weeks since I put out an episode and you know what. Being really honest, there is a reason and there was a couple of reasons. I did have a few tech problems, and that is why it is so important to have really good systems in your business, but above that, the main reason was well, in all honesty, I've been struggling a little bit.

Speaker 1:

As a lot of you know, I lost my dad not long ago and I have spoken about that on here, and he was not only my lovely dad, and you know, we lost him age 66, very, very sudden. You know one here one minute. He was here hero, my business mentor. He was the person that I would go to in business. I think we all have that person, whether it's a mentor, whether it's a strategist. We all normally have someone, or hopefully we have someone, and for me it was him, because he was such well, he was just such an amazing entrepreneur.

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But I'm back and I've got something really exciting that I'm going to talk to you about this week and it's something that actually I've been working on in the background. I've been working on in the background. So why is strategy on its own not enough? Now, this isn't spoken about all the time and I very rarely see it on social media. It's all very much. You need a strategy, you need this, you need that and, of course, let's just, you know, lay it on the line. The line you do need a strategy. I've got something coming soon that brings both strategy and presence together. But you know, let's get into why that actually matters now. Without a strategy, you are absolutely winging it. It's like scattered actions. There's no clear outcome. And if you have a strategy which I'm hoping you have strategy gives directions, it gives the map, the milestones and the numbers. Now, I cannot tell you how many people I speak to and I say to them okay, what are your numbers? And they just look at me quite blankly and they're very much of the mindset well, no, I've created this and I've created that, which is fantastic. But you need to know your numbers right at the beginning, because they are part of your foundation and a really important part as well, and the common mistakes that entrepreneurs really do make when they think that they have a strategy is mistaking to-do lists for a strategy, staking to-do lists for a strategy. You know how many times have I seen someone come to me and they'll say, right, okay, I've mapped out my strategy. And when I look at it, I'm like no, you haven't. You've mapped out a to-do list. A strategy actually tells you a story with goals. Tells you a story with goals.

Speaker 1:

Copying other people's moves without context. Well, with or without context, I mean you really shouldn't be copying other people's moves. And this is why a lot of us go through social media and we see other people and I don't know about you, but I sometimes scroll through and I'm like everyone's the same, everyone is absolutely. They're like a carbon copy. And it's crazy, and it really is, because someone's you know come along, or a lot of people have come along and thought, oh, that person you know, I want to be them, or I want to look like them in the fact of their business, their branding, and the thing is they're never going to be them because they're building their foundations on someone else's. You're forgetting your superpower is actually you, because there is no one like you. You know you might be selling the same as someone else else, but you're always going to do it differently, always.

Speaker 1:

And the other mistake is changing direction too often because the reason people do it there's no clear plan. They will go out there with their idea, they're so excited about it and then they're like, oh, it's not working, I'm going to change it. But the only reason that they're changing it's because they have no strategy to go back to and go well, hang on a minute, have I hit that goal? Where have I got to be? What are the steps that I'm taking to get to where I want to be? That there's nothing there. There's just absolutely nothing. There's no foundation, there's nothing. And that is why a lot of people just think, oh, it's not working, I'll just change what I'm doing. But actually that is not the answer.

Speaker 1:

A real strategy is simple, it's clear, it's definitely executable, but also it's not supposed to be overwhelming. You could be given the most amazing strategy you know, a world-winning strategy, if there ever is one. But if you find that overwhelming and you you don't want to look at it, because you'll be like, yeah, I've got to work from the strategy and but I don't want to look at it, well, that's no good, is it? So whatever strategy that you have for your business, it will have the same steps, because the steps that you follow in business are relatively the same. But it can also be written in a way that it's not overwhelming for you and also it has to be tailored as well. That's really important.

Speaker 1:

And strategy is the what, but most people forget the how. So they know what they're doing, but actually, when it comes to it, they don't know how to do it. You can have the best plan in the world, but if you cannot communicate it, sell it or deliver it with confidence, it actually falls flat, completely flat. And you know, through the years that I have been in business, I've learned that business isn't just about building, it's actually selling. Now you're probably listening to that and you're probably thinking well, that's obvious, because obviously you're selling something, but a lot of people forget and they get so intertwined in the building and the building and the building that actually you've got to sell something as well or you're just a builder. Effectively, every time you open your mouth, you don't realise. But actually you're networking, you're pitching, you're creating content, even explaining what you do to a friend, what you do to a friend.

Speaker 1:

The real question that is can you sell in every room, the coffee shop conversation, when you're talking to friends, effectively you're networking, because maybe they might know someone who wants what you're selling. Maybe they do a networking event, a Zoom call on stage. How would you feel if I said to you okay, you have the opportunity tomorrow to go on stage in front of 3,000 people and you're going to have this opportunity to sell with confidence, whatever you're selling at the moment. How would that actually make you feel? So I marry strategy with presence, because it's a game changer and it's missed off a lot. One without the other is just wasted effort. So if you have a strategy without presence, that's effectively a plan that just, I don't know, collects dust. Presence without strategy, that's confidence, but with no direction, because you don't know where you're going.

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Together, strategy and presence together you don't just have a business. You can move people with it. You can actually move people with it.

Speaker 1:

And you know, as I've said, I've had certain people come to me throughout the years and and they we've worked on their strategy, okay. Or they've come to me with a strategy and they're like right, okay, so now I've got a strategy, what do I do now? And of course, that strategy, as much as it is amazing, it will fall apart if you can't communicate it. And that is what I teach. I give you the amazing strategy, the tailored strategy that you need, but I also teach you how to communicate it, because what are you going to do if you can't communicate it? You're going to be pretty stuck, to be pretty stuck.

Speaker 1:

So, with what I've been working on, something that fuses strategy with presence, it's not just about giving you the plan. It's about making sure you can step up and deliver it in any room, and I'm going to be sharing more on it soon. But if you've ever felt like you've got the ideas and the plan or maybe you haven't got the plan, maybe you've got neither, but then you freeze when actually it's time to come and put something out there then this is going to be for you. I am so excited to bring you this. So strategy is the map, presence is the vehicle. Don't try to build a business without both.

Speaker 1:

So if you've liked today's episode, or if it's helped you or helped someone else, follow, subscribe, then you will never, ever miss an announcement. Or pop on over, join my email list, because I have an amazing freebie that is going to be going out really, really soon. Stick with me, because I'm really excited about what I have coming. I'm really excited about what I have coming. Have a fantastic week. My DMs are always open. If you have any questions, just DM me. All the details are in the show notes. Have a great week, everyone, take care.