[Journal] 10 July 26

Hey 🙂

You don’t really have a strategy until you know what you’re saying no to.

I’ve written about this a few times over the last year, but this week gave me the clearest example of it I’ve seen in a while, and I want to get it down while it’s fresh.

A few weeks back, the four of us — the owners of the business — took four days out to work on strategy together. I want to pause on that for a second, because I think it’s one of the most undervalued moves in business. People don’t take the time out with their leadership team to actually think about strategy, and because they don’t take the time, they don’t have a clear strategy. Four days felt like a lot when we blocked it out. It didn’t feel like a lot once we were in it.

What came out of those four days wasn’t just a plan for next month. It was clarity — on our niche, on which industries we serve, on which geographies, on who our ideal client actually is. And clarity like that doesn’t just sit in a dusty document. It shows up in real decisions almost immediately.

Here’s what happened this week that made it clear the strategy is working.

An opportunity came into the business — the kind of opportunity that, even a month ago, we’d have said yes to without much thought. In the past, we let other people dictate our path. This time, one of the owners turned it down. Wrong fit. Not our niche. Not the direction we’ve chosen.

That part alone would have been a good story. But then the prospect wrote back.

They pushed. Asked why. Tried, in a polite way, to talk us back into it. And that’s where it got interesting, because that’s the exact moment where most businesses cave — not by saying yes outright, but by saying no in a way that isn’t really a no. “I’m busy that day” — okay, what about another day? “I’m booked out this year” — fine, what about next year? Those aren’t declines. They’re delays. All you’ve done is defer the decision and let the tension resurface later, usually at a worse time.

So we had to do something we hadn’t really had to do before: sit down as owners and actually craft the message. Not a deflection. Not an excuse. The honest reason — this isn’t the kind of work we do anymore — said in a way that didn’t torch the relationship and, if anything, showed the prospect that we’ve actually got a strategy and a direction, even if it’s not one that includes them. That’s harder to write than it sounds. It’s much easier to be vague and nice than specific and kind.

And here’s the opportunity cost. If you play the tape forward on the alternative – say we’d said yes. Wrong client, wrong money, wrong location — whatever the mismatch is. You take it on, and somewhere in the first few weeks you start resenting it a little. Then, a few weeks later, the right opportunity shows up. The one you actually wanted. And you can’t take it, because you’re tied up doing the work you shouldn’t have said yes to in the first place.

That’s not hypothetical for us. That’s the last four weeks. We said yes to something we shouldn’t have, and it cost us the ability to say yes to something we should have.

That’s the real signal that you have a strategy — not the vision statement, not the values, but the fact that you’re saying no to things you’d have said yes to a year ago or just a ferw weeks ago…and you can explain why without flinching.

Something to sit with in your journal this week:

• When was the last time you said no to something you’d normally say yes to?
• What are you currently saying yes to that you already know should be a no?
• What’s the story you’re telling yourself about why you haven’t declined it yet?
• What’s it costing you? To miss out on what you want because you are saying yes to what you don’t want…

🗣️ 👀

Chris.