Differentiating Between Strategy: 5 Ways to Avoid Being Strategic

Let’s face it. When you’re a thought leader, strategy is overrated. This isn’t chess. This is barely checkers. You don’t really need a strategy. You know where you going going (well, sort of). And you know how you’ll get there (kind of). After all, you’re really busy, and busy is good (right?). So since we all hate strategy, here’s 5 easy ways to avoid being strategic.

Be Reactive! Zig when everyone else zags. Pro-activity is so 2007. Just instinctively react to every inquiry you get. To everyone from India or Poland that emails you and wants to be your partner. To every event, like the left handed plumbers association of Kentucky’s annual gala that asks you to speak. To everyone’s cousin’s brother-in-law that sat next to a guy in a plane that knows a guy that works at or maybe it was near Google. That’s how you will achieve your objectives.

Planning is boring. And being focused and on target takes all of the excitement out of being successful.

Tweet A lot! Spend all of your time on Twitter. These days, Twitter is where decision makers go to find top quality thinkers. Tweet about everything you can think of: Your content, your dog, your food, your kid. You’re definitely the only person that’s had a less that a pleasant experience on American Airlines. Or has a unique opinion about Miami’s 97 degree weather. Avoid being insightful and don’t attempt to be interesting. Just keep tweeting.

Resilience and flexibility are for gymnasts! You’re not Mary Lou Retton. It’s ok to be stubborn! You are the expert, after all. Ignore new thinking. Don’t integrate any relevant business or social trends into your work. Your ideas are flawless! Timeless. Never adjust or modify them. Stick to direct mail or telemarketing because if worked back in the day, then by god it will work now.

Be everything to everyone! Being strategic preaches focus and precision. Every man, woman and child on the planet can so obviously benefit from your brilliance. Who cares if they can afford it or how they prefer their content? Your stuff is so life-altering that they’ll all figure out how to pay for it and how to master it.

Target Marketing is ridiculously limiting.  Do it ALL by yourself! Clearly you have all of the skills it takes to leverage your content. You know exactly how to create it, how to get it published, how to develop it into every possible modality. Don’t forget that you’re an awesome market researcher, a business developer, a social media expert, a magician, a contract negotiator, logistics ace, a four-star general, a blogger, a videographer, a publicist, an exterminator, an instructional designer, a web developer, a graphic designer, a geologist, and zoologist.  Keep all of your juicy profits by excluding other experts or those simpletons that spend all of their time just doing one thing. You are a jack of all trades and it’s better to know a little bit about everything than it is to pour your heart and soul into what you do best.