Episode 120: Strategic Thinking: The Key to Growth, Scaling, and Success

In this episode, we dive deep into the power of strategic thinking and why it’s essential for business growth and scaling. We’ve all heard the joke—entrepreneurs quit their 40-hour-a-week jobs to work 40-hour days—but just putting in more time doesn’t guarantee success. Instead, being intentional and strategic with our efforts helps us maximize resources, eliminate wasted effort, and build resilience.

We talk about how strategy isn’t just about taking the next step—it’s about seeing the big picture, preparing for challenges, and creating a clear roadmap for success. Whether you’re running a business, leading a team, or just trying to get ahead, having a solid strategy is what sets high achievers apart.

Tune in as we share our own experiences, insights, and practical takeaways to help you move beyond daily tasks and start making strategic decisions that drive real results. And don’t forget—strategy without action won’t get you anywhere!

👉 Let us know how you’re being more intentional and strategic in your business! Drop us a message, share this episode with someone who needs it, and don’t forget to subscribe or follow on your favorite platform.

Until next time—get after it! 🚀

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Read the full transcript of this episode below:

 

Lynn Howard

Hey, I’m Lynn

Amanda Furgiuele

And I’m Amanda. Welcome to the Pursuit of Badasserie, the podcast. Today we’re talking strategy, what is strategic thinking and how can we be more strategic in in our processes as well.

entrepreneurs. Let’s get after it.

Lynn Howard

Yes. Essentially, being strategic is being intentional with an end in mind or of a point in the future in mind.

So overall, that’s the simplified version of being strategic. Yeah, would you add something to that? I mean, I know I could make add more words to it, but.

Amanda Furgiuele

Well, I mean, I think that’s the gist of it. Trying to look ahead, think ahead, plan ahead, or, you know, foresee the future.

like, you’ve got to kind of think about all the options that you have, particularly in the business and entrepreneurship world.

There’s so many things that can happen and make us in every aspect of life, there’s things that could happen.

And when you’re in a leadership role within the business sphere, I think it’s really important that you do embrace strategy as one of the most important things that you can do.

Lynn Howard

it was an entrepreneur. Absolutely. Yeah, it’s funny. This week, I’ve been going down this route whole again with a couple of different people about how they always start a bunch of projects, right?

So they’re starting all of these projects, but they’re not really finishing them. And we were kind of doing, I was actually doing an analysis with a couple of them.

Like, why is that? Some of this behavioral style. But a lot of it actually was because they didn’t have strategic thinking in place.

Like they didn’t think and coupled with critical thinking. I think like a couple of them actually lacked a little bit of the critical thinking fiber where it couldn’t they couldn’t see the big picture, right?

They just they were excited about this one thing. They didn’t see how this played into the rest of their their life, their their businesses.

is their family, all of these other aspects that are part of who they are and what they represent. And so one of the first things that you going back to why we’re here is one of the first things that we feel like you need to do is really look at the big picture, look at that end result, the long-term goals and that could be in many different things.

It’s also a little bit of the fiber of the why are you doing this. You don’t have to go as deep as the what you why.

Although that will help, but really understanding what that that long-term goal is.

Amanda Furgiuele

Absolutely. think setting clear goals is pretty much the start of it for a lot of, well for me, lot of times because you’re really defining what success looks like for you in that moment.

In that moment in time, what is it that you’re striving for? And what are your ultimate objectives? What are you trying to achieve?

Because if you are on a wishy-washy path where you don’t have any goals in mind, how do you know that you’ve reached your destination?

And how do you know if you’re even on the right path if you don’t have anything laid out in front of you?

so for both the short-term and long-term, I think it really helps to clarify, to make sure those goals do align with all your strategic decisions.

You can’t just throw things out there and hope that everything is going to stick. this isn’t, we’re not cooking with my anona here, like we’re not throwing spaghetti on the wall.

want to make sure that things are strategically in place and that we have really specified goals because, you know, for everyone who’s heard of the SMART goal terminology, and I don’t remember the first time I heard about SMART goals, but setting those attainable specific measurable goals does make a difference.

I mean, it’s like saying, oh, I’m going to be richer next year. Okay, great. What is richer, richer emotionally, richer spiritually, $10 richer, $100,000.

Oh, Richard, what does that mean? Because if you just throw these crazy goals out there with no specificity, then how are you going to be able to reach them?

How are you going to be able to set strategies behind them? How are you going to be able to quantify and qualify whether or not you’ve reached them?

Lynn Howard

Yeah, I think coupled with goals, he said something in there that I wanted to. It’s not just about the goals about you aligning with your goals, but it’s also about the goals aligning with where you’re going.

so also understanding what your big vision is, because that’s not goals. Your big vision is it’s a feeling. I mean, there are some tangibles that can be in there, but I think that that’s really important.

I mean, we’ve been listening to our podcast, you know, and I love goals. And there’s definitely kind of a rundown of what a strategic goal is.

um definitely uh when you are looking at being strategic with anything it’s it’s kind of reverse engineering right I we love reverse engineering so understanding starting with the end in mind so that way you can look at like Amanda said all the different obstacles milestones um the thing how matrix which is a great tool a great asset but absolutely understanding what needs to come first what um give you big big results for little effort sometimes um but prioritization is huge in in the strategic thinking realm absolutely I will speak to time blue in the face about prioritization but I also think it’s about agility and flexibility because you know there’s

Amanda Furgiuele

one way to eat a Reese’s. There’s more than one way to get to Bangkok. Like, there’s more than one way to do something.

And so if you’re able to stay flexible and sort of prioritize what needs to be done, but also be flexible in how you get it done, because things, life is life-ing.

Life is life-ing hard right now. And you have to be able to shift and re-prioritize and remain agile, remain flexible in how you are prioritizing your day and how you’re prioritizing your goals, how you’re prioritizing those benchmarkers that lead up.

You know, Lynn talking about reverse engineering, which we are huge fans of. And sometimes you have this beautiful reverse engineered plan and then it’s the fan and you can’t do it the way you thought you were going to do it.

It’s not going to work that way for whatever reason, life is life-ing. And I think staying agile, staying flexible, really understanding your priorities is going to be is huge when it comes to your strategic decision making, because ultimately,

If you get derailed every time something goes wrong, you’re never going to get where you’re trying to go, because something is always going to go wrong.

I know that’s very pessimistic. yay, that’s my job to point that out. But there’s no such thing as an entrepreneurial journey that is meeting your absolute potential, that is smooth sailing the entire time.

Comsees do not a smooth sailor make. So in the entrepreneurial world, you have to know that there’s going to be unpredictable, crazy things that happen, and your ability to pivot, to re-strategize, rethink, to remain flexible, and to re-prioritize is going to be crucial when you’re trying to think of the decision-making process.

Lynn Howard

Yeah, I love that you are a vigilante. The resilience muscle that all of us should be building. We don’t have to wait for something to happen.

We can build that muscle before we meet in. Resilience. thinking and agile thinking absolutely place apart in strategic thinking as well.

Another thing is being proactive and not reactive. Strategy is more about the proactive thought, that proactive action, that proactive even response versus reacting.

proactive can be in the anticipation of like Amanda was kind of speaking about, but it’s also in the action.

So that proactive is super important when you are in the strategic thinking realm and being strategic period for goals or in thinking or in anything, but you’re looking at how can I be proactive?

How can I be ahead of the ball? How can I be in response mode versus reactive mode? And in that kind of bubble,

also learning boundaries to avoid being sucked into something that doesn’t concern you or that isn’t in alignment with the direction that you’re going at the moment and it’s not necessary for you to participate in that.

So having those boundaries are super important in this and strategic thinking.

Amanda Furgiuele

Yes absolutely boundaries but I also want to go back to your talking about reactive versus proactive and it was I’m chuckling over here because just yesterday I had a conversation with a client who was so excited that they were finally being proactive and strategizing around a networking event and I just I chuckled and you know I love you you’ve been a client of mine for years and just signing up for the networking event is not really proactive because her whole strategy was like I’m going to I’m going to go to the networking and

And to get this is from it, but like no strategy around talking to people, taking this is cards, taking follow-up calls, doing one-on-ones, reaching out.

She’s like, if I just show up, then people are going to book me. no, no, no, that’s like, she was being proactive in planning something, but reactive in how she was planning on receiving information, receiving the passive.

Lynn Howard

but not even reactive.

Amanda Furgiuele

She was being passive. Yes. But she was like, oh, well, I’ll just hand out my business card. And like, then I’ll, I’m like, no, no.

So I really think about the actions that you do that you think are strategic, which, yeah, going to an network event is strategic in and of itself.

If you have a plan and a strategy, again, it’s strategic, but you need a strategy. Just going to those things starts putting you into a hamster wheel.

So just doing things to do the things that people tell you are strategic isn’t being strategic. So. I know like just going to the event doesn’t mean you have a strategy behind it.

So really think about when you put these efforts in, and we’ve talked about this in 100th episode, just talking about getting yourself out there and doing the things that actually make a difference and moving yourself forward.

So when it comes to strategic thinking, and we did an episode on entrepreneurial mindset too, which is a great one to go back to as well, but that strategy does take some planning and some thinking.

It’s not passive, it’s not reactive. And as you said, there are gonna be boundaries that you need to set up.

And when it comes to a strategic plan, don’t forget the actual strategy. can’t just say that as a buzzword.

You’re like, oh, everything I do is strategic because I put it on my calendar. It’s not strategy if you don’t think about it and how it’s gonna react, how it’s going to affect the rest of your plans and how you’re going to put yourself out there.

Go from there. We don’t want to be reactive. We want to be passive. I mean, sometimes you have to be you can’t Always be proactive.

It’ll be exhausting and You can if you’re thinking about strategic thinking you do have to put a little bit more plan into it Then just hoping that if you build it they will come Well, yeah, I think that goes back to what we originally said like that big picture like where does it fit?

Lynn Howard

Where’s that fit in the whole of what you’re doing? If your end result is to make it to a networking event, then maybe there was some strategy behind it But at the end of the day, you’re right a lot of people use it for buzzwords and don’t look at it from Really truly what it means because it is big picture.

It is looking at all the different moving pieces and making decisions To absolutely get you there in the manner in which you want or need to get there because sometimes it’s not the fastest

way. it’s the most daunting way I feel like, but that still could be your strategy, right? So it’s not the same, but when you are looking at a strategy thinking, you also need to look about, look around at the people.

And are you building a strategic network? Because we are the company that we keep. If you’re not, if you are in a group of people that don’t understand big picture thinking, that are stuck in mud with their own stuff, that can’t get out of their own way, that don’t understand the journey, et cetera, et cetera, then it makes it harder for you to have strategy and be a strategic thinker, because it rubs off, at the end of the day.

It rubs off, so building a strategic network, and this could be in a new group of people, like I love to say, love them from afar, or it could be finding a mentor or a peer or advisor who can challenge you, push your buttons in a way that is going to push you to grow.

everybody I know needs needs that push figuratively and literally differently, but so like they’re not your yes people, they’re not just allowing you to go through the motions, they’re pushing you to be more strategic, or if this is like a whole new crew of people building a network around you that also has the strategic thinking as a fiber that they’re doing, that they’re actively in, is going to help you stay in that mindset, stay in that that vision and that

Amanda Furgiuele

movement a lot easier than if you’re not. 100%. All those collaborations can really open new opportunities, not just like physical opportunities that you’re able to seek out, but also just in the opportunities that you present themselves internally.

Because if you’re surrounding yourself with people who are growth and abundance mindset, you’re going to see opportunities and resources for that growth that you’re looking for, even if it’s something that you’re making up yourself.

mean, there’s so many, I could think of hundreds of occasions in my own life where I had been in rooms with people who constantly told me I couldn’t do it or that this wasn’t something that was done or that this isn’t the way it is.

And I had to push back till I had no people in my room because you can’t sit surrounded by people who are constantly telling you that it’s not going to work and expect it to work.

So building those strong relationships and cultivating these partnerships and these networks and these. elaborations that will push you forward again, even if it’s not a physical thing, like they’re not necessarily giving you a new job or giving you a client, like maybe they’re just in the room that you always want to and maybe their Tuesday is the way you want every day to be for you.

So getting yourself in those rooms where you feel like you’re not being laughed at or looked down upon for having the dreams that you have, for having the goals that you have, for having the strategies that you want to put in place.

I mean, maybe that’s a little bit small thinking, I don’t know where some, I don’t know where all of you are hanging out, but I see it in a lot of my entrepreneurs or young aspiring business owners or even new to business, maybe within the first like two years where they’re suddenly outgrowing their circle because people like to see change is scary.

And even for other people around you change can be just scary to see you grow beyond them is scary and so they don’t want push you down and it’s not necessarily even intentional but building those relationships from a business and personal perspective is so important when you are looking to grow and strategize as an entrepreneur.

Lynn Howard

Yeah, I agree. I think though also with the groups is if people fear change in the unknown and also with that and this is not to make any excuse for them because it it but it is what it is also we grow at different speeds at different amounts right and so sometimes the people even if they’re not holding us back they’re not being strategic enough being strategic is a choice so I think some people it comes like intuitively for them but it’s still a choice.

it’s still a choice for you to be strategic. again, you are the company you keep. So if you’re around people who aren’t being that way for by choice or by lifetime, maybe you need to change that up.

Another thing that we kind of touch on but didn’t really make as a point is analytical thinking. I think that that’s really important because we do need to be questioning.

We do need to be evaluating. We need to look at the big picture and what’s going on today because sometimes, we just had an election in the US, which the whole world, I’m sure knows.

And one can affect our long-term vision like that where something small can affect our long-term vision and goals that we’re trying to make.

So it’s really important to have an analytical mind critical thinking mind to evaluate Um, and just kind of maybe, maybe you have to adjust or like a man who was speaking earlier with that agility, um, to kind of change paths or put that on hold for right now because it’s better to put that on hold until you can get back to it again.

Um, that’s because of saving time or energy or money or whatnot. The ability to be able to assess, review, evaluate, and then put into place, uh, something new.

There, you know, there’s many ways to get to the end result. It doesn’t have to be. It’s not just one pathway.

And so sometimes we have to get on the back road in order to get there or sometimes we have to park it in a parking lot, uh, because it’s a smart thing to do to let things cool down.

for strategic thinking as well.

Amanda Furgiuele

Absolutely, it’s a lot risk management. mean, you’re trying to identify these potential risks that are associated with your strategies, your goals, with your plans and contingency plans and being prepared for those setbacks.

I’m not saying to wallow in the setbacks, but be prepared to continue to momentum. We don’t want to be stuck in a place where because one thing happened, we don’t have the resilience, like you said, to continue that full momentum towards our major goal, towards our ultimate objective.

Because being strategic is about that big picture, is about that ultimate objective. not just the small goal, we said it’s the big ones as well.

you’ve got to be, the critical thinking is, I mean, obviously it’s critical because it’s called critical thinking is critical.

that risk management that you do with critical thinking is going to make a break whether not you’re actually achieving that ultimate goal that you have in mind.

Lynn Howard

Yeah, I love that you brought that up. The one point I do want to make is that it doesn’t have to be also in response of, I think analytical thinking and critical thinking can be looking in the future of all the different potentials and possibilities.

So I love that you brought up, of course you did the risk management side and like the response side to things.

But also with strategic thinking, remember, it is being proactive, like looking into the future of all the things as well, because both sides are super important.

You don’t have to wait for something to happen for you to have, utilize it analytical thinking that critical thinking.

And you know, when you’re talking to, I think also adding in like the being creative, you know, there’s not one solution fits all.

There’s many possibilities to get from point A to point B and I believe with strategic thinking It’s really important to dive back into that the possibilities of potential, the creativeness of it.

I think that that kind of goes underneath this umbrella with the analytical or the critical thinking, but to make sure that you’re infusing that creativeness into it, because otherwise things can get stagnant, it can get dull.

When you’re being strategic thinking, you can miss opportunity because you have blinders on, you’re only looking one way, and not, again, in response of something, canceling that into, canceling that into, putting that into your calendar to look at it through creative eyes, through potential or possibility eyes to see, because you might uncover something versus when you’re in a reactive or responsive mode after the cause and effect.

just keep it in mind as well.

Amanda Furgiuele

And you also said one thing you touched on it, I want to just throw it in your faces, so to speak, monitoring and measuring an actual analytic, like established metrics.

What are your KPIs? What is telling you that it’s effective and strategic? What benchmarkers are you setting up and what are the analytics behind them?

Because I think a lot of times, and it blows me away sometimes, like you ask, okay, so how did this perform?

What’s the percentage of this? What’s, how many new people did you have? And just crickets, no idea of any of the analytics, whether or not their marketing is working, whether that they’re advertising and working, whether or not the strategies they put in place actually have working metrics.

So please, please put something in place that you can actually monitor, whether it’s, maybe it’s just something as simple as how many email subscribers do you have?

if you had the indicator, your goal was to throw out a lead magnet. Well, how many… email, subscribe so you get how many people hit that landing page that you created, what do you have any numbers at all because that’s going to help you strategize moving forward, it’s not just what you have right now, it’s what you have for the future, so you have to think ahead.

And sometimes you need numbers to do that.

Lynn Howard

Yes, yes, yes. Another thing that we did not speak on that I think is important, and this is I would say maybe a mindset thing but just an understanding that decision, like I think really high level strategic thinkers understand that decision making has trade offs right so when you choose one, you’re saying no to another and what the ripple effect is of both so I think those who can really put themselves on a strategic thinking mind can look at both both of those scenarios or multiple scenarios at one, and they understand and this goes back to your risk management they understand that

I’ll give you a great example. When we are in a launch of one of our programs, I’m not going to certain things.

I’m actually more at home because and I’m not having, we’ll say, know, as much as what would be on my normal schedule, like extracurricular stuff, because I’m hyper focused in on making that happen, right?

And I can tell when I’m not hyper focused in on a launch, and I’m doing other things that we don’t have as great of a success rate.

So it’s a trade off, it’s a trade off. And do you want that to help you towards your goals and your vision or whatever you’re trying to do, or are you more in the now, right?

I think that that kind of goes again to the original thing that we said, what strategic thinking is, thinking big picture in all the different parts and modules that are, you

being proactive and um looking at everything that comes into play right so the cause and the effect and so understanding really really i think great strategic thinkers understands the decision making has a trade-off uh cause and effect and they’re okay with that sometimes you got to stay at home sometimes you’re out there hustling whatever it is i’m so glad you brought that up because if one more person tells me that entrepreneurship is so easy go you just do this and so and so did it and in 27 days i actually had a client who came to me and said how long did it take you to hit your first six figures and i’m like with which business like it’s not it’s not like you just wake up tomorrow like oh well so and so on the internet did it in six weeks i’m like that’s crazy talk it’s great i mean but those are the exception not the rule and you’re going to have to make those sacrifices you’re going to have to look at the big picture strategy because some

Amanda Furgiuele

time. Yes. Wonderful. I’m so proud of all the people who overnight success but I’m telling you those overnight successes very rarely actually happened overnight and they don’t have growing power, staying power, scalability.

They’re just, you know, they’re huck to a girl like it’s one and done and then you don’t even properly strategize that and then anyway, I could go on and on and and on about that and it’s more than being strategic, there is going to be give and take, there is going to be stuff you have to give up, there is going to be stuff that you have to choose which path is the one that’s going to be right for you at the time you’re there.

There’s more than one way to do everything, despite what the younger me would have said, because I absolutely, it me a long time to learn that there’s more than one way to do something.

It’s not always my way, my way or the highway, it’s not really a thing. So there’s more than one way to do things which means you’re going to have

let go of some of the things that aren’t options and you’re going to have to let go of things that you’re that may not line with where you’re ultimately trying to go and sometimes it’s not going to be as fast as you want it to be.

Sorry, it isn’t. We’re not here. You don’t listen to our podcast here. Blow sunshine after butt. Sometimes it’s not going to be as fun as you want it to be.

That’s part of what sets entrepreneurs apart from everybody else. we’re easy, everybody would do it. There was a pill to be an entrepreneur.

Everybody would take it, but it’s not that way.

Lynn Howard

But you’re a select you and you know the joke is though that you quit your 40 hour a week to work 40 hour days right as an entrepreneur and those that are being strategic and now I want to say that just because you’re putting in more time doesn’t mean that you’re going to have that success.

But that joke. love that joke. So just to kind of bring it all. because I know we’re at time is why being strategic matters are several things.

First of all, it’s going to help you maximize any resources, time, effort, things like that. It will help you look at wasted effort.

So if you are analyzing and kind of reflecting, you’re going to see where you’re spinning your tires, where you’re wasting your effort, because you’re wanting to be strategic.

Strategic is intentional, proactive movement towards and something, right? And also strategic can help you build resilience because I think strategic is getting you to look at it from different angles.

It’s also looking at the cause and the effect. So you can prepare for challenges ahead because you’re looking at the whole and seeing what’s the best way to move forward versus just looking at the next step in front of you.

And I think that being strategic is about helping you have a clear road map. So I just wrote a post actually this week about like living in that unknown in that limbo of state.

And I think when you have your strategic thinking cap on, it gives you more and sometimes that roadmap is just basic, real basics, but so it gives you a bit more of a roadmap to move forward with.

Amanda Furgiuele

Right. Absolutely. You know, Lynn and I can talk strategy all day long. I think we probably have talked strategy to one another, an alarming amount, quite frankly, hours spent strategizing and hours spent saving where we could have been wasting efforts other places.

So when you’re really deep, I would encourage all of my leaders, business owners, to take some time to actually strategize around your business.

And what you’re doing, it’s not wasted time, just data and trying to think things up. It’s not waste of time.

It is essential. It is important for your business to see growth and scaling with that strategy. You’ve got to see big picture and you can’t do it if you just are stuck in the daily tasks every day, day in and day out doing the things to run the business.

You have to also be strategizing or you’re not going to get anywhere or at least nowhere close to where you could be if you really think about the strategy.

Lynn Howard

Yeah, how are you being more intentional with your movements and reactions and responses and being proactive with everything? Drop us a line, let us know what you’d like to add to this podcast.

Share it with those who you feel could use a little bit of maybe talk to you about strategic thinking.

might need a little bit more help or a different perspective but definitely once you’ve listened to this and some little thoughts occurred put into action like don’t let it sit.

Amanda Furgiuele

And speaking of putting in some action, make sure you are subscribing past you know to subscribe. It will help us out a lot.

So make sure you’re subscribing or following depending on where you are and which platform you’re on. We love to see those follows and subscribe.

Lynn Howard

Absolutely. Until next time.

Amanda Furgiuele

Get after it.