Hey :) 

This is a letter I sent to my business partners after a planning session we ran together.

I could have shared this in a meeting, but this is how I tend to think things through — in writing. I find it gives people space to read, reflect, come back to it, and form their own view before we talk it through together. It also gives me the chance to think through my ideas properly before deciding to share them. 

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Hey Y’all :) 

We went to Dallas in November 2025.

Part of that trip was about spending proper time together as owners and founders. Getting out of the day-to-day. Running a planning session for the business, for the first time. Asking some bigger questions than we usually have the space for.

One of the big challenges we set ourselves was to think bigger about our goals. To push past what felt sensible. To try and think 10x.

At the time, I think we all felt good about what we came up with.

The goals felt a bit daunting. A bit uncomfortable. But also exciting. There was a shared sense that this business could really be something. Something bigger than any of us had done before. A genuine next level.

That, in itself, felt like a win.

We spent time together.
We talked about what the business could become.
We got some goals down on paper that gave us something to aim at.

And all of that really matters.

But a few weeks later, something started to bother me.

Not because the goals were wrong — but because I could see how fragile they were.

Goals aren’t static. They shouldn’t be. There’s a constant loop between:

Those things are always influencing each other. And if the goals don’t move as the business reveals new information, they stop being useful.

One of the oversights — and I don’t mean this critically — was that our goals were still largely based on doing more of what we were already doing.

They were anchored to today.

What I realised, not long after, is that we’re probably capable of more in the same timeframe than we allowed ourselves to consider.

And that brings me to the bigger miss.

The goals came together quickly. Almost too quickly.

Looking back, that should have been a red flag.

Because here’s the thing I’ve been learning through doing more work on strategy and planning:

A goal is not a plan.
A vision is not a strategy.

And what we didn’t do — the work we must get better at — is strategy.

For me, strategy is simple (but not easy).

It’s a plan to solve a problem.

So if we say, “How might we hit £XXm in revenue by the end of 2026,” the next question isn’t what should we do?

It’s: What’s going to make this difficult?

We didn’t really ask that.

We didn’t list the problems that would need to be solved for that goal to be a reality.

We didn’t generate ideas for solving those problems.
We didn’t prioritise those ideas.
We didn’t turn them into focused projects with clear ownership.

What we mostly did instead was pick jobs.

Some of them are probably important.
Some of them might not be.
And without that middle layer of thinking, it’s hard to know.

What we need to get much better at is this sequence:

That’s what sets the direction for a sprint, a quarter, or a year.

It gives us permission to say no.
It creates more alignment between us.
It sharpens our focus.

As we head into our planning session in February, this is the work we need to do.

We’ll check the goals. Challenge them. Update them if needed.
Then we’ll get brutally honest about what’s hard and the problems we need to solve.
And we’ll decide, together, what the business actually needs us to work on right now.

What’s changed most for me is how I now see the business, day-to-day.

I don’t see a vision board.
I don’t see a list of initiatives.

I see a long list of (exciting) problems that need to be solved.

And that feels healthy.

The real challenge is sequencing:

Which problems first?
Which ones later?
Which ones not at all?

Why is this so important? Because one of the biggest advantages we have is us.

The four of us together is a cornered resource.

The more time we spend together, doing the work only we can do, in our respective strengths, focused on the right problems at the right time — the more value we create.

For the business.
For our clients.
And, ultimately, beyond that too.

🗣️ 👀

Chris.