Dorie Clark is a Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Long Game and executive education faculty at Columbia Business School.

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Guest Resources

The Long Game – How to Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World. Get a copy of Dorie’s book.

Dorie’s Website – Get a free The Long Game Strategic Thinking Assessment, check out Dorie’s website.

3 Value Bombs

1) If too much of your revenues comes only from one source and that suddenly changes or become disruptive , it will be a real problem.

2) Make sure that there are multiple legs on your table so if you lose one leg, it will not be devastating to your business and build safety to your corporate model.

3) It takes courage to make choices that don’t feel valuable today but will be in the future.

Show Notes

**Click the time stamp to jump directly to that point in the episode.

Today’s Audio MASTERCLASS: Future Proofing Your Business.

[1:11] – Dorie shares something that she believes about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

We must be selective of who has the right to be parents especially when you are an entrepreneur. Parenthood should be saved only for the very very best.

[2:30] – Dorie talks about how to be resilient in these turbulent market.

Do a preventive audit of your revenue streams.
Getting too dependent on 1 or 2 clients is a big risk factor. If too much of your revenues comes only from one source and that suddenly changes or become disruptive , it will be a real problem.
Look at where your money is coming from and how diversified are your sources and if there are places that you put yourself at risk.

[3:39] – Dorie talks about her process of auditing revenue streams.

Look at how many clients you have and the percentage of your revenue. Look also at the type of things that you do and that you can diversify.
Make sure that there are multiple legs on your table so if you lose one leg, it will not be devastating to your business and build safety to your corporate model.

[5:04] – Dorie gives an example.

If you do a great thing for a client, they will give you more work. Her client did a business development it got her more clients and more security for herself.

[6:10] – Dorie talks about scenario planning.

Another way of future proofing is sitting down and planning for your future.
Scenario play began in 1970’sin the oil and gas industry and became big in the military looking at what are the different scenarios in the future. You can use AI for it.
Example, in 5 years, what will be like in the future that would cripple your business. You can come up with 3-5 scenarios and the goal is not to precisely predict things but to begin to identify possibilities including the ones that are outside the norm so that you can think of the next step and make that scenario less bad and be optimistic of the future.
Even if the scenarios are different, the steps you will take to protect your future often overlaps with each other and that can make you more resilient. For her, she thought of a scenario that they will cut the Keynote Speaking and the answer for her scenario is to do more online courses and communities and its really helpful to her.

[9:40] – A timeout to thank our sponsors!

NetSuite: Over 41,000 businesses have future-proofed their business with NetSuite, by Oracle – THE number one cloud E.R.P. Download the CFO’s Guide to AI and Machine Learning for free at NetSuite.com/fire!
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[12:11] – Dorie shares that finding strategic experimentation for career development is key.

Entrepreneurs have the desire to keep doing more of what’s working which is logical but only to a certain point. They need to step back and think what if it doesn’t work forever.
Its crucial to spend a portion of your time doing experiments to be ready to pivot for other possibilities.
In her book, she talked about Google’s famous 20% time where they encourage their staffers to spend 20% of their time to experimental things and this was how Gmail was created
People are busy and struggle to make time to experiment things but if they can give 10 minutes of their time, those small experiments of seeking out new information and contacts are the things that make you resilient and keep you prepared in the future.

[14:19] – Dorie shares some strategies for cultivating loyal, engaged followers that actually drive business sustainability.

Sustainability is the key . It’s the idea of how to create a business that is not so boom and bust.
You have to have a business that is sustainable and predictable so you can worry less. It comes down to cultivating loyal customers and followers and to do that you need to create communities.
Keep in contact with your customers over time through a newsletter or a podcast. This keeps a parasocial relationship.

[17:17] – Dorie talks about strategic focus.

Focus is important but a lot of entrepreneurs find it hard because they like ideas, people, new concepts and to play with things.
The key question is how to do a favour for our future selves because there are things we do in our life that can’t be pleasant in a moment but we will be grateful with in the future.
Taking time to build to build a network so when you come into a cross road , you will have people investing in your company.
The lens in strategic focus is looking at the things that our future self will be grateful to us for doing and what are the actions that we can do.

[19:49] – Dorie gives his key take away.

Ultimately when it comes to making smarter decisions about the future, becoming a long term thinker and preparing for the future is unknowable and we have to guess. What we need to do is to tap into our courage and character than strategy and tactics.
It takes courage to make choices that don’t feel valuable today but will be in the future.
It takes courage to recognize that we don’t know the future, we just take our best guess and put our chips on the table.

[21:03] – Call to action.

The Long Game – How to Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World. Get a copy of Dorie’s book.
Dorie’s Website – Get a free The Long Game Strategic Thinking Assessment, check out Dorie’s website.

[21:20] – Thank you to our Sponsors!

Mentorship: Email John@EOFire.com to set up a call!
NetSuite: Over 41,000 businesses have future-proofed their business with NetSuite, by Oracle – THE number one cloud E.R.P. Download the CFO’s Guide to AI and Machine Learning for free at NetSuite.com/fire!

Killer Resources!

1) The Common Path to Uncommon Success: JLD’s 1st traditionally published book! Over 3000 interviews with the world’s most successful Entrepreneurs compiled into a 17-step roadmap to financial freedom and fulfillment!

2) Free Podcast Course: Learn from JLD how to create and launch your podcast!

3) Podcasters’ Paradise: The #1 podcasting community in the world!