I had a great conversation with Jonathan Dune, a very successful copywriter that you probably never heard of.  He lives and works in San Diego, but his client base is in Japan.  

We talked today about the different between strategies and tactics in your business.  A tactic is like an arsenal.  It’s your products.  It’s your services.  It’s what you’ve got to sell.  A strategy is how you’re going to do it.  And a light bulb went off in my head - as much as I think strategically for my clients when it comes to taxes, I don’t do a great job of it with my business.  And, that is largely why I get off-focus.  If the focus isn’t clearly lined out, how is it clear from minute-to-minute if I’m on focus or not.

His suggestion was that Richard, David and I sit down for a few hours. (Well, let me stop there, he suggested we sit down for a day, but I think his daughter has long since grown and he’s forgotten what it’s like to have a teenager sit and do ANYTHING with parents for a day.)  Anyway, we need to think about our family and personal strategies for meeting our goals over the next year.  Then, all three of us, if David is still interested, sit down and come up with business strategies for all of our businesses over the next year.

My next meeting is with my business team to refine and expand specifically what we do.  We have so much information just laying around in the form of half finished books, audio and video footage that we probably have a dozen new products.  We just need to the framework for it all.

I’m energized by the realization that lack of focus (and doom & gloom on cable news) that has gotten me stuck.