 All right, welcome back to Geeks are Sexy. I'm Jason Leduc. We've brought our entire panel back today to talk about balancing long term Versus short term thinking really what I want to get at is this is the idea of balancing your strategic thinking with your daily tactics But that wasn't a good keyword when I plugged it into Google to use to promote this video later on So today we're talking about balancing long term versus short term thinking and because I didn't do my short term thinking I do need to mention our sponsor 5amglobal one more time They can handle all your social media needs not just posting stuff for you creating post creating content They're gonna really help you figure out what are the right platforms to be on in my business Be on LinkedIn is great for me love doing stuff on Facebook, but it doesn't generate me a lot of business So I focus mainly my efforts on LinkedIn I'm sure you all have the same things that you do for your business. So welcome back everybody Ari Lee Jess We all know we need to have a strategy in a business or a nonprofit We also have to be able to focus on the details of the day-to-day and be able to shift and pivot and take care of things We do Jess how do you balance between those ideas and how do you how do you shift gears between? Thinking strategically thinking short term and and how to take action, right? So I'm a big big list person I had a million lists and I write everything down and then for me It's really about like figure like prioritizing what really needs to get done like today this week this month By the end of the year and then just kind of prioritizing things based off of that. Okay, that's kind of really how I That's how I do it. Okay. That was that was what we look You know when we were looking at a radar screen in the Air Force was always the the what's the what's the? What's the thing that's closest in and moving fastest at me, right? So so you kind of sort things by distance and the speed they're coming at you, right? Are you that how you do things or yeah? I mean you always want to have a plan and then you also want to know what? Kind of what time it is also in the year to you know, enroll those plans as well because you know People are busy during the summertime So you want to you know unveil things mostly in the fall and the spring time as well So I always keep that in mind. Yeah, I imagine you are on vacation and take care of the kids Yeah, I imagine in your business because just because it's all finance-based is really focused on the ends of quarters When taxes are due that kind of thing Yeah, end of the month quarterly taxes are huge and then after taxes are huge as well Because people know exactly who who's good and who's been bad with them Just like Santa Claus, right? So Lee, how about you? How do you how do you balance this idea of I've got to think about the long term I've got a thing strategically in about how to make moves that are gonna make us grow and meet our mission in the broad term But I've also got to get things done today Well, I think that when you have a business you start with a vision, right? You have your vision and you set your goals and But you also have to be flexible as a business owner and my position as VP marketing I it's you cannot be that rigid that you can't make changes because growing a business It's all about making adjustments and and being flexible Yeah, you got to go where the market takes you right if you may have a great product But it's not if it's not positioned the way the market's interested in it Or it doesn't do exactly just doesn't do the market needs it to do you got to make some changes So are you one of the most important things you consider on the long-term side in your long-term planning for your career? Or for helping out with your you know the business you work for yeah, so long-term plans We always discuss those with our clients especially you know the newer businesses because they come into the business with a lot of ideas and they want to execute everything out but we kind of you know Pull them back and say okay. Let's do a little by a little because you also don't want to run out of money That's a big thing So long-term plans. I think that we definitely want to know exactly where they're going and then personally I mean I just like Jess I like to write everything down and what I'm wanting to achieve and then also how you're going to achieve them and And then those go into even a little smaller list themselves on how to achieve those goals And just getting through those checklist basically a strategy to task right Same question just what do you what are you thinking about in the long term? What are the big one of the most important things you consider as you develop a long-term strategy for original cocktail club? So for us obviously like we want as many members as possible You know we have a number of members that we want to achieve by the end of the year It's a little different for us since we're a startup We don't really we're trying new things every day right so we're kind of just sticking everything against the wall And then seeing what sticks so or throwing everything gets well and see what sticks So I mean you know if we see that events are working really well for us and we're going to try and scale those So it's not really like a cookie cutter type thing We're just trying a bunch of stuff and whatever seems to be working then we're going to keep scaling on those things Like setting up a booth outside the aviators, right? Somebody had that great idea I don't know who it was Lee one of the big things you're considering at return worldwide. What are the what are the big factors you put into into setting up your strategy Again, you know we have a vision and we set our goal and right now our biggest key initiative is to bring awareness to the city of Las Vegas I do believe that we're a little bit behind, you know, California has already Ended their single-use plastic when it comes to straws New York has done the same and even the UK And but we haven't done that here in Vegas. So right now as a new Non-profit organization we want to make sure that we get the message across that people are educated and that we learn And teach everyone to stop using single-use plastic because as you can see from our conversation earlier It ends up, you know in the ocean and it hurts us, you know as far as our health is concerned So it's all about educating everyone but again Our biggest initiative the second biggest initiative is to to do we think Earth week in 2020. Okay, so that's going to be a big deal for us And as we go through 2019 we are building up to that. That's great I think it sounds like a big piece of this is not just getting the word up To the right audiences as well. So not just a not just splashing Facebook ads all over the place, but really having meaningful conversations with decision-makers It is I mean we're actually targeting a lot of the local business owners because it starts with them, right? A lot of a lot of businesses are really They're they're they're wasteful And so we have to start with them. Yeah, so strategic thinking I learned this when I was an instructor in the Air Force Teaching a strategy class to lieutenant colonels and colonels in the Air Force strategic thinking doesn't really come naturally to people It's really a learned skill. So Lee, how have you either? You know develop that skill on your own or how do you try to develop that on your team? How do you help your team start to take those steps to think big picture as opposed to Just focusing on today You have to know your goal. You know, you have to set a goal and you have to work every week every month every quarter towards that goal and To me, you know when it comes to to growing a business, you have to ride it on the wall People have to see it and you have to be reminded of it every day if you don't look at that goal You're going to forget you're going to get sidetracked And you're not going to hit that goal. So we look at on a monthly basis where we are as a company dollar-wise Where we will be in a quarter we look at all the prospects that we're talking to We look at, you know Where we need to be in second quarter third quarter And if you're not where you need to be halfway through the year then you got a lot of catching up to the third quarter Right, you don't want to give up on the goal, right? You don't you don't just say well, we didn't have a great second quarter Let's just dial it back for the year, right? Sure And I have to add to as a business owner, you know, you do have a strategy, but You can't be too rigid like I said to where you can't change plans halfway But you have to know that early enough because if you wait till the fourth quarter is too late, okay, right? So you have to be able to be flexible Same thing, Ari. How do you foster that on your team that idea of Thinking big picture thinking looking out for the best interest of the company and the goals as opposed to looking out for yourself Or what's important today? Yeah, and she made a she hit on some really good points about keeping your vision of your company right there in front of you and Going back to that and keep going back to that when you are looking at those long-term goals A lot of people start a company and then they kind of get sidetracked. I feel like And then I'm like well is that really in the yeah, it's really easy It's like any of the assam is that really forming towards your vision that going towards your vision really? So with those long-term goals again writing them down Making sure of that again. It goes back to your vision and knowing exactly when to execute them Do you have your long-term goals written down on a list? So and you've got a you've got a small team that you're working with yeah How are you getting your team to think big picture and not just on the things that they're good at or the things that they Wanted to you know, I think we know are you both kind of like nailed it on the head I mean, it's really all about like what are you trying to achieve? Making that really clear and then constantly evaluating like where am I spending my money? What's working? What's not working? Where do I need to cut things out? Where do I need to expand more on and then you know just really focusing on the stuff? That's working and skin trying to scale that as much as possible. Yeah, so I think the three themes I heard was know where you're headed is What you're doing today helping you where you're headed and if it's not cutting it out Yeah, that's kind of what I heard so so there's your advice on helping yourself and helping your team think Think a little more strategically. I mean, that's the kind of advice we want to give here is how do you get your team? Looking out for the best interest of your company. It's great. It's great that you're able to employ people It's great that they're working for you But to really have a great team you want everybody thinking about the best interest in the company or the nonprofit So so we're at the end of our time Thank you to our sponsor five and global ladies Please one more time tell our viewers how they can reach you and if you have an event or something you want them to show up to Awesome. Well, you can reach us at original cocktail club calm check us out We'd love for you to sign up and try us out. Okay, and you can reach us at reading for wide dot org We're also on Instagram and Facebook at rethink worldwide and for all you ladies on June 7th We're actually having a fundraiser at a Jazz nail salon in in Henderson, so 41% is gonna go towards the at the charity. Oh, there you go I don't get my nails done. I will certainly pass that on Some guys do I'll pass it on And you can reach us out at now CFO calm. All right. Well, again, thank you so much for being here Thank you for Hearing about your companies today and thank you for all this insight on helping people think strategically because I found it Is really one of the hardest things to do. It's a lot of business owners are really good at the thing They do but it's hard to think big picture when you have cut stuff coming at you every day So thank you for being here. Thank you for being here and watching as I see my good friend Steve Wood has tuned in at some point I hope he's still here watching Steve. I'm sorry. I didn't get a chance to to mention you before But thank you for watching. We'll be back next month on the fourth Thursday of the month You guys know I never look at my calendar before a week out So I don't know what day it is to tell you but come back in a month We'll see you here. This has been geeks are sexy. I'm Jason the Duke. We'll see you next month