In any strategic planning session, whether I’m working with someone one-on-one or facilitating a group, I like to start the session with one clarifying question: What is one true thing?
What is one true thing?
This question may sound overly simple, but that is its power. Simplification.
Our to do lists are inundated with “shoulds” and “have to’s” assigned to us from ourselves and from our well-meaning friends and family. And don’t even get me started on “advice” from internet gurus.
Boil Things Down, Stay Focused
Sometimes boiling things down to one core, simple truth helps us discard all the small – often non critical – items littering our mind. Simplicity keeps us focused on what matters.
The way the internet and content, and sometimes friends and family works today is to highlight your deficiencies. Families highlight your deficiencies because they care. Content hopes that amplifying your problem will make you realize that you NEED that person or course or solution to help you to stand out more, be more unique, be a better writer, be more confident, etc., etc.
But when you focus on one core truth, well true is true. You might not be the most “unique” person on the block, you may not stand out. But your conviction over your truth is your differentiator. You will remain confident in your truth, even when others don’t agree.
One Core Truth in a Group Setting
I especially love using the one true thing question in group strategic planning session. It is so clarifying for all participants. Many times teams, or specifically team leaders, come to a strategic planning session thinking they are all on the same page—let’s grow the business! In reality, many of the team members have a truth that reads more like, “I don’t mind growth but I cannot possibly take on one more thing.” These divergent mindsets puts the strategic planning very much at odds.
So with this question in place, it quickly becomes clear that everyone has very different perspectives and different agendas, and we have to start our planning by defining a common goal.
My One True Thing
I also love how the question simplifies business planning.
I am particularly scattered when it comes to focus. I’m always chasing new ideas and tweaking content and strategies to make them “better,” so I frequently need to remind myself to stop and simplify.
When I’m feeling in the weeds, I always come back to my one true thing, which is:
Creating more value is the key to business growth.
Pillars
Once you have set your one true thing, it’s time to explore how your truth connects to others, namely your audience.
Your next step is build guiding pillars, based on your one core truth. These pillars emphasize the relationships and interactions with your audience that will matter the most as you grow your business. These pillars help ground your one true thing in real-world conversations, making you and your business more relatable.
My pillars, for example, are
Pillar One: Making your clients more valuable, makes you more valuable.
Value, like branding, is hard to define. In fact, branding and value are synonymous. Once you’ve defined your value – how you’ll make others be more valuable – you’ll have the foundation of your brand, and the foundation of your uniqueness.
Pillar Two: Professionals thrive when they can confidently celebrate their own value.
Many entrepreneurs, especially Gen Xers, were raised with the belief that modesty is a virtue. This mindset often leads them to understate their value, expecting clients to “connect the dots” or recognize their good work on its own merits. In today’s attention economy – or what I like to call the “fear economy” – self-promotion is essential. Value must be stated AND demonstrated— not implied — so clients quickly and clearly understand exactly how they benefit from YOUR business. This means you need to stop talking about WHAT you do, and start focusing on HOW you create more value for clients.
The idea of value constantly evolves with time, and this fluidity can make it difficult to pinpoint. However value is always rooted in human perception and human relationships.
Pillar Three: New destinations need new maps. There is value in planning.
GPS’ help you travel to places; that includes business growth. Remember, your GPS doesn’t tell you, “Don’t visit that attraction.” Rather, it gets you to the attraction faster, and it estimates the length of time the detour will add to your entire trip.
If you have all the time in the world, by all means, visit that local cafe and the world’s largest thermometer. If you need to put food on the table tonight, you’ll need to limit distractions. Creating a plan means defining what is critical and what is not.
Pillar Four: Planning does not kill creativity.
Value is a two-way street. Building a business isn’t just about creating value for your clients. It is about building a business that is valuable to YOU. Planning doesn’t say, “Let’s kill your creativity.” It says, “How can we turn present you into the most successful and most profitable version of future you?”
The takeaway: By defining my one core truth and four pillars, I have set myself up for a simple but strong business focus:
- Truth: Creating more value is the key to business growth.
- Pillar One: Value is fluid, be clear in how we define it.
- Pillar Two: Let’s confidently celebrate our value.
- Pillar Three: There is value in planning.
- Pillar Four: Planning does not kill creativity.
What is *Your* One True Thing?
Now it’s you turn. Define your one true thing. If you’re struggling, here are a few examples:
- Nursing / Home Care Coordinator: Many people admitted to hospitals are facing the worst time of their lives. These (as with all) patients deserve to be treated with care, and not just treated.
- Pillar: Home care gives patients a support system that focuses on patient needs and is not restricted by healthcare pros who are beholden to hospital and insurance priorities.
- Financial Planner: Families that are comfortable talking about money are better prepared to face life’s emergencies.
- Corollary: Some financial planners have given the industry a bad reputation, but there are many of us who do this work because we truly care about helping people build better, more secure financial futures.
- Tech Company: Technology should make lives easier, not more complicated.
- Corollary: While some tech pros aren’t great at explaining tech concepts clearly, we have hired “real humans” to help you understand the human benefits of using our software.
You can see how these core truths set a business foundation, while the pillars help make your company more relatable. Now, Instead of creating a business that is just a list of your product features, you have flipped the switch by explaining and demonstrating how you understand and address your customers needs.
Mini Strategic Plan
Now that you have your one core truth and your corollaries in place, let’s build a mini strategic plan for the coming week.
Step One: Identify Three People Who Could Benefit from Your Core Truth
Think of three specific people (or types of clients) who could might improve their business if they embraced this one core truth. Also ask yourself why they aren’t already doing what you know to be true.
- For a financial planner, that might be:
- Family service agencies that could use some educational resources; but don’t know about my programs.
- A library offering community programming; but didn’t realize I will do talks for free.
- For a tech company, it might include:
- Admins of large corporations, who might advocate for solutions once they understand them; but could use an easy cheat sheet to understand the value of my software.
- Small business fairs, where I can showcase my ability to simplify tech, so it gets used to improve and simplify lives.
Step Two: Write a “What I Wish People Knew” Statement
This is the foundation of your sales pitch. The great part about creating this type of “wish list” is that doesn’t have to feel too salesy. If you know it is true, it feels less like sales, and more about helping. Sometimes it is helpful to write a couple versions of this statement, one that’s more direct, and one that’s a little softer.
- For a financial planner, a direct statement could be:
- I wish people knew…If you don’t have an estate plan, you are basically creating havoc for your children.
- A gentler approach might look like:
- I wish people knew… You make things so much easier for your loved ones with a clear estate plan in place.
- For the tech company, a direct statement might read:
- I wish (Steve) knew… You are constantly frustrated by how log follow-up emails take, but come on, dude, it’s 2025. Like, use some tech already.
- A softer alternative could be:
- I wish (Steve) knew… How much easier follow-ups could be if you utilized email integration to build simple outreach templates and automate calendar appointments.
Once you have your “I Wish People Knew” statement in place, use or find some real data to support your thesis and to enhance it’s impact. This supporting statement should ideally come from your own professional experience, such as a client testimonial or their reported results. If you lack personal examples, look for relevant statistics online.
For instance, I have testimonials that support my core truth, but I could also use a statistic like:
According to a McKinsey Report, companies that grow faster generate 40% more of their revenue from personalization than their slower-growing counterparts.
The great thing about creating an I Wish People Knew statement, is that it helps mitigate your fear. You are basing your statement on your known truth, and you are supporting the statement with real testimonials or real data.
While people may still ultimately decide this is not the right time for your solution, you have still made a strong case and you can worry less about fear or imposter syndrome when you reach out.
Step Three: Create a Fact Sheet or a One Sheet for Your Business or Service
Your next step is to develop a document or tool to support your “What I Wish People Knew” statement and the supporting data.
This could be a webpage or a PDF that provides “proof” and reinforces your credibility as an expert. Don’t spend too much time on this. Create it fast and quickly move on to the outreach phase.
Step Four: Create and Track Signals (Optional)
In an ideal world, you should also develop a “signal” to see if people are responding to your supporting document.
My favorite “easy” way is to create a signal is to use a tool like HubSpot, which tracks opens in clicks across all your emails.
If you’re super ambitious, you could create a lead magnet and/or set up a full sales funnel to start collecting emails.
But don’t let building a lead magnet interfere with you actually doing the outreach. At this point, your goal is to start connecting and starting testing your outreach messaging to see if/how people respond
Step Five: Schedule Time for Outreach
Schedule time every day for proactive client outreach. The goal here isn’t so much to drive new business – although that is nice too – but it is more about establishing an outreach routine. An outreach plan.
Idea One: If you are using HubSpot, or a similar tool, you can set up templates and start automating your messaging, to make outreach fairly quick. (For the BEST results, I always recommend you add a personal note or message to every person you contact, even if you don’t know them personally.
Idea Two: Early in your growth and outreach strategy, you want to establish good habits. Set up systems and templates, test your messaging, and schedule and record all activity. Pay attention to responses to any signals you set up. If someone clicked a link in your initial email, you could follow up with them, even if they don’t respond to you directly.
Idea Three: Remember that no doesn’t mean never. No often means not right now. If people click or respond to your outreach, keep doors open so you can follow up at a later time.
Idea Four: Schedule all your tasks, including follow up notes, in your calendar. Make this a priority, schedule everything BEFORE all your other day-to-day tasks take over.
Idea Five: Finally, remember, the best way to become more valuable is to tell customers they are valuable. Do what you promise and follow up when you say you will.
Final Note
It’s perfectly normal for your one true thing to evolve over time. Entrepreneurship is a journey of self-discovery, and strategic planning is almost never linear.
The purpose of this mini-strategic plan is to start building some great habits that support your growth. The main goal here is to make new contacts, and to nurture new relationships.
Finally this mini strategic plan isn’t about success or failure, it’s about getting comfortable with taking new steps and gaining insights that contribute to your growth.
TL;DR / Mini-Strategic Plan Steps
- Identify One True Thing: Reflect on the core truth that defines your business mission.
- Develop Pillars: Outline supporting statements that emphasize how your truth connects your business with people and enhances relationships.
- Pinpoint Key Audience Targets: Identify three specific people or types of clients who could benefit from your core truth.
- Craft Your “What I Wish People Knew” Statement: Create an impactful statement, along with a supporting statistic or example to back it up.
- Create an Informational Resource: Create an info sheet, webpage, etc.) that showcases your expertise and invites engagement. Also, implement signals to assess the effectiveness of your efforts and adjust as necessary.
- Schedule Time: Block time in your calendar for outreach, follow-ups, and reflection.
- Reflect and Adapt: Regularly revisit your one true thing and corollaries, being open to their evolution as you grow and connect with others.
Test Your Message
Testing your message with strangers is a great way to get feedback as you grow your business. Is this uncomfortable? Yes! Will it help you be a better business person? Yes
If you’re not ready to test your sales pitch with people who might actually buy from you (aka and possibly get rejected), head on over to Gen X Junction, a community and test lab for Gen X entrepreneurs. I built this community specifically for growth-focused entrepreneurs to help them plan growth-focused business strategies.