How To Play The Long-Game in a Short-Term World with Dorie Clark

The Mindful Marketer

You might think that the pandemic is the true cause of many of us focusing on short-term issues and being reactionary.

But I have news for you.

For the years I've been advising Chief Marketing Officers and CEOs, this problem has haunted them.

Too much short-term thinking can severely limit your career as well as your best-laid marketing strategies.

In this episode, I share the screen with Dorie Clark. She is a prolific entrepreneur, professor, standup comedienne, communications coach, and Author of The Long Game. Dorie is my role model for creating a lasting impact, and a good friend.

Dorie and I discuss the key requirements for cultivating strategic patience, and how to create a growth mindset. And here’s a secret we also share: we are both cat moms!

Click here for the replay.

Key points covered in this episode:

✔️ When you make ten year plans versus solely focusing on one year plans, you don't have to know how you're going to do it. If you have a vision, even if it seems bold and extreme, you just need to move a few things forward an inch every week. Just keep going.

✔️Keep thinking in waves. Dorie shares where many good, intelligent, and talented people go wrong in their careers: they keep doing the same thing. "That's the trick in careers…Sometimes you can't just keep doing the same thing. You have to make transitions and think in different waves appropriate at different times."

✔️ Focus on success, not perfection. Don't spend hundreds of hours making this perfect, amazing product or service before discovering if anybody wants it in the first place. "It's OK to test the little things to make sure people want the thing that you want to be providing them. When you have that data, it may not even be risky at all because you know with some degree of certainty whether something is going to work or not."

This tip hits home for me. I invested two months improving my production studio (with the help of digital stylist Bill Connolly and my partner, Michael Taylor). Then I started to livestream. Forty-three episodes later, I gained traction, credibility, and a powerful audience.

✔️ To avoid burnout, we need to learn to toggle between sprint and marathon modes. When in the testing, learning, and planting seeds phase, remember to alternate your pace, knowing when to hustle hard and to take a pause to rest and recuperate.

Click here for the replay.

Lisa Nirell of EnergizeGrowth™ LLC helps courageous marketers and CEOs accelerate growth and get promoted faster. She was recently inducted into the Marshall Goldsmith 100 Coaches Community. Her clients include Google, Hilton, AARP, LinkedIn, and Skillsoft. You’ll find her e-courses on LinkedIn Learning, Skillsoft, and Knowable.fyi.

Download your Mindful Marketer learning bonuses at themindfulmarketer.com/bonus. You will also join the “know ahead” list for our upcoming Life Streams.

Dorie Clark has been named one of the Top 50 business thinkers in the world by Thinkers50, and was recognized as the #1 Communication Coach in the world by the Marshall Goldsmith Leading Global Coaches Awards.

She also teaches executive education at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and Columbia Business School, and she is the author of The Long Game, Entrepreneurial You, Reinventing You, and Stand Out, which was named the #1 Leadership Book of the Year by Inc. magazine.

Clark has been described by the New York Times as an "expert at self-reinvention and helping others make changes in their lives." You can download her free Long Game strategic thinking self-assessment at dorieclark.com/thelonggame.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright 2021, Lisa Nirell. All rights reserved.