Strategy Is The New Creative Edge: why planning is the practical framework

We break down a practical framework to move from hustle to strategy, with five pillars, a weekly blueprint, and a 90-day plan creators can actually use. Along the way, we track market shifts, share Alex’s burnout-to-breakthrough story, and give you tools to measure what matters.

• why planning beats improvisation in a fast market
• five pillars: vision, audience, offers, go-to-market, operations
• audience research and trend mapping for 2025
• designing an offer stack and pricing for value
• simple funnels and channel focus for 90 days
• systems, automation, outsourcing, and metrics
• agility with clear pivot triggers
• content calendar tied to funnel stages
• repurposing and diversified revenue streams
• Alex’s case study: burnout to focused growth
• weekly blueprint for a one-page strategy and dashboard

If you love today’s episode, please share it with a fellow creator who’s building. Drop a review, join the conversation at Not Just Candle Talk, and let me know what your one-page strategy looks like. In the show notes of this episode, I’m going to have a downloadable PDF workbook absolutely free. You can get it on the Linktree app: linktree slash not just candle talk

Chapters

• 0:42 Setting The Stakes For Strategy
• 2:39 Why Planning Matters Now
• 3:41 Pillar One: Vision And Purpose
• 5:43 Pillar Two: Audience And Market
• 7:44 Pillar Three: Offers And Revenue
• 9:05 Pillar Four: Go To Market
• 9:53 Pillar Five: Systems And Metrics
• 11:12 Current Trends Raising The Bar
• 12:22 Build Your One Page Strategy
• 13:33 The 90 Day Tactical Plan
• 14:41 Check Ins, Systems, And Agility
• 16:34 Creator Tactics For Content And Monetization
• 17:47 Alex’s Burnout To Breakthrough Story
• 20:02 The Landscape In 2025 And AI Reality
• 22:00 Weekly Blueprint And Metrics Routine
• 24:35 Community Invite And Free Workbook

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:21

Welcome back to Not Just Candle Talk, the podcast where creators, entrepreneurs, and small business builders get real about the hustle, the strategy, the win, and of course, the mess. I'm Tony, and today we're going deep on strategic business planning. Not the boardroom jargon, but the stuff you can actually use to scale, pivot, survive, and thrive for the rest of this year and going into the next year. Because here's the thing, right? You're not just building a side hustle. We're not doing that anymore. You're building a business. Your creativity is your fuel, but your plan is what turns it into a sustainable machine. And especially now, right? With so many things happening in technology, uh in content, how time I'm sorry, how content gets consumed, and and how entrepreneurship actually looks. So if you don't have a plan, you're handing your future to chance. A real uh quick snapshot of what's coming up on this episode. We're gonna cover why planning matters. We're gonna uh get into the five pillars of a killer strategic plan and also how to implement it in your creativity and your entrepreneur uh journey. Um, we're gonna get into some current events and what they're telling us, and I'll leave you with a blueprint you can use right now. So if you will, grab your notebook, open your mind, and let's get into it. First, why are we even talking about planning? Okay, because too many creators and entrepreneurs go into execution mode without ever stopping to map the territory, they treat strategy like a one-time thing. Uh they'll say things like, I'll figure it, figure it out as I go, but that's kind of risky. So here are three urgent uh reasons now is the moment for strategy. Number one, Vatility is high. For starters, AI adoption is exploding. We all know that. According to recent data, the global AI market is valued at around 391 billion and projected to grow nearly fold by 2033. And what that means is the ecosystem you operate in, things like content creation, monetization, and digital products is shifting underneath your feet. If you don't plan for change, you'll be chasing reactive moves instead of leading. Number two, business failure is real without a plan. One analysis is of why new businesses fail highlights missing or weak business plans as a major factor, poor market research, unclear value, um perception, and no defined strategy. So even if you're creating amazing stuff, without a map, you can end up spinning your wheels. Number three, creators are business owners now. You're not just making content, you're scaling a brand, building revenue streams, automating systems, managing teams, or collaborators. Uh and that requires a different mindset, right? A strategic planning isn't optional, it's fundamentally the best thing to do. So if you accept that strategic matters, the question becomes: what does strategy look like? What does it look like? What are the pillars? The what are the key elements? So let's let's walk through some of these, okay? Let's walk, let's go through the five pillars real quick of a killer strategic plan. Um I believe every content creator needs uh five these five pillars in their plan, okay? So we're gonna go through them. Let's get let's get into this one. Number one, vision and purpose. So with this, you're gonna define your whys. What are you building, and for whom? Uh is this gonna be for the long-term North Star? And where do you want to be in three to five years? For creators, what legacy, what impact, not just revenue? So here's an example. We exist to empower burnout entrepreneurs to reclaim momentum, build smart, and scale without sacrificing self. That could be your mission. Okay, that's what we do here, not uh not just candle talk. So, number two, market and audience clarity. Who exactly are you serving? What problems are you solving? What are their pains, desires, behaviors? So map out your audience, the demographics, uh where they where they live, um, and things like that. Research the market, talking about trends, where's the gaps in the market, and uh who are your competitors in 2025, especially the creator economy is shifting, platforms change um the way you make money, so your audience clarity is more important than ever. Okay, number three, offer and a revenue model. What are you selling? Is it digital products, is it service, memberships, sponsorships, collaborations? Um, and how do you price it? How do you package it? What are your revenue streams, your primary, your secondary, and your passive income? So, for example, uh for the brand for not just candle talk, um what is your what is our lead magnets uh and the things that we do, um, we do many courses, we do uh memberships, we also are getting into private coaching, private um private um podcast episodes, and mini courses. That's what we're doing right now. Um and that's how we package um our brand in every aspect of um our um episodes and our um motto. Uh number four, uh go to market and growth strategy. How will you reach your audience? What marketing channels, what content strategies? What is your funnel? What's the conversion path? Because it's not just enough to have an offer, you must have the plan to get it in front of people, convert them, and retain them. Consider your creator channel, various touch points. Uh, for instance, um YouTube, social media, and your email. Plan for each avenue, right? Number five, operations, systems, and metrics. Uh, I know that's a lot, but it's it's important, right? All of all of these things uh mesh together. Um what systems will you put in place so your brand scales instead of you burning out? We talk about burnout all the time on the podcast and how to avoid it, how to deal with it. Um, that's probably our one of our our biggest drivers on a lot of these episodes. What matrix will you track? Is it going to be the revenue, your lead conversion, rate, uh, retention, all of those things. If if um if you're familiar with those, you know what I'm talking about. What roles, task will you have to outsource or automate? I've touched on this before about um um hiring or just uh putting certain things on automation. Uh without good operations, everything else falls apart. You really have to treat your creator, um, your content creating as a business. It is. After a while, it becomes a business because you have to implement uh all of these things that we're discussing right now. So let's pause for a moment and link this to current events so we can feel the urgency. Okay, with AI escalating, as we noted, creators need an effective systems and matrix more than ever. You can no longer wing content creation and hope for the best. What I that's what I just said, I'm repeating myself. I apologize. Also, many startups and small businesses are tightening budgets, undergoing layoffs, slowing hiring. That means your competition might be stiffened, investments might be tightened, but also the advantages go to those with a plan, right? Planning is more important now than ever. Finally, uh the creator economy is maturing. Becoming a hobbyist doesn't pay the bills. So the offer and revenue model pillars must be solid. Okay. Now let's get practical. We've heard the pillars. Now, here's how you actually build your strategic strategic strategic plan. Sorry about that, step by step, and plug it into your creator business. Okay, so let's get into that. Step A: Write your one-page strategic document, your vision and purpose. Okay, two sentences. All right. With your audience, you're going to define a niche, of course. We heard that we hear that all the time. For an example, creators who are burnt out but still have a spark and want to scale smart. Okay. What is your core offer? Lists one to three. Your key growth channels, lists one to two to focus on for the next 90 days. Your key metrics, track and list three. This one pager becomes your anchor. Okay. Step B, the 90-day tactical plan. Break down what you will do this quarter, which is 12 weeks, to move forward. Week one, uh refine audience surveys and do deep dives. Week two, audit your content and your monetization offers. Week three and four, create your signature offer. Weeks five through eight, launch funnel and promote. Weeks nine through twelve, optimize and plan for your next quarter. There's that word again, plan. Assign task, deadlines. Um even if you just even if it's just you um still uh make note those tasks and make those deadlines, okay? Step C monthly and weekly check-ins. At start of each month, review your 12-week plan. Adjust based on what's working, okay? Weekly, review matrix such as your leads, your conversions, your revenue, and your content performance. If a matric is off, ask why and pivot fast. Step B, build systems and automation. Use tech and tools such as email automation, scheduling, and content repurposing analysis. And you can outsource what doesn't move the needle, okay? Like uh graphic design or editing. Document your processes. That way you can scale without burning, without burning out. Step E, stay agile. Remember, planning doesn't mean uh doesn't mean that uh you have to um not understand what the the platforms mean or um how your monetization models evolve. Okay, it means all of that. You have to stay agile. Your plan must have a pivot trigger. If funnel conversions drop 2%, perform your audit as quickly as possible. Because as we noted, AI creators, startup uh ecosystems is evolving rapidly. So you got to stay like uh stay in the know of everything that's going on on each platform. Okay. All right, so let's talk about content creation uh specifically. Uh, like many of you are who are listening, you often have additional layers. You have your community, your authenticity, and your brand voice. So here are the three creator um specific planning tactics. Okay, content creator uh strategies. We can you can also you can use um a calendar, you can plan your content to support your offer and your funnel. Okay, um, you can repurpose smartly, um, and you can put all of your monetization on different streams, don't rely on just one um stream of income. Maybe uh you can do sponsorships, you can do a course membership, uh, you can do a light live events. Uh, all of this is backed by your strategic planning. Okay. Okay, so let me tell you a mini story real quick. Let's let's step away from the the um all of the business stuff. Let's let's let's talk about a real uh real story. Um young lady named Alex, um, she was a content creator who lost the who uh launched, I'm sorry, uh a podcast and made some content and got some uh traction, but she didn't have a plan. She had no uh no clear funnel, no conversion strategy. She had nothing, she didn't plan anything. Uh and of course, what happened? She got burnt out. This is what we talk about on a lot of my episodes on this podcast. After she did her burnout and and and got back on her feet, she decided to um plan everything from top to bottom. And it and this is what planning does, it helps creators scale their personal brands uh and generate more income, grow your grow an audience base. Um and by doing that, uh you can go to different avenues of uh platforms for different income, right? Um, and within six months after she started planning, uh she took her time and she doubled her revenue. Um I this episode was based on Alice's story. She reached out to me um via email, and she told me, look, why don't you do a podcast about planning? And and I'll tell you some things that I went through and just hit on it, uh hit on this topic, and I would greatly appreciate it, get my story out there, get how important, get this message out there, how important it is to plan, especially now. Um because in 2025, we're seeing that the landscape is tougher for those without strategy, right? For example, many startups are, like I said before, they're cutting costs and refocusing. Okay. Uh this is pulled from a headline a biotech firm cutting 30% workforce to uh extend cash runway. This signals a budget shrink, competition rises, and value must be cleared. For content creators, entrepreneurs, that means you can't rely on hope. Again, you need a plan. Also, the AI boom means tools are cheaper and more accessible. So the barrier of entry is lower, right? And that's what we want. We want high results at a low cost. Unfortunately, um that's how businesses ran. That also means more competition, right? The ones who will stand out are the ones who strategize. This is not, this is nothing new. This is how businesses ran, right? The raw data, 90% of tech workers now use AI in their jobs. So if they're using it in jobs, rest assured, entrepreneurs, creators, small business owners, it's a must. Two, these tools are universal. Strategy becomes the competitive edge. You want to implement them as soon as possible. So let's wrap this with some actionable steps. You can start today. I uh also challenge you by the end of the week to draft one-page strategic plan. And here's your blueprint. Block one block out of one hour every every day this week or start next week, however, you want to do it. Define your vision and purpose and write it down. The next day, identify your audience, do a mini survey or a poll in your community. What's their number one challenge? Within three days, map your offer stack. What are you selling now? What could you upsell or add in 90 days? Okay, after those weeks, after that one week, I'm sorry, when you after you do all of that, it's a lot. I know, I'm sorry. Build a 12-week tactical plan. And go back to this episode, see step B above when I was doing all the steps, uh, assign tasks and deadlines within uh a few more weeks. Set up your matrix dashboard and choose three matrix to trap track weekly. Okay, and every week review your matrix. Every month, review your plan, every quarter, revise your 12-week plan. Okay, I know this is a lot, uh, but it's so necessary. It's so necessary. I want you to commit to this, if you will. By your by the next podcast or by the next 12 weeks, you can uh you'll have your one-page strategic plan ready. Share it. Share it with me. Even if you send a screenshot or do it on your socials, or do it on uh you can send it on my socials. You can DM me if you if you want, send it through an email. Um, and and let's see your progress in it. Uh, join join not just candle talk community and uh let's talk about it, okay? All right, so now you have the deep dive in strategic building planning, why it matters, what the pillars are, how you execute it, and a blueprint you can use this week. If you are a creator or a small business builder who's ready to stop hustling blind and start planning smart, this right here is your moment. And by the way, if you love today's episode, please share it with a fellow creator who's building. Drop a review, join the conversation at not just candle talk, and let me know what your one-page strategy looks like. I said that uh a little while ago. Let me let me know what's you know how's it going for you. Um, as always, thanks for tuning in. Uh stay raw, stay uh strategic, and I'll catch you next time. Oh, also before I go, I'm sorry. Um, in the show notes of this episode, I'm going to um have a uh downloadable PDF workbook absolutely free. Um, you can get it on the Linktree um app. Uh we have Linktree slash not just candle talk. All the um downloads or checklist um are in um on that platform. Again, that's link tree slash not just candle talk. Uh all of the downloads are free, as I said before. But um for this episode, I'm gonna download a workbook, all right, so we can keep track of this, and um, I'll talk to you soon. Thank you so much for listening.