If your business feels busy, noisy, or overwhelming right now, you’re not doing anything wrong.

You’re just operating in a world that is shifting faster than it ever has before.

Customer needs change.
Technology evolves weekly.
AI is rewriting how businesses operate.

And the old way of “set a plan once a year and hope for the best” simply doesn’t work anymore.

That’s why strategic planning today needs to be fluid, iterative, and supported by systems, not just willpower.

This is exactly what we covered in the Map Your Magic session — and it’s something I believe every business owner should be doing at least quarterly, if not monthly.

Why Strategic Planning Is No Longer Optional

Business used to move slowly.

You could set a plan at the start of the year and largely stick to it.

Today?

• Markets move
• Platforms change
• AI releases weekly
• Buyer behaviour shifts constantly

To stay relevant, profitable, and sane, you must regularly revisit:

• where your business is now
• where you want it to go
• who you’re doing it for
• and how you’re delivering value

Strategic planning is no longer a “CEO luxury”.
It’s a survival skill.

Why You Feel Overwhelmed (And It’s Not Because You’re Disorganised)

Most business owners sit down at their desk thinking:

“I have 11 million things to do. Where do I even begin?”

That feeling isn’t a lack of motivation.
It’s a lack of external structure.

Your brain is trying to:

• remember everything
• prioritise everything
• decide everything
• and emotionally process everything

That’s why it feels like being stuck in a mosquito swarm in a swamp.

The solution isn’t more thinking.
It’s getting everything out of your head.

Step One: Brain Dump Your Business Properly

Before you can plan, you must extract.

This process is not about being eloquent, strategic, or polished.
It’s about honesty.

I strongly recommend using a voice transcription tool like Otter.

Put your headphones in.
Go for a walk.
And waffle.

Talk about:

• what you want your business to look like
• how much money you want to earn
• what you loved selling this year
• what you never want to sell again
• which clients drained you
• which clients lit you up
• what kind of lifestyle you actually want
• what you want more of and less of

Do not edit.
Do not structure.
Do not judge.

Just get it out.

Why I Don’t Recommend Voice Typing Directly Into AI

Voice typing directly into ChatGPT or Gemini often fails after a few minutes.

It loses context.
It interrupts flow.
It drops information.

For deep strategic thinking, uninterrupted expression matters.

Record first.
Structure later.

Otter (or even Google Docs voice typing as a backup) gives you a reliable transcript you can work with afterward.

Step Two: Let AI Turn the Waffle Into Strategy

Once you have your transcript, this is where AI shines.

You paste the full transcript into ChatGPT or Gemini and use a simple prompt:

“This is a transcript of me answering questions about my business, goals, and future plans.
Please analyse it and turn it into a clear, action-oriented strategic plan for the next 12 months.”

That’s it.

AI excels at:

• identifying patterns
• sequencing priorities
• highlighting gaps
• structuring chaos into clarity

You’re no longer staring at a mess.
You’re looking at a plan.

Step Three: Make the Plan Usable (Not Just Pretty)

A plan that sits in a document is useless.

This is where tools like Gemini become powerful.

You can turn your strategic plan into:

• visual dashboards
• clickable roadmaps
• prioritised task lists
• timelines and milestones

When you can see your strategy, you’re far more likely to act on it.

Your plan becomes something you work from, not something you forget.

Step Four: Build a To-Do List Prioritiser Bot

This is the part that changes your day-to-day life.

Once your strategy exists, you train AI on it.

Now, instead of asking:
“What should I be doing today?”

You dump your entire task list into your bot.

Every day.

The bot:

• prioritises tasks based on urgency, revenue, and strategy
• deprioritises noise
• identifies missing actions
• adapts as things change

You stop guessing.
You stop spinning.
You start executing.

Create One Source of Truth for Your Tasks

Once your tasks are prioritised, they must live in one place.

Whether that’s:

• Tekmatix Tasks
• another task manager
• or a shared system with your team

The key is this:
If it’s not in your task system, it doesn’t exist.

Get it out of your head.
Put it into the system.
Let AI help you reorder it as often as needed.

Plan the Whole Year (Yes, the Whole Thing)

One of the most powerful shifts you can make is planning the entire year ahead.

Start by blocking:

• school holidays
• major holidays
• personal time
• speaking commitments
• existing bookings

Then layer work around your life, not the other way around.

Your business should support your life.
Not consume it.

Know Your Numbers (Because Marketing Is Just Maths)

Revenue goals don’t fail because of bad ideas.

They fail because not enough people saw your offer.

You must know:

• how much you want to earn
• how many customers you need
• how many people you need to reach monthly

Marketing is simply:
People discovering you and entering your ecosystem.

Once you know your numbers, AI can help you design a marketing plan to hit them.

Final Reality Check: Pricing Matters

If you haven’t increased your prices by at least 20% in the last six months, you need to review them.

That’s not greed.
That’s survival.

Even doubling your prices and losing half your customers often results in:

• the same revenue
• half the workload
• half the stress

It’s just maths.

This Is the Foundation of the Next 12 Months

What we covered in Map Your Magic isn’t a nice idea.

It’s the foundation for:

• your strategy
• your marketing
• your pricing
• your systems
• your sanity

Yes, we may look a little wild walking around talking to ourselves.

But we’re building empires.

And we don’t care how it looks while we do it.

If you want to do this properly, with prompts, templates, bots, dashboards, and support:

👉 Sign up for Map Your Magic now
https://workshop.sarahcordiner.com/map-your-magic

Here’s to clarity, momentum, and a business that actually works for you.

Sarah x