Vision + Systems = Success - Episode 199

 You're a visionary. You have bold ideas, a sense of where you want the business to go, and most likely a roadmap to prove it. You start building. 

Teams get moving, but pretty quickly your plans stall. Communication breaks down. The gap between what you saw and what's actually happening widens. 

Naturally, you jump back into strategy mode. New goals, new tactics, new whiteboard session. But strategy isn't what you needed. 

What you need is structure. And today's episode is about how to align your vision with the right kind of structure so that strategy becomes simple, even obvious. Today, we're going to break down why visionary leaders feel stuck, how systems thinking can unlock their clarity, and if this is you, why the smartest path forward might mean pausing your planning and fixing your flow. 

Welcome to the Budding Entrepreneur Podcast. 

Good day and welcome to the Budding Entrepreneur Podcast. I'm your host, Randy Bridges. 

In each episode, we dive into practical business strategies that you can put to work in your business right away. We also focus on inspiring stories from leaders who are shaking and making things happen in their industry. It's all about giving you the tools and insights to take you and your business to the next level. 

So get comfortable and let's jump right in. 

All right, all right. We are on episode 199, and today is Friday, May 16th, 2025.

If you've ever been told, you just need a better strategy, this episode is going to challenge that statement. Today, we'll look at why strategy isn't the best starting point, what systems thinking actually looks like for a visionary, a better order for your execution, a case study of a business owner who stopped planning and started structuring, four clear steps to realign your business starting this week. Let's kick it off with a quote that sets the tone perfectly.

Michael G. Walker is the author of The Systems Thinking Visionary. He said, most visionaries aren't short on ideas, they're short on structure. That's it right there. 

Because a lot of leaders are spinning their wheels, not because they're missing drive or insight, because they're trying to force strategy into a system that hasn't been built yet. But before we get into that, there are a few things we need to fix and some ideas we need to clarify. So let's start with those. 

Let's start off by fixing one key idea. Strategy isn't your starting point. Let me be clear, strategy is important, but if it's the first thing you focus on, you're building your plan on guesswork.

Visionaries often jump into planning mode because it feels productive. They've got ideas, so they try to shape them into outcomes. But what if they haven't mapped the systems that support those outcomes? They're strategizing in the dark. 

They build offers the team can't fulfill. They launch campaigns the ops can't sustain. And they set goals that collapse under the weight of vague execution. 

That's not a strategy problem. It's a systems gap. So let's look into what systems thinking looks like for a visionary. 

Shifting gears, systems thinking is about seeing your business as a living, breathing organism. Not just a set of departments. Not just a set of functionary ideas. 

A bunch of silos. All one idea. So here are three simple but powerful systems thinking principles that every visionary can adopt. 

Number one, interconnectedness. Your business, as we just said, isn't a stack of silos. It's a web of cause and effect.

If you change your marketing, fulfillment feels it. If you change your pricing, sales feels it. Visionaries need to see the whole ecosystem, not just the shiny front end.

Number two is identifying leverage points. You know, not all problems are created equal. And many times we do approach problems the same as we've approached other problems in the past.

And the reality is that a single friction point in your delivery process might be costing you thousands and there's no way to recover that. If you can find those high impact areas and start there, life becomes much easier. And the third thing is feedback loops.

Real systems thinkers build their own radar. They don't wait for the team to tell them when things are off. They build feedback into the flow. 

We're talking about dashboards, client feedback points, team debriefs. These aren't optional. They are your reality check.

Now, if we put those three pieces together and in the right order, we end up with a framework built around vision first, system second, strategy third. And I want to kind of bring in a case study to do a real high level view of that. So you get to see kind of how it works and then we'll dig into a much deeper process that you can follow in your own business. 

So let's start with a business owner I worked with. She was a smart driven CEO of a boutique service firm. Now her vision was to expand nationally. 

But her reality was she was constantly dealing with team burnout and churn. These weren't just churn of customers. These were churn of customers and of employees. 

And, you know, after we studied this and looked into it, we asked the question of why. And it really came to the fact that she was building strategies on top of a shaky delivery system. So we stopped all the planning, no more goals for Q3, and we started mapping her current systems.

We looked at her lead flow, her sales process, her client journey, and her team responsibilities. And we saw that there were areas in each one of those that were lacking. So we built rhythm into her business. 

Things like weekly team check-ins, clear lanes of responsibility, automated onboarding. And what happened? Well, ultimately it worked. And the reason why, there are three of them. 

Number one, it created visibility. For the first time, she and her leadership team could see what was happening in the business. Not just feeling the chaos. 

The systems that were employed removed the guesswork. Another area was that it reduced emotional decision making. When things are unclear, every choice is going to feel reactive.

And you're going to have to look at things and say, wow, what's the worst case scenario? What's the best case scenario? But with systems in place, decisions become logical. They're not personal. You don't have to necessarily own it if the system itself enforces it.

And the other thing was that it revealed where strategy actually mattered. Instead of guessing where to grow, the system showed them, here's the offer that scales. Here's the client journey that works. 

Here's where your team gets stuck. Now keep in mind, this was a four to five month process to build all this. And we had to really dig in each area one at a time and go through them logically. 

But once the systems were humming, the strategy of moving forward became obvious. Because the business structure now supported the business. And on top of being able to think about actually looking at a nationwide rollout, she decided that it wasn't necessary that she could actually, with the right planning, get more out of the business she had. 

The business had 60% less time spent on re-planning. And they had three times faster implementation. She was finally able to step into a true visionary role with the space to lead, think, and grow with confidence.

This wasn't about doing more. It was about building a system that showed them what to do next, step by step through the environment. So let's build an action plan for you. 

This is how to realign vision with systems. Because if you're a visionary who's tired of cycling through the plans that don't stick, we should ground this in real action that you can take. So let's dig into this and get your systems aligned before we try to solve things with strategy.

Number one, just like we did, stop and map. Pause the planning, sit down, and map your business from lead to delivery. Think of it like a flow chart. 

Where do your leads come from? How do they come in? What happens when they convert? Who handles what after the sale? And where does the handoff get converted? Hopefully it doesn't get dropped, right? And so what this does is allow you to see the big picture clearly. 

Instead of operating from instinct, you're now working from a visual reality. Gaps will reveal themselves quickly and silos become obvious. 

Suddenly your mess has a shape and that's a way to show progress along the way. Number two, now you want to spot the bottlenecks. You've got the flow laid out and you want to look for drag points. 

Where does progress slow down? Where does information get lost or delayed? Where do team members constantly need clarification? By doing this, you can now prioritize what actually matters. You stop solving for symptoms and start addressing causes. It lets you focus your leadership energy where it will create real momentum, not just noise. 

Number three, build rhythm. Pick one key area and create consistent cadence around it. It might look like weekly team check-ins, standardized onboarding checklists, client journey trackers. 

By doing this, you can transform chaos into flow. Rhythm creates trust because everybody knows what's coming next and they know what's being handed off to them, both internally and externally. Your team gains clarity and your clients feel consistency.

You, meanwhile, start to lead with confidence because you know what's happening without chasing it down and you know exactly where to look when something comes up as a problem. And the fourth thing, let strategy emerge. This is a hard one. 

Once you've created the visibility, you've identified the leverage and installed the rhythm, something powerful happens. The right strategies start to reveal themselves. You can't look for this, they just naturally will occur. 

You'll notice which offers are scalable. You'll see what processes break under pressure. And you'll realize where you've been making assumptions that no longer fit.

At this point, you can make decisions based on structure, not speculation. You won't need to invent strategy from scratch. You'll be able to design it based on what the system is now ready to support. 

And that becomes your turning point. For most business owners, this experience brings something they haven't felt in a while, clarity. Now, not the kind of clarity that comes from thinking harder and looking harder, but the kind that comes from finally seeing what's real.

When your systems are clear, you don't have to guess at your next move. You don't need another planning retreat. You need to listen to what your structure is telling you. 

And that's when you know your vision is ready to evolve. Because the system you develop has rhythm, and you'll see what your strategy should be. You won't have to invent it, it will reveal itself.

So let's do a quick recap. If you're a visionary, the temptation is to stay in the clouds. But growth doesn't come from ideas alone. 

It comes from ideas supported by systems. Let your strategy become the outcome, not the starting line. Go with the framework of vision, systems, and strategy. 

That's the path, that's the order. 

Now if you're overwhelmed by plans that don't seem to land, I get it. This is not something that you do the first time out and get it right. 

You want to look at the structure beneath your vision and fix the foundation. Essentially, if you need some help in this, give me a call. I'll have a business impact strategy session with you. 

We'll pinpoint where your business gets stuck in theory, and how to turn it into real traction. Now next week, it marks a huge milestone. This is episode 200. 

I've been doing this podcast since 2020, and it's the highlight of my week, and some days it's harder to do than others, but I tell you, I want to look back with you and see the most powerful insights, the most surprising truths, and the tools that have helped business owners just like you and me to break through. If you've been with me for a while, or just hopped on recently, you'll find something in next week's episode that helps you go further and faster. Until then, stay clear, stay focused, and keep building systems that can carry your vision forward.

That's it for this episode. I hope you picked up some valuable insights, and maybe even sparked a few new ideas. If you want to keep the conversation going, or maybe even explore partnerships, don't hesitate to reach out. 

And hey, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share this with someone who needs to hear it. The steps you take today could be the start of something big tomorrow. For the budding entrepreneur, I wish you the best in your health, your wealth, your business, your family, everything about you.

Take care, and we'll see you back here next week.