The Big Domino. Knowing the 1 Thing to Focus On.

Years ago, I read a book called Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown (highly recommend). The concept of ‘less, but better’ was profound to me. McKeown masterfully demonstrates how complexity harms our health, relationships, performance, businesses, and life overall. When we embrace essentialism, everything improves.

Living the essential life is challenging in a world full of noise. Yet, our current circumstances, filled with organized chaos, are often more challenging—we’re just used to it. This familiar complexity is often mislabeled as our ‘comfort zone,’ but I disagree. There is nothing comfortable about the constant overwhelm and overstimulation from notifications and demands, especially as entrepreneurs. We try to balance being great moms, wives, siblings, friends, staying in shape, and maintaining our health... it’s a lot.

I call this ‘familiar discomfort’ because there’s nothing comfortable about it.

Simplicity Scales, Complexity Fails

To make business as simple as possible, we focus on The Big Domino—the one thing that, when optimized, improves everything else around it. Trying to focus on more than one thing often leads to focusing on nothing.

One tool we developed for our clients to help them stay focused with their finances is the CEO Protocol.

What is the CEO Protocol?

The CEO Protocol is a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual cadence for mastering your money and leading your business growth. We even offer a 1-day live challenge to guide you through this system. You can sign up for the next one [here].

The Daily Big Domino

Every day, there is one Big Domino. The daily CEO Protocol involves updating your breakeven calculator to determine how quickly you’ll be profitable for the month. The key number to optimize is revenues. It shows exactly how many days it will take to start making profits.

Remember: revenues are vanity, profits are sanity, and cash flow is clarity.

We created this tool to help clients set targets easily, providing a clear view of where they stand in relation to their goals daily. This is also a leadership tool. Your breakeven point is when you generate neither loss nor profit, and you want to reach this point as quickly as possible each month. To know your breakeven, you must understand your gross profit and fixed costs.

For example, if you have 22 business days this month and a revenue target of $100k, you’ll aim to break even in 10 business days. If day 10 arrives and you haven’t hit your targets, you’ll know it’s time to make adjustments.

The Weekly Big Domino

Every CEO should review their most important KPIs weekly. We prefer to do this on Tuesdays. While multiple KPIs are tracked, one will always be the Big Domino that influences the others.

Tracking KPIs weekly is essential for moving quickly in business. You can’t afford to wait until the end of the month to review finances and expect to stay competitive. By focusing on the Big Domino each week, you direct actions more effectively, holding team members accountable and driving progress.

The Monthly Big Domino

Each month, review the actual financials of your company. If you don’t have reliable financial information, you need it. Our team can help.

Most business owners avoid this because their identity isn’t aligned with their goals—they keep doing what they’re good at instead of making time to be a CEO. This is a discussion for next week.

When reviewing monthly financials, focus on cash flow and profit ratios. Determine your profit target in both dollars and as a percentage of your revenues. Identify the Big Domino that kept you from reaching your targets and take action.

For example, if your COGS ratio is too high due to excessive discounts, implement a policy to limit coupon use. This simple change can improve your bottom line next month.

The Quarterly Big Domino

Quarterly planning is crucial for staying on track. Reset your core initiatives each quarter, focusing on the Big Domino. Core initiatives are strategic actions essential to achieving your company’s primary goals. They are significant in scope, impact multiple areas, and align with your long-term vision.

Define a core initiative with clear objectives, KPIs, resources, and a timeline. Determine the Big Domino for the quarter that will drive the most progress. Each core initiative should have someone responsible for its completion, ensuring focus and accountability.

The Annual Big Domino

Annual planning involves setting a 12-month focus to guide your vision and mission. Identify the Big Domino for the year that will set all other things in motion. This focus becomes your compass, ensuring that all efforts contribute to your overall success.

I love to do this with a word that will define my focus. For 2024, that word was ‘Elevate’. I love the one-word concept because what I’ve experienced is my reticular activating system noticing that word being used in places I may not have otherwise noticed, which draws my attention to something that may be for me. A person, a workshop, mastermind, event, place, etc.

By consistently identifying and optimizing your Big Domino, you simplify complexity, scale effectively, and drive substantial progress in your business.