Own Your Impact #49: The Infinite Game: Why Sustainable Thought Leadership Requires a Different Kind of Planning
I believe the most sustainable thought leadership is built by people who understand this work is an infinite game, not a race to an exit. When you plan your year from that foundation, everything changes about the decisions you make.
In this episode, I share what emerged from a recent accelerator session where we mapped out the Resonant Thought Leadership System for each participant. The same snapshot exercise produced completely different strategic decisions for each person because their constraints, timelines, and goals were unique. One person needed revenue in 90 days. Another was finally giving herself permission to pursue her life's work on a longer timeline. A third was transitioning from using thought leadership as a marketing channel to making it the business itself. Same system, entirely different paths forward.
I explore the tension between the infinite game of thought leadership and the pressure the market puts on us to constantly scale. You've heard all the messages: scale or die, 10x your revenue, build systems that run without you. And while there's wisdom in strategic scaling, that language creates low-grade anxiety for thought leaders who don't want to disappear from the transformation they create. I walk through how to reconcile these two realities by starting with alignment before you set goals, using the Four E's of Core Resonance as a diagnostic tool, and making decisions about priority, speed, and what you're actually building based on where you truly are right now.
IMPACT POINTS FROM THIS EPISODE:
⚡️ Thought Leadership Is an Infinite Game – Unlike finite games with clear winners and endpoints, your life's work has changing players, evolving rules, and no final end. Success isn't always "I hit seven figures this year." Success can be "I am still in the game, deepening my impact in a way that's sustainable for who I am."
⚡️ Raising Your Floor Doesn't Require Wanting What Others Want – You don't have to build a massive company to generate meaningful revenue. You don't have to scale through other people or plan for an exit. What you do have to do is get honest about what you actually desire and plan accordingly, instead of building something because you think you should.
⚡️ Annual Planning Isn't About Goals, It's About Decisions – Before you map out launches and content calendars, you need to know where you actually are right now. When you can see your whole system at once, you stop feeling overwhelmed by everything you could do and start seeing what needs to happen next based on your current foundation, constraints, and goals.
PEOPLE & RESOURCES MENTIONED:
- Benjamin Hardy
- The Science of Scaling: Grow Your Business Bigger and Faster Than You Think Possible by Dr. Benjamin Hardy and Blake Erickson
- 10x Is Easier Than 2x: How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy
- Simon Sinek
- The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek
- Episode 32: Simple Systems Scale: What Benjamin Hardy’s Research Reveals About Resonant Thought Leadership
- Episode 33: Permission to Scale: Why Brilliant Experts Stay Small and How to Change That
- Episode 34: The Four E’s of Core Resonance: Building Authentic Authority That Lasts
- Thought Leadership Archetype Assessment
- Sign Up for the Workshop - Resonant Planning: Building Your 2026 Around Who You Actually Are
CONNECT WITH MACY:
- Register for the Resonant Planning Workshop
- Take the Resonant Thought Leader Archetype Assessment
- Download the free Resonant Thought Leader Starter Kit at macyrobison.com
- Follow on Instagram: @macyrobison
- Connect on LinkedIn: Macy Robison
- Visit: macyrobison.com
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