Picture this for a second.
It’s early January. The board wants momentum. The team wants direction. There’s a long list of ideas on the table, and more than a little pressure to “get moving.”
If I were stepping into your business as CMO tomorrow, I wouldn’t start with campaigns. I wouldn’t start with channels. And I definitely wouldn’t start by changing tools.
That’s usually where things go sideways.
Most teams rush to action because action feels productive. But speed without clarity just creates motion. And motion is expensive.
The first thing I’d do is slow the conversation down—just enough to make a few decisions that actually matter.
What I Wouldn’t Do First
I wouldn’t rip out your tech stack.
I wouldn’t greenlight a bunch of new experiments.
I wouldn’t chase whatever channel your competitors are talking about on LinkedIn this week.
Those moves feel decisive. They rarely are.
Instead, I’d focus on getting a small set of fundamentals locked so everything else has a chance to work.
The 3 Things I’d Lock in the First 90 Days
First: I’d force clarity on the one growth problem we’re actually solving. Not 5. Not “overall growth.” One problem that, if solved, would make everything else easier. Until that’s clear, every initiative is just a guess wearing a strategy hat.
Second: I’d define what “winning” looks like in the next 90 days—not the year. Annual goals are fine, but teams execute in weeks, not quarters. If success isn’t concrete and near-term, focus erodes fast.
Third: I’d get painfully explicit about what we’re not working on. This is the part most teams avoid. But focus doesn’t come from what you say yes to. It comes from what you’re willing to say no to—and defend when pressure shows up.
None of this is flashy. But it’s what separates teams that compound from teams that constantly reset.
Why This Gets Skipped
I see leaders avoid this work for a few reasons.
There’s pressure to show progress quickly.
There’s fear of making the wrong call.
And there’s a belief that clarity will somehow emerge once things are in motion.
It rarely does.
Clarity is something you decide into. Not something you discover later.
If I Were in Your Shoes This Week…
I’d ask my leadership team one simple question:
“If we could only move one thing forward meaningfully over the next 90 days, what would it be—and what are we willing to pause to make that happen?”
If the answers are all different, that’s your signal. Not that your team is misaligned—but that the decision hasn’t been made yet.
That’s the kind of work I spend most of my time on. Helping teams make fewer, sharper decisions so execution actually sticks once the year gets noisy.
That’s also the lens I’ll keep bringing here.
No hype. No recycled playbooks. Just how this stuff actually works when you’re inside the business.
Talk soon,
– Javy
