About this episode

Scott Love interviews Ivy Slater about creating high-impact strategic plans for professional services firms.

In Episode 316 of The Rainmaking Podcast, Scott Love speaks with executive coach and business strategist Ivy Slater about how professional services firms can create high-impact strategic plans that drive real growth. Ivy breaks down the structure of an effective strategic planning retreat, including who should attend, how to facilitate productive conversations, and why firms must think beyond short-term goals to create a long-term vision. She introduces her expanded “SWOTT” framework—strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and trends—and explains how leadership teams can use it to align finance, marketing, business development, and people strategy into one unified growth plan. The conversation also explores common strategic planning mistakes that derail firms, including lack of accountability, reactive leadership, and leadership teams getting trapped “in the weeds” of day-to-day administration instead of focusing on growth. Ivy shares practical guidance on implementation, quarterly accountability meetings, leadership cadence, and why numbers tell the real story of a firm’s future. For managing partners, law firm leaders, consultants, and professional services executives…

People in this episode

Host: Scott Love

Guest: Ivy Slater

Topics covered

• strategic planning
• business growth
• leadership alignment
• professional services
• accountability

Keywords

• strategic planning
• business strategy
• SWOTT framework
• leadership
• growth plan

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Rainmaking Podcast

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