Why the If/Then Strategy Is Your Secret Weapon For Better Business Outcomes

Ever feel like your brain is spinning with too many ideas, options, or tech paths to choose from? That scattered, stuck feeling doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong, it means it’s time for a better system. 

In today’s episode, Tara Bryan talks about the If/Then Strategy - a powerful, practical tool you need in your business toolbox. Whether you’re planning a new offer, simplifying your tech stack, or just trying to clear the mental clutter, this simple logic model (especially when paired with an AI tool) will help you move forward faster and more confidently. 

💡 Walk away with a practical method to simplify complexity, reduce decision paralysis, and get better outcomes, without overthinking or burning out. 

🧠 What You’ll Learn:

• How to use the if/then strategy to organize ideas and plan with clarity
• Why AI tools like ChatGPT are the perfect partner for scenario planning
• A real behind-the-scenes example of simplifying a complex certification build
• How to reduce team misalignment and get to the best solution faster
• Why this process saves time, money, and mental energy

⏱️ Chapters:

00:00 – Intro: Why if/then is more than just an old primary school math concept

01:00 – Using an AI tool to simplify strategic thinking

02:30 – Mapping out scenarios with if/then logic

04:00 – The tech project: When too many options create chaos

05:15 – Different expert opinions = complexity overload

06:30 – Feeding your AI tool all the options to find the best path

07:30 – From overwhelm to clarity: Choosing the simplest solution

09:30 – Compressing weeks of planning into hours

10:45 – A final word: Clear minds take action

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About Me:

Hey, it’s your host, Tara Bryan. And I am on a mission to help more business owners learn to infinitely scale their businesses by leveraging the power of online without sacrificing the customer experience or results. 

I like to geek out on all things business strategy, marketing, interactive digital and user experience. This podcast is all about what is working, lessons learned and actionable tips to create and grow a thriving online business. 

Join us each week as we dive into different strategies, tactics and tips you can apply immediately to your business.

To learn more:

Find us at https://www.taralbryan.com

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Episode Transcript

Tara Bryan (00:00):
Welcome to The Scalable Expert, the podcast where we unlock
the secrets to building a businessthat grows with you, not around you.
I'm your host, Tara Bryan, businessstrategist, mentor, and creator
of the INFINITE SCALE Method.
If you're a coach, consultant, orservice provider who's maxed out
with one on one work, overwhelmed bythe grind, and ready to scale your
expertise into a business that worksfor you, then you're in the right place.

(00:23):
Each week I'll share actionabletips, inspiring success stories,
and proven strategies to help youreclaim your time, grow your income,
and create a business that deliversresults without sacrificing quality.
Let's dive in and make yourbusiness INFINITELY SCALABLE.
Hey everybody, welcome to today's episode.

(00:43):
I am thrilled that you're here.
In this episode, I want to talkabout the if/then statement.
Now, who would have known thatwe would actually use some math
concepts from our school days.
But this is one that I love and andI won't admit a lot of times, but
math is not my favorite subject,

(01:04):
I'm just gonna say.
However, the, if/then statement isone of my favorites, and maybe it's
because I am a closet computer nerd.
But it's so powerful and so I want towalk through a couple of exercises with
you today on the podcast around someif/then statements because I think it's
really powerful to use as you're tryingto work through various scenarios or

(01:27):
challenges or just things that you'retrying to solve in your business.
Now, I will I will give you the caveatthat one of my favorite things right
now to do is when I'm using ChatGPTspecifically, but it could be any AI tool,
one of the biggest benefits of those toolsis it becomes your checks and balances.

(01:51):
It becomes, you're, I always saythat it organizes my brain, right?
If I'm writing something out, I'mlike, okay, so here's a scenario.
Here's what I'm thinking.
Here's what I wanted to do.
How do I make that happen?
I can put that in ChatGPT and it spitsout a couple of different options for me.
And I'm like, oh, interesting.
Okay.

(02:12):
So that's great.
And what I end up doing most of thetime with ChatGPT, just so everyone
knows is I'll be like, okay, yeah,that's great, but I wanted to do this.
Or what if we didn'tuse this piece for this?
Or, what if we looked at it this way?
And every single time it comes back,oh, yes, that's such a great idea.

(02:34):
Or, that's such a greataddition to the conversation.
Yes, Let's go with that scenario.
And then it will write out a new scenario.
And so I always love it,
I'm like, oh yeah, I'm so smart.
But what happens is in my point inbringing this up is that it's a great
tool to help you work through the if/thenstatements that are going on in your brain

(02:58):
around things that are happening, right?
If we do this, what's the consequence?
If we do this, what happens next?
If we do this, then thisis the outcome, right?
And, you could do that on your own, right?
Or you just write out, okay, let's thinkthrough how all these pieces work, but
the fast way to do that is to put thatkind of if/then scenario into ChatGPT

(03:23):
and have it organize it, and format it,in however way you want it formatted and
then use it as a way to either validateyour thinking, challenge your thinking,
or just come up with a different easier,
or even more complex approach thatwill help you not only articulate what

(03:43):
it is you're trying to work throughbut also give you the step by step
framework for what that is, or the stepby step guide for how to implement.
So let me give you just anexample to bring this home.
So we're working on a really largecertification program, where we're
automating a number of different toolsand they have to talk to each other.

(04:05):
Which is a really fun, juicy project.
So if anyone is geeky like me and lovesto talk systems, give me a shout, and
you and I can talk about it all day long.
But there's some complex thingsthat we need to have happen in
this, particular, use case with thiscustomer that they're asking for.
And and so we know the tech, weknow the if/then statement, right?

(04:28):
If somebody puts this in,this is what needs to happen.
This is what needs to be spit out.
But as you are aware, in most cases,there are a number of different
ways to accomplish one outcome.
Especially in Techland, right?
Like you, there's lots of differentways to get to the answer.
And a lot of times, the way thatwe used to get to the answer was,

(04:51):
I have experience with this, or,someone else has experience with this.
Or we can do some customblah, blah, blah, right?
So everyone comes froma different perspective.
So my developer is going to have acompletely different way that they're
going to look at it than the way that I'mgoing to look at it, because I'm looking
at it from a different lens than he is.
But, when we can put it into ChatGPTand be like, okay, so what is the

(05:14):
most simple, the easiest, the leastexpensive, whatever your criteria
is, for how to accomplish this?
Then you can start looking at it fromthe different perspectives without
that communication barrier, right?
And so I love to use ChatGPTfor this purpose and diving

(05:37):
into those if/then statements.
So what was really cool is what we endedup doing was we put in our parameters,
we put in our inputs, and said, ifthis happens, then we want this to
happen, what is the most streamlined andeffective path to go from here to here?
What we got from that wholeexperience was something that was

(06:00):
much more simple than we had evenanticipated at the beginning.
And so it's so exciting when you thinkabout, not only, like, how do you leverage
if/then statements, because ,they'resuper powerful in everything that you do.
If you're struggling to make adecision, if you're struggling to
figure out how something works,put it in an if/then statement.

(06:21):
I promise you, it will help you.
Even old school, this is the waythat I work a lot of times, is I'll
grab a piece of paper and I'll belike, if, and then, a blank line,
and then, and then a blank line.
And then I can start putting invarious scenarios to try and get what
is in my head and download it outinto something that, can be usable.

(06:44):
And then if you have other peopledo that, then everyone is putting
their own lens through the problem.
And then you can starthaving the conversation.
So I had a conversation with mydeveloper and he said, and, you
know, let's do it like this.
I had a conversation with anotherdeveloper who was working on a
different part of the project,and he said let's do it like this.

(07:04):
I put it in front of somebody elsewho is more like a systems person,
a project management person,and she said, do it like this.
Then I put it down and Icame up with do it like this.
And then we put all of those scenariosinto ChatGPT and said, okay, so look
at these scenarios and then decipherbased on how this works, what is

(07:26):
the most simplified easy and theleast you know, complicated approach
using this specific tech stack.
Tell us how we would do that.
And it came back and it was like,oh my gosh, that is amazing because
it was completely different than allof the responses that we all had.

(07:51):
But what it did is it putit all together, right?
And it said, okay, based on yourrequirements, based on what you
want, based on what's available,
here's the best approach to do that.
And then the cool thing around that,other than how cool it was that we got
to that outcome of what we could do.
And I will tell you that even the twodevelopers I talked to, both of them

(08:14):
were like, oh, that's really complicated.
I just don't know if we can do that,
blah, blah, blah.
And then what actually got spit out wasjust a lot more simple because we didn't,
like the system didn't have all thegarbage in our head of all of the things.
I've done it this way, and I've doneit that way, and I think I can do this
way, and I think I can do that way.
And the system doesn't have that, right?
And so it was able to reallycreate something that was much

(08:37):
more streamlined than any ofus could come up with separate.
Then, what happened is that thenyou can say, okay, great, now put
together a step by step guide, andyou can say a non technical step by
step guide, and give me all the thingsthat, that we need to do step by step,
like in an SOP, very specific aroundimplementing this particular approach.

(09:02):
Super.
Then it goes through and it does that.
It's all organized, it'sall formatted, it's great.
So then you have that, and then you canhand that off to the person who's gonna
be doing the work and that they havea now a step-by-step path to follow.
Now, the best part about all of this isall of that work got condensed into a

(09:24):
very small window of time so that insteadof taking, days and weeks and months and
sometimes longer to build things, we'reable to build them very quickly, very
easily and in a way that minimized theamount of complexity, minimized the cost,

(09:44):
and allowed us to have something that wasscalable without being so totally randomly
crazy that it was too complicated.
And and again we have the skills, we havethe expertise to be able to look at it
from that filter and say, oh yeah, thatmakes sense, that's how we would do that.

(10:06):
And and that is, in fact,the best way to do it.
So don't just trust ChatGPT that they'regoing to tell you the best way, but
put it through then back through thelens of, poking holes in it to make
sure that it is the right approach.
And so that if/then statement, matchingit with the simplicity of having a tool

(10:28):
that helps just take all of the mess thatwe, our brains bring to a project and
put it into a succinct format and then beable to quickly give those instructions
to yourself or to other people,
will help you so much as you'rebuilding things and moving
forward in your business.

(10:49):
And so if you are in that placewhere everything feels a little
overwhelming, and you're stuck inyour head, I do totally 100 percent
recommend that you use ChatGPT assort of your filter for simplifying.
And it could even justbe like, hey, ChatGPT,
mine has a name, maybe yours has aname, I don't know, but hey, ChatGPT,

(11:12):
take all of these random thoughtsand organize them for me into some,
pattern so that I can move forward.
And see what that does for you becausethe number one reason why we don't move
forward is because we're overwhelmedin our heads with all of the things.

(11:34):
And so let ChatGPT organize those for you.
And for those of you who are like,oh, AI is taking our lives and we
shouldn't be using it for anything.
I'm telling you that you don't need touse it to write something for you, but
using it to do this will so help youjust stay connected and unoverwhelmed.

(11:55):
We'll use that as a word so thatyou can keep moving forward.
So go use it.
Let me know how it goes.
I would love to get your feedbackon that and how you have used it
to move you forward with something.
All right, thank you so much forbeing here for this episode.
In the meantime, if you like this episode,go give it a a subscribe, do all the

(12:20):
things, no matter where you're watching.
I appreciate you so much andwe will talk to you next week.