What if the reason your business feels scattered isn’t a lack of effort but a lack of clarity? In this episode of the Leading Visionaries, host Anjel B. Hartwell sits down with Clare Treston, strategic planning consultant and author of The Where and The Why, endorsed by professors at Wharton and London Business School. Clare shares her proven framework for turning complex, overwhelming strategies into one clear, powerful “moonshot” goal that aligns your entire team and drives real results.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re doing too much without real traction, this conversation will help you refocus, realign, and move forward with confidence.

What You Will Learn

How to simplify a complex business vision into one clear and actionable goal that aligns an entire team.

Why most companies lose momentum when their strategy becomes too overwhelming or unclear.

How to apply the STARS framework to define a powerful and focused “moonshot” goal.

Why a strong sense of purpose drives motivation and keeps teams engaged through challenges.

How co-creating a vision with a team leads to stronger buy-in and better long-term results.

FAQ:

What is a moonshot goal in business?

A moonshot goal is a bold, ambitious objective that feels about 80% impossible and 20% possible, designed to push a team beyond normal thinking and unlock creativity, alignment, and growth.

What does the STARS framework stand for?

STARS stands for Stretch, Tangible, Aspirational, Relevant, and Singular, which are the key criteria used to define a powerful and effective moonshot goal.

How do you get team buy-in for a big vision?

Buy-in is strongest when the vision is co-created with the team, allowing everyone to contribute, feel ownership, and stay committed to the outcome.

Connect with Clare Treston

The Where and The Why

Book: The Where and The Why

Leading Visionaries Podcast

Join the Leading Visionaries Community

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LVP 130 Clare

Now here's your host, Anjel b Hardwell.

Anjel: Welcome to another episode of the Leading Visionaries Podcast, where we celebrate the ingenious, insightful, innovative, and inspired leading visionaries of our time, and provide our listeners with world-class examples of the kind of courage, clarity, and confidence it takes to bring visions into reality.

Over eight years. She's done this with. 270 plus Australian businesses from Outback agribusinesses to AI startups with teams reporting average improvements of 34% in culture, 30% in growth, and 18% in revenue. Claire believes the best strategy fits on a poster, not in a hundred page document. I'm so excited to have you here.

Welcome to the show, Claire.

Clare: Thank you so much for having me, Anjel. Hump to be here.

And if it was a growing into it, it would be helpful for you to let us know, like the circumstances of that.

Clare: Sure. I've been reflecting on this lately and I think it's actually when I was growing up, I did a lot of visual art and I also studied art at university. And I think similar to you, I'm a creative person and, uh, having vision is about seeing before doing I think.

So it's about being able to. Have that idea or have that vision of what you are going to do. And, um, you know, it's like putting lines onto a page and it may not be exactly what you envision, but it's gonna be pretty close to it. And then I guess that sort of transitioned into my business work where it's it's not a, a.

Anjel: Yeah. Beautiful. Well, I think visual art is very right-brained, generally speaking.

And I know in my own art experience, I don't even see it before it comes out when I'm making art, it's just kind of coming through me flows as opposed to getting, although occasionally I have done things that were more vision first. Most of my art is, is pretty abstract, so, but it does turn on that part of the brain, so.

Clare: Correct. Yes. And the idea of distilling that big vision down to just one statement, which is the moonshot, is the idea that every single person in the company can remember what that is and literally have it on a poster where everyone can see it all the time, every day. So I, yeah, I mean, to get it down to that one statement is an art and it takes.

You know, half a day at least to do that is a process that I go through with the team. Uh, but if you can do that, it's enormously powerful because it provides crystal focus and everybody can work towards it together, track progress towards it, celebrate successes, and make decisions and not get distracted or confused.

So if you can get it absolutely right and perfect for your team, it can be immensely powerful.

How do you sell the idea when they already have their a hundred page document that they think is their vision?

Clare: Yeah, well, it's actually, um, mainly it's through, in like referrals through my network of coaches and that sort of thing because they, they can see a founder or a leader particularly, or a team that lack focus is usually the trigger.

And it's not only the, where it's not only the goal, it's also the why. So I also provide a clear purpose statement. So on the same PUR poster that has the. Moonshot. There's also the why. So, which is the rocket fuel that will get them to that destination. Uh, because the moonshot, it's usually, you know, crazy, it's 80% impossible.

So it's a real stretch target. So it's really hard for the team to pursue. So they need to have that, the why, the passion to get to that goal as well. So I define those two statements. So the poster is the where and the why. The moonshot destination and the rocket fuel. So there's two statements on one poster, and and that's the plan?

Yep.

What would you suggest that they do to at least start if they can't immediately, you know, onboard somebody like you to start to com compress that vision or distill that vision a little bit?

Clare: Yeah, absolutely. And that's the process that I go through is you get the big vision. Which is great. Um, and 'cause you need, you do need some meat on the bones, you need the big vision and, but just distilling it down to a moonshot is really helpful.

It should be tangible. So it's measurable, it should be aspirational. So it's really exciting for the team. So you get that kind of, um, energy and excitement. Um, it should be relevant. So that's the 20% possible part. So it's within the realms of possibility. And then it should be singular. So it's that one goal.

So you can look at the vision and look at things that might meet that criteria and things that that strike a chord with. Your team. So you do it collaboratively with the team. You get the vision out, you go through it, you have the Stars criteria. Um, and then also in my book I have, defined eight types of moonshots that can be considered.

Yeah, so. It's horses for courses, I guess. Beautiful. So the Stars criteria was stretch, 80% impossible, 20% possible. Tangible meaning it's measurable, aspirational, so that the team gets all excited. Relevant, which is the 20% possibility. And the last SI did not get What was the last S? Singular. Singular.

It's singular, yes. So it's just that one big, chunky, exciting goal so that people don't get confused. Yeah. Beautiful. And so I'd like to talk a little bit about how we. As leaders, you know, people like you and the people that you're working with, the leaders who are then, you know, bringing this moonshot, this, this vision into this distillation.

Clare: So I usually recommend a three year moonshot because it's far enough away, but also close enough. So that we do a launch party, so, you know, similar to a space shuttle launch. So, um, you know, have it space themed and, but yeah, you need to induct the team into what that is. But also in per the purpose statement as well.

And they do it much quicker than they think as well. So yeah, having a big launch sort of party and getting everyone excited and onboard is a really important step in the process.

Anjel: So help me understand why 80% impossible.

Clare: So one of my clients, how you describes it as it lifts your horizon. So, because your sort of every day, day to day and even with, you know, quarterly goals or yearly goals, you sort of.

In the middle of, of COVID. So it was really ambitious. So for example, to get to that goal, [00:12:00] it was crazy big. So one of the things is they acquired another ticketing agency which they never would've considered doing before. So it's just that kind of lifting the horizon and thinking a bit bigger and thinking further than the day to day or the year to year.

And it just, it makes you think a bit creatively as well. So it's sort of, um. And the original moon landing, you know, the original moonshot goal, that's what the employees described as. They were really creative and resourceful because they had to, but then they all worked together and you know, they were like, oh my goodness, we've gotta get this crazy goal.

So they all worked and collaborated and invented things that didn't exist before because they had to get this. Amazing goal. So it just, it gets that energy and excitement and gets everybody working together and thinking creatively and, um, yeah. It just, it changes the energy in the business.

Anjel: Totally.

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Anjel: And we are back with Claire Trustin. You can find out more about her at the where and the why.com and um, she has a book. Make your team happy and successful by crafting a clear moonshot and purpose, the where and the why by Clear Trustin. And, uh, thank you for sending us a copy of that, Claire. I'm looking forward to getting even deeper into it than I already hear.

You're

Anjel: Yeah. Thank you so much. So before we went to the break, we were talking a lot about vision and about how you help people. Now what I'd like to do is really. Turn back to you because part of what we want to do here with this show is help other people who are listening to understand that they too can bring their vision into reality.

So I'd love to have a, a little bit of a conversation with you about your own vision for your own business. Like where did that precipitate from and what allowed you to say, yes, I want to do that.

Clare: Thank you. Yeah, well, I'm very fortunate to have an opportunity through my business to contract to the Australian government, uh, which you outlined at the start, um, which gives me access to hundreds of companies all over Australia, all types of businesses, every industry.

So, I think it was four years ago, I set my moonshot goal was to make 5,000 businesses happy and successful. And so, for example, that's quite hard to do for one person. So, but. It enabled me to frame that and say, okay, well what, what are ways that I could do that? So that's the good thing about having a, a goal, a clear moonshot goal.

Then you work back from that is the how. Okay, how would I do that? So then I say. I could do an online course, or I could do you know, speaking or, you know, you think of different ways you could do that. And I ultimately came to, I'm gonna write a book. So that's a way that I could reach 5,000 businesses, for example.

So again, you, you set the goal and then you work out the how. So you you set that goal and then you think about all the different ways that you could do that. And I call that building the rocket. So, um, you've got the, the moonshot goal is the destination, the purpose is the rocket fuel. Which for me, it's using creativity to make people happy and successful.

And then the rocket is, okay, what are the ways that I could do that? Yeah, so that's my personal vision

Clare: I think it's mainly because I know the impact that this has. So if people, if teams do have this, and, you know, you talked about the statistics earlier particularly culture improvement is 34% improvement in culture in within eight months. So in, I talked to someone recently and they said a hundred percent, you know, it's it improves the culture so dramatically, uh, just by doing this process because the whole team.

So, yeah, for me.

Anjel: Beautiful. Well, we've talked a lot about vision. Now I wanna talk about leadership because you are one of the leading visionaries that is leading other visionaries, right? And so I'd love to have you speak a little bit about your own leadership journey. Where are some of the areas where you feel like you.

Did well in your leadership or are doing well in your leadership and, and where are some of the areas where, you know, that I could probably do a little bit better there?

Clare: Um, you mentioned London Business School earlier. Um, so there's a professor there. So I actually did a one week course there so maybe about 10 years now.

And this pack had all of these beautiful stories that friends and family had written about, uh, yourself. It was, um, really emotional actually. But through that it helped me to realize what my strengths were. And so I basically got all of the stories out and read them and looked for common themes and the sort of themes that are my strengths.

So the things was fun and creativity and, um, you know, getting, getting stuff done and, you know, bringing people with me. And so it is really powerful to actually understand what your strengths are and then, you know, which people don't per perhaps think of fun and creativity as a leadership trait.

Ad: Mm-hmm.

Clare: Um, yeah. And then I guess areas for improvement. Um. I guess, I mean, in my current role it's, it's being, I am a little bit isolated, so it's getting, you know, having those reg regular coaching and check-ins and those sort of things, um, for myself, but also for the people that I coach as well.

Anjel: Yeah.

Beautiful. So just having that,

Clare: yeah.

Anjel: I love that you brought that in because I think a lot of people mistakenly think that putting themselves last is, is. The way to go. And really, if you are the visionary and you are the leader, you need to put yourself first. You, you're the golden goose of your business.

What else do you do to show up for yourself?

Clare: The number one thing I do every day is I go for a swim. So, um, I live near a national park, so, and there's a. A reservoir, like a, a natural lake there. So I love just going there every single day and having a swim and, you know, with the birds and the turtles and the fish and, um, so yeah, that's my number one priority.

Um, every single day is a nice big swim. Yeah.

And who do you want to come to your website to buy this book to potentially engage your services?

Clare: Absolutely, it's universal. Uh, and that's why it's so powerful. Uh, and it's not just for, for-profit businesses as well. It's absolutely applicable for not-for-profit. And there's some really practical, like every single example in my book, there's a real life story.

So yeah, so it's, I mean. As I mentioned at the start, it's every business, every industry. I've had such a diversity, um, which is such a privilege, and I've got so much data and I've been able to categorize. I think it's the first time it's ever been done in the world is categorize types of moonshots because I've got so much data.

Anjel: Beautiful. Favorite, favorite, favorite success story?

Clare: Okay, so in the book, so there's one of my clients who, they're called Tech for Good.

So they. Used to be called something different. So it's a technology reseller, so computer hardware. So I did a workshop with them and they. Discovered their purpose, which was Tech for Good. And they literally shut down their whole business and started a new business called Tech for Good. And they're a B corporation last year on their, their Australian Financial Review fast starters list.

Anjel: Beautiful.

Last question, because I always like to talk about buy-in, right? I like to talk about enrollment. I like to talk about getting buy-in from everybody. What is your favorite thing to support buy-in? I, I'm guessing you're gonna say creativity and fun, but like, do you have a particular, a particular thing that you bring to the table to get buy-in from all of the stakeholders?

Clare: Absolutely. So the process, when I workshop this, and I, I mean I go through in the book how to do that yourself is doing it as a co-creation exercise. So this is not sort of a top down, this is a. It's a collaborative process, so the vision, for example, I encourage everybody to contribute towards that.

Anjel: Beautiful. Well bring all your people together. Yes. And go to the wear and the y.com. To find out more about working with Claire. Thanks again, Claire, for being with me today. And listeners, we do love feedback. Please let us know what you thought of today's show by joining our community, sharing your takeaways, asking questions, or submitting guest suggestions.

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