“Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.”
— Dwight D. Eisenhower
I know I’m a little late dropping this week’s issue, but with good reason.
I spent most of the week in Boulder at Iterate.ai’s IterateOn AI Symposium, surrounded by some of the who’s who in AI — founders, technologists, and innovators all debating how AI is changing the future of business.
It was one of those rare events where every conversation could’ve been its own keynote. We talked about Agentic AI, data security, automation, and how companies are already using AI to rewrite how they operate.
It was inspiring and reminded me that growth planning for 2026 isn’t just about setting budgets. It’s about designing systems that can adapt as fast as the world changes.
So while I got a little out of rhythm this week, I didn’t forget about you — and I’ve got something big for you today.
What You’ll Get in Chaos to Grow
• The 5 pillars every 2026 growth plan needs
• How to align affiliate, creator, and performance under one system
• Why Q4 is the time to design, not just deliver
• The AI-driven planning framework we’re using at Chief of Chaos
From the Trenches: How to Build Your 2026 Growth Operating Plan
Start With the Operating Model, Not the Budget
Most brands start planning by asking, “What can we afford?”
The better question is, “What machine do we need to hit next year’s goals?”
Define the operating system first, then fund it.
What to include:
• Target revenue, margin, and CAC goals
• The levers that drive them: media, partnerships, retention, tech
• Who owns what (internal vs. agency vs. automation)
When you build from the model up, the budget becomes a lever, not a limiter.
Bake in Partnerships From Day One
Affiliate and creator programs shouldn’t be what’s left of the budget. They should be a core growth driver.
Why? Because partnerships scale profitably.
Build your plan to include:
• Forecasted incremental revenue from affiliate and partnership channels
• Headcount and agency support (like ChiefofChaos.com) to manage them properly
• Expansion into new partner types such as creators, media outlets, loyalty, and tech partners
Integrate Media and Partnerships
In 2026, the wall between paid media and affiliate is gone.
When both teams work toward the same calendar, message, and KPIs, you get unified campaigns, shared data visibility, and smarter attribution.
Less finger-pointing. More clarity.
Integration is the new efficiency.
Make AI the Backbone of the System
If your 2026 plan doesn’t include AI, it’s already outdated.
AI isn’t a tactic anymore, it’s infrastructure.
Use it to automate affiliate recruitment and scoring, personalize offers at scale, predict next month’s partner ROI, and summarize client performance and insights weekly.
We’ve started building AI agents at Chief of Chaos using Iterate.ai’s Interplay platform that do exactly this, and they’re already saving us hundreds of hours a month.
Move From Annual Plans to Rolling 90-Day Growth Sprints
Annual plans look great in Q4 and fall apart by February.
Instead, run your growth plan like a startup: 90 days at a time.
Every quarter, ask what worked, what didn’t, what changed in the market, and where to double down.
The brands that survive chaos are the ones that evolve in real time.
Your Weekly Chaos Challenge
Pull up your 2025 plan and ask yourself:
Is this a real operating system, or just a list of ideas with numbers attached?
If it’s the latter, you’ve got 60 days to fix it.
Start building your 2026 framework now while your competitors are still waiting for January to panic.
The Chief of Chaos Growth Planning Framework
At Chief of Chaos, we design full Growth Operating Plans that bring order to the madness.
We combine revenue and margin modeling, affiliate and partnership forecasts, AI-driven automation, role clarity and resource alignment, and real-time optimization and reporting loops.
We don’t just plan growth. We engineer it.
Want our 2026 Growth Operating Plan Template?
Comment “GROWTH PLAN” or DM me and I’ll send it over.
Final Thought
Attending the IterateOn AI Symposium reminded me how fast this world is changing and how easy it is for good brands to get left behind simply because they didn’t plan for what’s next.
2026 will reward the ones who are building systems now — flexible, AI-assisted, partnership-powered systems that can adapt, scale, and grow through chaos.
Don’t wait for January to figure it out.
Start building your future-proof machine today.
—Matt Frary
Chief of Chaos
