WEBVTT NOTE This file was generated by Descript 00:00:00.900 --> 00:00:03.639 Mark Butler: Hi, this is Mark Butler and you are listening 00:00:04.249 --> 00:00:06.580 to a podcast for coaches. 00:00:08.680 --> 00:00:15.940 I seem to be a person who, instead of having a business or a career 00:00:15.960 --> 00:00:18.030 in the more traditional sense. 00:00:18.785 --> 00:00:26.485 I seem to be a person who occasionally spins up a new side hustle, and then 00:00:27.265 --> 00:00:33.365 the accumulated or the total income from these side hustles provides our 00:00:33.365 --> 00:00:35.615 family with a life and a lifestyle. 00:00:37.825 --> 00:00:43.955 I'm not sure what I think of that on the one hand, I'm pretty happy life is good. 00:00:43.955 --> 00:00:51.175 I have the things I value most, which are autonomy and creative freedom. 00:00:52.795 --> 00:00:59.895 On the other hand, I don't have what I perceive to be some of the 00:00:59.905 --> 00:01:02.224 compounding benefits that accrue. 00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:11.590 To peers of mine, friends of mine whom I've watched build businesses, 00:01:11.880 --> 00:01:15.340 careers in the more traditional sense. 00:01:17.149 --> 00:01:21.120 And so nothing's ever simple, right? 00:01:21.139 --> 00:01:24.489 I want to be careful not to be too reductive in my observations 00:01:24.489 --> 00:01:25.979 of my own life or of theirs. 00:01:27.589 --> 00:01:34.329 But I do sit here and look over there and see what looks like green grass. 00:01:35.029 --> 00:01:36.499 And I think it probably is green grass. 00:01:36.809 --> 00:01:38.959 Of course we know the way life works. 00:01:38.969 --> 00:01:42.919 And if I went over to that green grass, I'd look back and find that 00:01:42.919 --> 00:01:44.719 where I was has green grass too. 00:01:44.719 --> 00:01:45.099 So. 00:01:46.054 --> 00:01:49.524 These realizations, these explorations, they don't mean that 00:01:49.524 --> 00:01:52.494 anything is going particularly wrong. 00:01:53.374 --> 00:01:58.254 What they mean is I have an opportunity to explore and analyze and consider 00:01:58.254 --> 00:02:06.454 whether my way of being would benefit from some tweaks that would allow me to 00:02:06.454 --> 00:02:13.894 keep being me and maybe accrue some of the rewards, the compounding rewards. 00:02:14.190 --> 00:02:18.209 That I see other people experiencing. 00:02:19.559 --> 00:02:21.569 Could I go on the way I am forever? 00:02:23.159 --> 00:02:26.669 I've told you before in this podcast that I can imagine myself being 80 years old, 00:02:27.229 --> 00:02:30.979 and on a Tuesday morning waking up and saying, yep, I've got six calls today with 00:02:30.979 --> 00:02:34.599 clients looking forward to catching up with them and seeing how I can help today. 00:02:36.280 --> 00:02:41.510 I look at my bookkeeping business and most of my job in my bookkeeping business is 00:02:42.910 --> 00:02:44.830 programming software, building tools that. 00:02:45.170 --> 00:02:46.970 Make my bookkeeping more automated. 00:02:47.930 --> 00:02:50.150 That seems to be an itch I continue. 00:02:50.150 --> 00:02:50.980 Enjoy scratching. 00:02:52.580 --> 00:02:56.540 , I've opened the office hours membership now, and that's where I get to 00:02:56.550 --> 00:02:58.500 be a teacher and a facilitator. 00:02:59.730 --> 00:03:01.789 And that's a job I love. 00:03:03.380 --> 00:03:06.439 I said to Kate the other day, I think part of the reason I'm opening 00:03:06.439 --> 00:03:11.109 office hours is because I do have a deep down desire to be a school 00:03:11.109 --> 00:03:12.689 teacher, like a high school teacher. 00:03:14.015 --> 00:03:16.755 But being a high school teacher doesn't really fit in our life. 00:03:16.795 --> 00:03:22.654 And so instead I open up a membership called office hours and it lets me be a 00:03:22.655 --> 00:03:26.425 teacher and I've loved teaching for ever. 00:03:26.795 --> 00:03:28.325 And I think I will continue to love it. 00:03:29.055 --> 00:03:31.425 So none of these things need to go away. 00:03:32.945 --> 00:03:36.774 It may be true that none of them even need to significantly change. 00:03:37.885 --> 00:03:39.565 I would probably benefit. 00:03:40.680 --> 00:03:43.599 This is most likely the understatement of the century. 00:03:44.229 --> 00:03:51.529 I would probably benefit from looking farther out into the future 00:03:54.190 --> 00:03:59.059 and figuring out how today's activities relate to that future reality, 00:03:59.649 --> 00:04:04.619 because I tend to be a person who just says, what are we doing today? 00:04:05.069 --> 00:04:06.519 And maybe what are we doing tomorrow? 00:04:06.519 --> 00:04:07.769 And maybe what are we doing next week? 00:04:08.310 --> 00:04:11.179 But for the most part, it's just sort of, what are we doing today? 00:04:11.320 --> 00:04:13.229 What problem is there to be solved today? 00:04:13.640 --> 00:04:17.810 What thing is there to be made today that could be kind of fun and interesting. 00:04:18.719 --> 00:04:24.249 But I don't tend to think in terms of where am I headed and how am I headed 00:04:24.250 --> 00:04:25.939 there and why am I headed there? 00:04:26.569 --> 00:04:29.539 And so I'm trying to figure out, all right, what do I tweak here? 00:04:30.279 --> 00:04:32.209 I think I need a better system for tracking. 00:04:33.799 --> 00:04:39.359 I think I want a system that helps me understand how my recent activity 00:04:40.019 --> 00:04:43.229 relates to my long term goals. 00:04:43.999 --> 00:04:48.159 Now this is one on one level stuff that your favorite business coach would 00:04:48.159 --> 00:04:53.189 have talked about on her podcast and webinars and courses and whatever else. 00:04:53.199 --> 00:04:55.239 And of course I will fully ignore all of it. 00:04:56.014 --> 00:05:05.244 Um, but I'm thinking about how having a longer term goal or set of goals and 00:05:05.244 --> 00:05:08.314 understanding exactly how they relate to my personal mission and priorities, 00:05:09.644 --> 00:05:15.084 and then measuring my performance and my results against those longterm priorities 00:05:15.544 --> 00:05:16.934 would have a positive effect on me. 00:05:18.304 --> 00:05:23.284 It's so funny to say all that out loud, because again, this feels 00:05:23.284 --> 00:05:26.004 like one of those things that everybody else knows, but I don't. 00:05:27.134 --> 00:05:30.314 And I'm sure not everybody else knows it, but I can name a few 00:05:30.314 --> 00:05:31.974 people who clearly know it. 00:05:32.034 --> 00:05:37.524 And so they probably loom large in my mind as having figured it all out. 00:05:38.014 --> 00:05:41.444 And then I'm making them a proxy for all of the rest of humanity. 00:05:41.824 --> 00:05:45.254 And so it, it can have this effect where you put yourself on an Island all alone 00:05:45.254 --> 00:05:46.694 and say, well, everyone else has it. 00:05:46.694 --> 00:05:50.814 And I don't, Oh, well, I guess it'll all work out or not. 00:05:51.174 --> 00:05:54.344 And of course that's not, I mean, it will all work out or not, but I 00:05:54.345 --> 00:05:58.149 think It's not practical to say that I'm the only one who hasn't figured 00:05:58.149 --> 00:06:05.159 out how to relate today's activity to a long term vision for my life. 00:06:06.599 --> 00:06:09.719 So today I've got myself thinking, well, what would I measure? 00:06:10.859 --> 00:06:15.509 What would I measure as a way of checking in with today's activities, 00:06:15.869 --> 00:06:17.409 specifically my coaching practice? 00:06:17.409 --> 00:06:21.439 We'll just limit it to that one sort of Mark side hustle called coaching. 00:06:21.449 --> 00:06:22.999 Cause that's what this podcast is about. 00:06:22.999 --> 00:06:28.719 What would I measure in my coaching practice that would have a clear relevance 00:06:28.719 --> 00:06:30.469 and importance to my vision for my life? 00:06:31.489 --> 00:06:32.099 Here's what I got. 00:06:32.119 --> 00:06:32.899 I'll share it with you. 00:06:33.569 --> 00:06:38.919 , those of you who know me best know that this whole set of ideas may barely 00:06:38.919 --> 00:06:41.009 survive the completion of this episode, 00:06:43.369 --> 00:06:48.489 which then leads me to a thought of, uh, it's really probably time to hire some 00:06:48.489 --> 00:06:53.949 sort of an assistant, someone who Plug these holes in my skills and my thinking. 00:06:55.609 --> 00:06:55.869 Okay. 00:06:55.869 --> 00:06:56.639 Quick tangent. 00:06:58.184 --> 00:07:01.774 I don't want you to email me an offer to be my assistant, not because I think 00:07:01.774 --> 00:07:03.424 that you're deficient in some way. 00:07:04.014 --> 00:07:08.644 It's because I have no confidence in myself at this point to productively 00:07:08.664 --> 00:07:13.994 engage any assistant, no matter how qualified, capable and brilliant. 00:07:15.724 --> 00:07:18.674 And also if you email me, that's just one more email I'm not responding to. 00:07:18.854 --> 00:07:20.044 So let's just let it settle. 00:07:20.044 --> 00:07:20.994 Let's just let it breathe. 00:07:21.394 --> 00:07:23.044 If an assistant happens, it happens. 00:07:23.234 --> 00:07:24.464 And if not, whatever. 00:07:25.829 --> 00:07:28.189 I have actually reached out to a friend though, and I've asked that 00:07:28.189 --> 00:07:33.399 friend to coach me in becoming a person who could hire a person. 00:07:34.319 --> 00:07:37.509 I think that would be, boy, that would be a big win. 00:07:38.639 --> 00:07:39.099 Anyway. 00:07:39.439 --> 00:07:44.569 So even acknowledging that maybe these ideas won't survive past the 00:07:44.569 --> 00:07:48.349 end of this episode, I think it's a worthwhile thought experiment and I 00:07:48.349 --> 00:07:49.949 think I'm better off for having done it. 00:07:50.449 --> 00:07:53.679 And then I think it's execution, will bubble into my life in some way. 00:07:54.339 --> 00:07:56.839 So here's what I'm thinking about tracking in my coaching 00:07:56.839 --> 00:08:00.579 practice as a way of improving it. 00:08:02.179 --> 00:08:05.539 And as a way of more fully living the values that I have that caused me to 00:08:05.539 --> 00:08:06.909 be in coaching in the first place. 00:08:07.249 --> 00:08:07.549 Okay. 00:08:07.609 --> 00:08:07.979 Here we go. 00:08:09.689 --> 00:08:12.659 I think I could be tracking. 00:08:13.134 --> 00:08:19.734 The actual revenue collected in my coaching practice and The revenue owed 00:08:19.774 --> 00:08:24.724 to me in my coaching practice now You're laughing because I own a bookkeeping 00:08:24.724 --> 00:08:29.024 business and what I do is I track people's revenue for them And yes, I 00:08:29.024 --> 00:08:31.994 do actually have my revenue tracked. 00:08:32.174 --> 00:08:32.904 Of course I do. 00:08:33.234 --> 00:08:38.129 I don't let that fall behind What I'm talking about here is not just 00:08:38.139 --> 00:08:42.769 tracking it, but making it available to myself in a way that's so quick and 00:08:42.769 --> 00:08:47.389 so easy that there's really no friction between me and knowing my number. 00:08:48.029 --> 00:08:52.199 Now, I may still only look at it every three, four, six weeks, but 00:08:52.269 --> 00:08:55.949 any amount of friction between me and that number will make it less likely 00:08:55.949 --> 00:09:00.379 for me to look at it and less likely, therefore, for me to benefit from it. 00:09:01.739 --> 00:09:05.734 So just a number that says, This is how many dollars I've collected 00:09:05.734 --> 00:09:08.664 in 2024 from my coaching practice. 00:09:08.665 --> 00:09:15.734 And here's how many dollars my existing coaching relationships will be paying 00:09:15.734 --> 00:09:18.434 me by agreement in the months to come. 00:09:19.384 --> 00:09:21.164 So that looks like, Oh yeah. 00:09:21.164 --> 00:09:23.174 And in November, this client's going to pay. 00:09:23.174 --> 00:09:26.074 And in December that client's going to pay and et cetera. 00:09:27.614 --> 00:09:30.764 Just so I have a little bit of a dashboard about, how much money is already here 00:09:30.764 --> 00:09:31.854 and how much money is on its way. 00:09:33.214 --> 00:09:37.834 This is the easiest, simplest, and I think very useful thing for me to be 00:09:37.834 --> 00:09:40.564 tracking,, and looking at regularly. 00:09:42.124 --> 00:09:44.844 I, of course, would also want to look at how my time is being 00:09:44.844 --> 00:09:46.425 occupied by the coaching practice. 00:09:46.854 --> 00:09:49.714 You've heard me talk about inventory, and some of you have thanked me 00:09:49.714 --> 00:09:53.165 for this idea, this concept of inventory, and I like it too. 00:09:54.064 --> 00:09:57.474 I think it would be even more powerful if I tracked it in any way. 00:09:57.535 --> 00:10:02.884 Um, if I looked at like my friend, Melissa, who, who you've heard on this 00:10:02.905 --> 00:10:08.165 podcast before, Melissa has this tool that she uses to track capacity in her practice 00:10:08.165 --> 00:10:12.984 and in her clients practice where she can look at, this is how many hours are in the 00:10:12.984 --> 00:10:15.104 calendar that could be used for coaching. 00:10:16.334 --> 00:10:19.664 And this is how many hours that are actually being used for coaching , we 00:10:19.664 --> 00:10:21.244 could call this a utilization. 00:10:21.894 --> 00:10:25.684 So in Mark Butler's coaching practice, what is his utilization? 00:10:26.264 --> 00:10:29.674 Meaning of all the hours that are available for coaching, how 00:10:29.674 --> 00:10:31.224 many are being used for coaching? 00:10:33.624 --> 00:10:37.454 That would be a useful number for me to track over time because if that 00:10:37.454 --> 00:10:42.634 number is trending downward, however, slowly, that's important information. 00:10:42.714 --> 00:10:46.634 Also, if that number is trending upward, however, slowly, that's 00:10:46.634 --> 00:10:48.555 important information to the business. 00:10:49.844 --> 00:10:53.814 As one on one coaches, we are in a session based hourly business. 00:10:55.079 --> 00:10:58.089 Which is why I don't usually call it a business because it's a practice. 00:10:58.149 --> 00:11:00.249 , it's a technician's practice. 00:11:01.209 --> 00:11:05.089 And if I don't have any idea what my utilization is or what the 00:11:05.089 --> 00:11:10.119 trend in my utilization is, then I could be caught off guard when 00:11:10.129 --> 00:11:12.149 suddenly money starts to feel tight. 00:11:12.229 --> 00:11:17.349 And I'm not sure why, because maybe my emotional sense, my vague 00:11:17.359 --> 00:11:20.669 sense of how things are going is generally positive, which it is. 00:11:21.779 --> 00:11:26.099 But maybe the indicators aren't there to support my good 00:11:26.099 --> 00:11:27.749 expectations, my positive outlook. 00:11:28.049 --> 00:11:33.509 Maybe my utilization is trending downward, which means I've got a problem to solve 00:11:33.509 --> 00:11:37.299 in my coaching practice if I want my coaching practice to contribute in a 00:11:37.299 --> 00:11:39.259 meaningful way, to my family's finances. 00:11:39.849 --> 00:11:41.319 So I'm calling that utilization. 00:11:41.589 --> 00:11:46.779 How much coaching capacity do I have and how much of it is actually being occupied. 00:11:47.079 --> 00:11:48.069 By paying clients. 00:11:49.199 --> 00:11:54.089 Now there's another piece here to utilization that sometimes I acknowledge 00:11:54.639 --> 00:11:59.599 and oftentimes I don't want to acknowledge because there can be some discomfort 00:11:59.759 --> 00:12:01.429 for me in what I'm about to tell you. 00:12:02.459 --> 00:12:03.489 And it is this 00:12:06.179 --> 00:12:10.276 in any given month, I can look at the amount of money that I 00:12:10.276 --> 00:12:11.534 collect from paying clients. 00:12:12.304 --> 00:12:17.654 And I can use that money as a buffer or as a boon to my mental 00:12:17.654 --> 00:12:18.864 state and my emotional state. 00:12:19.004 --> 00:12:19.564 It's a hack. 00:12:19.584 --> 00:12:22.064 It's a crutch to be able to say, Oh, look, some people paid me. 00:12:22.064 --> 00:12:23.764 So I guess all is well in the world. 00:12:24.624 --> 00:12:25.874 And that's not totally untrue. 00:12:25.874 --> 00:12:28.014 Collecting money is a positive thing in my practice. 00:12:29.514 --> 00:12:32.234 I can also look at my calendar and I can say, Oh, look at all 00:12:32.234 --> 00:12:33.684 these appointments on my calendar. 00:12:33.694 --> 00:12:35.244 Look how well things are going. 00:12:35.604 --> 00:12:38.214 I can say that I'm full or I'm close to full. 00:12:38.804 --> 00:12:44.314 That's also a boon to my psyche., but there's a number that represents 00:12:44.324 --> 00:12:47.164 where the rubber really meets the road in a coaching practice. 00:12:47.164 --> 00:12:50.674 And this tends to be one that I want to ignore. 00:12:51.524 --> 00:12:58.724 And it is the number of sessions that actually happen, which sounds 00:12:58.724 --> 00:13:00.144 really funny when you say it out loud. 00:13:00.504 --> 00:13:04.115 It's one thing to look at your calendar and see 12 or 14 00:13:04.115 --> 00:13:05.484 sessions scheduled for the week. 00:13:06.679 --> 00:13:11.929 But then at the end of the week, maybe only nine, 10 or 11 of those 00:13:11.930 --> 00:13:16.029 12, 13 or 14 sessions actually delivered, they actually happened. 00:13:16.899 --> 00:13:18.039 Now, why does that matter? 00:13:19.019 --> 00:13:22.349 The reason it matters is that in a session based coaching practice 00:13:22.489 --> 00:13:27.829 like mine, I don't really earn the money until I deliver the session. 00:13:30.104 --> 00:13:35.364 So it doesn't matter if someone pays me, let's say it's some crazy number, 50, 00:13:35.365 --> 00:13:43.364 000 for coaching until I deliver all of the sessions that 50, 000 commits me to. 00:13:45.544 --> 00:13:47.514 I haven't really earned the money. 00:13:47.854 --> 00:13:52.114 And we know that's true because if I were to accumulate a whole bunch of 00:13:52.114 --> 00:13:57.994 undelivered sessions and then For some reason, it's just a thought experiment. 00:13:58.384 --> 00:14:01.194 All those clients came at the same time and said, we're 00:14:01.194 --> 00:14:02.684 ready for all of our sessions. 00:14:03.644 --> 00:14:07.244 And if I then couldn't deliver the sessions I'd committed myself to 00:14:07.244 --> 00:14:10.654 because I don't have the capacity in my week, well, now I've got a problem. 00:14:12.134 --> 00:14:18.034 So in a session based practice, it's not enough to just get yeses and celebrate 00:14:18.204 --> 00:14:21.214 the yeses and celebrate the deposits of the money into the bank account. 00:14:22.444 --> 00:14:24.584 And it's not enough to just look at the calendar. 00:14:24.594 --> 00:14:27.444 And in my case, see a bunch of green spots because I highlight 00:14:27.444 --> 00:14:30.054 my coaching clients, hours green. 00:14:30.984 --> 00:14:33.674 It's not enough to see a green wall in my calendar. 00:14:36.134 --> 00:14:43.074 What really matters is what percentage of my capacity, not just was 00:14:43.074 --> 00:14:46.314 spoken for, but was actually used. 00:14:48.699 --> 00:14:50.879 Because one of the most painful things to me about a coaching 00:14:50.879 --> 00:14:54.149 practice, which I've just had to accept as a cost of doing business, 00:14:56.539 --> 00:15:04.134 is that if a client cancels, 24, 48 hours, 72 hours, maybe even two weeks. 00:15:04.144 --> 00:15:07.264 It's not like I have some line of people that I'm aware of who are 00:15:07.274 --> 00:15:10.184 banging down the door to try to get that extra session if one opens up. 00:15:10.804 --> 00:15:14.304 But if a client cancels, it's more than likely that I lose the 00:15:14.304 --> 00:15:18.224 opportunity to translate that hour into its corresponding rate. 00:15:18.614 --> 00:15:22.644 And I probably won't get that hour back, nor will I get that money back. 00:15:24.524 --> 00:15:26.854 So it's not enough to sell an hour and collect the money. 00:15:28.204 --> 00:15:30.134 The hour has to be delivered to the client. 00:15:31.914 --> 00:15:34.454 No, all of our friends on the course creation and mastermind 00:15:34.454 --> 00:15:38.254 selling and whatever world, they're all saying, yeah, exactly. 00:15:38.254 --> 00:15:40.774 This is why you shouldn't be in a one on one coaching practice. 00:15:41.164 --> 00:15:43.364 Well, they can take the rest of the episodes on my podcast 00:15:43.364 --> 00:15:46.394 and that those are my, my counterpoint to what they're saying. 00:15:47.294 --> 00:15:48.464 This is not a deal breaker to me. 00:15:48.464 --> 00:15:51.384 It's simply a reality of a session based practice. 00:15:52.309 --> 00:15:54.659 And I have to build it into the model. 00:15:55.909 --> 00:16:02.689 I have to acknowledge that even when people have purchased, let's say 80 00:16:02.689 --> 00:16:08.579 or 90 percent of my inventory,, they will use in any given week, some 00:16:08.579 --> 00:16:13.369 percentage lower than that, which then flows all the way through. 00:16:14.094 --> 00:16:19.804 To my personal income, which then flows through to my ability to live my values 00:16:19.804 --> 00:16:27.214 and desires in my personal life and pretending it's not that way is, not wise. 00:16:27.224 --> 00:16:28.174 It's not practical. 00:16:28.854 --> 00:16:32.814 So in my business, yes, I want to track revenue collected. 00:16:32.834 --> 00:16:34.814 I want to track revenue still owed to me. 00:16:35.164 --> 00:16:42.604 I want to track My Availability as a percentage of capacity. 00:16:42.994 --> 00:16:47.584 And then I have to have a true utilization number that acknowledges 00:16:47.584 --> 00:16:53.444 that in any given week for the number of hours that I intended to coach a 00:16:53.444 --> 00:17:00.104 certain amount of dollars, a certain amount of value was actually delivered. 00:17:01.424 --> 00:17:05.510 So just using round numbers, It doesn't matter if I've sold 3, 00:17:05.510 --> 00:17:07.589 000 worth of sessions in a week. 00:17:08.389 --> 00:17:11.969 What matters is how many dollars worth of sessions did I deliver? 00:17:12.339 --> 00:17:22.569 That is my actual income for lack of a better word, or my actual revenue in 00:17:22.589 --> 00:17:26.029 a pure accounting sense, by the way, welcome to the world of nerdy accountants. 00:17:26.519 --> 00:17:29.739 What I'm talking about is the more precise way of tracking revenue. 00:17:30.139 --> 00:17:34.199 You don't get to call it revenue until you've delivered the services. 00:17:36.609 --> 00:17:38.109 So these are numbers that I would track. 00:17:38.589 --> 00:17:42.429 And if I had a little dashboard that allowed me to look at the last three 00:17:42.429 --> 00:17:47.799 weeks or three months or nine months and to see trends in all of these 00:17:47.799 --> 00:17:54.369 numbers, revenue collected, revenue owed to me, Sessions committed sessions, 00:17:54.369 --> 00:17:56.559 completed some utilization number. 00:17:56.569 --> 00:18:01.179 Then I would have an easier time saying what's actually going on with 00:18:01.179 --> 00:18:02.819 the health of my coaching practice. 00:18:03.539 --> 00:18:09.219 And is it actually carrying its weight along with my other side hustles? 00:18:09.409 --> 00:18:16.769 Is it actually pulling its weight in terms of my households consumption desires? 00:18:18.934 --> 00:18:24.584 We can look at all of those numbers as the ones that come after the transaction, 00:18:25.974 --> 00:18:32.504 after the person says yes, and they pay an invoice, depending on what we see in 00:18:32.514 --> 00:18:40.134 the trends in the post transaction data, like, you know, collected revenue and 00:18:40.134 --> 00:18:41.334 all of that, that I just talked about. 00:18:42.749 --> 00:18:45.159 Then we got to look at the pre transaction numbers. 00:18:45.289 --> 00:18:49.819 We have to look at the numbers that we believe contribute to transactions. 00:18:50.949 --> 00:18:56.209 Now this for me is, it's one of those old novels where it says like, 00:18:56.209 --> 00:19:03.899 here be dragons, because in the pre transaction space, there are at 00:19:03.969 --> 00:19:07.749 least dozens of numbers you could track, and it might be hundreds. 00:19:08.499 --> 00:19:11.799 I've worked on some reports for clients of mine who tend to be more 00:19:12.119 --> 00:19:16.919 advertising driven, more funnel style businesses, and the variety 00:19:16.939 --> 00:19:21.419 and the quantity of numbers that they can track can be kind of staggering 00:19:21.419 --> 00:19:22.649 and it can be kind of overwhelming. 00:19:22.649 --> 00:19:23.449 And I'm a nerd. 00:19:23.449 --> 00:19:24.789 I'm, I'm a numbers guy. 00:19:25.519 --> 00:19:26.969 I not afraid of math. 00:19:26.969 --> 00:19:32.539 I'm not afraid of statistics, but the numbers you can track in a marketing 00:19:32.539 --> 00:19:34.639 game are potentially overwhelming. 00:19:35.799 --> 00:19:40.769 Well, if you've listened to the podcast, you know, my strategy, my strategy is 00:19:41.079 --> 00:19:46.109 talking to a microphone, wait for an email to land in my inbox requesting coaching. 00:19:46.199 --> 00:19:47.339 That's my strategy. 00:19:48.629 --> 00:19:54.249 So when I'm looking at what I track in the pre transaction space, I look 00:19:54.319 --> 00:20:01.019 at how often am I hitting publish after talking into a microphone? 00:20:02.809 --> 00:20:05.099 And in fact, I just signed into my podcast host. 00:20:06.084 --> 00:20:09.074 Before recording this episode, because I wanted to make sure that I haven't 00:20:09.094 --> 00:20:11.304 spoken directly about this topic. 00:20:11.944 --> 00:20:17.414 And I realized that my trend is downward in terms of frequency of publishing. 00:20:18.054 --> 00:20:21.764 I had a vague awareness of that, but it's a little bit worse than I thought. 00:20:23.664 --> 00:20:27.104 , maybe I don't want to put a value judgment on that and say it's worse, but 00:20:27.104 --> 00:20:29.434 it's definitely becoming less frequent. 00:20:30.744 --> 00:20:34.334 Well, if my strategy is to talk into a microphone and then wait for an 00:20:34.334 --> 00:20:39.404 email, the part of that I can control is talking into the microphone. 00:20:40.604 --> 00:20:44.634 And it's all fair and well and great for me to say today, all things are good. 00:20:45.494 --> 00:20:46.384 The practice is full. 00:20:46.384 --> 00:20:47.504 The practice is healthy. 00:20:49.574 --> 00:20:54.214 But if I'm talking into the microphone less and less often, and if I 00:20:54.234 --> 00:20:58.934 believe talking into the microphone matters, then I have to believe. 00:20:59.769 --> 00:21:03.859 That whatever comes from talking into a microphone will decrease and that that 00:21:03.859 --> 00:21:05.699 will decrease the health of the practice. 00:21:07.129 --> 00:21:12.059 The only way I can pretend that's not the case is if I say, Oh, I was 00:21:12.069 --> 00:21:15.999 probably talking into the microphone way more than I needed to before. 00:21:16.329 --> 00:21:20.239 And now I'm just seeking some sort of steady state where, Oh, 00:21:20.239 --> 00:21:21.729 maybe I publish every other week. 00:21:21.749 --> 00:21:25.919 Maybe I publish every three weeks, but the emails still land in the inbox 00:21:25.919 --> 00:21:28.299 and the practice still stays healthy. 00:21:29.619 --> 00:21:31.039 That might be true. 00:21:32.699 --> 00:21:38.379 And then the question becomes, how much am I willing to risk on that being true? 00:21:39.499 --> 00:21:45.409 Am I willing to risk incurring debt while I find out whether I can get 00:21:45.409 --> 00:21:49.859 away with publishing only once every three weeks, once every four weeks, 00:21:51.654 --> 00:21:53.254 I mean, I could take that risk. 00:21:53.484 --> 00:21:56.654 I reopened this podcast at the beginning of this year saying that I hadn't 00:21:56.654 --> 00:22:00.134 really published in the whole previous year and things had worked out fine. 00:22:02.024 --> 00:22:03.534 But is that the game I want to play? 00:22:04.844 --> 00:22:09.394 Or do I want to acknowledge that the cost of producing a podcast 00:22:09.394 --> 00:22:11.744 episode is for me very low. 00:22:12.654 --> 00:22:17.439 And so there's no significant benefit to not Publishing a 00:22:17.439 --> 00:22:20.249 podcast in terms of costs saved. 00:22:20.699 --> 00:22:22.149 It doesn't take me a whole day. 00:22:22.149 --> 00:22:23.899 It doesn't cost me a thousand dollars. 00:22:24.529 --> 00:22:26.909 So why actually would I not do it? 00:22:28.749 --> 00:22:29.939 Got to ask the question. 00:22:31.469 --> 00:22:35.079 And the answer to that question will inform how frequently I hit publish 00:22:35.960 --> 00:22:42.690 and reflect how confident I am that pushing publish will positively 00:22:42.690 --> 00:22:44.930 correlate with more emails in my inbox, 00:22:47.180 --> 00:22:52.860 more happy clients, more renewals, more referrals, and everything down the line. 00:22:54.860 --> 00:23:00.290 So for me, really the only pre transaction number that I'm 00:23:00.290 --> 00:23:06.945 tracking is podcast episodes It's pretty easy to keep track of that. 00:23:08.825 --> 00:23:12.635 Now I do have this membership now and I'm excited about it. 00:23:14.175 --> 00:23:18.765 I love being a teacher and that's primarily what the membership offers 00:23:18.765 --> 00:23:21.135 me, teaching and facilitation. 00:23:22.765 --> 00:23:29.135 I don't think you can pretend you're going to grow a membership, publishing a podcast 00:23:29.135 --> 00:23:31.135 every week or every three or four weeks. 00:23:34.080 --> 00:23:39.360 I think if I want to really commit to the membership, what comes with 00:23:39.360 --> 00:23:45.390 that as a commitment to be in more places, more often extending people, an 00:23:45.390 --> 00:23:47.100 invitation to come into that membership. 00:23:49.160 --> 00:23:52.110 There will need to be more things to track. 00:23:54.085 --> 00:23:55.345 I'm not sure what those are yet. 00:23:55.725 --> 00:23:59.225 More content, more content in more places. 00:24:00.885 --> 00:24:03.815 Ugh, but not so much that it takes over my life. 00:24:05.435 --> 00:24:07.535 These are the things to be explored, things to be balanced. 00:24:08.745 --> 00:24:12.155 But where that all leads me is, I want there to be just a 00:24:12.215 --> 00:24:16.205 small handful of numbers that I'm tracking post transaction. 00:24:17.060 --> 00:24:20.640 Meaning after people say yes and pay me, okay, what comes after that? 00:24:20.760 --> 00:24:21.880 I want to keep track of those things. 00:24:21.890 --> 00:24:24.640 So I know that the practice is staying healthy. 00:24:25.260 --> 00:24:28.780 And then there are going to be a small handful of things pre transaction that 00:24:28.780 --> 00:24:35.860 I track frequency of content production, maybe new types of content production. 00:24:38.030 --> 00:24:41.430 I really shouldn't rule out advertising, even though it's kind of my brand. 00:24:41.895 --> 00:24:44.275 It's mostly that I'm anti Facebook ads. 00:24:44.425 --> 00:24:46.945 I'm anti social media advertising. 00:24:47.825 --> 00:24:51.445 I'm kind of psychotic about it, but I'm open to sponsorships. 00:24:51.965 --> 00:24:56.005 I'm open to affiliate arrangements where I pay my members to get me members. 00:24:56.655 --> 00:24:58.525 So , there's places to explore there, 00:24:59.625 --> 00:25:04.445 and I think some amount of this tracking could influence me to become 00:25:04.445 --> 00:25:10.575 a person who actually starts to reap longterm compounding rewards 00:25:11.865 --> 00:25:13.605 from all these little gigs I start. 00:25:14.000 --> 00:25:14.670 That I love 00:25:17.430 --> 00:25:22.790 I'll try to be back again soon because yeah, pushing publish on 00:25:22.790 --> 00:25:27.880 this podcast is my main strategy, so I will talk to you next week. 00:25:28.530 --> 00:25:28.820 See ya.