You don’t have to run a Black Friday sale just because everyone else is doing it.

As the end of the year approaches, it’s easy to feel the pressure to throw together a discount, launch an offer, or jump into Black Friday simply because it feels like the only way to hit your remaining revenue goals. But more noise, more discounts, and more work aren’t always the answer.

In this episode, we’re sharing five alternatives to running a Black Friday sale based on where your business actually is right now. Whether you still need to generate revenue before December 31st or you’ve hit your goals and want to use the rest of the year to prepare for Q1, there are plenty of ways to make this season productive without adding another big launch to your calendar.

Because sometimes the smartest end-of-year strategy isn’t doing more—it’s doubling down on what’s already working, strengthening relationships, cleaning up your systems, and giving yourself the space to start the new year without feeling depleted.

In This Episode, We Cover

• How to identify which lead sources are actually generating revenue and where to focus your marketing efforts for the rest of the year.
• Why reconnecting with referral partners, complementary service providers, and past clients can create faster revenue opportunities than finding a brand-new audience.
• Ways to create end-of-year offers for past clients without launching or discounting your services.
• How to audit your marketing, funnels, and offers now so you can make more data-driven decisions for Q1.
• What to include in an end-of-year operational reset, from your project management system and tech subscriptions to client documents and SOPs.

Resources Mentioned

The Rooted in Reality Business Planning Process helps you assess where your business is now, align your goals with your actual capacity, and create an intentional plan for where you want to go next.

Instead of waiting until December or January to figure everything out at once, use the next few months to work through the process little by little—so when the new year arrives, you already know what you’re working toward and how you’re going to get there.

Grab your copy here: https://buy.stripe.com/eVqaEY0pC9v8cPl9F6d3i00

Meet Your Hosts

Jessica Walther is the founder and CEO of The Launch Collaborative and Sustainable Success Systems. As a launch strategist and systems consultant, Jess is dedicated to helping solo business owners and small-but-mighty teams build businesses that deliver both peace and profit. She specializes in creating sustainable growth strategies that align with her clients' values and lifestyles.

Rachel Lopez is the founder and CEO of Gal Marketing Agency, a boutique email marketing and strategy firm. With over a decade of experience, Rachel helps heart-driven entrepreneurs craft intentional marketing strategies that attract, nurture, and convert leads sustainably. Her human-first approach ensures that marketing efforts feel authentic and effective .

Together, Jess and Rachel blend systems, storytelling, and soulful strategy to help you grow a business that's deeply aligned with your life—not just your revenue goals.

Connect With Us:

• Jess Website
• Rachel's Website

Hang Out & Say Hi!

• Deeply Rooted Business Instagram
• Jess Instagram
• Rachel's Instagram

You do not have to run a Black Friday sale in order to

2

make money in the next six weeks.

3

And I wanna say this before you hear

anything else, because right now,

4

we're out of that launch prep window.

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People are still talking about launching,

'cause that season has yet to pass

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us, but they're also talking about

preparing for that Black Friday window.

7

This truly is the time

to be thinking about it.

8

And gonna start feeling that FOMO

of like, "I should be doing this,"

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or, "I shouldn't be doing this."

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And we wanna make sure that what

you're not doing is just kind of doing

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things in order to make the ends meet.

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So, what we're doing today is we're gonna

be breaking down five alternatives that

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still help you make money or set you

up to make money, which don't require

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participating in Black Friday, don't

require discount code, a countdown

15

timer or any fancy pantsy launch.

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We're gonna split them into two different

tracks for you, because everybody's in

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kind of different spaces depending on how

their first half of the year, shook out.

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So, either you need to make revenue

before December 31st or you've kind

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of been on track, you really want

to optimize and take november and

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December off, and you really wanna

make sure that you're prepped for Q1.

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Both of them are real opportunities right

now, and neither one of them should fall

22

into just doing a Black Friday sale.

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Jessica: But before we get into it,

welcome back to another episode of

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Growing a Deeply Rooted Business

podcast, the podcast where intentional

25

strategy meets sustainable systems.

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I'm Jess, your systems architect and

notion-based obsessed strategist, who

27

believes that systems are self-care.

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and I'm here with Rachel, our

marketing ecosystem cultivator to

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make sure that we are focused on the

numbers instead of feelings of FOMO.

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But before we get into it, I want you

to do a quick energy check because Black

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Friday is something that the online

space will give you a lot of fear or

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fear of missing out or kind of pressure

to participate in, and it's one of those

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spaces where we need to really take a

deep breath in really assess whether

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this is the right move for our business.

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Most people who are trying to tell

you to do a Black Friday sale are

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probably trying to sell you some sort

of execution for said Black Friday.

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Execution sale does not necessarily

mean it is the right move for your

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business, and not participating

does not make you lazy.

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I promise you are not missing

out on millions of dollars.

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I would argue in the case that

actually by moving your sale away

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from Black Friday, you're probably

gonna make it easier for yourself.

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You're gonna be competing against some

big boys if you go in Black Friday,

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especially if you are running ads.

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So it may not be the best case for

you, but we want you to do what's

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right for your business, and that

always means taking a deep breath

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in, looking within, and assessing

what your actual reality looks like.

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So let's talk about track

one, Rachel, where you still

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need to make money this year.

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Rachel: Yeah.

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So the very first thing that

we wanna do is kind of get a

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clear action plan of attack.

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So we wanna audit our lead sources

and then double down on the ones

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that are actually working right now.

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And this doesn't mean abandon

all of your compounding efforts.

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This just means, "Hey, we need

to, you know, put 70% of our

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capacity towards these areas

because we got some goals to meet."

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So this isn't saying don't invest in a

new marketing channel, but this is saying

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the ones that are already producing, we

really think that that's the play here.

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So the fastest revenue to get

up until December is not gonna

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come from a new audience.

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It's gonna come from the platform

that's already been working for

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you and maybe, you can just give

a little bit more attention from.

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So the way that we love to do a lead

source audit is pulling out all of

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your conversions over the last four

months, five months, I would say,

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and find what those averages are.

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And I will put a distinction here.

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This isn't just necessarily leads.

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These are people that have converted,

'cause we want that behavior, and we

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wanna target that specific behavior.

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So we wanna write down where they came

from, what platform, was it a referral,

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all of those things and kinda just

get a rough assessment so we can start

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seeing all these different trends.

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Look at what did they buy from you

and what product did they purchase

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in the distinction of saying, "Oh,

Instagram had 10 conversions for my

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lowest ticket offer versus also having

visibility on my $600 strategy sessions

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came from this particular source."

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So we wanna stack and rank them in that

particular way so then you can have a

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really great visual of saying, "Okay,

I know I can sell these things in this

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space, and it's gonna be received,"

and really understanding where you

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can spend the majority of your time.

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Because you may be looking at it from 10,

15 conversions come from Instagram, but

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if your low ticket offer is only $47, then

that's not really gonna give you much of

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that boost and that oomph that you need

compared to the six conversions that

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came with your $600 strategy sessions.

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Jessica: Absolutely agree.

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All right, so play two is really

focused on strengthening your

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connections, not necessarily

like all your funnel conversions.

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So this is where we recommend

booking some casual catch-up calls

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or coffee dates, with people who

have either work adjacent to you or

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have sent you clients in the past.

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And we really want you to

pick from three buckets.

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People who have sent you business before,

people who serve your client, with

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a different service either before or

after what you offer, or people that you

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could potentially white label for, so

agencies that have a bunch of clients,

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and they're maybe looking for a specific

component that you help execute for.

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A lot of times I have talked to a

Facebook ad strategist, if we're

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trying to book quiz funnels or maybe

people that help implement some of the

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things like landing page designers for

quiz strategies or launch strategies.

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Make sure you're just coming

with a specific ask for them.

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Let them know, where you are in

your business, what service you're

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really excited about, what service

that they could potentially pitch

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for you, if there's any referral

kickback for them, if that's

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allowed in the niche that you're in.

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And your ideal client who you're looking

for, and then get that same information

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from them so it's a win-win situation

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Rachel: Yeah, and I love reframing this in

the sense of you always get those really

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icky ones that you can tell people are

just trying to not genuinely connect,

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and they're like, "Hey, how's it going?

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How's business?

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Blah, blah, blah."

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But, you genuinely lean into the

relationships and the network and

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being authentic about it, you care

about their business, you care about,

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how they're actually doing, it's gonna

be received significantly better.

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This isn't saying, send a mass

email out to your connections.

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This is saying, maybe put down and

follow up on what they've been doing.

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"Hey, I saw you launched a podcast.

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How's that going?"

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Or, "I was following

along with your launch.

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It looked like it went really well."

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You know, things along those ends so

that it feels a little bit more personal.

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You wanna just make sure that

It comes from a place of genuine

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desire to connect versus ick,

'cause That gets around as well.

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So that is play number two.

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Moving into the third kind of

play that you can, tactic you can

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lean on is following up with past

clients for end-of-year maintenance.

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This is something that I recommend you

just have a set cadence to do regardless.

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From a marketing perspective, you always

hear that it's easier to sell something

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to somebody who's already bought from you.

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This is literally the warmest list you

will literally ever have, and it's not

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necessarily that you're selling anything

that's public-facing, like a brand-new

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retainer or something like that.

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But, in the times where you need

to rack up some sales, you can

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easily say, "Oh, I'm a web designer.

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I can do a SEO refresh on your website,"

or something like that, or, "Oh,

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do you need any new pages created?

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Do you have an upcoming

launch happening in Q1?"

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Coming at it from a proactive

standpoint to support them is always

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gonna be way more received versus

trying to find a new audience in

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order to sell new retainers too.

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I mean, I'm sure this is pretty consistent

across the board, but a lot of my clients,

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November, December, it's crickets.

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And I know that they would love to

have somebody just being in there and,

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fine-tuning the things that they didn't

necessarily get the chance to do, but

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also don't want to do themselves because

they're enjoying time with their family.

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If you're a bookkeeper, you

can do an end-of-year cleanup.

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You know, help them get their books

tidy before tax season starts.

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If you're a photographer, which we're

booking all of this stuff now for our

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family photos, you know Christmas photos

are being shot in early September.

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Things like these things that you can say,

"Hey, do you need some new brand shoots?

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Do you need a new headshot for

your program launching in January?"

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All of these elements are really

important, and the people that

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know your business and your quality

will one thousand percent be like,

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"Oh, I'm so happy you reached out.

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I was thinking about this.

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It's been on my list."

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Lowest hanging fruit,

I would for sure say.

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Jessica: for sure.

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All right, so then track two is you're

building a business bigger for Q1.

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Maybe you're good with your

income level for this year.

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You don't wanna add too much into the last

quarter, but you do wanna make sure that

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you're setting yourself up for success.

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This is where we kinda recommend we

have that Rooted in Reality business

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planner, where you can kinda go

through and start really taking the

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time rather than doing it in one day.

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Maybe we're doing it in little pieces.

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So one of those is run that full

marketing audit, which in that Rooted

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in Reality planner, we kinda go through

all of the different channels that

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you're looking at and all the different

ways you're looking at your data.

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So you're identifying,

what are your top offers?

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What are your top channels that you have?

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You know, looking at every single funnel

you have and seeing where the conversion

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is dropping off, and identifying where

the biggest lever that you can pull

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is, whether it bringing more traffic or

refining follow-up sequences and really

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kinda getting a clear view on what's

working and what's not and what needs

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to get tweaked for the following year,

so you can start kinda working on that

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now and getting ahead and planning.

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Rachel: Yeah.

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This part is super important when it

comes to setting yourself up for Q1.

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I think that this is an October

activity, not a December activity.

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People typically in business try to do a

spring cleanup in December kind of thing.

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But my brain's never online.

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I'm like, "I wanna be with my family.

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I wanna be offline as much as possible."

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And I think that, as much as you can

start being proactive and doing a lot

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of the heavier lifting now so that

when you maybe are refreshed and you

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get that burst of, like, "I wanna

just do something," you're working off

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of data and not off of assumption of

what possibly worked this past year.

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Jessica: The next step would be

giving yourself an operational reset.

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So what this looks like is going

through all of your folders or your

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desktop, cleaning out any files

that you're not using anymore.

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With AI, I don't know about y'all,

I have so many more files on my

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computer than I used to have.

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So making sure that you're

going through that, cleaning

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out everything that you need.

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There is a software that I love, that I

actually recommended to Rachel, called

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CleanMyMac, where it'll go through and

help you identify any duplicates, large

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files you haven't accessed during a while.

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So you can clean that out.

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Also resetting your

project management tool.

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Just looking at, how you're using

it, where are the friction points,

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where can things be smoothing out.

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What's in there that can be deleted and

making sure that cleaning that guy out.

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I love doing a tech audit.

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I try to do these quarterly because

I love to sign up for a software

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subscription, but going through your

credit card statement and making

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sure that you are canceling any

subscriptions that you're not using.

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Maybe you're identifying where

you're doubling up in some places

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or where you can consolidate tech.

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That all usually requires a process

to get rid of the old software and

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get everything migrated into the new.

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But, the end of the year

is a great way to do that.

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And then making sure that you're

cleaning up your client-facing documents.

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So going through your contracts

to make sure that those are

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updated for the next year.

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Going through invoices, proposals,

kind of seeing if there's anything

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as far as the client experience

side that you could clean up.

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And then starting to document those

SOPs or maybe identifying tasks that

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you would love to outsource in 2027

and start to build some documentation

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and processes around that, so when

you're ready and the money's there, you

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can have it all ready for them to go.

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Rachel: Yeah, I think that one's a

really fun one too, because in my

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brain, and I'm sure Jess will laugh

as soon as I say this, in my brain

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you just move into the next year.

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But now that you say all that out

loud, I'm like, "No, there's a lot of

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things that you can refine," right?

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Like templates that make your life easier

inside of your project management tool.

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There's a lot of structures, and

if you run things based off of a

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campaign structure or a type of

project structure, it's so much

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easier to just clean all that up.

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But my brain's like, "No, you

just, December 31st turns to

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January and you move forward."

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Jessica: Yeah, no.

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One of these things from a micro level

too, I've been doing it recently, so

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this is why I wanna share it here.

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I feel like it's fits here.

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At the end of the week, I've

been reviewing the goals I

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set for myself that week.

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For example, my, one of my goals

is walk my dogs every morning.

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Looking at the past week, I

did three out of five mornings.

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The mornings that I

didn't do it, why was it?

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There was a friction point.

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And usually it's something silly, like

I couldn't find socks to wear, or maybe

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I stayed up too late the night before.

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So then that informs next week, what

is a system that I can put in place to

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make it easier for me to find socks?

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This is how my ADHD work.

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So this weekend, I literally went

to the dollar store, and I had

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identified that one of my friction

points was just getting the clothes

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on that I need to go walk the dog.

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So I went to the dollar store, and they

have these seven divider accordion things.

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So now I have all my leggings in

one accordion, and then all my

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tops that go with that leggings,

I can just pick it out, and then

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my socks are right there too.

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So that hopefully I'm setting myself up

for success better to this week to walk

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the dogs in the morning, and that's how

you have to go through each different

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process or goal you're trying to achieve.

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If I didn't do it, where were the

friction points of why didn't,

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what can I do for future Jess to

help make this easier for her?

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Rachel: That's super smart.

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Okay, and then moving into something

that I would say kind of falls

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in both tracks is that a reminder

that rest is super strategic.

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So just even if you have to, be cranking

out stuff until end of November, remind

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yourself that rest is not something that

you earn after you've made the sale.

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It's almost directly involved

with how you make the the sale.

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So all of your revenue, all of

your impact that you're making

266

with your marketing comes louder

with the rest that comes with it.

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So just making sure that you don't go

into January completely depleted and I'll

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give a little like woo-woo note, despite

it not actually being a true reset.

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We're still in the dead

of winter in January.

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Spring is truly that start of

the new season kind of thing.

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But you don't wanna show up

exhausted into the new year, so

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take the time to rest where you can.

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Really understand that it is

going to help you in the long run

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Jessica: All right, so if this

one hit home, make sure you

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send it to a business bestie.

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You know, the one that thinks she might

wanna run a Black Friday sale this year.

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Just remind her that she would rather

spend Turkey Day eating turkey with

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her family and not stressing out

if automation's triggered right.

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So make sure you send this to her.

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And we wanna hear from you,

which kind of track are you on

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or what play are you picking?

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Let us know on Instagram or

TikTok at Deeply Rooted Business.

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And if you want some help, planning out

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guarantee you it is going to fly by.

285

We have a Rooted in Reality business

planner, which is pretty comprehensive.

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It would be actually amazing if you

could say October I'm gonna work

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through the assess, and then November

I'm gonna work through the align.

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And then December you can actually

start putting your plans into action.

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That way when January does come, if

you want to hit that ground running,

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you can hit that ground running.

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That feels good for me because I feel

in January everybody's doing stuff

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and I'm like, "I feel so behind.

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I feel so behind."

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I feel like I'm gonna try to stick to

the schedule for myself so that I am able

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to hit said ground running in January.

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But until next week,

we are rooting for you.