Welcome back to another episode of the Deeply Rooted Business Podcast. In today's episode, we're diving deep into the art of reflection and understanding how different seasons in your business require varying levels of energy and effort. We'll explore key performance indicators (KPIs) and benchmarks that will help you build a productive and fabulous year ahead while avoiding burnout. So, get ready to discover how to create a cohesive flow aligned with your energy throughout each season.

Key Takeaways:

- Understanding the three seasons of business: promotion, creation, and restoration [00:01:52]

- Mapping out your year based on these seasons to avoid burnout [00:01:53]

- Setting realistic goals using historical data for successful launches [00:05:42]

- Tracking conversion rates, engagement rates, sales, and profit during high-energy push seasons [00:09:53]

- Leveraging traffic sources, time tracking, and operating expenses during creative seasons [00:15;49]

- Focusing on customer lifetime value, network building during restorative periods [00;23;56]

Now that you have a deeper understanding of the different seasons in your business journey, take some time to map out your year use this knowledge as a guide when mapping out your 2024 for sustainable success.

Remember that balance is essential for long-term growth. Embrace each season wholeheartedly, but also give yourself permission to rest and restore when needed.

Don't forget to join us in our next episode, where we dive into creating goals & intentions

Where to find Jess : www.thelaunchcollaborative.com

Where to find Rachel : www.gal-agency.com

Stay tuned for the next episode of The Rooted Business Podcast! Don't forget to subscribe to catch all the valuable insights and advice from Rachel and Jess.

Note: The show notes are a condensed summary of Episode of The Rooted Business Podcast. The actual podcast episode would contain more in-depth discussions, anecdotes, and examples from Rachel and Jess.

Connect With Us:

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Learn with Us

Get Jess's Sustainable Success Systems Starter Kit, a Notion Business Management Systems that takes your business from overwhelmed to organized with 4 foundational workflows. <<Learn More Here>>

Diagnose Common Launch Problems and Fix Them Fast! Get the Launch Cure Guide : https://www.thelaunchcollaborative.com/launch-cure

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Speaker: 00:00:00

rachel_2_12-29-2023_131827: Welcome

back to another episode of the

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: 00:00:02

Deeply Rooted Business Podcast.

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I'm Rachel, and here

with my co-host, Jess.

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We are going to be talking about

reflection and what KPIs and benchmarks

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to look at in order to build for a

productive, fabulous year forward.

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So let's get

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started.

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Track 1: And.

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because we are the Woo girls that

we are, we're going to be taking it

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through a lens of energy and how to

make sure that you have a balanced,

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energy, output throughout the year

so that you are avoiding burnout.

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That is our goal, burnout.

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Inevitably will happen sometimes,

but we wanna try to avoid it

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and be able to bounce back

from it as quickly as possible.

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So the tools and the metrics that

we're talking about today are gonna

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be things that can help you really

be successful within each of these

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different seasons and energetic spaces.

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rachel_2_12-29-2023_131827: I really wanna

set the . Framework before we jump into

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all of this, because regardless if you're

a baby business owner or an established

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business owner who has multiple years

under their belt, you understand that

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there are seasons in your business that

require different levels of effort.

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So when you're launching, that's

a really high type of energy.

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, when you're sitting back like maybe In

December or January type energy, you're

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sitting in that restorative type flow.

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So really understanding that as

a business owner, you're not a

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hundred percent all the time 'cause

that is what gets you to burnout.

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But understanding where to plan your year,

how to balance your energies throughout

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so that you have a really cohesive

flow that is aligned with your energy.

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So it's really what we're

gonna be talking about today.

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Track 1: In our last episode, we talked

about reflection and really identifying

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the, new goals and initiatives and spaces

and places you wanna go in the new year.

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So in this episode, it's gonna set

the framework of how to map that

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out over a year's time so that we

avoid burnout and that we are able

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to show up as our best and brightest

selves every day to our business.

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rachel_2_12-29-2023_131827: Let's

just start by defining these three

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seasons and then we will work into

and deep dive into each one of those.

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So do you wanna give

the recap of the three?

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'cause you, it's living in your realm

of how we've decided to position these.

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Track 1: When you go to map out your

year, I love to take like a sPreadsheet

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and write the 12 months of the year.

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And then I have the columns, which we have

promoting, which is what Rachel defines

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as like a push season in her language.

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We had to like align on our verbiage

here where you're, these would be the

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times that you're actively launching or

promoting or selling the things that are

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gonna require a lot of outward energy.

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In Ayurveda that is defined as like

the PDA dosha, which is combined

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of the elements of fire and wind.

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So think of that energy that

you get when you're looking

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like at a rolling ball of fire.

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That is basically that the energy

that you're having to put out

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and muster up when you're in a

heavy launch or sales season.

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The second type of energy or kind of

period that we have is the creative.

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And in Ayurveda creation is

related to Vada dosha, which is

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made up of the air and ether.

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And it's really up in this

head space, portalizing boo.

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The veil is thin so that all of that

inspiration can just pour into you

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and you can pour it into whatever you.

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Action in your business.

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And then we have our last season, which

is the season we're in now, which is

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winter which is related to the element of

copper which is made of earth and water.

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And it's all about, restoration

and really renewing your roots.

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So you're still working on your business

and in your business, but it may be more

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of that foundational level where you're

not expending too much outward energy.

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It's a lot of work happening

behind the scenes and in the

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back end of your business.

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So those are the three seasons

that we'll be talking about.

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And we'll be talking about how to

map 'em out and then other KPIs

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that we think that you would need

to focus on for each season to.

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rachel_2_12-29-2023_131827: Let's start

with my, what I call a push season but

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the fiery kind of high energy type season.

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I help a lot of my clients do

launches and things like that.

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It's a high energy.

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This is the type of season in

your business that you probably

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only want to last max 60 days.

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Like 30 days ideally, but max 60 or

else you're completely burnt out.

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This is one of those where it's like

Cancel the plans, book a massage, put

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a lot of self care into your personal

life so that you can show up ready, to

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take action during this actual season.

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So Jess, I'm curious, like when you're

doing the annual plans of your clients,

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when you're planting kind of a.

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Push season, a fire

season in their calendar.

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What are the things that you're like

looking for when you're mapping out?

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Like specific things like first

things that come to my mind are

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like obviously historical trends.

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When do you make the most sales?

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But I'm very curious.

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What else do you think?

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Track 1: So we're historical trends,

and then I always am lifestyle first,

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vacation travel.

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Wanting to come and show up with your

full energy from, because let's face

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it, when you're launching, you're,

it's it's almost like you're ripped

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open, raw because you're so vulnerable.

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No matter how many times you sell this

product, you're putting yourself out

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there and as much as you don't wanna

take it personally, if it's something

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new that you've put your heart and

time and effort into, there's just

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gonna be a lot of energy expended

of just worrying, responding.

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Coupled with, you're actually gonna

have to be showing up for people.

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I think gone are the days, yeah, passive

income does exist, but gone are the days

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where you can just put something out

there and not interact with your community

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at all and still be able to get sales.

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You're gonna be fielding TMS and emails

and maybe taking application calls out.

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DO you have any other, big

initiatives or projects that

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would prevent you from showing up?

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Again, looking at the historical data

because it's such a high investment

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time that you wanna make sure that

you're getting more bang for your buck.

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And then number three, that you

are, looking at your personal

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life and making sure that there's

nothing that's gonna conflict.

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If you have a kid graduating and you

really wanna be present for them,

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then let's push off the launch a

little bit so that like you can 100%

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focus your time and effort on this.

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And like Rachel said, that's 30 to 60

days, which sounds like a lot, but.

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It so better because I've had

entrepreneurs like, oh, I'm not like

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Launch week isn't until next week.

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So I can go on vacation the

week before and it's no.

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Those 30 days.

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You need to be full on committed to

promoting and selling whatever you're

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doing or whatever you're created into

the world so that you can be successful.

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Because if you try to cram

too much else into that's when

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burnout is gonna be for the side

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. rachel_2_12-29-2023_131827:

Yeah, I totally agree.

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And I think that is one of

those things where people don't

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intentionally plan their launches.

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I have a lot of people that

come to me for launch support.

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And they're like, I wanna

launch in of next month.

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I'm like whoa.

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We have, there's so much

to build up towards.

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It's not like you said,

which I think is such a.

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Interesting topic where the days

of early Covid 20 19, 20 20, where

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you can just post things and maybe

not have that community behind it.

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But now there's so much more transparency,

authenticity that's required when

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developing and building a community and

selling Consistently that it's really

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important that bandwidth is established

from the beginning of your launch plan or

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the beginning of your like fire season.

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'cause it's so impactful.

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And if you're an introvert like me, that's

the stuff that like immediately drains me.

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So really understanding that like these.

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Seasons in your business have certain

effects , it's not a nine to five

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where you can close your laptop

and be done at the end of the day.

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As much as we want it to be like,

and as much balance as you can,

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build into your business, it's just

really important to know that those

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elements are really draining sometimes.

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Just to add one more thing to

that, I think that was a big

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lesson that I learned when I

was managing client launches is

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really holding firm on like that.

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, eight week lead up time.

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'cause yes, you could launch it

quicker, but it's not gonna be a good

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experience for you and you're probably

not gonna get as good of results.

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I Saw myself evolve as a service provider

when I started holding my boundary of

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no, I require eight weeks to help you

out with this because I want it to be

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successful and I don't wanna burn you out.

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Yeah, we probably that's not the

energy that we wanna bring to you to

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totally.

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Alright, let's talk through the

three benchmarks KPIs that we think

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are probably the most important

to pay attention to when you're in

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this big kind of high energy season.

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Obviously it's more marketing and sales

focused because we're driving towards

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an end goal, which is conversions

and launching and all of that.

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So the three that I would say are the

conversion rate is one, obviously and

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that could either be sales calls

booked from marketing messaging, it

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could be enrollments from marketing

messaging, whatever your end

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.Journey to purchase goal looks like.

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Making sure that we're tracking conversion

rates is, that's really like step one

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using historicals on that too, because

if you understand that your average

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conversion rate is lower than let's

say the industry average of five,

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, it's really important to know that.

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Don't set these like 10 KA hundred K

launch plans when you realistically

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have this audience size and this

average conversion rate that's unique

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to your audience and to your business.

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So really making sure that those

are like smart goals and smart

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metrics so that you're not setting

yourself up one from an emotional

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point where you're like, Ugh, this is

gonna be the best launch of my life.

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And you're basing it off of

these kind of unvalidated.

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Metrics and.

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Track 1: Yeah, there's no sure way

to deplete your energy More, in a

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launch is to go in with unrealistic

goals and expectations, and I

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think that it can be easy to.

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Fall into that trap because in the

online space, we get exposed to like

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just manifested and you can do this.

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And it's like Rachel and I think both

live in one, one foot in the Woo world

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and one foot in reality where it's

yes, you can remove your limiting

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beliefs and you can manifest it and

you can tap on it and everything.

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But also.

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There's KPIs and benchmarks and

historical data that are gonna tell us

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probably how you're going to perform,

and I think that's worth setting.

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Like those, I think you call 'em enough

goals or good, better, best goals really

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come into play where it's like you have

to establish going into this, like what?

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What is your good number for each of

these so that you're not constantly

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striving for more or unsatisfied with the

results you're getting because you set

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an unrealistic expectation because that

is just a energy suck right off the bat.

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rachel_2_12-29-2023_131827:

A hundred percent.

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So KPI slash benchmark number two, I

would say the most important one is

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your engagement rate, especially when

you are playing in a world that is

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ruled by an algorithm of some sort.

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Really understanding that.

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That ramp up phase is there to

build and to boost that engagement.

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, and you can do it across the means

of having those dms, driving them

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off social, having them in your

email list, all of those various

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components, but making sure that,

one, your emails are high performing.

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So in your ramp up phase, you

do AB testing, you do message

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validation so that come launch time.

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And when you're in your active sales

period, you're actually leading with

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confidence that your metrics are going

to meet or surpass your engagement rates.

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You don't want to be testing new

messaging and active sales time because

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you don't know how your engagement.

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Is gonna do.

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So when you have a steady kind of metric

to look back on from your benchmark

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perspective, you could say, oh, okay

this overperformed, this underperformed.

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And you look at it from a place that

is in rooted in data instead of kind

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my gut's saying I'm gonna go with this.

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And you can actually remove a lot

of those like emotional levers of.

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Disappointment and stuff.

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When you approach your launch with

data that has been validated in

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that pre ramp up, warmup phase.

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Anything to add to that?

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Track 1: I do.

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rachel_2_12-29-2023_131827: Perfect.

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Okay.

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And then the last one is a combination

of the two conversion rate and engagement

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rate, which is your sales and profit.

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So this is really understanding that

the moving pieces that are building

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in this , fiery push season is doing

the end goal, which is to drive

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sales, drive profit, and all of that.

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So making sure that you're tracking and

I always, when it comes to my client's

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launch, I do a postmortem of the launch.

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We'll do a full analysis of the traffic

sources, the conversion sources,

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all of those various components.

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So you can say Sure, maybe I

profited 50 K from this launch,

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but it happened 20% in email.

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It happened 10% on social, 40% on the

dms, and you start to begin to build out

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your next push season from this data so

you know where to spend your energy at.

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So it's really important metrics

and benchmarks to look forward to.

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Track 1: I would just

gig at your postmortem.

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I'm like, I debrief.

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rachel_2_12-29-2023_131827: Oh, it's dead.

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It's done.

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Let's dive in.

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Track 1: This thing is red.

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rachel_2_12-29-2023_131827:

more energetically aligned one.

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That's just what I called them in

corporate, that it carried over.

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Track 1: I knew what

you were talking about.

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I'm like launch, debrief,

reflection, and review.

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buT yeah, the, those are,

and the magic is in debrief.

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I always said that because, rarely

ever do you launch the first time

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and hit it out of the park, right?

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So you're gonna have to tweak

and iterate and those debrief

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can help show you the way to.

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rachel_2_12-29-2023_131827: Yeah.

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So second season of business

of, is this like vada season,

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the creating type energy?

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Do you wanna walk us through the

metrics and what's happening here?

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Track 1: Yeah.

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So first of all, when you're creating,

, is that this is where it becomes really

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important to have those marketing systems

running behind the scenes, like your

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evergreen funnels and your lead generation

funnels and your content creation,

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workflows, those still need to be

happening so that you're actively either.

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To your more passive offers or building

up so that you can have another cash

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injection during your bigger push

season that will carry you over

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while you're creating and restoring.

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rachel_2_12-29-2023_131827: yoU

say that a or a creative season

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typically is before a big push season?

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Track 1: Yeah.

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Yeah.

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So I would say typically we

would be like, create, promote.

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Restore, create, promote, restore.

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But when your team starts to grow, you

can actually have people in different

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energies of the business depending

on what part they're working on.

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So then it gets a little more complex.

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Like when I had a bigger client who

had 18 members, some people were

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creating and some people were promoting

that's how you begin to scale.

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But if you're just one person.

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Or a smaller team, maybe everyone

living in the same energy at

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the same time could work too.

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But as far as your like evergreen sources,

I love to look at traffic sources.

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So where is the traffic

coming from to your website?

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That way you know where you can focus, if

you need to pull back on certain marketing

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activities, you know which ones are still

gonna give you the bang for your buck.

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So for example, right now,

podcast doesn't generate a lot

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of leads from me, Rachel, yet.

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So we intentionally pull back on this

marketing channel because we know

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from our analytics right now that.

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You know that's not gonna generate

our leads for us and when we need

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to protect our time to create.

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And we can only play in one kind of

marketing channel that maybe Instagram

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for Rachel or for me, it's more referral

or SEO article so looking at your

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traffic sources, I also love to keep an

eye on, the keyword searches for Google

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Search Console, what's resonating?

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Because sometimes I'm able to identify

words that are generating a lot of

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: 00:18:05

traffic to my website and set up some

funnels just for that specific article.

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I feel like that's how Google

works a lot is like you'll have one

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article that gets . 2000 views and

then nothing else gets anything.

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It's like you need to have something

specific on this page if: 2000

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are coming to this page every day.

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And then also just looking at, any

evergreen funnels that you have, like

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as far as lead magnets or passive

funnels that are working to make sure

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that those KPIs are working and that's

gonna be what sustains you and allows

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you to have the time and space to do.

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The creation.

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And then as far as actual creating

goes, what I'm looking at as time

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tracking, a lot of entrepreneurs

do not track their time.

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I track my time , so I have a

good idea about how long each

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task or project has taken me.

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And that helps with just giving

myself a realistic plan to be

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able to complete something.

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In the time period that

I've given myself to create.

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So we said that your promotion

period is 30 to 60 days.

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Your creation period.

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Really, it's probably gonna be determined

by how often you need to promote.

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So if you've only got 30 days to create

something, then having a realistic

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: 00:19:23

Timeframe and scope of work

that you can do in that period.

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So that may look like doing different,

like iterations of each product

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because we probably have a 5.0 version

of something that we wanna put out

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there, but there, maybe there's a

1.0 version that we can launch next

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month because we need the money.

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Planning out your time and.

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Way.

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And then also just looking at your

operating expenses, because especially

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during these craving periods where

maybe you're not pulling in as much

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revenue as you typically do, keeping

those guys as low as possible is.

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Ideal and tech bloat is like real.

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: 00:20:06

So I have a spreadsheet in my notion

where it's got all the different

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: 00:20:09

tech services that I pay for and

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: 00:20:12

it's really easy to be like,

oh, I'm gonna sign up for this.

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: 00:20:14

This is so cool.

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: 00:20:15

This is so cool.

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: 00:20:16

It's like periodically going back and

looking at those expenses and what

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: 00:20:19

can I cancel or what's not creating

ROI or what can I consolidate?

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: 00:20:24

I feel like that's been a big one for

my clients this year is that as these

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: 00:20:28

tech companies begin to evolve and

expand, they can do so many other

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: 00:20:32

things that they couldn't do before.

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: 00:20:34

For Canva, for example, now it has

whiteboards where I used to use Whimsical

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: 00:20:38

for I had a client who was using try

Interact and Typeform, which basically

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: 00:20:43

you could do the same thing with those.

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: 00:20:45

We consolidated those or if you're

using something like Kajabi that already

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: 00:20:48

has an EMO service provider, and you

don't need all the bells and whistles.

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: 00:20:53

Some of the other ones have, then maybe

you can consolidate that so that you're

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: 00:20:57

keeping your operating expenses low

so you're not feeling that pressure

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: 00:21:03

to hurry up and finish this thing.

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: 00:21:05

Because creativity is

not Thrivent pressure.

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: 00:21:07

It needs lots of white space

and less stress to be, to flow.

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: 00:21:13

, rachel_2_12-29-2023_131827: I

think you've covered it all.

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: 00:21:14

Okay.

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: 00:21:15

And then our last season of business is

the restorative Kapa type season, which

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: 00:21:22

I would say we're in, I'm in right now.

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: 00:21:25

I'm trying to be in right now

and really making sure that

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: 00:21:28

you give yourself that time to.

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: 00:21:33

Build back up and come back to life.

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: 00:21:36

And I know in our past episodes

you really played on the mindsets

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of rot and rot or restore.

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: 00:21:43

And you can do both.

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: 00:21:44

It's possible.

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: 00:21:45

I think there's some

times where you're like.

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: 00:21:48

Couch potato status.

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: 00:21:50

I've used this week to like really sleep

in and wake up when I wanna wake up.

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: 00:21:56

I have narrowed down my client work tasks

really making sure that one, I have my

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: 00:22:01

clients returning my retention is still on

And that I'm actively building towards a

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: 00:22:09

new Roster coming up in like the new year.

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: 00:22:13

So I think the three metrics that

are the most important to focus on

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: 00:22:19

in this restorative copper type season

is that customer lifetime value.

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: 00:22:26

So making sure that there's no anomalies

in your in your retention strategy, you're

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: 00:22:32

making sure that you have a long-term

Contract in place that you don't have

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: 00:22:37

a lot of cancellations early, that you

are working smarter and not harder.

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: 00:22:43

So it's the mindset of I am going

to have, like all my clients have

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: 00:22:48

a three month minimum, , retainer.

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: 00:22:50

On average my clients stay with me

anywhere from six to nine to 12 months,

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: 00:22:55

so depending on what service they live in.

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: 00:22:58

So understanding that in my business,

even though my initial contract is three

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: 00:23:03

months, I know that I don't need to market

to fill that spot again for another.

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: 00:23:10

Six plus months afterwards.

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: 00:23:12

So really leaning into those business

foundational metrics of customer lifetime

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: 00:23:18

value, your retention rate leaning into

your network, I would say is another one.

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: 00:23:23

So embracing referrals.

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: 00:23:26

, how can you, in this restorative.

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: 00:23:29

Phase of season of business, really like

tap into reconnecting with your network,

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: 00:23:35

whether that's coffee chats or emails,

things that are just re maintaining and

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: 00:23:41

rebuilding those connections that maybe

during your push season you lost track of.

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: 00:23:47

Those are really important Steady

metrics to look at during this type

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: 00:23:51

of relaxing restorative season.

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: 00:23:56

Track 1: The final one that you didn't

talk about is, and I think you naturally

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: 00:23:59

do it when you slow down, is like you

realize like the other areas . Of your

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: 00:24:04

life that, especially if you've been

in a heavy like push season or Pitta

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: 00:24:08

season that have fallen to the wayside.

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: 00:24:11

So health and wellness or maybe

family relationships or just personal

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: 00:24:17

development and spirituality.

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: 00:24:18

Gauging all of those other life

areas and where they're currently

385

: 00:24:23

at and what needs some more work

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: 00:24:26

rachel_2_12-29-2023_131827: yeah.

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: 00:24:26

Track 1: that you can, when you're going

forward and putting your plans in place,

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: 00:24:30

create some space for those activities

to go, or, I'm a big fan of doing

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: 00:24:36

retreats and going hard and getting a

big old boost of like restoration so

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: 00:24:40

that I can carry me to the next one.

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: 00:24:45

It's like building that

stress, resilience, muscle.

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: 00:24:49

rachel_2_12-29-2023_131827: Totally.

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: 00:24:50

Yeah.

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: 00:24:50

Gosh, I can't wait to

unplug after this and.

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: 00:24:55

Jump right into the new year,

feeling so much more restored.

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: 00:24:58

I desperately needed these last

two weeks to chill So yeah.

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: 00:25:04

So let's just do a little quick recap.

398

: 00:25:06

So the three seasons of business

that typically, and I think Jess,

399

: 00:25:10

you put it start in this creative

space to create something new.

400

: 00:25:16

Then you go into promote mode to then sell

that, and then hopefully you drop into

401

: 00:25:21

restorative mode so that you can pull back

and reclaim some of that energy that you

402

: 00:25:25

just pushed out during that fiery season.

403

: 00:25:30

So really making sure that You're not

planning an entire year with just a

404

: 00:25:36

hundred percent fire that you are planning

in restorative options, that you're

405

: 00:25:41

not double dipping into that creative

slash fire mode at the exact same time.

406

: 00:25:47

'cause I tell you, it's, I think you had

said this, like you need space, you need

407

: 00:25:52

flow to create and . Feel, inspiration and

really like when you have it coupled with

408

: 00:25:58

that pressure of generating sales and that

kind of masculine energy, it's really

409

: 00:26:03

hard to exist in both at the same time.

410

: 00:26:07

So those three seasons, we'll talk more

about how to build them into an actual

411

: 00:26:12

annual plan, but really having this

foundational knowledge of these three

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: 00:26:17

kind of energies that you'll exist in

throughout the year is so important.

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: 00:26:21

Track 1: Yes.

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: 00:26:22

So thank you guys for

listening, and until next week