If you feel like your results are inconsistent or your pipeline isn’t converting the way it should, this episode is going to connect the dots. In this episode of The Real Truth About Business podcast, I’m sharing a mix of Back Pocket Insights episodes focused on consistency, routines, and how your pipeline actually drives revenue growth. This is for service-based entrepreneurs who are stuck in a revenue plateau, struggling to stay consistent, or unsure how to move leads through their sales process. After 9 years of experience, I can tell you this is not about doing more. It’s about doing the right things consistently. Inside this episode, I break down how your habits impact your business strategy and how understanding the four pipeline stages will completely change your approach to lead generation and sales.

What You'll Learn:

• Why consistency is the foundation of sustainable business growth
• How breaking routines impacts your revenue and pipeline performance
• The four pipeline stages every service-based business needs
• How to move leads from awareness to decision effectively
• Why clarity in your sales process increases your conversion rate
• How to align your daily actions with long-term revenue growth

Episode Highlights:

[00:00] Introduction: Back Pocket Insights and coaching-style episodes

[02:00] Why consistency is harder to rebuild than maintain

[05:00] Identifying where you’re breaking your own routines

[07:00] How overcommitment leads to inconsistency

[09:00] Introduction to the four pipeline stages

[11:00] Awareness: how people find you

[13:00] Interest and consideration: how leads engage

[15:00] Decision: how to move people to a clear yes or no

Key Takeaways:

Consistency Is What Actually Drives Results

Here’s what I see constantly. Business owners chasing new strategies while ignoring the lack of consistency in what they’re already doing.

After 9 years of working with service-based entrepreneurs, I can tell you this is one of the biggest reasons for stalled revenue growth.

Consistency is not about doing everything. It’s about doing a few things repeatedly.

And once you break that consistency, it’s significantly harder to rebuild than it is to maintain. That applies to your content, your lead generation, and your sales process.

Your Habits Are Directly Tied to Your Revenue

This isn’t just about routines for the sake of discipline.

Your daily and weekly habits are directly connected to your pipeline. If you’re inconsistent in showing up, inconsistent in nurturing leads, or inconsistent in following up, your revenue will reflect that.

Inside the Focused Visionary Framework, this ties directly into your Pipeline and Sales pillars. You cannot create predictable business growth without consistent action.

Every Lead Is Somewhere in Your Pipeline

One of the biggest mindset shifts is understanding that everyone who interacts with your business is in your pipeline.

Not everyone will buy. But everyone is somewhere in the process.

And if you don’t know where they are, you can’t move them forward.

This is where most service-based entrepreneurs lose momentum. They don’t have visibility into how people are moving through their business.

The Four Pipeline Stages Simplify Everything

Your entire business strategy can be simplified into four stages:

• Awareness: how people find you
• Interest: how they start engaging with you
• Consideration: how they evaluate working with you
• Decision: how they say yes or no

When you map your lead generation and sales process to these stages, everything becomes clearer.

You know what to focus on. You know where the gaps are. And you know exactly how to improve your conversion rate.

Clarity and Action Move People Forward

Leads don’t move through your pipeline on their own.

They need direction.

If you’re not giving clear next steps, people will stall. They’ll stay in interest or consideration and never move to decision.

This is why your sales process needs to be intentional. Every stage should have a clear action that moves someone forward.

Business Growth Is Built on Simple, Repeatable Systems

At the end of the day, this is what it comes down to.

Consistent actions. Clear pipeline. Intentional sales process.

Not more complexity. Not more tactics.

Just better execution of the fundamentals.

That’s what creates sustainable revenue growth and gets you out of a revenue plateau.

Resources Mentioned

• Subscribe to Back Pocket Insights for FREE
• Book a CEO Strategy Call
• Learn more about The Missing Piece Intensive
• Learn more about The Focused Visionary Accelerator
• Download the FREE Lead and Conversion Tracker
• Subscribe to the Sunday Morning Brew Newsletter

About the Host:

Michelle DeNio is a business strategist based in Sarasota, Florida, specializing in helping service-based entrepreneurs break through revenue plateaus using her Focused Visionary Framework. With over 300 podcast episodes and 9 years running her consulting business, she helps coaches, consultants, and service providers scale sustainably through strategic planning, pricing optimization, and sales process development.

Connect with Michelle

1. Website
2. Threads
3. Instagram
4. LinkedIn
5. Facebook

Hey everyone, I've got a really special.

Episode for you today.

What you are going to be hearing on today's podcast is actually two or three episodes from my private podcast called Back Pocket Insights.

Some of you probably don't even know that I have a private podcast because.

I don't talk about it a lot.

And that's why I wanted to start sharing it with you guys here on the pod.

This, these episodes are part of my Back Pocket Insights community.

It's my low ticket community.

The link is in the show notes.

You can absolutely jump in on this.

This is like my networking community.

And in addition to the monthly training that we do, I also have this private podcast directly for the members of that community.

And a lot of these episodes are very much driven from questions received inside of the community.

So they're a little bit like private coaching episodes.

And so what I wanted to do is I wanted to bring them on the main pod and just kind of share with you once a month or so some of the most popular episodes from that previous month that the members were loving and talking about and resonating with.

So that's what you're getting today.

I hope you enjoy it.

I would love to see you inside of Back Pocket Insights.

If you want access to these private podcast episodes, if you want to ask questions where you can get your question answered in a private podcast episode, you can do all of that inside of Back Pocket Insights as well as network with a community of over 50 women and, and men.

There's men there too and you know, learn.

There's always a training every single month or some type of challenge or something that we are focused on to move the needle in our businesses.

And so anyways, enjoy these episodes and I will see you and talk to you soon.

Let's chat a minute about routines and consistency.

This is a big one.

So I was have.

And for me, what that looks like right is I signed up for a.

It's kind of like a fitness dance studio.

And you have to sign up for the classes because I'm not doing the unlimited right now.

I'm buying sessions and I use the sessions.

And so right now I have it on my calendar to go every single Tuesday and every single Thursday.

They are early mornings.

Well, early for me.

8:30, Which I know is not early for a lot of you, but it's, it's an early for me to be out the, out, out of the house and out the door.

Right.

Anyways, it's 8:30 in the morning, which is not my favorite time, okay?

And it was a couple weeks.

I was very, very busy.

I was really running on empty.

Not, not on empty, but I felt like I was.

I really wasn't, but I felt like I was, let me tell you, every single evening before.

So Monday nights and Wednesday nights.

Every single, like Monday and Wednesday for a good couple of weeks.

I literally almost canceled my reservation to go to the class the next morning because I was like, I don't feel like doing this.

I'm tired.

I have so much to do.

I'd much rather just get my work done, right?

Like, I don't want this to disrupt my flow.

But here is the thing is that my.

I have created consistency in my schedule.

I've got my schedule booked off, so I don't take clients until I get home and have time to shower, right?

I have created this consistency in my body, in my brain, in my mind, in my schedule, in my calendar.

And all it takes is for me to skip one day or one week and you break the consistency.

And once the consistency is broken, it is very hard to get it back on track, right?

So I want you to really think about that again.

I'm not trying to go to the gym five days a week right now because I know that I can't maintain consistency with that, but I can maintain my consistency going twice a week.

And that is something that I'm not willing to compromise on.

And I think that is what I want you guys to really think about right now as you're listening to this episode is like, where are you continuing to consistently break your consistency, right?

Like where is it that you are breaking your consistent, see on a regular basis?

And one, is it because you just don't have any accountability to yourself?

And.

Or what is it like, what is causing you to break that?

Number two, is it because you are over committed?

Right?

Inconsistency when we are over committed is almost impossible to maintain.

Or is it that you're trying to stay consistent with something that you don't like?

Right?

Like that is very difficult to do.

If you have something in your business that you are doing because somebody else told you you should and you're trying to maintain consistency with it and it literally drains the bl of your body every single time you go to do it, you are going to continue to break it.

But when you have things that you enjoy, right?

Like the two classes I'm going to at the gym, I freaking love them.

Every time I go, I am so grateful that I went, I feel so much better.

Right?

And so that is what motivates me to say like, no, Michelle, you will regret this if you cancel this.

Okay?

So again, where is it that you need to give yourself?

Maybe you need to give yourself a little bit of an out in the sense of maybe you're just over committed.

Maybe you need to look at it and really ask yourself like, why am I breaking my consistency all the time?

Right?

But also what can I do to like honor this commitment to myself?

Do I need an accountability partner?

Do I need.

One of the things that I'm doing is the reason why I buy sessions at the gym and not the unlimited pass?

Because the unlimited pass in my head is like, you go, you pay for it whether you go or not.

Where the sessions, if you sign up for, if you register for the class and they take one of your sessions and you don't cancel it in time, you, you lose that session, right?

So you, you paid the money anyway.

So there is some built in accountability that I need right now because I know that like I'm still building up this muscle of creating like literally building the muscle, but also like this muscle of consistency.

But either way, my point here is if you have some resemblance of consistency going, do not let yourself break it because it is going to be twice as hard to jump back in as it is to, to maintain it.

Okay?

So really looking at and like looking at your start stop cycle number one, but also just giving yourself like that motivation, that push to be like, no, I'm not going to break this cycle because I know it's going to be twice as hard to pick back up.

All right?

So that, that goes with anything in your business, regardless what it is, it, that is a principle that you should, you know, really be keeping top of mind when you are working and trying to move and build growth in your business.

There is a lot of level of consistency that is required to get to the results that you are desiring.

Okay, I want to talk today about the four pipeline stages.

I talk about this all the time inside of FVA and with my clients.

And I feel like I've talked about it on my main podcast, but I want to dive a little bit deeper into it for you guys today because I think it is really important and it really plays off of every single thing that I do when it comes to strategy or any, any little tidbit of information for the most part that I, that I share is going to be dependent on pipeline.

I talk about this a lot because to me, it is one of the most important things that you can understand in your business is that every single person that you come into contact with is somewhere in your pipeline.

And I know people don't like to think of everybody as a lead or whether or some people are just referral partners or friends or whatever, that's fine, but they're still in your pipeline somewhere.

But there are four essential main stages of your buyer journey.

So again, if you.

And I think you have different stages, if you're looking at strategic partnerships or referral partners or whatever, but you can.

We can talk about that a little bit too.

But when it comes to your buyer journey, right?

Because at the end of the day, whether you want to call people a lead or not, like, you've got to have leads in your business, because if you don't have leads, you don't have clients, right?

So first and foremost, like, a little bit of a mindset shift on that.

Like, who gives a shit if they're.

You call them a lead, right?

Like, I go into people's pipelines all the time.

I hope to God they expect.

They count me as a lead, right?

Because again, it's their job to move me through their pipeline.

I don't know how to get through it on my own, right?

So, like, as a lead, I need them to lead the way, right?

So that's what I want you to really think about here, is how can you, like, think of it from that perspective?

Okay, so stage number one is awareness, right?

This is where people become aware of you, right?

So what are you doing to make people aware of you?

So if you want to grab a sheet of paper and just write this down, right?

So step one, awareness, all right?

And then I want you to list out all of the things that you do to draw people into you, right?

To make people aware of you.

This could be podcast guesting, this could be social media, this could be networking.

This could be SEO, right?

If you're big on SEO, it could be going to events, right?

In person events.

It could be hosting your own podcast, it could be hosting your own YouTube channel, social media, whatever, right?

Like, how do people find out that you exist?

Because people do not just magically figure out that you exist.

It could be referral partners, right?

Could be referrals that people send your way.

People make introductions for you.

That is an incredible awareness tool.

So it's.

It's wonderful, right?

But people become aware of you, all right?

Now, not everybody is going to move through your pipeline.

Some people are going to be aware of you and that's where they're going to stay.

That's okay.

But it's still your job to make it so that they have a clear next step.

So when they are ready to move to that, they know what that is.

Okay, so what's your next step?

Your next step is to get them interested in working with you, interested in learning more about you, interested in having a conversation with you, interested in, you know, getting on your email list, right?

Stalking you, essentially.

Right?

Like if you want to put this in plain terms, like, how are you going to get people to get and like start their stalking of you.

Right?

So does that look like again, it could look like creating content on social media.

It could look like a podcast.

Some of these serve dual purpose.

My podcast serves as an awareness and an interest slash consideration tool.

Right?

Some people find me by searching on SEO podcast search.

But also sometimes people like find me.

On social media, then go listen to.

My podcast and then that's how they.

Lean in and learn a little bit more about me.

Okay, so you can have things that serve dual purpose.

But again, what is it that you are doing to get people to that next step?

Right?

So somebody is aware of you.

If you want them to get interested in you, what do you do?

Bring invite them to some type of networking event that you're hosting.

Do you invite them to your email list?

Do you invite them to listen to your podcast?

Right?

Just because somebody is aware of you, they have may have no idea that you have a podcast.

So how often are you sharing your podcast?

How often are you sharing your email list, your newsletter?

How often are you inviting people to look at a lead magnet that you have, right?

That's getting them interested.

People are then saying like, you know what?

I am interested in learning a little bit more.

I think I will go listen to her podcast.

I think I will go check out her YouTube channel again.

But they don't know that you have those things if you don't tell them.

So that's what I mean by like listing it out and saying like, what are the things that you are doing at each stage of this that could be booking a call with you.

I do those four on four coffee chats, right?

Like there's so many different things that you can do.

Then we've got consideration.

Consideration is like, I'm interested, I've leaned in, I've stalked you, I've listened to your podcast and now I'm actually considering working with you.

Whether that's on a one off, whether that's on retainer whether that's on your high ticket offer or even just maybe one of your trust offers.

I heard that term the other day and I loved it.

I call them experience offers.

Right?

Like how do you get people to experience you?

So that could be in a conversion event.

It could be something of that sort.

Right, so what does that look like?

Is it that you invite people and say like, hey, if you're considering it, why don't we start here?

Do you book a call?

Do they do a discovery call?

Do you do a coffee chat?

Do you run audits?

Right, I did a couple of weeks ago, I did these, like map your next 5k, just roadmap blueprint plans.

Like they were free.

People gave me information, again, that's moving them from interest.

Some of them then moved into consideration after I gave them their plan.

Right, so again, dual purpose, right, Was again to get people to raise their hand and say like, hey, I'm interested in that.

But then on the back end of it, it was my job to move them into considering booking one of my sessions.

Right, so again, what are you doing to invite people in to consider working with you and then decision, Right, So how are you getting people to make a decision?

Whether that's yes or no, you need a decision, not a maybe, not this, like not let me just sit on the fence, whatever.

Like, what are you doing to get people to say like, yes, this is a good fit.

No, this is not, or follow up with me in two weeks, right?

Like either way, even a follow up, even a not right now, that's a decision, that's what you need.

And people aren't often.

People say they ghosted me all the time.

I get ghosted, they say they're interested and then they ghost me.

But when's the last time you actually said, I would love for you to let me know when you make a decision, even if that is a not right now, right?

Like that's how clear it is.

So whether that's you booking a call, whether that's you sending an email, whether that's you having a conversation with them in the dms, whether that's you booking them right on the spot because they're in that consideration call, right?

So if somebody's considering and saying like, hey, I'm interested, like, okay, let's do this, let's book it, let's get it on the calendar.

Let me get the link for the invoice over to you.

Right?

Like, what are you doing?

So that you know what their decision was?

Because again, if you don't take the initiative to get the decision, they likely will ghost you, okay?

And again, people are always going to ghost you.

People are going to fall off out of your pipeline.

It's not like you can move every single human being through it, but you can.

But what you can do is know, here are the steps in my pipeline.

Here's the path that people take in my buyer's journey.

Here's how I move them through it.

And this is what it looks like at each stage of it.

That's what your intention is in creating.

This is making sure that you have those next steps set up so that when somebody is sitting and interested, right, on your email list, they're clicking all the links, they're looking at your offers, you know exactly what the next step is.

You reach out to them and say, let's book a call.

You reach out to them and say, hey, I think this masterclass might be of interest to you, right?

You are taking the initiative because you're watching the actions and you're seeing like, okay, this person's leaning in.

Now, again, there's always going to be the lurkers.

There's always going to be the stalkers.

There's always going to be the quiet ones.

And the reason that people take that action that are quiet and stalk and lurk and all of that is because the action is set up and it's very clear.

They don't have to ask for it.

They just know, because you have it so clear that it's easy for them to take action without having to ask for it.

Because most lurkers don't want to ask for more information.

They want to quietly observe and collect the information on their own.

And then when they are ready, they jump out.

Okay?

But if you don't make it easy for them to collect this information on their own and for them to take action, they will remain a lurker and they will likely end up buying from the person that makes it easy for them.

Okay?

So that's what you need to think about.

So again, this is not about, like, looking at everybody as a sale, but this is about saying, like, entered my journey, you entered my world, and now I want to make sure that I make it as easy as possible for you to experience me.

That's all business is, is people experiencing you, right?

So get this out of your head that it's a negative sales or this or that or any of this other.

Like, it's not right.

This is just, you are in my world, and now I'm going to give you all the ways that you can experience me, okay?

That's the goal.

All right?

So take notes.

Re.

Listen to this one.

Come back and make sure you've got your four steps in your pipeline mapped out and clear.

That is going to make it much easier for you to convert leads into sales.