When Your Metrics Suck

Emily Thompson 0:00
Hello and welcome to being boss episode number 89. This episode is brought to you by fresh books cloud accounting.

Being boss and work and life is being in it.

Kathleen Shannon 0:16
It's being who we are doing the work, breaking some rules. And even though we each

Emily Thompson 0:22
have to do it on our own, being boss is knowing we're in it together.

Kathleen Shannon 0:29
Hey guys, we are chatting with you, Emily and I are actually together. We're at a mastermind retreat with Tara Gentilly in rural Pennsylvania. Would you call this room?

Unknown Speaker 0:41
No, this is not rural Ohio.

Kathleen Shannon 0:44
I mean, there are corn fields,

Emily Thompson 0:46
I mean, soybean field, we're surrounded very near to us by rural Pennsylvania.

Kathleen Shannon 0:54
We're in like a really cute bed and breakfast, we're sitting in a room that is covered in floral wallpaper.

Emily Thompson 1:00
It's straight up tulip wallpaper,

Kathleen Shannon 1:04
we're sleeping in the attic, into little twin size beds, it's very flowers in the attic it with a little less incest. A lot less,

Emily Thompson 1:15
actually. Um, yeah, this house is pretty awesome. I went around earlier and had to check out all the trees.

Kathleen Shannon 1:23
Because it's beautiful. It's totally beautiful. But we thought that we would use this opportunity to record a podcast together. And this is a very kind of timely episode. Well, okay, let me tell you what we're talking about first. Today, we are chatting about what to do when your metrics suck, specifically your blogging metrics. But this could also apply to your podcast, growing your newsletter, and in general, creating content that is being consumed and shared by your following. And I don't know maybe even in some ways it could apply to your bottom line, like your money, anything that you could measure that you want more of. But mostly what we're talking about today is creating content that gets good metrics. And the reason why we're talking about this today is because just yesterday, I was feeling a little bit overwhelmed. We have a lot on our plate. We're working on a book proposal that is due on Monday, I don't even think that Emily has started writing yet. I

Emily Thompson 2:25
have a little bit but is it really Monday? Yeah, shit.

Kathleen Shannon 2:30
So we've got some work to do. So in our Slack channel, I said, Hey, I'm going to not do any blog posts for being boss for maybe the next couple of weeks while I'm really focusing on this. And Emily said, okay, but what are we going to do with that Thursday content? Because my posts always go up on Thursday. And I said, You know what, we're just not gonna have it.

Emily Thompson 2:51
And she spout it out. Consistency breeds legitimacy.

Kathleen Shannon 2:57
And I said, A spreads in creative breeds resentment, and suicidal tendencies. Not to make a joke about that. But really, I mean, you know, none of us feel creative whenever we're feeling spread thin. And I'm dedicating a lot of writing energy to emails and this book proposal. But then Emily pointed out, but then.

Emily Thompson 3:22
So I've been watching the metrics for the blog posts and been noticing that, like, I like to watch and see what of our content is doing really great, what gets lots of hits when like, has lots of traction. And there's been a little trend with some of Kathleen's blog posts that they haven't really been as popular as most of our other content. So I very lovingly tried to let her know that look, some of your topics, there's some of your blog posts aren't getting good traction, like it's okay for you to take a break from this to put your energy where it needs to go. And,

Kathleen Shannon 3:59
and it really hurt my feelings.

Emily Thompson 4:01
And then I think it made kathlyn cry,

Kathleen Shannon 4:03
I totally cried. I cried all afternoon. I Okay, so here's why. And then, and then I felt bad for feeling bad, because it really isn't personal. And I have a lot of feelings about metrics that we'll go into. But I was just feeling bad because I felt like I was being called out on maybe half assing it and I don't even know if that's true or not, because truly I like to give my all to everything. But if I'm doing a lot of things, my all is very limited. So hurt feelings. We ended up after that recording a really great podcast with a really great guest. We chatted it out a little bit. But then I thought wouldn't it be fun if we talked about what to do whenever your metrics suck, right here live because it's an actual conversation that we need to be having. And we thought we might as well do it on air.

Emily Thompson 4:55
Absolutely. Yeah. And I want to point out to you followed up with Saying something that I think has a lot of credit here. And that you know, you don't want your worth tied up into metrics, which I think is super spot on. And it's something we'll get to in this episode as well. But I do think that using metrics to make sure you're putting your time and energy into things that are going to be fruitful for you, or the most fruitful for you, is how you is how you really manage your time in a way that that brings you the kind of results that you want. So we're going to be talking about several things in terms of metrics today diving into why they're really important, and how you can use them to make good decisions, but also when you should just ditch them and throw them out the window.

Kathleen Shannon 5:36
And we're going to be sharing the tactics that we will be doing next to improve our metrics. And then we'll close by telling you why maybe metrics aren't so important. So hang with us here. Alright, I want to pause here for a second because another super touchy and sometimes emotionally charged metric is that of money. I know it can make you want to run for the hills and bury your head in the sand. But being boss is being boss enough to look at your money. Fresh books, cloud accounting makes it so easy to see what's coming in, and what's going out whenever it comes to your money and your bank account. It's super intuitive and easy to use fresh books makes it super visual. You do not have to be an accountant to know what is going on with the financial health of your business. Go to freshbooks comm slash being boss and enter being boss in the How did you hear about us section two, try your free trial today. I promise it will take your business to a whole new level once you really start paying attention to the money going in and out of your business and your bank account. Alright, back to our episode. Okay, so first things first, let's talk about why metrics are important.

Emily Thompson 6:58
I love my metrics, because they make me happy. I like metrics because they they give you a really good look at what's going on in your business and your online business at any given time. And that's really kind of my favorite thing about online business is you have access to so many metrics. So they're really important because they allow you to make really good decisions about your business based on past performance of whatever it is that you're putting out into the internet.

Kathleen Shannon 7:27
And listen, I used to not care about metrics at all, I think, what was it two or three years ago, I wrote a blog post saying why I'm ditching Google Analytics or something ridiculous like that. At the same time, Emily was probably writing a blog post on how to track your Google Analytics, drive data decisions. But and I will get into why I don't put a whole lot of stock or self worth in the metrics and numbers that I'm pulling in. But whenever we started being boss, we knew that we were creating something bigger than ourselves. And we knew that we were creating a brand that could really have big impact on a lot of creative entrepreneurs. And in order to have the kind of growth and visibility and reach and impact that we have goals for, we have to pull in those numbers. It's so important to attract more dream clients, sponsors, we're writing a book to get people to buy our book, to get people to buy our online courses. To create a flourishing community, even if they're not spending a lot of money with us. They're connecting with each other and creating projects. I mean, that's been my favorite thing lately. Anyway, going off on a tangent there, we simply have to pull in those numbers and look at our metrics and make decisions informed decisions based on our performance in order to grow our brand the way that we want to. And I'm not saying that like I'm not sometimes at odds with that. Because sometimes I feel as if all of our decisions are super calculated, it doesn't leave a lot of room for creativity or exploration or trying out new things.

Emily Thompson 9:10
Absolutely. And I think that I think that's one of the fun things about being a creative entrepreneur is that you can use the data however you want. So you can use it to see what's working, what's not working. But if the thing that's working is something that you don't enjoy doing, then do something completely different. So So yeah, we're gonna talk about how data should drive decisions. But it doesn't have to drive every decision. I think. I think data is just part of it. I think it's a good place to begin. It's a good place for you to go and see you what is happening, and then use your gut to make the rest of the decision. But it allows you to make a more informed decision than not looking at your analytics and just going off of every limb and hoping that it works. The great thing about doing business online is you have tons of data at your fingertips and you can use it to help shape your business in a way that it's that you know, it's already gaining traction or if things aren't working, you can pull away from those if you want. Yeah, I

Kathleen Shannon 10:09
mean, I loved whenever we were brainstorming this topic and really kind of getting our thoughts together on paper, one thing that you said is that data drives what has been working, but that you have to leave room for new trends and patterns, you have to be able to explore what's next for you. And you can't do that without risking things or trying new things.

Emily Thompson 10:30
Because you're not going to be ahead of the curve. If you're always looking in the rearview mirror, you have to be looking ahead at what you want to do, not just what has been working in the past, just because you've been on your mind space, getting at it for years, doesn't mean that my space is going to be the cool place in the future. So always looking ahead at a future trends, I think is just as important as looking back at what has worked in the past.

Kathleen Shannon 10:58
Okay, so yesterday, whenever I was having my pity party for myself, I started looking at some of our analytics, and I saw that some of the stuff that was working, were things that I really enjoy putting my time in, like our podcasts themselves, I this is my favorite thing that we do. I think that part of the reason why we launched a blog is because we both really missed writing. And we both have a very strong blog background. And so it makes me wonder how much I was trying to fit an old passion into a new way of working. I mean, we can't really entirely look back before, before our how we were doing things because everything has changed. And so one of the things that you mentioned was, you know, probably one of my lowest performing articles, and was around, I think I wrote something wrong girl bosses that are funny and made a list. And it was the kind of thing that I would have written about on an Cathleen calm, maybe like three or four years ago, I used to have even actually used to have a series called girl crush. And so I kind of was trying to bring back the spirit of that. And it's just a good reminder that you can't beat a dead horse, is that the phrase?

Emily Thompson 12:17
I think that would fit here. I get

Kathleen Shannon 12:20
what you're saying. It was like beating a dead horse by trying to bring back an old blog series that I love doing. But that isn't really serving. Our audience now are really serving the kind of content that I you know, I've kind of elevated my game a little bit and maybe writing about funny bosses like maybe I should just be reading their books. And that's good enough, or writing about them in a new way where I'm doing a more elaborate book review or I mean, even then

Emily Thompson 12:50
even write a book review, let's write our book.

Kathleen Shannon 12:53
But that's how I got Bernie brown as a client writing a book review on her book, right? So just saying that work. Sometimes I just want to be friends with Chelsea Handler is

Emily Thompson 13:03
Chelsea Handler, please call her. Um, right. So then let's talk about what we're going to do next. So we we pulled some metrics, we saw what we saw what was happening, and what what can be improved. So let's talk about let's talk about what we do next.

Kathleen Shannon 13:18
Right. So like, we looked at our code schedule, but we haven't necessarily pulled up our Google Analytics to look at traffic. I think that what code schedule is showing us is how many shares we were getting, which is totally valid and important. But it will be interesting to look at Google Analytics and see if any of the patterns that we uncover there change the story that we're telling ourselves right now about my metrics, sucking, maybe this is hopeful thinking,

Emily Thompson 13:44
right? Well, and I was like, This is not super top of mind, but I've been watching it some. And and it's pretty similar to what's in CO scheduling. shareability is relatively mirrored in terms of website traffic. And what it shows is, you know, our podcasts are really the meat of what being bosses so not even like the downloads, but the show notes visits on our website. So when that knowing that putting some good energy and decreasing are really great episodes, like our chalkboard method episode was one that was super popular recently, and a couple of really big guest interviews have been really popular and have maintained popularity. So that was really good and reconfirming, that one of the that the thing that we do put our most energy into, and that we do also enjoy the most on an ongoing basis is the thing that is still serving us the best.

Kathleen Shannon 14:41
You know, it almost makes me wonder if if I'm putting more of my energy in the podcast, and that's what I really love doing. I wonder if we literally invest in having those podcasts transcribed is something that we've kicked around a little bit but that could almost replace if you think about it. The content that would go into a blog post. And if my blog posts that are topical around the podcast episode aren't doing well, or maybe they're completely off topic, it might be worthwhile just transcribing our actual podcast to get the kind of traction that we want on line on the internet with words.

Emily Thompson 15:20
So in that case, dear listeners, if you guys are injured, because this is totally something Kathleen and I have thrown around multiple times in the past year and a half is whether or not we want to transcribe it. And we always just figured that you guys didn't really care. But like, if you are someone who's interested in us transcribing these episodes, and would read them or download them, shoot us an email Hello at being boss club, just say, Hey, I won't transcribe, we'll keep a tally, we probably won't reply. So don't get too excited. We get lots of emails, but let us know. And we'll certainly keep a tally. And if there's enough of them, I don't think that's a bad idea.

Kathleen Shannon 15:54
I mean, one of the things that we've always said and always believe in or especially learning as we are growing in our own businesses, and growing in our roles, as the grand visionaries of where we want to go with this is that we really should double down on what's working, and where our strengths are. And so if our strings are with our podcast, let's double down on it. And that I think that that's a really great way to do it. And some other ways that we're using our time really well. And what's working is our community engagement. So we have the being boss clubhouse, and I'm definitely in there every day talking to our clubhouse members, and really engaging with them and answering their questions. But also hopping on Facebook Live, I would love to get more consistent about that. So let's say I'm not blogging every week, but maybe creating an agenda for a Facebook Live video that helps drive traffic to our Facebook page so that we can better run ads and get engagement there like that might be a worthwhile use of time. And it's definitely something I enjoy doing. I've always talked about a YouTube channel, I just did a Facebook Live.

Emily Thompson 17:03
Right. That's all you need. And I think that's the key here is like, if you're doing something that's not working, that's not getting you like one the numbers or metrics that you want or two isn't bringing you the kind of joy that other things in your business are brainstorm, like using metrics as a way to give you almost permission to think about what else you could be doing is a great way to just find yourself a really happy role in your business,

Kathleen Shannon 17:29
I think I just have a hard time letting go of blogging, I, I got my start to my entire career, my career not be where it is without blogging. So it's kind of like my first love, right. And I've moved on beyond my first love. But I'm still like carrying that torch a little bit. So I think that I miss blogging. But whenever I think about it, what I really miss is writing and I am writing whenever I do look at it, I'm writing a ton of emails. I'm writing newsletters that are practically every Tuesday, we send out a newsletter that lets our listeners know that the episode is live. But even beyond that, I'm kind of sharing some behind the scenes of what went down in the episode. Why I really enjoyed recording it and what kind of top line things I learned from the guests that we interview or the conversations that we've had together. And I also love creating worksheets for our newsletter list. And if you guys are interested in getting on our newsletter, go to being boss club, and you can sign up there. Because it's about so much more than just getting those metrics up. It really is about making communication so much easier to our tribe and letting them know everything that's going down.

Unknown Speaker 18:45
So yeah, I

Unknown Speaker 18:45
mean, I am writing Oh, and we're writing a book,

Emily Thompson 18:48
I was about to say, don't forget that book we're writing. So that is certainly a place where you know, even already, you've mentioned a couple of times taking time away from blogging, so you're going to focus on the book. And so you know, if blogging was something that was super important to you, then you would make time for both of them.

Kathleen Shannon 19:08
I think also Okay, so for example, whenever I got off my flight today, I met Emily and baggage claim. And I told her, Hey, I have an idea. Maybe I should write a blog post about what to do whenever your metrics suck. But whenever what's working for me, and what really gets me excited is recording a podcast, then I thought, well, we should just work together. Let's record a podcast about it. So that's another example of something that I could have written a blog about, that may have gotten really terrible engagement and really terrible metrics, but might do really well on iTunes or on Soundcloud or, you know, it might be shared all over Pinterest, feel free to give us a rating and review on.

Emily Thompson 19:49
Exactly and so so i think that i think that the moral of all of this is like using metrics so that you can get really clear on what's working and what's not working, but also Using your own like, mind and gut to do it in ways that that you enjoy doing it. And that you know will work for you. Because like we've looked at and also like looking at the kinds of content that gets the most traction, because you have had several blog posts that have done really, really well. And they're around things that I know you really love talking about. So for example, again, our chalkboard method episode is really popular right now. But also, the follow up blog post that you did about the chalkboard method is one of our one like highest visited blog posts, but also it's a really high converting blog posts in terms of there in terms of the fact that there are a lot of people signing up for the newsletter from there. So I think there it's about sharing what you know, best. And the things that you have energy around chalkboard methods, something that you gab about all the time. So

Kathleen Shannon 20:57
the chalkboard method works and I did create a worksheet. So that's another thing, I love creating a worksheet. And so maybe if I'm only blogging or attaching a worksheet, like spending the time, I would have spent blogging, creating a worksheet for an episode. I mean, I could just do that instead. And I think it's not just about sharing what you know, best and what you have energy around, but it's also about sharing on platforms that excite you. So the platforms that excite me, are podcasting, and Facebook Live. And I would love to give even just a little bit more energy into making my Facebook Live posts a little bit more organized and impactful. And then you know, even things like speaking live and connecting with people in real life and creating content for live workshops for being boss, like that's the stuff that really excites me. And it still includes a lot of writing, again, I'm just having a hard time letting go of blogging, and I used to be so good at it.

Emily Thompson 21:58
Well, and that's the thing, too, is that it doesn't, nothing ever has to be a final decision. Like let's say, we get this book proposal done. So you take a break from blogging for a couple of weeks, we get this book proposal finished, and then designed beautifully because that's your job. And and then we get it sent out and then you are like renewed, you're empowered because we have this book proposal behind us and you're ready to come back and blow out some more chalkboard method pet and

Kathleen Shannon 22:25
we've gotten like a million dollar advance,

Emily Thompson 22:28
right? Let's just put that out into the universe. Go ahead and, and just set that up for success. Um, so you know, maybe it is something where it's just you have other things on your plate at the moment. And because you do we both like they're just there, we have so many plates, and then they're all filled just the top. Um, but you don't have to stay away from blogging forever, you can come back whenever you're like ready to blow it? Nope, not blow it. Whenever you're ready to hit it out of the park? Is that what it is?

Kathleen Shannon 23:00
I was gonna say blow it out of the park and you're ready to sink to the bottom of the ocean and drown. I'm speaking of blog posts, hey, you know, it'd be a cool blog post that you could write what is how to read your metrics like and how to actually uncover those patterns? Because that's something we've been talking a lot about in this episode. And I think it comes really natural to us. And there might be a lot of listeners. I mean, not that I should be giving you any blogging direction. But I think that it is it is good for people who shy away from using data to make informed decisions, because it's just, it can be a little tricky turning data into what am I trying to say? Like a concept that you can that you can make decisions around. Right? Right. So that would be like a really cool, maybe I'll read that post and learn something.

Emily Thompson 23:55
You how to use your analytics. So you know, I think that's great, because I know analytics can be super overwhelming for a lot of people and especially creative. Some think it's a part of the creative brain. How do I get both the creative brain and also like the super analysts, I don't have a magic brain

Kathleen Shannon 24:12
that we think that actually a lot of creative entrepreneurs who are successful have both and I usually come off as like the flighty creative, but

Unknown Speaker 24:21
what's your password for?

Kathleen Shannon 24:24
I don't know my passwords, but I can organize a dropbox folder, Dropbox folder, like a boss.

Emily Thompson 24:30
We all have our skills. So yeah, I think I think that analytics, I think that analytics can be really tricky for some creatives and it's just knowing a couple key things to look at. To move forward. I mean, a couple of my favorite things are looking at looking at your just top pages that are visited, and then using that to shape feature content. So if you have a blog post or two that is super, super high performing Doing follow up to those posts, finding the topics that people are searching for and landing on your site for and doing some topics or writing some blog posts or doing some content around that. Look for what's relevant and go there. If it's something that you want to write about, don't write about, like, I always get, I have a couple of weird search terms that always show up on my website, there's like random ass things like those are not going to be things that I write blog posts about. But I have one blog post that I wrote years ago, it was like, I don't know, it was like eight characteristics of a successful business woman or something like like, when I go back and read it. Now I'm so disgusted. But it is one of my highest performing blog posts. And that's something like I could totally see myself a couple years later, revisiting and doing more content around it. So. So using your analytics in that way to see what pages and topics are most visited on your site, but also what search terms get people to your site. And using that to shape future content, or future products or services, is the most basic way of using your analytics to make some decisions.

Kathleen Shannon 26:14
I really love looking at my analytics in ConvertKit. And so in my email system, and really looking at which emails are being opened, and really looking for trends there, what kind of headlines Am I using? How long are the actual emails? Are they tactic base? Or are they kind of more philosophical or concept based? I'm really looking at how I'm structuring those and what I'm asking of my followers to do next. So I like using analytics in that way. What else do

Unknown Speaker 26:45
we talk about? Okay,

Kathleen Shannon 26:47
so another thing that we might try next that I wanted to touch on, too, is looking at co schedule. So code schedule is an app that we use in WordPress, to post to kind of maintain an editorial calendar, and post our blog posts,

Emily Thompson 27:03
and schedule social media

Kathleen Shannon 27:04
around those blog. We're not being paid by co schedule, though, I wouldn't mind no co

Emily Thompson 27:09
schedule, give us a call, we use you and we love you.

Kathleen Shannon 27:12
So one thing that's cool is that we can look at co schedule to see the social shareability. So one thing I thought that I could do is ask or even tell people to share and pin our content. So just like I sometimes ask you guys to rate and review this podcast, which if you haven't done that in a while, or if you've never rated and reviewed our podcast and you love it, please go to iTunes, it really makes a difference in how we're able to show up in the iTunes charts, so that more people can listen to being boss anyway, I need to start doing that very thing for my blog posts and asking people to share and pin those across their social media platforms.

Emily Thompson 27:52
Yeah, I think that making a good practice to give people the next step like what's the next thing that you want them to do is a really great way to make better use of content that you already have, or that you'll be creating the future, it's less about just posting it and hope they read it. But post it and then share it with a friend or you know, for this email, or whatever it may be giving that call to action can sometimes be the point where you change what happens with the content you're already creating.

Kathleen Shannon 28:18
And I think that we've done a really good job of systemising, our sharing across all platforms. So we have our being boss digest email that goes out on Fridays, that lets our audience know all the articles that we've posted the the podcast that went live the minisode. And it's just all in one place so that they don't have to come to our website every single day. I know that for me, my inbox has essentially replaced my RSS feed. Whenever Google's What was it called a reader? Yeah, Google Reader, whenever that shut down about four years ago, was it four years ago, probably I mean, it's been a while. That's kind of what killed consuming blogs in the way that I used to. So anyway, my inbox has kind of become my new RSS feed. And so in thinking about that, I think that we've gotten really good about reminding our listeners who are subscribed to our newsletter of what's gone live that week. We also systemize all of our content in our Edgar, on Twitter. Is that Twitter and Facebook,

Emily Thompson 29:20
Twitter and Facebook?

Kathleen Shannon 29:22
Yes. So if you haven't listened to our episode with Laura, rotor of Meet Edgar, and she did a really great job of talking about why it's really important to share content on social more than once, because you don't want to let that content die. So I next want to just double check all of our social media automation and make sure that new content is going into those libraries and effectively being shared. Yes, yes.

Emily Thompson 29:54
All right. So we just dove into a ton of things that we do around metrics, and how we Like use that to affect decisions and really help us, I don't know, shape our role in our business to one have the most impact possible because neither of us want to be like wasting our time on anything, or to making the most impact with what it is that we're creating. So now when I talk about when that doesn't even matter,

Unknown Speaker 30:23
oh,

Kathleen Shannon 30:25
yes, going back to my blog post from 1992, about why metrics don't matter. And I okay, so I have changed my mind on metrics matter whether or not metrics matter, I do think that metrics matter. But I don't think that data should matter. whenever it comes to you having a creative outlet, and staying authentic to what matters to you. I think that you need to say what you want to say whether or not anyone is reading it.

Emily Thompson 30:57
A man and like whenever it came to this scenario with the blog posts, if you had not said something about wanting to stop blogging, I never would have brought it up that your blog posts weren't doing well. Like if I could tell that it was something that you were just like going at with reckless abandon and loving it with every fiber of your being, I would have just kept that little bit of info to myself forever and ever. Amen. However, however, I don't think that was the case.

Kathleen Shannon 31:33
It's funny, because Emily on Slack, you know, you said, I, it's clear that you're not putting energy into this. And I was like I am, I am putting energy into it. And after a night of not very much sleep, I woke up feeling like, you know what? Maybe I'm not like maybe I need to reevaluate where I actually am putting my energy and what excites me most about my business. So I think that you're right, I wasn't going at it with gusto. And it shook me up a little bit, because I loved it so much. But I can go after this with gusto. I love what we're doing.

Emily Thompson 32:04
Right? Me too. And what's the book like? Actually, those metrics will matter, because then the publisher will get pissed. But okay, for example, this like the podcast, like the, our metrics have been something that we've kept an eye on. But even whenever things have dept because they have dipped, it has not affected how we've shown up for this podcast in any way. Like, if we had no one listening to this podcast, I'm pretty sure we'd still bill, we'd still be here right now in this tulip room. In Pennsylvania, like recording this podcast for all 12 of our listeners, like that would totally be a thing, because this is something that we find creative fulfillment in. And at that point, metrics don't matter. It's just whether or not like our internal metrics, like how happy we are, when we do it is the only metrics that matter.

Kathleen Shannon 33:00
I think that data doesn't matter. Whenever you're really trusting your gut about what's next. or whenever you're really trying to deepen your expertise in a new area, or you're trying an experiment or a passion project. Data does not matter. whenever it comes to those things.

Emily Thompson 33:16
I completely agree. And I was actually serendipity OMG, I was reading today on the plane a an article in the latest ink magazine from Gary Vaynerchuk. Hey, Gary, I wish um, and he was talking about this exact thing, how like how it's less about data and more about your intuition. Like it's more about knowing what comes next in your business and being open to that, then it is looking back at the things that have worked in the future, so or in the past. So I do think that it it really is sometimes about putting the metrics away, and just doing what you feel you need to be doing next. But then again, I also think that I think that looking at the metrics, like it's just one tool, it's one tool that you can use to move forward, but not the only tool.

Kathleen Shannon 34:11
So yeah, numbers are one tool, but they're not always telling the whole story. whenever it comes to everything that comes into your business and the content you're creating, why you're creating it, where you're sharing it, and where you show up and be seen. So that's the number one thing we went for you all is just to show up and do the work regardless of the metrics. If you I have to trust for our own business, if we keep doing the work and keep doing what we love the most and have the most energy around that we will see that payoff.

Emily Thompson 34:43
Yeah. And then whenever it comes to making the kinds of informed decisions that you want to make carefully, that's when it is that you pull up metrics is like almost like the second step. Like first you do the thing you want to do and then If you care, if it's really important for you for taking the next step, then you look at your metrics. And you use them as you want, or you don't use them at all. But I think a good entrepreneur kind of uses them smart as well.

Kathleen Shannon 35:13
No. And you know, I think that I, I started using metrics whenever I was ready to level up my business whenever I was ready to go from making five, five figures to six figures, and then going from making you know that to wanting to double it and really grow our business, I mean, not just money wise. But the truth is I do I do want to make great money, and I do want to have great impact. And that comes with great numbers.

Emily Thompson 35:41
Amen to that. So that guys, is our on the fence episode about metrics. More or less, because because they do have a place in your business. Absolutely. But, but they don't have to wear the crown.

Kathleen Shannon 35:57
I think. Now I want to create a worksheet around tracking your metrics. Yeah, you'll have to give me guidance. I don't even know what to track.

Emily Thompson 36:07
We'll do so if you guys want to go check out our show notes at being boss club. For this episode, we'll have a nice collaborative worksheet on tracking your metrics

Kathleen Shannon 36:18
because it is important, including my energy where it matters, a man and we're out.

Emily Thompson 36:26
Hey there bosses. I've been around the block with email marketing platforms. I've used them for myself to set my clients up on them. And I've tested most of the systems out there. And what I learned is that it's not about a long list of features and a gazillion options. It's about a simple, easy to use interface that puts the most important content and metrics right at your fingertips. For my email marketing, I use ConvertKit it's easy to use from sending out a blast to my list to having quick access to the metrics that allow me to make smart decisions for my business on the fly. One of the things I love most about ConvertKit as a boss who knows websites and hungers for good metrics is how easy it is for me to see how effective a form is on my website. Right on the dashboard, I get a bird's eye view of every form I have across my online presence. I can see what forms are performing best and see if it's because of where it's placed on my site. Or maybe from a new opt in incentive that I'm trying out. Easy metrics like that are what allow me to keep my business fresh and ConvertKit makes that possible. Try ConvertKit for free for 30 days go to convertkit.com slash being boss to learn more.

Kathleen Shannon 37:37
Thank you for listening to being boss. Please be sure to visit our website at being boss club where you can find Show Notes for this episode. Listen to past episodes and discover more of our content that will help you be boss in work and life. Did you like this episode? Please share it with a friend and show us some love by leaving a rating and review on iTunes.

Emily Thompson 37:56
Do the work be boss and we'll see you next week.

Unknown Speaker 38:16
Yeah,

Emily Thompson 38:16
if

Unknown Speaker 38:21
say that

Unknown Speaker 38:24
soundbite soundbite

Kathleen Shannon 38:27
drop them up, get ready to drop the mic or remix

Unknown Speaker 38:35
Oh, okay.