Brooke Summer 0:00 Well, hello there gorgeous business owners how you doing? I've been watching Friends, late at night.

Today we are going to talk about why you should be measuring metrics in your business. And if you immediately go, oh, I don't want to do this, I promise you, you're gonna want to hear this because well, first of all, you're gonna hear me geek out about some of the brain stuff, the neurobiological stuff that is happening in your brain right this very moment and in my brain, and in everyone's brains. But we're also going to talk about the muscle that you are going to be working on, not at the gym, my friends, but with this weekly practice of measuring the metrics in your business, it has changed so much for me, it is so freakin important, especially when it comes to marketing. And we're gonna talk all about it today. So listen in, and then let me know some of your biggest aha takeaways. And if you're like Brooke, just get to the good stuff. I want to know where I can get this video course. Actually, it's not even a course. It's one video with a spreadsheet that tells you how to use it. It is all at Bold marketing academy.com. So let's listen in and let me know your biggest takeaways.

Hello, they're gorgeous business owners. Welcome to Bold with Brooke, the podcast for creative business owners to learn the marketing and business skills they need to get more clients and design their lives on their terms. So we can actually make a living doing what we love, am I right? I am your host, Brooke summer, and I'm an entrepreneur, educator and champion of women reminding them to embrace and step into their power. I'm bringing almost 20 years of business and marketing experience straight to you to help you get more clients and run a sustainable and successful business without burnout or overwhelmed. Let's jump into today's topic.

Hello, gorgeous business owners. And welcome back to another episode of Bold with Brooke - the podcast and place to be if you want to actually make a living doing what you love. Today, we are going to talk about business metrics measurement. And if you hear that, and you're like, Yeah, I don't think so. But that sounds boring as f**k, believe me, I get you. Because it does sound boring. But we are going to talk about six reasons that you should be measuring the metrics in your business. And I promise you by the time we're done with it, you're gonna be like, oh, yeah, maybe maybe I should look at that.

So let me tell you where this is coming from first. I had a call with one of my beautiful students this week. And we talked about the different measurements that we look at when it comes to our business. And why those measurements matter. We were talking specifically about marketing. But this can be any type of measurement really when I showed her my spreadsheet that I use, because when you're in Bold Marketing Academy, I basically just show you everything, like you get access to everything. I'm an open book. And when I showed her, she said, Where can I get that sheet? And I was like, that's a fabulous question, ma'am. Let me get that available for you. So I created a shareable version of the spreadsheet that takes out some of my own customization so that you can customize it for yourself. And that spreadsheet is available with a video that tells you how to use it inside of bold Marketing Academy. And when I was creating this video, I was like, have I ever done a podcast episode about this? I don't know if I have.

I have a list of hundreds of podcast episode ideas. And sometimes it gets to be really overwhelming. And I'm like, I want to do them all. And I just can't do everything. So I decided since I was already working on this this week that we are going to put this out there and do a podcast episode on this and why this matters and why you should be measuring certain metrics in your business.

Now first, I want to tell you as soon as I say measuring certain metrics in your business, people are like, but what do I measure. And the reality is that it's different for everyone. You might be super active on LinkedIn, because of what you do. Maybe you work with professionals. Those might be the metrics that you want to measure. Or if you're really active on tick tock, that might be where you want to do your measuring. It just really depends on where you're active on what you want to measure on the different platforms and different methods that you might be using to reach out to the people who want to work with you. For me, as you can imagine, my email list is something that I measure regularly. The traffic to my website is something I measure as well. And I look at all of my social platforms because it's fun for me to see what's working and what isn't, especially when some of my platforms have vastly different numbers and followers, because what's interesting is I only have like 75 followers on YouTube, or I guess they're called subscribers on YouTube, but I can put a video there and get 1000s of views on one video. Whereas on somewhere like Instagram that same day Audio might only get like 150 views. And I have, like 3000 followers, I think something like that on Instagram, and I have about 10,000 followers on Facebook. And so I might get more views there. Or I might get more views on Instagram with fewer followers. So it's really interesting to watch and see. Because, well, we're gonna go into why? Because I have six reasons, why should you be measuring these things in your business, and regardless of what you're measuring, and you're gonna find out by the time we get to number six, it doesn't matter what you're measuring, just measure something, start to get in the habit of this start to get in the habit of being the CEO in your business, instead of just working as an employee in your business, start to look at the bigger picture, be the visionary, the CEO, the person who is really on top of knowing where your business is, so that you can look at where your business is going. Think of like a GPS, you can't get directions to your end goal. If you don't know where you're at. Currently, it doesn't work that way. And measuring this really allows you to be in a position to know where you're currently at.

Number one, the first reason that you definitely should be measuring your business metrics is because it forces you to look at the data and the numbers. I cannot even tell you how many people stick their heads in the sand when it comes to things that are uncomfortable. And I feel this so hard, because for me for a long time, it was finances until 2021. I didn't know anything. I mean, I knew how much revenue I was making. But that was about it. I didn't know where I spent the money. I didn't know how it was divvied out. I didn't know what was happening. I knew I had my team, I had myself and I had my business. And that was about it. So I get it. But we are not going to put our heads in the sand anymore, we are going to put on our big girl Big Boy panties. And we are going to look at the numbers. And when you measure these business metrics, it forces you to look at the data and the numbers. Numbers don't have any emotion tied to them. They just are right, you look at two plus two equals four, you're not going to be like oh my gosh, that makes me a terrible person. No, it doesn't work that way, right? Numbers just aren't. It's just data. And if you look at these numbers, like your email is going up and down. The fact that the number is fluctuating isn't inherently good or bad. It's what you're choosing to believe about that that can cause emotions like shame, Peter Drucker said, what gets measured gets managed. And this is so so so true. Simply being aware of your numbers puts you way ahead of so many other people that don't pay attention to these things, and just move throughout their lives and their businesses letting their subconscious run the show. And again, I have no judgment for you. If this is you, I have done it as well. I've done it in metrics, I've done it in finances. And these are important things, right? I think we can all agree that looking at finances, and actually understanding something about what your business is making and how its spending is pretty important. And I ignored it for a long time. Okay, I knew what I was making. But that was about it. So I have no judgment in this, I'm just encouraging you to be aware of your numbers. And measuring them regularly, will force you to be aware of those numbers because you're looking at them every week, when we are letting our subconscious minds run the show, we are allowing the stories that live in the back of our brains that may not be serving us or our businesses to really run everything. And this can come down to a lot of things like self worth issues, money, blog, anything like that. Maybe your parents told you that we just aren't rich people, or we just can't make money like that. These types of stories are subconscious. And when you start to look at numbers and start to look objectively at data and information without that emotion tied to it, it is game on you because this is a totally different story. Because you can start to look at that as a person that is not identifying with that you can start to look at this objectively from the outside in instead of letting it run your life and your business. I'm telling you it is a game changer. So that's number one. It forces you to look at the data and numbers.

Number two, I'm gonna geek out for a little bit here because neurobiology is fascinating to me. I absolutely love it. And this stuff is so important. And so many people don't talk about it. Don't think about it. Don't consider this. And you don't have to be a neurobiologist. You don't have to spend hours in school. You don't have to know everything there is to know but I'm going to talk about this because this particular system in our brain runs our lives. Have you ever gone to look at a car and then as soon as you went and looked at that car you test drove it maybe you started looking at specs, you start to see them everywhere on the street like they are everywhere. Or maybe you really want to pay your House blue and not really sure what color of blue and then you start looking at options. And now you're driving around and there are a million blue houses everywhere you're like every house is blue? Do I really want to do blue? Why are there so many blue houses? Now objectively? Do you really believe that there are more of that particular kind of car on the road? Now, since you've looked? Or are there really more blue houses, just because you started looking at Blue paint? Definitely not like you know this intellectually, you know, this. So why are you starting to see more of them everywhere, because your brain is now choosing to show you more of them, the human brain can process 11 million bits of information every second, but our conscious minds, meaning what we're actually aware of can only handle 40 to 50 bits of information every second. So think about that. 11 million versus 4250. That is taking out a whole bunch of information about what is happening around us every second of every day. So our brains are wired to help us choose what is important to process. And what we can let go of the brain might see that leaf outside the window that's flying across the street. But is it really important that you pay active attention to that leave right this seconds? Probably not. But the brain helps you to decide that a person living today has as much information thrown at them in a single day than someone in the 15th century would have been exposed to in their entire lifetime, we have access to so much information every single day, every single second, every single moment. And we are just not going to be able to handle all of that information all the time. Because again, we can only handle in our conscious minds 40 to 50 bits of information every second. This is why this is so freakin important.

Neurobiologically, this system is called the reticular activating system. It's basically this bundle of nerves that sits in your brainstem. And the job of this system for your brain for your body for your life is to regulate consciousness and motivation. It's basically a kind of filter between your conscious mind meaning what you're choosing to look at and pay attention to and your subconscious mind meaning what is happening in your brain on autopilot without even thinking about it. When was the last time you thought about breathing? Probably not in a while unless you've been doing any type of breath work or yoga. But the reality is that breathing happens constantly, all day long. 100% of the time without issue for most people without thought that is your reticular activating system, making sure that you don't have to constantly think about breathing, it's just going to happen for you. It is subconscious. Okay. So why does this matter? When it comes to business metrics measurement, I know you're like broke, you're way off on a tangent here talking about brain stems. I don't know what you're talking about. But it does matter. Because when you start to measure specific things, you're going to notice them more, you're going to be more aware of them. And you're going to start actually managing them and paying attention to them. Does this mean that you're going to magically do everything perfectly every single day? Because you're aware of them? No. But it does mean that you're going to notice the things that you want to work on. More and more and more, really, I started going way down a rabbit hole because this is fascinating to me. The RAS reticular activating system needs to be its own podcast episode. So I'm gonna stop here on number two. But seriously, this is so freakin important from a neurobiological perspective when it comes to running your business. And this is a big reason that starting to measure the things you want to see will start to grow them in your business because you will be more aware of them.

The third reason to start to measure your business metrics measurement is to see growth and remind yourself that you're not failing. One of the biggest cautionary points I have, and we'll talk about this in a moment, when it comes to measuring your metrics is not to ever let it be a source of shame for you. Remember, business is a long game, if you're measuring Instagram followers or engagement and you see it grow. But it's very slowly. That's normal. 100,000 followers overnight isn't normal. That's not the usual story. Despite what so many marketers would have you believe measuring these metrics consistently allows you to look at these numbers when you're having a bad day and go back to last quarter or last year and say wow, I feel like nothing I'm doing is working. I'm just talking to the wall over here and no one is even listening. But then when you look at those numbers, you can see the growth. This is especially important for my neuro spicing people like myself, if you are neurodivergent or ADHD, this is that little shot of dopamine that might be very necessary if you're having a hard day. And speaking as someone with ADHD, I can tell you that dopamine feels pretty freakin good. When you're having a bad day. And you're like, clearly I am just a failure. And I should just stop and burn it all down to the ground, you can look at these metrics and go, Wow, I'm not a failure. I do have people that are engaging with my content, it may not be 100,000 people, but that's okay. Because I'm going to show up the best that I can for the people that are there. So we want to see that growth, we want to remind ourselves that we're not failing, we want to remind ourselves that business is a long game. And that is what measuring these metrics can do.

Number four, tracking your metrics can show you what's working, so you can put more energy and time into that. Why are you going to run your wheels on things that aren't working? Right? If you've never heard of The Pareto principle, listen up. It was an observation that states that 20% of your efforts will result in 80% of your outcomes. So just to make the math super easy, if in a month, you're doing 100 things to market your business, only 20 of those things will actually contribute to your goals, which is kind of a crappy statement when you think about it, because you're like, why am I wasting my time on the other 80. But there is the point, right, measuring the numbers in your business and your everyday efforts can show you what's working and what isn't. If you keep putting time and energy into Instagram, and you're not seeing it grow, or any clients finding you there, maybe it's time to look at whether you want to keep pouring more energy into that. Now if it's something you really love, and you want to do it anyway, then by all means, please do. But when you see what is actually working, it gives you the data you need to refocus if you choose at the beginning of your next 90 day cycle, and then do the year or focus cycle. So that you can decide where to spend more time and energy. And eventually, if you do want to do paid advertising, you can also decide on where you want to spend more money as well. You can see what's actually working and what is not.

Number five, I'm gonna see if I can pronounce this correctly. I went, how do you pronounce this into Google, and she said it over and over again. But we're going to work on this. There's an ancient Greek philosopher named Heraclitus, that said, there is nothing permanent except to change. And I think we all know this to be true in our lives, especially when it comes to running a business. I tell my son all the time, you want the secret to life, here's the secret to life, you're ready. No one knows what the fuck they're doing. We're just all doing our best, we figure out what works for us. And when it doesn't work. The next day, we do it all over again. That's it, everything is changing. algorithm change, methods change, attention, spans change, strategies change, practices, change, Options, change, platforms change. Everything is changing business itself, is constantly changing. And measuring your metrics can help you to look at the changes, objectively. It's raw data, that's literally all that it is. Remember those numbers, they don't have emotions tied to them. You can't look at two and be like two is an asshole number like, dude just makes me feel all sorts of ways to is like just makes me feel like a terrible, terrible person. But six, like six is a great like, it just doesn't work that way. Numbers are objective. They are raw data. And when you have several weeks or months or years of data, you can see the changes and updates and ways that you might be able to be more effective when it comes to your marketing and your business. Pretty much every platform that we use regularly has some sort of measurement and analytics option. So when you're keeping track of those, it's a quick process. It can tell you so much about what is happening in your business. And the overall marketing sphere for a lot of businesses. And measurements are just numbers, numbers that are showing you ebbs and flows. And you get to decide what those numbers mean for yourself and your business. I measure mine every single Monday, I measure for the week before Tuesday till Monday. And so that gives me an idea of where I'm going and what is working. And what's changing, like what do I want to change what is changing beyond my control. It takes me about 15 minutes to do this. I'm not even quite that I'd say 10 minutes depending on where I'm at. And whether I'm on my phone or my computer. It's not hard to do. And this will really change the game for you.

So number six, I really debated adding this in but y'all this has been a huge benefit for me in measuring my own numbers. Okay, as I said, I do this every single week without fail unless I'm traveling or on vacation. And doing this every single week has taught me that the numbers aren't personal, which again, I've said this over and over again. It sounds kind of like okay dub rock we get it. But the reality is it's so many of us take things very personally in our businesses. Tracking these numbers was a chance to practice that muscle for me right to look at a number that I didn't leave a number that went down, or a number that changed in a way that made me feel some kind of way. And then to watch it change again and know that it's never personal. This is a muscle that you need to exercise, okay? If you're going to be in business, this is something you absolutely need to work on. And much like going to the gym, you're not going to be able to just go once and see the results that you want to see, that is why tracking these numbers, every single week has made such a difference. For me, the ups and downs are not personal. And that weekly exercise has strengthen that muscle for me in ways that I cannot even tell you. What used to be a stressful Monday activity that I dreaded, has now become fun. Because of curiosity. I don't dread seeing those numbers go down. And I don't put a huge emphasis on numbers going up. Because I know that it's just going to change. If I see my website traffic shoot up, I'm not going to pat myself on the back as an amazing human being or a business person, I'm going to look at what did I do that week that really made a difference. And I do this constantly. This change is ever happening continuously every single day. It has helped me so much when I have trolls on social media, when I have people who are nasty to me when people blast me for my pricing, y'all I am an HSP. I'm a highly sensitive person. I'm an empath. And why that is is up for debate. I know there's a lot of stuff on social media about that. But I'm a very sensitive person and tears are a very common occurrence over here for both good and bad things. If you've been listening to my podcast for a while now, you likely know that you've probably heard me cry or choke back tears at any point. But tracking my numbers has helped me to know that my business numbers are not a measure of my worth as a person, because things are constantly going to change. And I can't control every single aspect of my marketing or my business, I can do my best I can put out the best possible content that I can. But I can't control the algorithm, I can't control what's going to happen. When I put it on Instagram, I can do my best I can reevaluate, I can change what I'm doing and I have. But being able to take the changes without being a sobbing mess on the floor has helped me to be stronger and the decisions I need to make in my own business, I cannot recommend this enough this type of consistent measurement. Even if you start small, even if you're just measuring three things, you don't have to measure a lot of things, it doesn't have to be this huge, long list. You don't have to measure every single platform, start small and start this consistent practice in measuring and looking at the numbers in your business.

And this brings me to the most important part in all of this. Okay, well, one of the most important parts, do not let these numbers turn into a shame spiral. Just don't when I made the video and BMA I showed my numbers and how they changed going up and down. Because that's reality, the mailing list goes up, the mailing list goes down, the traffic goes up, sometimes you'll see a huge spike and you're like, Oh, what did I do there? That's why we want to look at that, right? This is constantly moving. And the fact that your number goes up one week and down the next doesn't mean that you're dumb, or you don't know what you're doing. Or you should burn it all down to the ground. That is not the case, seeing your follower count go up by only one doesn't mean that you're clearly inept and stupid, and you should go live in a van down by the river, and you are just a failure at life.

It literally means nothing. These numbers have zero meaning they're just data. And they don't mean anything until you assign a meaning to them. The emotions and thoughts surrounding these numbers are 100% in your control, and measuring them as a huge lesson in not taking things personally. It is a way that you can start to know and understand that your thoughts and emotions are outside of you, you are the thinker of your thoughts, you are not your thoughts. When you are thinking I am a failure. That is not necessarily true. You don't have to believe every thought you think that is mind blowing for so many people. And tracking these metrics is an exercise in realizing that and it has helped me so much in so many ways.

These are six reasons that you really should be measuring them. But if you are listening to this, and you're like Brooke, I am all in where do I get this resource and this tracking sheet, and this video that teaches me how to use it. Well, it is available as one of the resources in Bold Marketing Academy, which is my community for business owners to learn the marketing skills they need, and actually do the things they need to do to reach their biggest goals.

You can check it out at boldmarketingacademy.com

If you're not quite ready for that you can measure your metrics in whatever way works for you, and BMA will be there with the courses, coaching calls and accountability that you may need when you're ready.

If you love this content, and you're like, Brooke, this was amazing. How can I thank you, I would be absolutely honored. If you would head on over to iTunes and leave a review. Yes, I know I am not an apple person either. But iTunes is a place where people check to see if a podcast is legit. We're a quick and easy way to find it, you can go to bold with burke.com/itunes, you can go ahead and pause for just a moment, I'll wait. Because that is what allows us to bring in amazing guests and keep producing the content to help more people. I'm so happy to have been Amazon's featured podcast, along with being one of the top 3% of podcasts on marketing in the world. And I'm so passionate about helping you move your own business forward, this podcast is free. It's free information, free education. And those reviews are like a little podcast currency a little, a little thank you a little nudge. And we so appreciate all of them.

I would love to know some of your biggest aha moments or takeaways, you can share them in the community build with brooke.com/community, which is our little cozy corner of Facebook, or take a screenshot and tag me on social I'm at bold with Brooke pretty much everywhere. Your business is just one way that you are moving through the world and impacting the people around you on a daily basis in the way that you choose. It's time to step into that power, especially for my ladies out there. And this information is of course applicable for other guys too. But ladies, it's time to step into that power and own it marketing your business, getting yourself out there putting yourself in front of the people who want to work with you to get the clients you want and need to reach your biggest goals. If you want this resource.

Again, that link is boldmarketingacademy.com

I can't wait to see what you do with your business and how you change the world because what you do truly matters. Have an amazing rest of your day. Thank you so much for joining me today and listening in. You can find all of the show notes for this and every episode over at bold with brooke.com/podcast where you can also find all of the links or resources mentioned I can't wait to work with you have an amazing rest of your day.