Beyond £10K Months: Crafting Seasonal Success Metrics for Your Business

What's this episode of the lionhearted ceo podcast about?

I had a moment last week where I got REALLY irritated of the cookie-cutter definitions of business success plastered all over social media - and I'm actually not even just talking about '£10k months', it's way bigger than that.

So in this episode, I'm ditching the one-size-fits-all approach and diving into what success really means for me and YOU!

Here's what I'm spilling the tea on:

• Why the cliché "10K months" might not be the holy grail of success (and what to focus on instead)

• How my idea of success has evolved from covering nursery fees to planning a work-free December

• The common thread of success for my mastermind members (hint: it's not about revenue targets)

• Why looking at success through a seasonal lens can be a game-changer for your business and sanity

You'll learn how to approach your business goals like a true Lionhearted CEO, focusing on what really matters in each season of your life and business. Whether you're just starting out or looking to redefine success in your established business, this episode will give you the permission and tools to craft success metrics that actually feel good to you.

Ready to ditch the arbitrary goals and create a version of success that lights you up? Top up that cuppa, and let's dive in!

Hi! I’m your host Sophie Griffiths, a Meta ads expert and business growth strategist.

The LionHearted CEO podcast is designed for impatiently ambitious women who are ready to scale and often juggling motherhood alongside their thriving online businesses in coaching, course creation, or service-based business.

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Read the transcript:

NOTE: This podcast was transcribed by an AI tool. Please forgive any typos or errors. [00:00:00] Hello and a big welcome to Lionhearted CEO, the podcast for unapologetically, impatiently ambitious women who know they want to stop being the bottleneck in their business and become the Lionhearted CEO they know they are meant to be. I'm Sophie Griffiths, a tea enthusiast, marketing and Metis ad specialist and firm believer. The chocolate should never be kept in the fridge. Join me every Tuesday and Thursday for bold, imperfect, fun approach to marketing and scaling your business without burning out every few months. We'll dive into practical strategies and have inspirational conversations that will support you to create a thriving, sustainable business that brings you joy as well as financial freedom. Okay, let's jump in. Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of Lionheart is CEA. Today I was going to do an update on my 42 sales in 42 days challenge that I've been doing ,over the summer. I wanted to break down exactly where those sales came from, [00:01:00] how I got them and how I did it without taking any additional time in my diary and zoom calls. And without taking on any new one-to-one clients. However, I was talking to a client yesterday about it. And what we really realized was it's not about the challenge at all. The whole thing was about what I viewed as success over the summer. For me, I didn't set myself a revenue goal. I didn't set myself. Specific target, like, I want 42,000, 42 days, but it has to equal this amount of money. In fact, to be perfectly honest, I don't actually know how much revenue I take in August. I haven't done the numbers yet. For me, I had to trust the revenue would come because the 40 2042 days. Actually was a lot more about momentum. It was about keeping that momentum through the summer holidays and into September. It was also about reaching more dream clients. It was about prepping my business for summer for the launch of my mastermind. And just to make sure that it felt like going into September, everything was still moving and still going. That to me felt like a successful summer. It respective of how much [00:02:00] money I actually took. Like it could have all 42,000. It could have been like my nine pound, low ticket offer. But it wouldn't have been ideal. . I'm not gonna lie to you. I always knew that some of them were going to be my retainer clients , and higher ticket offers. There's always going to be that mix, but the overall goal for me and what was going to feel like a successful summer was this feeling of momentum and preparation as I went into September. And the discussion I was having with the client is actually other months I am really going for big money months. Like the money target, the revenue target is actually what my big goal is and what success would look like for me. And I was talking about how I find it really frustrating that I don't see a huge amount of nuance when we talk about these sorts of things. Online, I see conversations that are quite polarizing. I mean, obviously we all love polarizing content, but it's either, I can help you get to 10 K months so it was a ridiculous, arbitrary goal. You should have much more, deep and meaningful success measures than just money. And yes. Bye. Do you [00:03:00] almost feel like, you know, the alternative to the cliched 10 K months is actually, I want to be able to pick my kids up from school. I feel like that is just as challenging for me to kind of accept as the 10 K months, because yes, sometimes I do want to pick my kids up from school. However, there's always a balance. Isn't there. Actually for me, it's more about the underlying value. Do I want to pick my kids up from school, Chuck them in front of the tally and go do more work, or actually would I rather they're in an afterschool club perfectly well cared for having fun with their friends running around while I get some extra focus, work done so that when they come home, I can spend quality time with them because actually I think this poem not to pick my kids up from school thing is it's actually more about like an underlying value. It's actually about, I want to be available for my children. I want to have fun with them. I want to be there present for them. I feel like that's the value. We're trying to get there. Not the actual physical picking up from school. And it's a similarly with the 10 K months. It's not really about the [00:04:00] absolute 10 K month. It's about feeling like you've got financial freedom, which does kind of come with the 10 K months. But if you're killing yourself in burnout, getting to the 10 K months, and if you hit nine K, you feel like an absolute failure. Then that's not really, the underlying value is of the 10 K months. That doesn't really probably feel like financial freedom, you could actually feel financial freedom at seven K months. It really depends on what that looks like for you. And that's what I feel like there's just no nuance around these like feelings of success. So in this episode, I'm just going to talk a little bit more about this success element, because I think it's something that I talk a lot about with clients when they come to me. What do successful ads look like to you? What does the successful outcome of ads look like to you? How do what you see in me and why you want to work with me? How was it? The, I looked successful and you therefore want to work with me. There's just so much that underpins his whole concept of success. In this episode, I'm just going to break that down a little bit, and I'm also going to share some common success themes that come up. When I talk to my clients, especially those who have joined and [00:05:00] are looking to join the mastermind over the next month, because that is something I think is really important when you join a space of people where it is really high touch and it is really connected and you're all supporting each other, those common threads and those common success metrics are actually really important that you're not all shooting for totally different things. They'll always be variation and there'll always be differences, by think with something like a mastermind is really important. You're all having underpinned success measure. And then don't worry. I will be breaking down my 40 2042 days. Where I got those sales from how I did it. I'm going to do that in Thursday. It's a shorter episode. I'm just going to give you the stats. And help you understand how I did it, because if that is something that would feel successful for you. So making sales essentially every single day, although in practical terms, it didn't really work like that. But essentially. A sale a day. If that would feel good to you, if that would feel successful to have that momentum and new customers and clients in your business. All the time, then I want to help you break that down and work out how to do what I've realized [00:06:00] recently is that success to me , is a seasonal thing both probably throughout the year. There's definitely different points in my business through the year where success feels different, different measures, like the summer Christmas but also like, , big revenue months as well. I also think seasonality of life as well. You know how old your kids are, if you even have kids whether you travel a lot or whether you tend to stay home. Whether you have support like a husband or partner at home. We're really lucky. We have both sets of grandparents really locally. We have a lot of support from them if they weren't around, that would be a very different season for us as well in terms of the children and the childcare and how much I was able to work and that sort of thing. For me, There was something about success, which is underpinned by seasonality. And I think the reason why I have such an issue with these very static and arbitrary measures of success that seemed to be flung around on the internet. And sometimes I think we feel like we have to almost have them like, yes, I want to pick up my kids from school as well. I mean these flash, I didn't love picking my kids up from school. [00:07:00] Honestly it's not a job that I particularly enjoy. I find small talk really painful. I like the other moms at school. Do I like seeing that the school gate, not particularly. I'd much rather go out for a drink with them. , and yes, I like spending time with my kids after school. I'd much rather do it , once I tied everything up and the work was done, what would feel good to me is finishing that up. Being able to go and get them and take them and do something fun. Not pick them up and then feel irritated that they are home because I still got loads of stuff to do. That's what I mean about seasonality. Maybe when they're older, that won't be such a stress because they can actually sort themselves out a bit more. But you know, my youngest is four. She's still pretty high maintenance when she's at home. Maybe when they're older, I won't feel like that. So I think for me, seasonality really underpins that. And I really see that when clients come to me as well, and we talk about what success would look like for them, with the ads. And with their business and with their marketing, you know, it's never just about the ads . Adds a really about how you want to run your business. For example people who do the audience builder course [00:08:00] success for them might literally just be to have an ad campaign up that grows their Instagram without them having to be on stories every single day or post every day. The actually with the ads running, they can post twice a week and go on stories when they feel like it, that might feel really successful. They might need to be spending three pounds a day. But actually the Instagram is consistently growing new people are coming into their world all the time. They don't feel the pressure to be on social media all the time. It allows them the Headspace and the freedom to kind of go off and do other stuff in their business. That can be a big success measure for some people that release of that social media pressure. Equally some other clients come to me and they want a full funnel. Success to them is generating revenue from their ads, every single day, if not more than once a day. It would be generating 50% of their overall revenue comes from scalable. Courses and resources that are [00:09:00] sold through an ads funnel that has emails and, and all sorts in there, but essentially it's an ads driven funnel that generates revenue like that is success to them. And that's a big goal. That's something that they are working on. I mean, one client at the moment I've got is amazing and she's kind of building out this funnel. And she knows that this is probably a year long project to get to where she wants to be to where success feels good to her. Success for her would be having people coming in, generating a certain percentage of her revenue. From this ad. Driven funnel. She knows that this is not going to be like, oh, I'm just going to Chuck it in over the next few weeks. And off we go and I'm going to do it. The people there's a middle ground yes, they want to bring people into their world. And they do want to generate revenue, but it doesn't necessarily have to be, from scalable courses. It could be because they want to book a certain amount of discovery calls every month. Like as long as I get. At least One discovery call a week generated through not just from ads, but from my overall [00:10:00] marketing mix, which ads are a part of, I am happy. That feels successful to me. And I think that's really key both when you're coming into ads. And to be honest in anything you're doing in your marketing. Does it contribute to what success would feel like for you? Because actually, yes. It's really important to have a really clear goal , for the ads. But again, it's the underpinning of values. Isn't it the person who just wants to have Instagram ads running so they don't have to stress about their content. Their value might be that they don't want to be on screens on social media. They don't enjoy it. They don't want the stress of it. And so it's really important to them that they can, , not go on social media over weekends, or they only go on social media three days a week. That might be really important success measure to them. Ability to be free from social media and not have to be on social media all the time. Whereas my funnel client. He wants a full funnel, generating substantial proportion of her income every month. Actually for her, that is much more about life [00:11:00] freedom in terms of where clients are coming from. And she wants to do more traveling. She wants to be able to be a lot more creative in her business. So a big measure of success is how much time she hasn't had diary without any calls without any. Demand on her time actually is much more about sitting down at her desk and just going where her brain takes her. Yes, she might have an ADHD brain and she wants to kind of give that ADHD brain space to create, because she knows actually one of her superpowers is creativity. Creating offers, creating content, writing a book, she wants to speak on more stages. There's that real essence of creativity and at the moment. She spent so much time doing and her business, delivering for clients running the business. And yes, she's hitting great revenue goals and she does have some freedom. She does have support from a team. But she knows that for true. Energy freedom for her. She needs to build up more revenue from these scalable offers rather than from her high ticket offer. That for her is success, but she also knows that [00:12:00] it's not something that's going to happen overnight. And that she's really focused on that success measure. Other ways clients talk to me about success are. Things like control of your diary, this comes up for me quite a lot. I remember my mind being blown a few years ago when my coach told me that she only has client calls every other week. And then she has like a week off client calls and it kind of blew my mind that she could do that, that she could set that boundary and she could organize her business and create her offers. So, if we offer was created, there was never a weekly call. In her office because she doesn't do weekly calls. She only does fortnightly calls or monthly calls. And since then that is a huge marker of success for me. Generally I don't do meetings before 10:00 AM at the moment. I don't do meetings after 2:00 PM. I often try and keep Thursdays free of calls. And I've recently put back in. One week of no calls every month. Because for me, I need that space away from zoom to be creative, to record the podcast, to. Create [00:13:00] content to think about my offers to do deep work for clients. I need that space and not just being on zoom all the time. For me, success absolutely feels like going for a walk every day before I start work, because I don't have to rush to my desk because I know I don't have any calls before 10:00 AM. Another kind of success measure that I've been talking quite a lot to clients at the moment is actually thinking about December. And I know, no one wants to be talking about Christmas this time yet, but December is actually a really big one for me. And I've been talking to clients about this as well. I want to take December off. The reality is I'm not just going to kind of walk away from my business and not think about it talk because that's just not in my personality. So I was really digging into like, what would successful December look like for me? And what I think is, is I want to go into Christmas with my children. Feeling rested. Feeling like I could be a fun mom who can really connect with [00:14:00] Christmas connect with them. There'll be eight and four at the time. It will peak Christmas farm. And I remember the last few years, I've kind of gone into Christmas, feeling a bit, burnt out a bit exhausted. Like I'm juggling. my business, all the stuff that comes with schools. At that time of year, the extra kind of commitments and demands and time. And it's also the end of the first term. My youngest starts school in September, so I know that she's going to be. Absolutely exhausted. They tend to be really exhausted. So I want to go into that. Feeling it might be a bit of a stretch to say refreshed, but not bad out. And that I can really kind of just focus my time. And I guess it comes back to this values thing of like, I want to spend quality time with my children. That doesn't necessarily mean I want to pick them up from school every day. But it does mean I want to kind of create space during the year where I can have that real quality time with them. I think success for me looks like. Only taking on really specific client calls. They're like my mastermind calls, I'll still be running and probably a few client [00:15:00] calls, but the goal is to have a team in place. So all clients are fully supported, whether I'm around or not. Is to have the full funnel working so that I will still be generating revenue. From all of my scalable offers. It also looks like. Me. Thinking about how I'm going to make the most of that time in the lead up. Making the most of the time. My actually just be watching Netflix for whole day. But the likelihood is I also want to do things like go on a spa day. So they can really kind of rest a decompress. It's like going out for shopping day and having lunch out and buying presence in person rather than doing it online. The night before, the deadline to get things posted out in time for Christmas. My sister's having a baby at the end of November. So it's like spending time with her as well and not feeling like I'm keeping my watch because I need to get back for a meeting or I've got to get some work done before the girls finished school. So that's my real goal. And I guess in my mind, I'm trying to balance that with what does that look like from a revenue perspective? Am I happy for the revenue to drop? How much would I be happy for the [00:16:00] revenue to drop? And actually I've been thinking a lot more about my revenue in quarterly terms rather than monthly terms recently, because I think that also gives me a little bit more. Flexibility when it comes to. What does success look like for me? This idea of this arbitrary. You know, X amount a month and feeling like, oh God, we don't quite hit it. That's not going to be a successful month. That's a challenge I have from a mindset perspective. Actually looking at it from a quarterly perspective. I think will really help me, which means that October, November, We'll be a real focus for me on, okay. What does our quarterly revenue look like? To make sure that I can support myself through December without getting to December I'm feeling panicky and feeling like, oh my God, oh, this is a bit scary. I'll probably just have to take a client on just to kind of top the revenue up and going into January, still feeling like there's momentum and I can kind of make the most of the big January. That's always kind of there. Those are the things I'm kind of looking at in terms of success. I did do some [00:17:00] Instagram story polls on this and it's really interesting conversations that came out of it. When I started my business seven years ago, my eldest daughter was a one. So she actually wasn't even one. She was like 10 months old. I got made redundant from my corporate role. And I was like, oh my gosh, And I was in the midst of trying to work out. What on. That meant for me. And actually success for me then look totally different. So it looked like her not being in nursery full time. It looked like her being, I think she was there like one or two days, and then my mum had her for a day. It looks like me generating income, literally Eddy income just to cover the nursery fees was pretty much all we were aiming for at this point while I had the space and time to work out, what exactly it was I wanted to do. At that point, we were really lucky because I was made redundant. I'd had a payout from the company. I did have a little bit of money. It meant I didn't have to rush. But I did need to generate income. I didn't want to just use all that money, just like living workout we wanted to do so. Any money that I generated felt like a [00:18:00] huge bonus. Honestly, other measures of success with things like being brave enough to post on Instagram and Facebook. It was things like being brave enough to have conversations with other people who looked like they were farther along the main business. Go to events where I met other business owners. In my family and my friends at the time, literally nobody run their own businesses. I was the only one doing this and success for me. It looked like even just being able to talk to people about having a business. The measures I had were just so, so different. Finding myself, a community, finding other people that run their own business was just so important to me at the time. And that really felt like a measure of success. It was like, yeah, I actually managed to attend two events this month and I talked to people and I'm finding myself a network, so that felt like success. And then over time, we've had COVID, I've had a second baby. And my second baby is now about to start school. Am I going to have two children in school? And it's shifted from, the balance between how many days they're in [00:19:00] nursery. So up until this point, I've had Fridays off ever since I've started working for myself. So I've never worked Fridays. I've always had one or both of the girls. when they start school, I've been thinking about, does success? Look to me like still having Fridays off. I think success looks like having Fridays as a real flex day. I won't never have meetings in my diary. I can do a little bit of work to make sure that I'm not working evenings and weekends. One of my values is once the kids are at home, trying to focus on the kids also having it as like a Sophie day if I'm going to go on a spa day, it would be the Friday. If I'm going to have my hair done, it would be the Friday. But honestly, like until I start, I don't really know. I'm kind of going to be quite mindful of it. I think, does this feel good to catch up on a little bit of work or does this feel a bit heavy and a bit like, oh no, I just want to have my five days free and know that it's a non-working day. And that's what I mean about success evolving and not being static And that was actually, what does success look like was something I [00:20:00] really, really thought about when I was designing my mastermind. So ran a presale of the mastermind. In late July. And three people have already jumped in. So I sold out the pre-sale, which is very exciting. They're all previous clients that all people that I know. And they all perfect for the mastermind. I cannot wait to actually start. I'm actually only taking a really small group on for this first mastermind. It's really important to me that it is a super high touch space. I'm going to be putting so much. Time and energy and focus on the mastermind because it's something I've wanted to date for such a long time. And when I was thinking about it, I was thinking about like, okay, who is it for? And what are the common success metrics that we will all have? And actually, interestingly, it's not really about children. It's not about things like picking up from school. All of the success metrics I've talked to, the people who've already joined and the people that I know are interested. Actually. It's a lot more about Choice. Time and energy financial freedom. Being able to have a [00:21:00] business the runs consistently a business that grows, the email list grows the audience. Grows the revenue grows the client base all the time, day in, day out. Setting up that firm foundation. That is a baseline that's going on in the business all the time. That then allows them the choice about how they spend their time. Now, some of them it's traveling. Some of them it's with their kids, some of them it's going to the gym. Some of them, it's just doing really fun stuff every day. For some of them, it will be about even other businesses that they've got running, but they want to spend more time on or want to kind of have that focus on. There is something about setting up a firm foundation in team systems and yes. Ads. Yes. Funnels. Yes. Email automation, scalable products, all that great stuff like that. Absolutely. Is what we will be focusing on in the mastermind. That is my area of expertise. And that is. Going to be a core focus, but it's not the focus. It's not a group program on how to set up a funnel. It's not a group program on, right. These are the steps you're going to follow to create [00:22:00] your offer and then create this and then create that. That for me is not a mastermind. That's a great program for me, a mastermind is more about the group dynamic, the support from each other, but also who you are in your business. That's why I called it. Lionheart. To CEO. 'cause actually it's about stepping into that CEO mentality and looking at what does success look like for me? What do I need to do to get there? Having that long-term goal, like it's a minimum commitment of six months for the mastermind, because it's not a short-term fix like my client who knows it'll be a year for her. Like she's mapped out. This is not a short-term fix. This is about taking consistent action, but having really clear goals. So we're actually going to be working in a quarterly way because for me, Quarterly it's a big enough chunk of time that you can make changes and see progress and see things happening. But it's not so long that it feels like, oh God, six months. That just feels forever. Like, I'll do it later. So we're going to be working in a quarterly way. We start the beginning of October. So Q4 is the first quarter and the [00:23:00] big goal is going to be like, right. What do you want your Christmas to look like? Where do you want to be by the end of December? How do you want to feel going into January? Do you want a full funnel set up in which case? How much capacity do you have over the next few months? Do you need a team member to support you? How much complexity do you want to add to your business? Or actually, is it more about you just want one offer that you're selling, , do you need to develop one offer that can be sold? And it's maybe really seasonal. Maybe it's your December offer. Maybe it's your Q4 offer. Do you want to do anything for black Friday? If you do, what do we need to do to get that in place? And I will be there, in terms of supporting from ads and marketing and strategy and helping map that out with you and obviously give you the actual technical support as well, in terms of how you do the ads and what ads you're going to run. It will be really, really hands-on in that sense. And I've also got system facts, but in a copywriter who we're also going to be supporting in the space as well, to make sure the people in the mastermind awfully supported. It's about. Stepping into that C E O to create foundations that allow [00:24:00] you to create the success there isn't going to be the same every quarter. What we're going to be focusing on in. Q4. Yes, it will build into Q1, but Q1 might look quite different. Once we've kind of established this funnel, let's say, Q1, maybe we're going to dial up the ad spend, maybe we were going to go into a full launch and yes, our funnel will support that. But actually we need to also be looking at. What does a launch ads look like? How do we make the most of all these people that we've brought into our world and really make sure that we're generating the revenue we want to generate off the back of the money we're investing in the audience, building. There's so many different measures of success throughout the year. They don't have to be the same, but I think that essence of the Lionheart is CA. Is that success feels like choice and freedom and the ability to have seasonal goals and seasonal success measures, this isn't a mastermind where I'm saying , you come in and you're adding between eight and 10 K and I will help you hit 20 K months. That, isn't the kind of Mastermind and goals for me and success measure for me that [00:25:00] feels. Good or related to how I work or I do we can know this probably isn't used, but I'm not a coach. I'm not actually very good at reflection questions and allowing people to come to their own conclusions. I do do it sometimes. But actually, I would say I'm probably more of a consultant mentor, a trainer. Than I am a coach. This mastermind for me was never about coaching. It was about. Bringing people together with similar success criteria, similar success metrics. And bringing them together and helping them scale. Cause scaling is what it's about. Making scaling, not just possible, but inevitable. That's the tagline. So. If you are interested in the mastermind then there is a link below. You can take a look at all the details and there is a button to apply. The reason why it's application. Cause I think that sounds a bit like, oh yeah, you can apply to be in my world, but the reason why it's application is because I want to make sure this mix of people is the right people in the room together. I mean, we're going on like two day quarterly retreats. I'm literally kind of wait. I'm so, so [00:26:00] excited to get started. We get we're going on two day quarterly retreats. I really want this. Mix of people to be lifting each other up that core community and support is so important to me and this group. Has to be the right dynamic. I'm really, really passionate about that. So yes, application, it just gives me a better overview about you, where you're at, what your goals are. And then we can organize a call and we can sort of chat it through. And see if you think it would be a good fit for you. We start at the beginning of October as I said, three spaces have already gone and I am keeping a really small group. So if you are interested, Make sure you fill that Forman and get a call book 10. And then we can go from there. I hope this episode has been interesting thought provoking and has helped you kind of think about success maybe in a slightly different way and what it really means to you. And your core values. Under the big headline. Of the revenue or the lifestyle kind of success measures that we see across Instagram. As always, I love to chat about this stuff over on Instagram. So please do send me a message. I love all your thoughts. Tell me what is your success measure? I would love [00:27:00] to know, especially for the summer season and also going into autumn as well. And I will see you on Thursday for a breakdown of how I hit actually 43 sales in 42 days. Thank you so much for listening today. Before you go, if this episode struck record with you, I'd be over the moon. If you could take a moment to rate, subscribe, and leave a review, your words not only brighten up my day, but they are also the magic that helps others discover this lion hearted community. Again, thank you so much and I will see you next week.