One of the best kitchen & bathroom designers I ever worked with knew exactly how many opportunities she needed to hit her monthly sales goals. Every week, we spent 10–15 minutes reviewing her pipeline and figuring out how many additional appointments she needed. She won roughly 1 out of every 3 qualified opportunities, so she generally needed 1–2 appointments per day to stay on track. But here's where it got interesting. When she had a strong pipeline filled with prospects she felt confident she could close, we could ease back on generating new leads. When the opportunities weren't the right fit, we changed our marketing strategy, adjusted our messaging, and worked to attract better prospects. She knew her numbers. I knew mine. And operations knew how much work we could realistically take on. That's what happens when marketing, sales, and operations work together instead of operating independently. We weren't chasing more leads just to increase a number on a report. We were working toward the same business goals. And that's something I think more entrepreneurs should be doing. As we head into 2027, many business owners will start thinking about marketing budgets, advertising campaigns, new platforms, and ways to bring in more customers. But before you decide what to spend, consider these four numbers: 1. Revenue and gross profit goals: How much do you want to sell, and how much gross profit do you need to generate? 2. Average sale or customer value: How many customers or projects do you actually need to reach that goal? 3. Close rate: How many qualified opportunities do you need to turn into paying customers? 4. Capacity: Can your business realistically deliver that amount of work without sacrificing quality, customer experience, or profitability? Once you know those numbers, you can work backward to determine what marketing actually needs to produce. And you might discover that more leads aren't the answer. Maybe you need better-qualified prospects, a higher average sale, a stronger close rate, or a more profitable mix of customers.

How do you handle prepping for vacation? My family is coming in to town on Wednesday for 14 days. I’m super excited, haven’t seen them in over a year. At the same time, I have had some shifts in the company that require me to stay focused AND I’ve got some MAJOR momentum happening with my campaigns. Stepping away to focus on family is 1000% necessary. I’m blessed to be able to have this opportunity to spend with them. But…eek!!! Knowing me, I’ll be ticking away at the computer from 9pm-3am while they are here. No one will even know the difference. #sneaky What would you do? Step away from work or sneak away when they are sleeping?

If you could change anything in your business right now, what would you change and why?

We have crossed a huge milestone since starting this Skool community! I am genuinely thankful to everyone here who contributes to make it a better experience for everyone! As a thank you gift, the first 150 should now have lifetime access to our standard plan. Thank you thank you!! Also a bonus that you may have not thought of. Right now you’ll get 40% commission for anyone you refer (if you use your affiliate link). If you’re part of the first 150, then that’s positive financial ROI straight into your pockets. For those who are new and making their investment for it, only 2-3 people successfully referred and it pays for itself. Not even including the main ROI being what’s learned, taught, and implemented through the connections. Now we enter into the next phase, let me know with a dm your thoughts on how to improve and provide more value as we go. All ideas are welcome. @Joe Quero and I along with our team members are making plans this Friday to discuss this as well!

You guys all know I am a huge, HUGE proponent of business planning. My company’s motto is: Whatever you do, do it with intent. I’m deliberate. I’m detailed. And I play the long game. But one of the harder lessons for me has been accepting that even a good plan does not always unfold on the timeline you expected. I got hit with three pretty significant curveballs over the last quarter. And the funny part is, none of them were completely unexpected. I had planned for each one. What I had not planned for was the timing. Three things that were supposed to happen at different points decided to show up all at once. And that will test even a very organized person. 😂 For someone like me, the instinct is to go back to the plan and ask, “Okay, where did we miss?” But sometimes you did not miss. Sometimes the plan was fine. The timing just changed. That has probably been one of my bigger reminders this year: Planning matters. So does flexibility. The plan gives you direction. Flexibility keeps you moving when real life decides to rearrange the schedule. And maybe that is part of playing the long game too. Not expecting everything to happen exactly as planned. Just being prepared enough to adjust when it doesn’t. So if this season feels messier than you expected, keep going. You may not need a whole new plan. You may just need to adjust the timing, protect the priorities, and keep moving toward what you intended in the first place.