378 The Truth About Tracking Your Numbers (And Why It’ll Actually Grow Your Business)
The most unsexy habits in business
are truly the most transformative
In this solo episode, Kelsey shares a powerful reminder that sometimes the most unsexy habits in business, like tracking your numbers, are actually the most transformative.
Sparked from a candid conversation with her local barista, who casually mentioned the coffee shop was up 35% this summer, Kelsey dives into why knowing your data can fuel motivation, guide smarter decisions and unlock next level growth.
If you’ve been stuck in a season of “feeling it out”, this is your nudge to bring a little structure to your entrepreneurial journey.
Key Takeaways:
Wy fluffy advice like “just rest and receive” isn’t always the medicine your business needs
How to track both qualitative and quantitative data to align with purpose and profit
The difference between working hard on everything vs working smart on the right things.
Timestamps:
[01:20] The truth about fluffy advice in online business
[06:17] What it looks like to prepare based on real data
[10:21] How tracking uncovers what’s working
[12:46] Simplifying your workflow using smart data insights
To connect with Kelsey:
Access the transcript for this episode:
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Kelsey [00:00:00]:
You're listening to the Visionary Life Podcast. I'm your host, Kelsey Rydle. Each week I'll bring you conversations with the most visionary humans on this earth in hopes that you'll be able to absorb their wisdom, avoid their failures, and feel less alone on the roller coaster ride that is entrepreneurship. This season, I'll be chatting with creative thinkers, masterful marketers, brick and mortar shop owners, brand builders, and people just like you who have a story to share or a vision that inspires. If I can share one quick secret with you before we get into the episode, it's that we all have a little bit of visionary inside of us. You know, that spark that nudges us to pursue our full potential in this lifetime. But perhaps somewhere along the line, it got covered up. I'm here to tell you that it's never too late to explore that inner voice and access the brilliance deep down inside of you.
Kelsey [00:00:52]:
It's in you. It's in all of us. Let's dive in. Good morning, visionaries. Welcome back to the show. Okay, we need to talk about something and this is really important. It's not sexy, it's not glamorous, it's not like a, I don't know, super appealing thing to sit down and learn about. But the topic today is knowing your numbers and the importance of tracking data.
Kelsey [00:01:20]:
The reason why I feel the need to sit down and record this is because I feel like there is too much fluffy advice on the Internet that tells you to just lean into alignment and follow your passion and flow with it. And business can be so easy and we can just rest and make money in our sleep. And while I love that advice, while I am certain that for some of you, this is great for a lot of you, this is not your growth edge. This is not the advice that you need. You need to be leaning into more of these masculine skills around growing a business if your goal is to increase your revenue. I was on one of my mastermind coaching calls with a couple of mentors that I have hired and they said something really simple on the call. They said math is the path. And what they were referring to is sometimes when we have a big business decision or when we have a really big dream or goal, say we want to earn 20,000amonth or 50,000amonth, we can literally just look at the price of our offer and then work backwards to say, how many of those do I need to sell per year? Per month? Per week.
Kelsey [00:02:34]:
And then look at your lead generation and say, okay, based on the number of email subscriptions subscribers that I have, I can expect this conversion rate and we can just crunch numbers and math can be the path. But if you don't know your numbers, if you don't have any sort of tracking system in place, you might be leaning too much into the feminine side of business that, like, sit back and leap and the net will appear and things just happen for me. Again, I'm not on that advice because there's definitely a balance here. But no successful entrepreneur gets there by just a law of attraction. Like, yes, you can have big opportunities that way, but you also need to be a smart business owner. You need to know what's working, where the growth is, where the decline is, where the stagnation is. Okay, so here's why I was inspired to record this episode. So I decided to go into my local coffee shop this morning and the usual barista is there.
Kelsey [00:03:37]:
I love chatting with him. He's always a good vibe. He is a great leader to his team. I sometimes work there, so I see him interacting with people. He's always organized, one step ahead. Incredible customer service. He's always tidying, cleaning, making sure things are stocked. I've heard conversations with him and his body boss before.
Kelsey [00:03:58]:
Like, he's the boss of most baristas and then he has a boss. And he's always just like very motivated and organized. And she talks numbers with him and he's into it. And today as we got chatting, I was kind of saying, oh, you guys, like, you've been so busy and how have the morning's been? And I noticed he was by himself this morning. And I said, like, how do you handle all of this by yourself? And he kind of said to me, yeah, like, been a lot. We've had a really successful summer so far. And he said, what's really cool is that our numbers are up by 35% over last summer. So it's been hard to plan, but knowing that I'm preparing for more in July and August than last year.
Kelsey [00:04:42]:
So that means ordering more coffee, making sure more baked goods are prepped, making sure more of the smoothie ingredients are ready to go, making sure the staffing is appropriate, making sure the money in the till is there. And he was so, so clear on the fact that knowing that things are up 35%, that he actually needed to change his attitude as the manager of the shop. And so immediately a few things came. Oh my gosh, I can't talk, you guys. I need more coffee from this coffee shop immediately. A few things came to mind for me. So number One, I'm like, this guy is going places. Like, I know he won't be the team lead at this coffee shop forever because he is that dream employee that anyone would be lucky to have.
Kelsey [00:05:26]:
He's not just here to collect a paycheck. He's here to work hard to grow the business. And he's motivated by numbers. How cool is that? And like I said, when he talks with his manager, I hear how passionate he is. When she says, we're up 17% on coffee sales, we're up 10% on this, he literally lights up. And then when he gets back to work, he's even more motivated. So the lesson here for me, and hopefully a good reminder for you, is that when you know your numbers first, you can better prepare. If you know, for example, that summer is normally slower for you, which is the story that a lot of us are hearing, if you know that summer is slower for you, you need to better Prepare the other 10 months of the year and recognize that maybe you have a seasonal business.
Kelsey [00:06:17]:
It's a real thing with. We don't need to like toxically, positively move through this and be like, no, summer can be the exact same. Yes, it can be, but maybe you also accept that summer's a better time for behind the scenes work. So when you know your numbers, you can better prepare. When you know your numbers, you can motivate yourself. Okay, so imagine not having any data. So I've been in business almost nine years now. If I had no idea how year one versus year, year two versus Year three versus Year four versus Year five went, that would be insane.
Kelsey [00:06:52]:
Hey, visionary, the search engine game is changing fast. I mean, how many times now do you open up ChatGPT where you used to actually just open Google or Bing? AI driven tools like ChatGPT are rewriting the rules of what it is to play the digital marketing game. But don't panic. You just need to pivot ever so slightly if you want to rank and your business in ChatGPT. And if I could just interject for a second and go off script, I am getting so many leads these days who are saying to me, I found you on ChatGPT. So here's the deal. You guys know I'm passionate about SEO. Google still matters.
Kelsey [00:07:32]:
But AI is a new layer to this game that you cannot ignore. If you want quick wins. I want to teach you exactly how you can do it and I want to simplify it for you. What you can do is head over to kelseyridle.com chatgpt. I have a Brand new free bonus training on how to rank on AI search engines, how to rank on ChatGPT essentially. So I want you to jump in and future proof your marketing strategy. Grab this free training kelseyridle.com chatgpt or click the link in the bio. This Training is only 30 minutes long and it's going to teach you everything you need to know to get more leads, more clients and more money into your bank account.
Kelsey [00:08:15]:
What if I was making less with each passing year? That would be a signal to me that something's not working. So when you look at your numbers, you can actually see patterns on the micro and on the macro. So for example, year over year I can look at my revenue. So what happened in 2018 is very different than what happened in 2020 versus what happened in 2023 versus what's happen 2025. It's important for me to know those numbers as a business owner. So on the macro I can see these bigger trends on the micro. I remember six or seven years ago when I looked at my website traffic because I was blogging regularly on the micro. So from month to month I was seeing crazy spikes in traffic.
Kelsey [00:09:06]:
That was such a pivotal moment for me because in tracking that monthly data, if you are on Squarespace, just open squarespace.com, click your website, click analytics and get familiar with those four tabs of your analytics, your traffic sources, your Google search keywords, your page views. I remember seeing a huge spike. And that's when I really started prioritizing my search engine optimization SEO. I now teach an entire course on that because it was so game changing for me, for the business overall, for my marketing strategy, for how I spent my time. The other reason why knowing our numbers is so important is because it gives us a baseline to work towards. So if you know that your email list is growing 3% month over month or 12% year over year, and then you have a year that you're like, oh, it's been at 000. It's actually going to trigger things for you to go, oh yeah, okay, so when we were at 3% month over month, it's because I was running ads, it's because I was out teaching a twice monthly workshop and now I'm not doing that. So it brings you back to what is going on here.
Kelsey [00:10:21]:
So you've probably heard the expression that what we measure we can manage. If you're not measuring anything, you're probably not managing too much either. And this is not to say that you should just be tracking numbers and lead growth and Traffic sources, and, you know, everything like that. You should also be tracking qualitative metrics. Like, does this strategy bring me joy? Did I show up and record these podcasts with energy? Imagine, guys, imagine I was here and I was just like. And I was, like, bored AF recording this, and my podcast numbers were declining, and I had no purpose to it. There'd be no reason for me to do this anymore, right? But instead, I see growth, I see opportunity. I feel the energy when I sit down to record, and I hope you guys can feel that, too.
Kelsey [00:11:18]:
And that's because there's this beautiful combination of the quantitative and the qualitative, the masculine and the feminine, the harder skills, the softer skills. So this is a challenge to you to look at your numbers, to see what's going on, to start tracking. If you're a client of mine or if you're inside of our Wave Mastermind, you know that you have access to the Visionary metrics template. So you can just DM me the word metrics. I will get that over to you. It can start simple. It doesn't need to be complicated. It doesn't need to be perfect, either.
Kelsey [00:11:51]:
I've been in a season the past few months where I've just been busy. I haven't been able to pour so much time into getting every number perfect and managing. But it doesn't matter, because over the macro, so I can see year over year, I have enough data to really help me make informed decisions of do I want to Continue posting on LinkedIn or not? Do I want to run Pinterest ads or not? Like, it's enough to guide me to make smarter business choices. And, hey, isn't that what we're here to do, right? To use our time more wisely to. To make sure that we're working on the right things and not all the things. I don't know how many people feel like when they sit down, they're just like, oh, my God, there's so much to do. Well, simplify that for yourself. Have two things that you need to do, because they're the two things that are growing rapidly, that are leading to conversions inside of your marketing funnel, and that are producing joy for you and for your clients and for your business.
Kelsey [00:12:46]:
If all of this feels overwhelming, you probably want to reach out to me. So just send me a Note. Head to kelseyridle.com again. If you need that template, find me online. Send me the word metrics. And let this be a reminder to be more like that barista who knew his numbers. He talks with his manager every week. I know it.
Kelsey [00:13:06]:
He's up 35%. The coffee shop is up 35% over last year at this time. That is incredible. I want all of you to be able to say that in a few months that my business is up up 35%. My Instagram is up 35%. My YouTube watch time is up 35%. My type form completion rate is up 35%. My podcast downloads are up 35%.
Kelsey [00:13:33]:
My email traffic to my website is up there. Like, whatever the case is, you guys, let's make that our goal. Let's make that our goal for the next few months. All right, so we are going to wrap it here. I hope this was helpful. I hope it inspired you to to sit down, track your numbers. All you have to carve out is 30 minutes, maybe 45 minutes one time at the beginning of each month to reflect on the previous month. So it's July 8th right now as I record this.
Kelsey [00:14:02]:
Hopefully you've already tracked your June metrics, but if not, go look at your next free 30 minute slot and let's get started. Okay. So I hope this was helpful. As always. I just love connecting with you guys. Feel free to take a screenshot of this episode. Let me know that you're listening. It means the world.
Kelsey [00:14:18]:
It truly, truly does. And. And I hope you have a beautiful week. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Visionary Life. I love bringing you these conversations on a weekly basis. So it would mean so much to me if you could help me out by rating and reviewing the show on either itunes or Spotify. It just takes a second. And if you don't want to rate the show, you could also just take a screenshot of the episode and share it on your social media platform of choice.
Kelsey [00:14:46]:
Tagging me at Kelsey Rydell. I'll catch you in the next episode.
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