I Got Caught Up Chasing Vanity Metrics (Again)

Uh-oh, I've done it again! I got caught up chasing vanity metrics.

I've made it no secret that for the last 12-ish months I was in a bit of a funk in my business. Then earlier this year I started playing around with Claude Co-Work and my mind was blown. Naturally, because it's what I do best, I started sharing what I was learning and experimenting with along the way, and everyone loved it! I was so excited to finally see something I was doing actually taking off. People were signing up left, right and centre for my new lead magnet and the masterclass I ran got the highest sign ups I have EVER had in the 6 years I've been running masterclasses. My ego was loving it.

But here's where it all fell apart. After seeing the numbers and how many people were signing up, I kept increasing my ads budget because more eyeballs = more sales. More bums on seats, the bigger my email list, the more people to sign up to my new group program. But I forgot one key ingredient before I hit go on the additional ad spend.

I forgot to validate my offer and make sure it was something my audience actually wanted.

Turns out it wasn't what they wanted and I was chasing the wrong metrics. Followers, email subscribers, masterclass attendees are only one number to chase, and if they're not converting to actual buyers, real paying customers, then it doesn't matter how many people are on your list. I know this isn't new information for you, it's certainly not new to me. I know this, I mentor my clients on this, yet I still got caught up in the excitement and the buzz of chasing those vanity metrics.

This isn't the first time

When I look back, this is actually something I have done before, a few times actually. I get bored with the offers I currently have or sales slow down a little, so I start looking at what I can add to my offer suite, a dopamine hit of sorts. I go looking for something new I can do that will motivate me again, and fill that revenue gap I want to fill. I get caught up in the doom scroll, looking for that inspiration externally, seeing what other people are doing. And we all know how the algorithm works. The more content you watch on one topic the more it will feed you. So before long my feed is full of other coaches, course creators and digital experts sharing their latest launch results and how they scaled to 7-figures with a $197 product or how they sold out their mastermind for the 5th time in a row. So then I get this idea that is the magic bullet I've been looking for to solve my motivation problem.

I have tried group VIP days, memberships, courses, masterminds, workshops, you name it, I've tried to create one. But none of them have actually landed. The reason for this could be that I didn't give them enough time to work, but I think when I look a bit deeper, it's actually that those types of offers are just not how I am meant to grow my business.

What I actually love doing

I wrote a list this morning of all the things I love doing in business and all the things I hate doing. I hate showing up on social media (even though I know it has its place) and no matter how hard I try I cannot maintain consistency over there. Knowing this, a low ticket offer like a $197 mini course is never going to work. Unfortunately I am a 6/3 profile in human design, so I had to learn that lesson the hard way, and I've launched a few over the years only to realise time and time again they are not for me.

On the flip side, I love working with the same clients for a long time. I like knowing their business inside and out, sometimes even better than they do. I love knowing all their kids' names and who their husband is and what he does. So long term, deeply supportive 1:1 containers are where I thrive. Yet I STILL found myself trying to fit my square peg into a round hole by trying to launch group programs and low ticket offers.

So the moral of my story is, do as I say and not as I do 🤪. Play, experiment and have fun, but don't get too attached to the results and making them mean something. I am lucky enough to have a stable base of recurring revenue that gives me space to experiment and explore different things.

If you're feeling bored, tired or just a little over your current offer suite, maybe ask yourself what you love and don't love to do in business, and use that to determine what your next best move is.

Where this actually leads me

This is exactly why long-term, 1:1 support is the work I love most. If you're the kind of founder who wants someone properly inside your business, who knows your offers and your capacity and your kids' names, the OBM Container is where that happens. There's one spot open right now if that's what you're after.