58: Quarterly Marketing Planning in 2023

As a business owner, streamlining your marketing efforts can feel overwhelming, especially as you juggle day-to-day tasks. That’s where quarterly marketing planning comes into play. By breaking your marketing goals into manageable three-month segments, you can stay organized, focused, and consistent throughout the year. In this episode, we dive into how implementing quarterly marketing planning and review systems can simplify your approach and drive real results for your business in 2023.

In this episode, Kristin Lawton, chief brand mixologist for the District Brand Bar, dives right into a planning strategy that can keep you focused and help you accomplish more of your goals in the next year. If you are ready to kick New Year resolutions to the curb and take on a new planning strategy for your brand, this episode is for you!

The Systems and Workflow Magic Podcast is brought to you by Dolly DeLong Education. This podcast is for creative business owners who want to learn tangible steps to automate their business through workflows, systems, tools, and strategies to go from scattered to streamlined with purpose because even muggles can become automated wizards.

Meet Kristin Lawton

Ready to grow your brand and master your marketing once and for all without a lot of work? Then, it would be best to have Kristin Lawton behind the bar.

As chief brand mixologist for the District Brand Bar, Kristin uses her decades of experience directing marketing and branding strategies to help small business owners see results for their bottom line. She distills down an otherwise time-consuming process into a simple-to-implement tailored brand recipe. Her work with businesses and sole entrepreneurs gets results. Her action plans organize you to effectively share compelling content and engage with your customers online, driving traffic to meet your revenue goals.

When she is not helping clients simplify their marketing, you can find her behind her home bar creating a new cocktail or embracing her adventurous spirit with a new restaurant, travel destination, or hike in and around Washington, DC.

Review the Show Notes

Introducing Kristin Lawton (2:00)

New Year’s resolutions vs. quarterly goals (5:29)

Creating the magic with quarterly goals (9:07)

Setting the know, like, and trust metrics (13:47)

The inseparable work and personal life (22:39)

Working on your ‘like’ goal (25:58)

Knowing when to make tweaks to your business (32:54)

Working on your ‘trust’ goal (34:53)

Learning from Kristin in The Systems and Workflow Magic 2.0 Funnel Bundle (37:47)

LINKS MENTIONED

Kristin’s free quiz: www.districtbrandbar.com/quiz

CONNECT WITH KRISTIN 

Instagram

Website

CONNECT WITH DOLLY 

instagram.com/dollydelongeducation

facebook.com/DollyDeLongEducation

pinterest.com/dollydelong

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REVIEW THE TRANSCRIPT

Dolly Delong
Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the systems and workflow magic podcast. I am your Systems and Workflow BFF and guide, Dolly DeLong. I want to say thank you for being here, and happy new year to all of my listeners, especially if you are listening to this when it airs. It’s officially 2023, and I hope that wherever you are, you rang in the new year with a lot of joy and hope and your loved ones surround you. So again, happy New Year, and thank you so much for choosing to listen. So speaking of the new year, I know that many creative business owners do listen to this podcast, not only for workflow and system-related tips but strategy tips as well, and to see how you can infuse those strategies into a workflow for yourself and it’s also as I mentioned, it’s the new year. So we’re probably hitting refresh on our goals, or we’re looking at our goals, or we’re starting to think about goals for our business. Either way, I wanted to kick off the new year and bring on a guest who not only is my Instagram friend, but she’s going to be your new Instagram friend, too. So, on my show today, I have Kristin Lawton of the District Brand Bar, and before I get into what she will be talking about, again, along the lines of helping us set our goals for the new year, here is her official bio. So if you are ready to grow your brand and get a handle on your marketing once and for all without much work, you need Kristin Lawton behind the bar. As the Chief Brand Mixologist for the District Brand Bar, Kristin uses her decades of experience directing marketing, and branding strategies to help small business owners see results for their bottom line. She distills down an otherwise time-consuming process into a simple to implement tailored brand recipe. Her work with businesses and solo entrepreneurs gets results, and her action plans get you organized.

I love to effectively share compelling content and engage with your customers online, thus driving traffic to meet your revenue goals. When not helping clients simplify their marketing, you’ll find Kristin behind her home bar creating a new cocktail, or embracing her adventurous spirit in and around Washington DC with a new restaurant when you travel to a destination or on a new hike. I also want to add that Kristin is one of the fantastic contributors to the Systems and Workflow Magic Bundle 2.0 Funnel Edition. So she is here not only to educate us on how to begin implementing a quarterly planning and review system, which can help simplify our marketing in 2023, but she’s also going to be teasing us about her offer in the systems and workflow magic bundle. I know that was a mouthful, but first, let’s just welcome Kristin again to the podcast. Thank you so much for being here. I know I said a lot, but now I want you to introduce yourself to the audience.

Kristin Lawton
Yes, well, Happy New Year everyone. Hope you bring it in well with a wonderful cocktail or mocktails of your choice. Yeah, so thank you so much, Dolly, for having me on. I help business owners become master mixologists for their brands. I think a mixologist is someone who can pull from a variety of resources and knowledge to craft a unique cocktail for their brand with the right ingredients and tools. It’s tailored to their audience’s palates, and that’s what I do. It’s really just it’s with a twist because I like cocktails. But you know, I help the business owner create that brand and marketing foundation so that when they get a bundle like we’re going to be talking about, they know how to really mix it in with their business. It’s not cookie-cutter, but they can take the pieces that work for them. Because they know they have that strong foundation. So yeah, and I’m really excited to talk to you about current planning and yearly planning, all of the goal setting, and everything that is on our brain right now. The start of the New Year.

Dolly Delong
Yes. Oh, and I’m so excited again, to have you here today. Yes, like it’s the brand new year! It’s a perfect start for anyone who’s listening and just likes to hit refresh. Let’s dive into the heart of today’s topic, quarter cleaning. I am so excited for you to show us how implementing a quarterly planning and review system can help really, truly simplify our marketing in 2023. Because I’m sure a lot of us may have had an excellent 2022 or not such a fantastic 2022, we want to be more streamlined and less stressed. So yeah, I’m so excited.

Kristin Lawton

So, you know, I think let’s start with why quarterly. So I think especially right now, this time of year, you just feel like you have to have these like big lofty yearly resolutions, which I think people make it to like January 19, or 20th, or some date around there that like their habits just go out the window. Because it feels too big, right? A whole year to do something that’s like just too big. So, chunk it out into three months at a time makes things feel much more manageable. So then you have a better chance of reaching your goals. What I like to do is set three brand goals for the year. Then I work in quarterly chunks to sort of start achieving those. So when I think about my three brand goals, I like to choose one based on your client’s journey based on the know, like, and trust path. So you know, we hear about “know, like, trust” all the time, and you need to earn your trust, but what does it actually mean? Well, so I like to break it down into, Okay, how are people getting to know you? And what efforts are you going to put into getting people to know you? So, you know, that big goal for the year may be increasing your mailing list size or growing your Instagram followers. Or maybe it’s something less metric like like, I’m going to launch a podcast. I like to focus on metrics here, but we do different things. So then when you move into trust, it’s like, okay, well, how are you engaging with your audience? And what sort of significant metric can you measure in terms of how people are laying engaged with you liking your stuff, so maybe it’s open rates or click-through rates or engagement rates on social media, but thinking about, you know, one metric, it’s perhaps, you know, downloads from your website because we want to work off a metric all year. So we at least know that we’re making progress, but it doesn’t define what we do because that will get into the quarterly. So the “know” is, where are you making that first impression? The like is how you are engaging with people and what metric we can use for that.

Trust is really about getting the clients and the money. You know, whether you have a number of customers, you want to reach the dollar figure that you want to bring into your account. So you know, figure out what’s best for your business. I like those three goals. That’s it. That’s all I do for the year. I’m not setting any other goals for the year; I want to move the needle on these three significant things. Then we get into the quarterly, and now the quarterly; stop me anytime if you’d like or have any questions because I don’t want to go too fast.

Dolly Delong
I write it as you’re talking. My listeners know this, but I always say this: I’m just typing out notes while you’re talking because I love taking notes. This is like a masterclass for me, so I’m loving it. Yeah.

Kristin Lawton
Perfect. So then quarterly is where the magic happens, right? It’s where we’re doing the work, and I like to set quarterly focuses and knees and chunk out big rocks, so let’s sort of bin at the start of a quarter. There are like 12 weeks of a quarter, right? So I decided on what my focus would be, and I would like to have a focus for each of the know, like trust, so I want to have three areas that I’m goinI will for that quarter in that section. Now, there’s other planning and work that has to happen within this, right? Client work and general business stuff that happens, and there’s time for planning all of that, but this is more about ensuring you’re reaching their yearly goals and just getting the CEO stuff done. It’s about your brand and marketing. So it could be that you want to spend, you know, something that’s been nagging you. It is like, you know, I launched my brand a few years ago, but I haven’t revisited it. I don’t feel like it’s consistent with the look and it doesn’t feel like me. Maybe you want to focus on, you know, that first impression of your brand. So for the quarter, you’re like, Okay, this is what I going to do. Then you’re like, Okay, well, what do I need to learn? Who do I need to talk to? What resources do I need? Sort of, like, break it down, really chunk out, okay. If my focus is going to be on improving the “know” side of your brand, what do I need to do? Or, you know, I also like to think about knowing the different paths that someone can find you. Right? So you have organic traffic. So maybe you want to work on SEO one time, or you have earned media. So perhaps one-quarter of you want to focus on pitching yourself to different podcasts. But I think that when you have a focus, and you know, okay, this is going to be my focus for three months, I can ultimately come up with another focus as long as it’s, you know, it’s going to help move the needle on those very broad three brand goals. It enables you to stay away from the shiny pennies, because you’re like, you know what, this is my focus right now. Perhaps, like next quarter, a lot of stuff has been coming up about Pinterest, so maybe I need to do Pinterest. Well, I don’t have to do it right now. Maybe next quarter, I can decide, and then you can determine what’s best. I love it. That’s what I think works best for me, knowing that it’s just three months that I’m working on this one thing and keeping the distractions limited.

Dolly Delong
If you are listening to this live episode, I have some time-sensitive news to share today. After listening to this week’s episode, please attend the show notes and get on the waitlist for the Systems and Workflow Magic Bundle 2.0 Funnel Edition today. Yes, you heard me. The popular bundle is back, but it is in 2.0 form. So if you are ready to sprinkle in some systems and workflow magic of funnel building into your business in 2023, get ready my friend coming February 6 through February 10 of 2023, you are going to have access to over 30 experts who are going to be contributing different funnel related resources to help you grow your own top of the funnel, middle of the funnel, the bottom of the funnel and beyond the funnel strategies for 2023. This bundle includes resources from experts such as Ellin Yin of Cubicle to CEO, Ashlyn Carter, Linda Sidhu, Krista Miller, and Kate Doster, just to name a few. And so many more amazing experts and industry leaders. You don’t want to miss out on the systems and workflow magic bundle 2.0 funnel edition. So head to systems and workflow magic.com to get on the waitlist or the show notes. Either way, is 2023 the year you learn more about funnels and how to apply them to your own business? I certainly hope so. As always stay streamlined and strategic with your workflows to amazing muggle you, I’ll see you at the funnel bundle.

Okay, can I ask you a question for us? Okay, so it’s kind of like peelback. If I’m hearing this correctly, every 90 days, you’re focusing on those big three, like the three rocks, the know, the like, and the trust? Those are your three goals every 90 days. So essentially, you’re revisiting it, like, let’s say, if you were to do it throughout the calendar year in January and then in April, and then I’m trying to like do, four times a year, you’re setting aside to set those metrics. Those yes know, like, and trust.

Kristin Lawton
So yeah, the metrics are set for the year. I know that I want to hit X thing by the end of the year. Okay. So, in the quarter that I’m saying, “Okay, this is what I’m going to focus on this quarter to reach that.” But maybe this quarter, I want to focus on my Instagram strategy and get that up and running, so before moving on to another way, I’m going to push the needle on that no metric.

Dolly Delong
Okay, gotcha. Let’s discuss a tangible example that a listener can use starting in January next year. So, what is a “known” goal?

Kristin Lawton
So think about the three most significant traffic sources that you have of people discovering you. So that often would be some social media. So probably Instagram, you might have a promotion-type strategy where you are trying to get on podcasts or writing articles for other people or doing collaborations, when you’re on those podcasts, you’re gonna drive people to your Instagram, correct, or maybe there’s a third of you have a lead magnet that you’re putting out, and you’re gonna run ads, but it’s really designed to drive to your Instagram, you know, whatever your funnel is. But I would say you want to pick one to focus on for this quarter. So if we were to say, let’s just focus on Instagram, and right now we’re in the “know” space, right? So, this isn’t necessarily about engaging with your followers; it’s about finding new followers. So you’re gonna want to focus on a real strategy, a hashtag strategy, getting in other people’s DMS and introducing yourself and seeing how you can collaborate with other people that you may follow so that you have a more extensive reach. So, I think it’s just about figuring out where you’re a weak point in attracting people into your community. So you want to take one thing, and then I like to break it into chunks. So you have this big rock. I want to increase my followers on Instagram by improving my content strategy. Right? So that’s like, a big rock. Yes. So then what I do is I actually recommend every six weeks. So, every six weeks, I do a planning session with myself; I go to a cafe or a fun hotel lobby in DC, where I can get a glass of wine. Oh, yeah. ,I mean, It’say t  it sayse and mak,e it feel exciting, but that’s when I do all this planning and review the previous six weeks. But on the quarter, quarter one, so ry 12 weeks within that six-week mark, it’s a little longer because I’m planning out. Okay, what’s the focus? What’s the quarterly thing that’s going to focus on, but when you break it into these smaller rocks, you’re saying, Okay, so one week, I need to focus on coming up with ideas or sort of, you know, creating content based on the awareness journey on my brand, or I need to set aside this, you know, next week, it’s about taking those ideas and creating three reels. Then the following week, I will reach out to four people and collaborate, and we go live on each other’s accounts. So basically, you’re saying, Okay, this is what I need; maybe another week, I’m going to schedule an hour with an Instagram coach. So whatever it is, you’re basically saying, this is the focus I want to do for this quarter, which is Instagram’s “know” focus. So and, I know that “know” goal, right, that focus is going to help move the needle on that larger brand goal. And so you basically are saying, okay, so then it’s 90 days at a time, what can I do? Right for these 90 days to get everything up and running, I get my systems running into this. So if Instagram is my focus, I can’t move on to another social media, I can’t move on to another focus or another traffic until it’s up and running. It’s working smoothly. It’s built into my daily routine.

Dolly Delong
Can I say something? I’m just interrupting you to, like, insert. That is, again, if you can repeat yourself or just say it louder for the people in the back who you focus on one thing at a time. I love that. I love that you said that.

Kristin Lawton
Yeah, and I know it’s a bit rambling with these 90 days. But the whole point is that you focus on one piece for 90 days. The idea is that you get it working, and you’ve solved the pain points. You don’t concentrate on anything else in that one area. Whether it’s like the first impression getting people to know you, and you go until it’s working and you can’t add on another week. I can add on Facebook, I can add on TikTok, I can add on something else. But until Instagram is working for me and part of my daily life, it feels simple and effortless. The time I work on it is efficient and effective as you use that quarter to get everything up and running.

Dolly Delong
Get that system up and running, you guys, exactly. System and Workflow Magic. I love that. I love that you said that. Again. I’m not trying to get on to all of us listeners, including myself, but since we are in a New Year and we want to hit refresh or some personalities like hitting refresh and trying something new, why don’t you just do something new this year and just focus on one thing at a time?

Kristin Lawton
You know, I mean, I think it just helps so much. So, in the first quarter of last year, I worked on SEO, and, you know, doing SEO and your business can. Once it’s up and running, it’s so easy, right? Because you like to know what you have to do. But until you have every, like your homepage on, you’ve spent the time to like, resize the images on your website so that they work and that you’ve labeled them all because most of us when we started, we build out our website, like you’re just getting things to go live, and you’re not focused on that. So, you know, then it was up and running, and now anytime, which I haven’t in a while, but like I do a blog post, I know all my stacks, I have it listed out, I know the keywords to search for and everything’s done. I was like, Okay, so I’ve got that traffic source done. So you know, then I was like because I’ve been working on my email list. And right now, for instance, like I’m working on building a quiz, or actually, by the time this airs, my quiz is live. So the last quarter of 2022, I built a quiz with the hopes of, you know, building out my email list, and I had taken a class in the summer. I was like, You know what, I need to wait because that’s not my focus right now. You know, like, my focus was, I had to actually take a lot of stuff off my plate over the summer to rebuild a lot of tech in my business because stuff happened, but you know, knowing like, okay, but I know that that quarter is going to be about my email growth and that I need to redo a lead magnet, then it gave me the time also to say, Okay, well, what do I want from a lead magnet who I want to help me do it? And knowing that, like, you can plan your quarters out, right, your focuses, or you can just like, take it a quarter at a time and let things happen as they do because I think one of the things that I don’t love about yearly goals is that it’s disappointing if you get off track and with a quarterly goal, you can really easily get back on track.

Dolly Delong
Yes. Do you want to know what my key goal for 2023 is? Keep my baby alive

Kristin Lawton
That’s a good goal.

Dolly Delong
Some listened are probably saying, what? No, I’m being funny, y’all. Of course, he’s going to, Lord really thrive. But I’m just like, focus on the baby.

Kristin Lawton
That’s a great goal. Then, in the next quarter, if you keep him alive, you can decide. Alright, well, now I want to ensure he’s happy!

Dolly Delong
Yes, I am adding to it. Yeah. So I’ve mostly inserted that just because I know a lot of moms listening to this. But do you have any recommendations or encouragement for business owners who are also moms juggling, like their business and a mom having multiple little ones? Maybe you need to do a masterclass just aimed at me. But how to focus on meeting these, the know, like, and trust, goals throughout the quarter and throughout the year.

Kristin Lawton
Without a doubt. yeah, and I am only a dog mom, but I will say that I think everyone has to juggle, but mothers have a much more limited time to get it all done, I imagine. I would say, you know, when you do these quarterly focuses, or even break them into six weeks, I would like to draw out on a piece of paper, six weeks down, and then across, it’s like key dates, like work and then personal. I have it all on one calendar. I’ve only had my business for two years, and have done this for probably ten years in the corporate world. But they don’t feel you can separate your work and personal life. You have to know, you know, if this is a huge week personally, as you’re planning out those six weeks, then you have to scale back on the work side, right? You can’t just assume that you could go go go and have the same amount of work. If you know soccer is starting, there will be school events or whatever it is, right? You have to account for those things, so I would say just always consider whatever you have going on the weekend. If you know that you’d have to adjust to it, I would say I treasure my six-week planning dates. And again, I make them special. I leave the house and go to a co-working space, and you can go do something else. I also haven’t touched on this, but that’s part of the bundle you’ll get, which we’ll discuss in a minute. I do a quarterly review of everything to ensure that all of my brand and marketing assets are up to date, but if you can find the time, you know, bring in the babysitter for this, time like cherish those three hours at most. I think you need to really put that planning time and reflection time into your business, you’re just gonna feel so much more on top of stuff because you’re going to be refocused every quarter or every six weeks to say, okay, these are my goals, this is what I’m working towards, I can adjust here or there based on now that I know my schedule, because again, especially as a parent, you cannot plan yearly goals and assume that three months later, it’s going to be the same.

Dolly Delong
Your kid will get sick…

Kristin Lawton
Kids will get, say, you might get COVID. You know, one year in my business, I broke my ankle and had to have extensive surgery, you know, like you can’t get too hard on yourself. I think it’s just a matter of like, deciding what are like for me those three big goals in my business, because that’s what’s going to move the needle, bringing more people into my community, keeping them engaged, and getting them to buy from me, and everything else doesn’t matter.

Dolly Delong
Okay, let me peel it back even more because we have spoken about how the “know” goal factors for the 90 days are okay, but not how the “like” goal factors are for 90 days.

Kristin Lawton
So I do feel “like” is a little easier because it’s just about showing your personality and becoming friends with these people, right? So a friend is going to share stuff about themselves, they’re going to ask questions about them. They’re going to be around, right, they’re notjust to like pop in every three months months and say, Hey, did you forget about me so really, it’s just about maintaining consistency, to, you know, get them to stay engaged, and just trying to personality. So this is where I think metrics come in really well. In tracking them I track metrics on a monthly basis. Then, every quarter, I do a three-month look to see how things are doing, you know? If, for instance, my open rates or click-through rates on my emails are lower than they have been, okay, well, maybe it’s time to redesign my newsletter. Or perhaps I need to update my subject lines, right? Or maybe I’ve been this past summer, which is inconsistent with my email schedule. For example, I was in the summer, so when I came back, I got a lot of unsubscribes. So I think a lot of the middle of the learning one or the “like” sorry, is just about ensuring people stay engaged. What tiny tweaks can you do and test out for this quarter if they’re not? To improve? Can you maybe you need to get on stories more on Instagram or, you know, a lot of times I’ll spend an hour every Friday just like going through everyone that follows me, not just who I follow, but everyone that follows me, and clicking on all their stories and engaging with them in their stories. Just something to keep people engaged, keep people remembering you so that when you’re ready to sell when you have opportunities when they’re prepared to redo their brand and marketing with me like I’m on top of mine.

Dolly Delong
Gotcha. Okay, I like that so much. No pun intended like that. So, my Hey, friend, if you’re listening to the Systems and Workflow Magic Podcast, thank you for allowing me to bring some systems and workflow magic into your earbuds every week. It seriously means so much to me that you are tuning in. As a thank you to all of my listeners, I have a special gift for anyone who wants to take their system and workflow strategies around funnel training to the next level. Are you ready? I have created a free private popup podcast dedicated to the systems and strategies of funnels. It’s called the foundational funnel training private podcast. If you try to look it up in your favorite podcast app, you won’t find it because it’s a private training. So here is what is inside this free, fantastic foundational funnel training private podcast. You’ll get access to four episodes, all dedicated to teaching you the different digital funnel parts and strategies that you can, in turn, apply to your own creative business in 2023 and hopefully beyond. So, day one is dedicated to the top-of-funnel strategy. Day two is dedicated to some middle-of-funnel strategies. Day three is dedicated to, you guessed it, the bottom-of-funnel strategies. Finally, day four is dedicated to more of a continuation of funnel strategies, meaning what should you do with your new leads that have come through your funnel so that they are not scattered? They’re streamlined, and I want to continue to get to know you.

The best part is that I have invited over 20 industry leaders who are experts in these other parts of the digital funnel. So it’s not just me who is going to be educating you; you are going to be learning from some amazing female business owners who are not only encouraging but also knowledgeable when it comes to these specific strategies at the top, middle, bottom, or a continuation of the digital funnel. Again, this is all for free. And you’re probably wondering what’s the catch, Dolly? Well, because one, I want to give you a behind-the-scenes look at the new Systems and Workflow Magic Bundle, the 2.0 Funnel Edition, coming later in February of 2023. And I wanted to give you some strategies to use straight out of the gate when planning and strategizing for your business in 2023. So I want to provide you with some free education. The fun begins on January 31, and again, as a reminder, each episode drops until February 3, 2023. But don’t worry, I’ll have replays until February 11, 2023, and then it will go away forever.

‘m not kidding; it does go away after that. So, if you want access to this private podcast, make your way to the show notes and snag the first intro episode. That way, you can get the episodes all queued up for January 31 when they drop, and then they will stream to your favorite podcast app. Again, go to Waitlist: The Foundational Funnel Training PrPopup Popup Podcast; I realized that’s a long URL, or just head on over to the show notes and get on the foundational funnel training private podcast waitlist so that you will get instant streaming to the four days of digital funnel training when they dropped. Again, if you sign up today before January 31, you will get instant access to that first intro episode. So let me ask you, what are you waiting for? Are you ready for some fantastic foundational funnel education? I genuinely hope so.

I look forward to seeing you in the private podcast training, and until then, stay streamlined and automated, you magical muggle. I was going to ask you, oh, maybe I’ll return to me. Do you recommend just doing one tweak to this rock every 90 days?

Kristin Lawton
Yeah, you can probably test some things a little faster. But it takes some data. Like, and nothing can happen overnight. You can have a fluke and change one thing, such as subject lines. You can do it one day, and, oh, that was amazing. But, like, you can’t sustain just emojis in a subject line or something, you know, like for every time, so you kind of need to get a bucket of tools that you can use that, you know, work. So you could probably test a few things if you have the time, but keep it small and test a few things on Instagram. There’s one thing, and Instagram says one thing and email, but you can test five different things in one email because you’ll never know which one worked.

Dolly Delong
Yeah, that’s what I was kind of getting at. So try to keep it very low-tech. Precisely what may be up to two things at a time? Okay, that helps out a lot. Because yeah, you’re right. You can’t measure. I will make 20 changes, but then I don’t know.

Kristin Lawton
The subject’s open rates are based on the following: Do they want to read your email? And is your subject line compelling? Okay, and is it on a day they have time to open it, right? So there’s only so much you can test. You can test the time of day you send it and what day you send it, and you can test your open rates or subject lines. But you can’t do all three of those. You can decide and say all right. Well, let you know, I typically find Wednesday mornings like a how-to on the subject side. So I can’t suddenly switch like Friday at noon, with just a joke in the subject line. That would work and be like, Oh, it must be that I changed to noon, or they didn’t surprise me like you don’t know.

Dolly Delong
Gotcha. I really love that, and that is a perfect takeaway point. Okay, so we’ve spoken about the “know” and “like” for 90 days. Talk about trust for 90 days.

Kristin Lawton
Yeah, trust is the tricky one. It varies from business to business and owner. The “trust” is one selling to people, which is a lot of our weaknesses, including my own, it’s making sure that you have your offers nailed so that you have your client experience figured out. So it’s easy for you to serve your clients. I mean, there’s a whole lot of buckets that go into that, like trust, which is converting and serving your clients. So many different things, such as a lot of small things, help move that needle. If the needle is like making more money, right? So I believe you designed my offers to make it easier for me. I have a new course, and instead of a full course for you, my new offer is a course done with you where you do the course. I help you create stuff and edit everything. So I can serve more people at a lower price point. I needed to create a better offer that I felt better about selling. So that was my focus for one of the quarters last year. I also have trouble selling, so I want to give you tips, Galore.

Dolly Delong
I also struggle with that. I just want to give and give and give and give and get people to like me; that’s it.

Kristin Lawton
I know. And then I like I’ll share a cocktail recipe on the side and you know, hopefully, you want to share it with me, and that’s where we’re at. So you know, I know that this year, I probably need to focus for a quarter on hiring a coach who will help me with my sales strategies. But you know, another piece of this is like, and I know, this is probably very big for you too. But when I say it’s creating a client experience or customer experience, so much of that is like getting that backend system up and running so that your clients are hearing from you, the onboarding is seamless. The discovery, you know, moves smoothly from the discovery call to the contract, you know, I use honey book. So you may want one quarter to be like, Okay, I just want to finally set up all of those email automation and other checklists for me so I know when it ends, they’re gonna get that gift from me or whatever it is. So, some of these are goal-like, and some need to work on my business. And so this is what I will focus on, and I think a lot of the trust is with that.

Dolly Delong
Okay, I love that so much. Thank you for breaking down those three enormous rocks that you have as goals and showing us how you, I guess, divide and conquer those three big rocks every single quarter. Love it. I love it so much. So, Kristin, this kind of thing makes me want to go into the next phase of our conversation. Do you mind sharing or giving us a little juicy tidbit about what product you will share in the Systems and Workflow Magic Bundle, the 2.0 Funnel Bundle, that fast? I realized it was a mouthful. But you mentioned you had dropped a lot of suitable keywords and phrases throughout this conversation about the importance of planning to impact your funnel, and I’m just so excited you brought that up because I know your specific product is going to help that with a particular aspect of a part of the funnel.

Kristin Lawton
Yeah, my product, it’s a Trello board and a half, I would say, so you’re gonna get a little bonus in there. But it is all about actually quarterly planning, and a breakdown, every step that we’ve talked about here plus, like so much more, the quarterly reviews, what that looks like, you know, looking at all of the checklists that you need to like, you know, make sure that your online presence is up to date, your messaging is current to like reflecting previously. There are engagement routines and promotion routines and content strategy and all of this stuff that if you took a day, every quarter, this is a little separate from like those quarterly focuses, but if you took a day, and just like it’s upkeep on your business that keeps you on track, never feel overwhelmed or behind because you know that you know there’s nothing old out there that the links on your website work, all of those kinds of things, your you know, you’ve done the taxes for your business, you know, all of those quarterly things that are just like good to check in with. I spell it all out on a Trello board that makes it easy for you to replicate, duplicate, and use in your business.

Dolly Delong
I love it. I’m so excited about this. In your opinion, where does this fall in the funnel for creative business owners?

Kristin Lawton
Yeah, I think it’s sort of like the well; it can be all of it, frank think it’s, you know, that it can be the bottom of the funnel. The bottom of the funnel is the client, right? I get confused sometimes with the direction. So I mean, a lot of it is sort of afterward, you need to make sure that as you’re serving your client, you’re sort of doing everything that you need to be saying so that you can serve them well. But so much of it is a cycle. Because we’re doing so much to make sure that you are helping load the top of your funnel and bringing in new people. And we’re helping the middle of the funnel, ensuring they stay engaged with you, getting those lead magnets, and initialing all that stuff. So, I don’t know if I fit into a specific bucket of all of it.

Dolly Delong

I love that so much. No, I’m so excited about your product. And I want to remind all the listeners again if you’re listening to this life, the Systems and Workflow Magic Bundle, the 2.0 version, which will be all about funnels, all about digital funnels, the different parts of a funnel, that opens up on February 6 of 2023 and so it’s coming up soon. This time, I have over 30 different contributors offering different education on optimizing the other parts of your funnel. So if you want to take the next quarter like Kristin mentioned, to learn more about the middle of the funnel, techniques, and strategies, guess what? You have contributors and educators to learn from or if your goal is to learn, I need to learn how to get more people to the top of my funnel to get to know me, well, there’s a whole section on that as well. I’m so excited that all will be opening up again on February 6, which will be one week only, and it will be $97. You get so much for $97. Yeah, I’m just so excited. So, look for the link in the show notes to get on the waitlist when it officially opens up. Because you know me, if you should know anything about me, I would like to surprise and delight my listeners and my clients. And so it may have been a day early, and you decide to join the waitlist. So you have to wait until February 6. So that’s just like a little insider scoop. And then want an appetizer, the bundle. So, if you like this bundle, it, it sounds interesting, but I’m not sure if I need it right now.

I have a private podcast that Kristin is a part of, so you can get exclusive access to that. I have the link in the show notes; it’s a free private podcast. So this way, this appetizer is three to four days with most of the contributors sharing just juicy tidbits of what they’re going to be teaching in the actual bundle. Then, that way, you can see, hey, this is for me; I want to invest in this bundle, invest in these contributors, and set my 2023 goals of learning about different parts of the bundle. So, if you would instead get on the private podcast, get the link for that. It will be in the show notes. Again, Kristin was a part of that, and if you listen to her little talk, it’s gold. Like the whole thing is everybody’s gold.

Kristin Lawton
I’m so excited to hear everyone else’s. Yeah, I wasn’t saying I’m excited about this bundle. I know that we’ve talked about breaking things into focuses, but the beauty of this bundle is that when you get these off these products, you have them right. So if you are like, Okay, I’m not going to focus on, you know, I don’t know, whatever it is the middle of the funnel route for this quarter like, so I can’t buy the bundle, no, you should buy the bundle, because you’re ready for it, and sa, quarter three, then you’re like you have everything right. So please don’t sit on this because it’s not part of your goal. It will touch every piece of your business, and you must work on every aspect throughout the years.

Dolly Delong
And some of these educators are contributing products worth over $500-$600, Wow. So if you’re like, Okay, $97, I get access to all of these fantastic, unique pieces of education, and like Kristin was saying, you can access all of them and consume at your rate. Yeah, your rate and at your own pace, but this is a great deal of the first time I led this bundle was in 2022, and it was more broad focus on systems and workflow for creative business centers, and now the focus is more on the systems and workflows of funnels. So I’m so excited, and, again, the contributors, it’s like a rockstar list, including you, Kristin. So, I’m so happy. So make sure you get on the waitlist and then on the waitlist for the private podcast so that you get an appetizer to the bundle. All right, Kristin, we’re almost at an hour mark, which is almost close to an hour. So, I know this has been a great little masterclass with you. Do you mind sharing with everyone how they can find you and how they work with you? And just like how do you be your friend online?

Kristin Lawton
Absolutely. Well, first of all, I’m on Instagram at @districtbrandbar, I have a new quiz out if you want to learn your master mixology style, and what kind of bartender strings you have, that you can bring into your business. That is my LinkedIn and my Instagram, but you can go to districtbrandbar.com/quiz, and it will be there. It’s an enjoyable one. If one of your goals for this year is to sort of build that brand and marketing foundation, create a marketing strategy and client journey, and learn how to market your business with joy. I have a membership, and the marketing bar would love for you to join in. You can learn about that on my website, districtbrandbar.com, and Instagram. So please come by and say hi if you follow me on Instagram. I love chatting with people.

Dolly Delong
She does it’s true. I met Kristin because she contacted me about my soccer games and your life metrics. So again, thank you so much for being on the show and sharing your knowledge about quarterly planning with us. For those of you tuning in again, head over to the show notes because I have all the resources and links Kristin and I were talking about. I hope you are having a wonderful and happy new yearke, likeke whenever you’re listening to this.. I look forward to bringing on another episode next week more about systems and workflow magic, and until then, state streamlined and magical you magical muggle you. Talk to you later. Bye. Thank you so much for listening to the systems and workflow magic podcast. You can find the full show notes from today’s episode on systemsandworkflowmagic.com/podcast. If you love the podcast, I’d be so honored if you’d subscribe and leave a review on your favorite podcast player. Be sure to screenshot this episode, share it with your stories, and tag me on @DollyDeLongEducation over Instagram. Until next time, go make some strategic workflow magic!