Camille Rapacz: Welcome Katie Back to the Pod.
Katie Rempe: So glad to be here. Thanks for having me back, Camille.
Camille Rapacz: Yes. So for our longtime listeners, you may have heard Katie in the early days hanging out with us. She is here as the owner of her own business because today we wanna talk about how do you do a midyear performance review of your business. Now I googled this cause I wanna see what would show up if people Googled it.
Camille Rapacz: Smart. And what shows up is performance reviews of people. Which you should do if you have people that report to you on your, anybody in your company. However, what we're really talking about is the performance of the business itself. So I wanted to talk about this process because I think that when you get to the middle of the year, you had certain expectations for what you would get done.
Camille Rapacz: And you probably didn't get them done. And that is no reason to just either walk away or feel frustrated or even just the idea that you might just try and double down and work harder through the rest of the year is also not necessarily the best way to go. We want to be thoughtful and strategic about how you approach the last half of the year, and that's what this midyear review process is about, to help you take a step back, see what's going on, and make adjustments if you need to so that you can finish the year strong.
Camille Rapacz: Cuz it's hard to stick with it all year long and try and make these annual goals happen.
Katie Rempe: Oh yeah.
Katie Rempe: Navigating all the weird life things that pop up in between.
Camille Rapacz: Yes. All the stuff you did not plan for when you made that business plan and set those annual goals. Yeah, all that stuff. Yep. So, Katie, thank you for being our example today in walking through.
Camille Rapacz: Cause I thought it'd be easier to walk through this with an actual business owner than me just listing out a bunch of stuff with George who doesn't have his own business yet, I will say yet.
Camille: Welcome to The Belief Shift. The show that explores. What you really need to know about building a successful small business.
Camille: I'm your host, Camille Rapacz: small business coach and consultant who spent too much of her career working in corporate business performance.
George: And I'm George Drapeau: your co-host and her brother. I'm a leader in the tech world bringing my corporate perspective, but mostly my curiosity.
Camille: Together, we're exploring beliefs about success and how to achieve it. But mostly we're bringing practical solutions so you and your business can thrive.
Camille Rapacz: So let's do this for a real live business because I I think that's just an important way to set the example because while I'm gonna lay out steps, clear steps in the process, there's no perfect way to do this. People. And there's no perfect answers to all of these questions.
Camille Rapacz: The idea here is just do it. Just take a minute to stop and reflect and assess what's going on in your business. So maybe you just make one little change that's better than no change, right? No improvement. We wanna make some level of improvement. So that's what we're gonna do. And I will say that before we get into it, this is a process that all size businesses should do.
Camille Rapacz: I'm about to do this with a large corporate client. We're gonna assess the performance of their strategic initiatives to date. And it's really setting them up for their process for their strategic plan for 2024, because they have to start that fairly early because they're a big company and they have lots of moving parts and lots of things to do.
Camille Rapacz: So that's not necessarily the reason for you to do this, Katie, or smaller businesses, right? You don't need to start your strategic plan now cuz your business is small and it's not that complicated. But what we do want to do is, so there's really two reasons to hit this midpoint review, which is we a wanna finish the year strong, right?
Camille Rapacz: We wanna sort of re up our momentum. And by doing that we do that through improvement, but we also wanna then set things up for the next year. So we're also playing the long game, right? Mm-hmm. So keep that in mind as we're doing it. We won't have to talk about your strategic plan for 2024, like big business does, but it should help to in make that process easier when we get to it.
Camille Rapacz: Yes. So all sorts of reasons to do it. All right. You ready to go?
Katie Rempe: I'm so ready. I'm very excited.
Camille Rapacz: So when we go through this, Katie, I want you to before we do this, I want you to describe your business a little bit for everybody so they know what we're talking about. And then keep in mind as we do this, you know, this gets to be a very there can be you know, numbers involved, right?
Camille Rapacz: We're gonna wanna look at numbers and we look at performance. I don't expect you to share your numbers with the world, so you don't have to do any of that. But people listening, you're in your business, you're gonna be looking at your numbers. So just know that that's the case, even though we won't literally, we'll talk about what numbers, but we won't, you don't have to name names.
Camille Rapacz: Let's just put it that way. Ok? You have to divulge all the secrets of your business. All right? So give us the lowdown. What is, what's your business? Tell us all about it.
Katie Rempe: So my business is called Light from Lantern, and what I do is help knitters make their process of knitting more magical by creating knitting patterns that have magical aspects in them.
Katie Rempe: I also have workshops to help people for along their education in this realm. And then I also have a podcast that I host on this subject as well. So it's all part of the community of getting the word out there of all these magical making goodness is through your knitting.
Camille Rapacz: And you have all sorts of really cool experience with this.
Katie Rempe: Yeah, I actually have a fashion degree, so I know about the technical aspects of the fiber content and how to make like the yarn. And I actually had a job before I started my own business where I helped a, a large company do wholesale manufacturing for yarns. So I know the whole wholesale end. I also worked on the retail side, and then I'm a designer too, so I feel like I've just touched on almost every area of the industry, which gives me a really unique viewpoint especially when it comes to working with others in the industry.
Camille Rapacz: All right, so let's get into it. The process, I'm just gonna just walk really quickly.
Camille Rapacz: I'm gonna explain what the, the top, the, the six steps are that we're gonna go through. And I'm just gonna rattle them off just so people know what they are, and then we're gonna actually go through them. So, Katie, with you, I'm gonna see at each step you'll be able to give better answers on some than others because some are probably gonna require more offline work for you or more discovery or something like that.
Camille Rapacz: So we'll talk about that as we go. So this won't be, you won't be able to give perfect answers on everything. I'm not gonna totally put you on the spot for that, but I think having the discussion or you asking questions about now is this where I address this or I address that, it will really help pull out the whole essence of this process and how to make it really effective.
Camille Rapacz: So that's what we're looking for. Wonderful. So the stick, the six steps, ooh, maybe it shouldn't have been six. It's really hard to say six steps.
Camille Rapacz: The six steps are, it starts with first at setting your objectives for this process in general. So what, what outcome do I want by doing this midyear review? The second step is what's this ideal state that I've been heading towards in my business?
Camille Rapacz: So what am I ideally trying to build overall? So big picture like that, my vision or my long-term goals. Step three is what's currently happening? What's the current state of my business? What's happening right now? And that's sort of, you know, gathering all the information. Step four is then analyzing that.
Camille Rapacz: What does it actually look like? So if this is my current state, am I where I expected to be? Am I not? So just an analysis and a very data focus. There's no judgment in any of this. It's just what does it look like? Step five is then a little more reflective. So then you start reflecting on, you know, so what is working, what's not working, all that kind of stuff.
Camille Rapacz: And then the last step is what, what are my improvements to make? And there's a few different ways we can look at the improvement part. So those are the six things we're gonna go through.
Camille Rapacz: Got it. I'm ready. All right. So let's start with objectives. So as you think about we're going into this midyear review, do you have big questions that you want to address, or is this for you more of a, you know what, I just wanna do this and see what shows up in my business that maybe I haven't been paying attention to, or, and should, what, what are your thoughts on that?
Katie Rempe: A bit of both, honestly. Okay. You just, I always feel I'm more on track than I am until I stop to look at things. And I know for a fact that I am not, I've met some goals work-wise that I wanted to do, but in terms of how they've performed, that hasn't been going as well. So that's something I wanna look at.
Katie Rempe: But also my whole first half of the year was sort of to build these items that then I would promote in the second half of the year. So I'm really just wanting to make sure that I'm looking at it the best way that I can to maximize what I already have made so that I don't have to make new items in the fall.
Camille Rapacz: Oh, I like this. Okay. So we're looking at being more efficient. Mm-hmm. But I think what you said right outta the gate is so important because I mean, I don't know who doesn't feel this way, where, I always feel like I'm doing good job cuz I'm working really hard. I'm working my buns off and then I go look at, I'm like, oh, I didn't, I didn't quite make as much progress as I thought.
Camille Rapacz: That is essentially why we have to do this process. Mm-hmm. Because otherwise we will just keep going thinking we're doing great, cuz I'm working really hard instead of saying, oh wait, am I working on the right things? If I'm gonna work that hard, I need to work on the right things. And that's what this checkpoint is about.
Camille Rapacz: So, yes. I love that you said that,
Katie Rempe: that is a constant struggle. Am I working on the right things? Yes. Because you always think they are initially and then later.
Katie Rempe: No. Nope.
Camille Rapacz: I know. I mean, that even happens to me in a day where I'm like working away and I'm boom, boom, boom and then I realized, oh, I really needed to do this other thing.
Camille Rapacz: How did I forget that? Right? Mm-hmm. Like, ah, my system's not working well. Cause I, I missed this piece that I really had to prioritize today, but I got all involved in this other process, did a lot of work, but it wasn't really the right thing at that moment.
Katie Rempe: Productive procrastination. That's what I call that one.
Camille Rapacz: That's true. I know. That's a good one. Productive procrastination. Yes.
Camille Rapacz: Okay. So great objectives, Katie, let's get into, and because we have worked together, I know that you have this, but the second step is your ideal state. So this is your strategic plan or your annual goals. Ideally you have both.
Camille Rapacz: You have a strategic plan that lays out, you know, strategically what you're trying to do in your business as well as very specific goals that you wanna target for the end of the year. So do you have those in front of you, like laid out? Yes. Okay. Can you just give us, you don't have to give away all the juicy details, but do you have, can you give us like a big picture of some of the things that you were thinking about trying to get done by the end of the year?
Katie Rempe: My big game changing goal was to get my workshop created and released and then start promoting that because it's my first high ticket item that will really make a big difference sales wise as opposed to my patterns, which is the other thing I sell, which are much lower.
Camille Rapacz: Got it. Okay. Perfect. So that was the big goal. So for listeners, if this isn't something you have done, if you're thinking, I don't, I don't even know. I haven't, I didn't really say what I wanted by the end of the year. Or maybe all you said was, I just need to make X amount of money. That's okay. That's a starting point.
Camille Rapacz: Like at the very least, you wanna say that, but you really wanna say, how am I going to do it? So what Katie's describing is she has a way that she was going to increase the revenue by. This particular strategy of the workshop. So that's really what we're looking for when we say what is your long-term plan?
Camille Rapacz: I also love when it's just like I am focused on this one thing, especially as a solopreneur, but even really like micro businesses. The bigger the business, the more of these targets and goals you can have cuz you have more people to work them. But small businesses, you gotta just like stay focused on this is that one thing I'm gonna do.
Camille Rapacz: Cuz even with that one thing, you're still gonna run into the problem that you're talking about. Right. Which is why I thought I would, it's gonna be further along. I mean, I'm working my tail off what happened, right? Yes.
Camille Rapacz: So that takes us to step three, which is what is the current state now? Do you have, so this current state is, is the gathering of the data.
Camille Rapacz: Mm-hmm. So I need to gather all the information on my current state. And it could be things like the data and the metrics that you currently have. And this isn't just strategic goals, but it should also just be to overall performance of your business. So that would be what's, what have I made in revenue to date?
Camille Rapacz: What have I, where am I at in terms of, I know any of your marketing measures, like your email list growth or it could also be where you are in terms of milestones in a project plan. If you have put things into a project and you're like, I had X milestones that I wanted to meet by this point. So what kinds of metrics or things, what, what, what's in your business that you would look to Katie?
Katie Rempe: So for me, I track things like my Instagram followers for both my knitting side and the podcast side. I have a new goal this year to get monetized on YouTube by the end of the year, so I'm now tracking that really well. Like how many hours watch do we have? How many subscription or subscribers do I have?
Katie Rempe: I track how many newsletters I send. How, what the open rate is after like the first week what my subscribers are, and then also my sales on Ravelry which is the pattern website that I sell through. And I also have affiliates that I track if I get any of that in a month. And then classes sold, which I've done one, so I can at least track one.
Katie Rempe: So gotta start somewhere. That's right. And I used to have Patreon information and I still do for the first part, but I'm sort of moving that around, so that is on hold for the moment.
Camille Rapacz: Okay. Excellent. So this is great. You have a great foundation of some data, some metrics that you're looking at that can help you with your business.
Camille Rapacz: We'll talk in a little bit about how those are serving you, but this step is really just gathering them up. So if you haven't. After we're done with this conversation, that's what you should do is gather that up to see like, well, how does it actually look to date? And for some of those, you probably wanna look at trends like, how's this been trending month over month?
Camille Rapacz: For others, it might just be just, where am I at in, am I on track at this point in the journey, right? Mm-hmm. So this is the gather the data state.
Katie Rempe: This was a difficult one for me because mm-hmm. I overthink things. And so for me to just choose what to track without it being like micro on everything. Like just the numbers. Not like every week and every month and every, like, it's too much. I will avoid doing the recording work if it's too much to track.
Katie Rempe: But what do you suggest for people who've maybe never done this before? Like what are the main things that you would suggest people track?
Camille Rapacz: Yeah, that's a great question. This is a place where, especially if you're a little bit nerdy about it, like you and I are and like to have plans with lots of data, it's a really easy place to overdo it because remember, every piece of data you track is work to do, so you really want these to be the right things.
Camille Rapacz: So if you're not doing anything, you definitely wanna be tracking. I mean, the most important thing for you to be looking at, number one, is am I tracking my revenue? Am I really, my financials overall, cuz you want both revenue and expenses because profit's the only thing that actually matters, right? If you're making a hundred K and you're spending a hundred K, that's not a great business, right?
Camille Rapacz: Mm-hmm. So we wanna be looking at both of those things. So I first recommend, everybody should be looking at that on a month by month basis and setting targets, what do I expect him to make next month? And that will then drive the question of, well, how am I going to do it? And it, it drives all these other things for you, right?
Camille Rapacz: Mm-hmm. So that's number one. Cuz the only reason your business exists is to make money. That's right. That's what it's there for. So look at that first and foremost.
Camille Rapacz: Then the next level is how you're making that money.
Camille Rapacz: And so this gets into whatever your marketing process is and it's different for everybody. So for you, you know, you're looking at your YouTube, you're looking at your social media, like these are the channels through which you are attracting customers. So those are the right things to look at. And is that growing at the pace I need it to?
Camille Rapacz: Is my email marketing open, my open rate's good? All of that stuff is the right stuff to look at. So that's where I would also have people start with just like two things though.
Camille Rapacz: . And this is where we could nerd out on sort of metrics. I still keep need to do an episode on this, which is leading versus lagging indicators.
Camille Rapacz: Hmm. So while you gotta look at your financials, that's a lagging indicator because it's already happened and you can't do anything about the past. A leading indicator is something like, oh, the open rates on my email. Mm-hmm. That's given me an indicator of how things are going in terms of, that might lead to customers actually buying things, cuz they're clicking and opening the email is like step one.
Camille Rapacz: Hmm. If it's low, then you're like, well not a lot of people are gonna buy my thing cuz they're not even opening the email. Right. That's a leading indicator of how the sales might go, right? So that's just things to think about when you're looking at what to measure is, is this, am I looking at this measure, but it's too late to affect anything?
Camille Rapacz: Or am I looking at a measure that is giving me some sense for what to expect down the road so I could improve on it before the fact, before it happens?
Camille Rapacz: Oh, little trend forecasting. That's nice.
Camille Rapacz: Yes, yes. That's what you wanna be looking at. So again, I do need to do a whole episode on this to explain it better, but that's the big picture of it.
Camille Rapacz: So yeah, at the basic level, really be tracking on those things. Tracking the monies, and then tracking the path to the customers. Like how do I know how that's going? Whatever your strategy is, those are the two main things I would have people look at, first of all. All right, very good. All right, so thank you for that.
Camille Rapacz: No problem.
Camille Rapacz: All right, so the next step is we've gotta do some analysis. so far we've just gathered information, right? Like what are we trying to do? What we're trying to accomplish in this business, and we're gather all the data up about how it's going today.
Camille Rapacz: Now we're gonna analyze that data. So I have a few ways that you can look at how to analyze. There's lots of ways you can do this, but I just wanted to give some basic things to look at. So the first one is you really assess your progress to date on those goals you set for the year. So, Katie, if you look at yours, this is where you're like, oh, I feel like I'm doing really good on my goals.
Camille Rapacz: And then you actually look at that and you're like, Hmm, how did I really do? So here I really emphasize for people to, there's no judgment. This is just facts. This is just how things are going. Mm-hmm. It doesn't mean you're a good or bad business owner, it just is what it is. So, checking on your goals and looking at where you are today, are you, where you plan to be?
Camille Rapacz: I. What do you think, Katie?
Katie Rempe: I am not.
Camille Rapacz: If you had to put a percent on it, by the way, anybody who says they are, I, I really wanna hear about that story, but so you're not where you plan to be, that's 99.9% of us. That's right. Then how close are you? Like are you 80% of the way to where you wanted to be at this point?
Camille Rapacz: 50%. Like can you put like a number on it? This is just helpful to make it less emotional and more just like, here's what it looks like.
Katie Rempe: I think I'm probably 50% there because I now have the product. Mm-hmm. I just now am realizing I don't have enough reach for people to get it. Like who would want it. Got it.
Katie Rempe: Yeah.
Camille Rapacz: Yes. Okay. So you're 50% of the way towards where you want to be at this point in the year, right? Mm-hmm. Not to the end. Oh, so I wanna be clear about this, right? Because you could say I'm 50% of the, the way to my goal for the year, which would mean you're on track cuz we're at the midpoint. That's true.
Camille Rapacz: But if you're only 50% of the way towards where you want it to be on July 1st, that's what you're saying. Right, right. Okay, good. So that is how I want people to think about it at this point in time, as we're at this midpoint July 1st of the year, how close am I to where I expected to be or had planned to be at this point in the year?
Camille Rapacz: That's what you're really looking at. Mm-hmm. So you're saying you're about 50% of the way We are perfect. Yep.
Katie Rempe: Everything took twice as long.
Camille Rapacz: Everything. Oh my gosh. That's the story of our lives. Everything takes twice as long. Mm-hmm. I blame the dogs, frankly. Yes.
Katie Rempe: Those dogs are, I have three of 'em,
Camille Rapacz: so I know I only have one and it takes away all my attention all the time.
Camille Rapacz: So I don't know how you do it. It's difficult, right. So yes, for whatever the reasons are, we're not even getting into the reasons yet, but we're already blaming dogs. Okay. So the second thing to assess, and again, we're just just analyzing, like where are we right now? So now we're gonna just assess , what do you think about your personal performance?
Camille Rapacz: So in terms of, your productivity and your mindset. And so you could, if you wanted to lay out a few things in your personal performance, you wanna assess, you could assess productivity you could pull out time management separately. You could pull out planning, like you could break out some different things, whatever you want to personally assess.
Camille Rapacz: Or you could just do a general assessment. And a way to think about this is you could grade yourself on a scale of one to five. One being I'm not doing much of anything. Mm-hmm. And five being I am stupendous in my performance. Where would you put yourself in terms of just your personal performance as, and let me be clear, as a business owner,
Katie Rempe: I'd say a three and a half.
Camille Rapacz: Half. Okay. You're right in the middle. I feel like little better than the middle.
Katie Rempe: There's always room for improvement. I'm never gonna give myself a 100% anything. So like a five. That's just never gonna happen. But I really do try hard and I thanks to you now often stop to reflect if what I'm working on makes any sense to be working on.
Katie Rempe: And if it doesn't, I actively change it instead of just saying, huh, okay, well we'll see if it does better later, we'll keep doing it.
Camille Rapacz: I mean, I think the fact that you do that pushes you closer to a four because there really, I'll take it is there is no perfect here, right? Like we all struggle with this all the time and the reason to assess it again is not to judge ourselves but to do kind of what you just did, which is, well I am doing this well and I am doing that well, not doing this so well.
Camille Rapacz: We're always gonna score ourselves lower than other people think we should by the way, cuz we are just our, our own worst, you know, critic. But it's an important thing to look at just so you can say, okay, what could I do to improve? Mm-hmm. The other thing about these types of measurements, because this is, you know, Purely just, you're just making some stuff up, right?
Camille Rapacz: Like there's no data that you're looking at. You probably could have data and metrics around this if you wanted to, but that feels a little overkill for especially a solopreneur. But the more you understand what good productivity and a, a good, solid mindset for a business owner really looks like, the lower your score is going to get because your expectations go up.
Katie Rempe: Hmm. Interesting.
Camille Rapacz: This is a thing that happens in all of this kind of, you know, very subjective scoring of like, I don't, I don't really know. I'm making some stuff up. The more we learn about it, the lower we start to score, cuz we realize how much more we could be doing. Oh yeah. So keep that in mind. It sometimes we'll be like, oh, I'm doing worse.
Camille Rapacz: No, actually you're doing better. You just have set the bar higher. Hmm. What it takes to get a five. Is more than it did last year. Yeah, good point. And I think that's the case for you, is you probably are gonna be scooching your score down because you see how much more you could be doing. So Oh yeah. Don't punish yourself over that, but it's a good way to just sort of do a check on like, yeah, I'm doing okay, but certainly room for improvement.
Camille Rapacz: Right. And we'll talk more about what to do for the improvement in a minute. All right.
Camille Rapacz: All right. The third thing that you can do, and this is definitely just focusing on the business, which is a SWOT analysis.
Camille Rapacz: So a SWOT analysis, if you don't know what that is. It stands for strengths. We weaknesses, opportunities and threats. And it's a way to just look at your business and ask yourself, so what are the strengths in my business? And what are the weaknesses? And those are usually internal to your business. Strengths and weaknesses.
Camille Rapacz: Opportunities and threats are usually what's going on externally, like in the marketplace, in, you know, the industry, in the world, whatever. This is an exercise you can do outside of this Katie, which is to really just do you know, a brief little SWOT analysis of your business to just give yourself a sense of, again, analyzing like what's really happening today.
Camille Rapacz: It also gives you some information that might be useful in terms of what's happening outside my business, which is really important for us to look at. Sometimes we're so focused on our own business, we forget to look up and say, what's happening in the market right now? Do I need to make adjustments based on that, right?
Camille Rapacz: Mm-hmm.
Katie Rempe: Yes. Good point.
Camille Rapacz: So maybe just for, I'm trying to look at the interest of time here. I kind of wanna see if you have a quick answer on each one of these. All right. So gimme one answer to strengthen your business.
Katie Rempe: I really realized last month, after I came back from my vacation, basically change of routine that.
Katie Rempe: I thought I had a plan for what to do every day, but what I really needed was like a reoccurring framework for things so that it wouldn't just get like put into random places to get done. But things always happen on certain days, even if I don't have the work to do, so that it always is getting done and there's more of a sense of routine.
Katie Rempe: So I really need that framework and to rely on that more. So that's a big thing I'm working on.
Camille Rapacz: So the strength would be that you have discovered a better, more effective way for you to do the work Yeah. That you are implementing. Yes. I love that. Okay. Weakness in the business?
Katie Rempe: Weakness is definitely distraction.
Camille Rapacz: Dogs just say dogs.
Katie Rempe: It's dogs, it's people, it's, you know, working from home. And so it's just another thing of like, okay, I just need a business hours. Like I work from this time to this time, and then whatever gets done is great if I wanna work longer. Okay. But like, it just is more framed, like, I hate to say this a real job, but that's, you know, yeah.
Katie Rempe: One of the pluses and minuses of having your own businesses. You can do it whenever you want, but also you don't have to do it ever if you. Don't. So,
Camille Rapacz: yeah, I love this. This is such a big deal, I think for when you're running your own business. If you aren't, especially if you're just a solopreneur or you just have like a little micro business, you can kind of keep your own schedule.
Camille Rapacz: But that inconsistency will kill your productivity. It will kill your business. It doesn't mean you can't break the rules. I, what I like to think of is mm-hmm. I have this consistency in when I work on my business, but the beauty of running my own business is I get to decide when I break those rules.
Camille Rapacz: Yes, exactly. I don't have to ask permission. So if I decide, you know what, this Friday I'm gonna take three hours out to go have a nice long lunch with my friend. Mm-hmm. I can just do that, or I can decide Friday I'm quitting early, or I'm do it in the middle of the week. I can do it whenever, but I plan it.
Camille Rapacz: In the schedule. I don't just willy-nilly. So yes, you can still have flexibility while establishing this, this schedule of your, you know, of your work. So yeah, love that.
Katie Rempe: Exactly that idea that the more you plan, the more free time you actually have, at least to some degree, cuz it's just more organized.
Katie Rempe: So that's a goal.
Camille Rapacz: Yes. I think that is something that most people don't understand about planning is that planning actually gives you more freedom, not less. Yep. And if you are listening and you are not a believer in that, then you should stick around and let me prove it because yes, this is something I work over and over again with my clients on this idea of you have to get to the right level of planning, you can over plan.
Camille Rapacz: But when you hit that sweet spot of what the plan looks like and have these rules for flexibility, You also can establish just what are the guidelines for the flexibility in my business? Like I don't allow myself to have three, three hour lunches in a week. That would be ridiculous, right? Mm-hmm. I never get anything done, so I have some guidelines around that, but it does gimme this flexibility to be able to work those things in, which is what makes doing this running my own business thing more joyful.
Camille Rapacz: Right? Exactly. Which is kind of the whole point. I hope.
Katie Rempe: That's right.
Camille Rapacz: All right, so let's talk about an opportunity, I think I know what your answer's gonna be, but just thinking about like what's the opportunity for you and your business right now? And again, remember this is usually an external sort of thing.
Katie Rempe: I mean, I'm gonna be starting teaching in-person classes, and I think that will be a huge thing. It will just help me to connect with more people, broaden my scope, but also just. Get in with more people. Yeah, I just miss people.
Camille Rapacz: The opportunity is I miss people.
Katie Rempe: Yeah.
Camille Rapacz: So I think of this, this aspect of your business in this way, in terms of framing up the opportunity, the opportunity, and you've already started taking advantage of it, which might be why you're not thinking of it this way.
Camille Rapacz: It's still an opportunity and you're still building on it, which is all of the connections you have in the industry that you have made an effort to reconnect with. Sure. Yep. And you're still working to make that opportunity pay off. In some way in your business, right? With Yes. Like you said, doing some in-person stuff with those people.
Camille Rapacz: That that's the opportunity you have. I have this opportunity because I already know all these people.
Katie Rempe: I see.
Camille Rapacz: I know people who are trying to break into industries and so they don't have the same opportunity cuz they're still trying to create the connections. Right. You have them. Yeah. And so
Katie Rempe: I helped a lot of these people start and so they now get to help me out.
Camille Rapacz: Yep. So that is a really significant opportunity you have in your business and now you know, you're starting to design a strategy around how to benefit from that as an opportunity in your business. So I love that for you. Yes, that's right. Okay, so the last one is a threat. What kind of external threats are there?
Camille Rapacz: I mean, this could be internal too, but it's usually an external thing, but it could be either what are like threats to your business? Things that could cause your business to underperform or even go under heaven forbid.
Katie Rempe: Well, so the summertime in my industry is always a tough one, so that's a threat. Definitely is figuring out like the seasonality. How are you gonna continue to engage with people in an industry that. Basically they go on vacation all summer and they, they don't think about knitting again typically until, you know, October or September.
Katie Rempe: Mm-hmm. So that's something I am definitely actively trying to think of. Like, okay, well how can I engage with people more so that I don't always have this like three month dip every year?
Camille Rapacz: Yeah. I think that's a great one because I think a lot of businesses have this seasonality problem. Yeah.
Camille Rapacz: That's it. And so instead of having a plan where revenue is steady all year, they have this dip in what do I think most businesses probably experience this for one reason or another. Right. Holidays could be enough for some people, holidays are a peak and others it's a dip. Right? Yep.
Camille Rapacz: Exactly. So that's definitely something that can threaten the cash flow of your business mm-hmm. That you have to plan for. So yeah, I really like that one. So, Okay. So those are just examples. But what I would have you do, Katie, is really sit down and try to answer, you know, you don't have to write a, a whole, usually it's just this little four square grid on a page, and there's a few bullet points in each one of them.
Camille Rapacz: So that would be a good exercise for you to, is just think about what are those things will do. The last thing that you can analyze is really you wanna do analysis on those things that you were measuring. So all those things that you listed that you're looking at, you're looking at, you know, your YouTube, you're looking at email, open rates, all those kinds of things.
Camille Rapacz: But the other thing to evaluate with that is, are these still the right things to measure? Mm-hmm. So to your point, I think you've already gone through this process of I need to not measure too many things or at too granular a level. Yes. And so this is the question that people should ask are, am I measuring the right things?
Camille Rapacz: As in is, can I take action on any of this stuff? Is this actionable? Or am I just looking at information that I have no idea how I could change those numbers? Right. Just magically hoping for them to improve isn't a thing. You have to have a plan to improve them. Yep. You could be measuring things that maybe you're just playing the long game and you're like, eventually I'm wanna see these trends, but I'm not taking action on them now.
Camille Rapacz: That's okay. As long as it's not time consuming. Mm. So you do wanna measure things that are as little time consuming as possible. Right. Because otherwise it becomes a second job. Yes. So evaluating whether they're the right things, and also that you don't have either too few or too many, but also that they're at the right level of granularity.
Camille Rapacz: So they, the number could be like at too high of a level. So for example, if all I look at is my revenue at the end of the year, that's not granular enough, right? Mm-hmm. I've gotta get a little more detailed on that, at least quarterly, but really monthly. And for some businesses weekly, they need to look every week at what's going on.
Camille Rapacz: Depends on the size and the rate of sales in your business. Hmm. So those are the things to be assessing in your business and looking at data and metrics. And if this is a space where you're just like, I have no idea, this is definitely where having a business consultant help you is really important.
Camille Rapacz: Not every business consultant is the same. I have heard horror stories of consultants going in and setting up a whole measurement board of like a hundred plus measures for a small business. Oh, even for a big, that's ridiculous. That's a ridiculous number. Yes. So watch out for, make sure you're hiring somebody who actually is gonna work with your size business and your needs specifically.
Camille Rapacz: And not just bring a generic, like, here are all the things you should measure thing in. Cuz that's not helpful. You'll never survive that.
Camille Rapacz: And let me just caveat here. There's a bunch of other stuff. Let's be clear that you could analyze in your business. I'm just touching on the big ones because. It's a podcast and that's all we have time for. That's right. So if you want more things to analyze, you know, let me know.
Camille Rapacz: All right, so step five is reflection.
Camille Rapacz: So this is where you really could like journal out some stuff. This is where you wanna address just the, the highest level. What's working well, and by the way, you should celebrate that. Yay. Look what's working. Well, you've already said a few things, Katie. Right? What's working well is you're discovering how to have a better schedule for your business so you can be more productive, right?
Camille Rapacz: Yes. You're also discovering, I know that what's working well is you've made improvements in your YouTube channel. Mm-hmm. Working well there, right? Yes. You've made some core decisions in your business about where to prioritize working well, yeah. What else? Yep. What else would you say is working well in your business?
Katie Rempe: So I feel like at least the content is good. I guess it just is like keep at it. Just not having this sort of mid-summer slump where people aren't really buying things and I'm trying to get reinvigorated for the next half of the year, but it's hard sometimes to be like, all right, well let's try it again.
Camille Rapacz: Yeah. I think of that as like you're really doing a good job keeping your momentum. Yeah. Right. And I think it's because in my opinion, at least you can tell me what you think, but I think it's because you have made some very clear decisions about where to spend your time, and that means you've decided what to say no to. Right?
Katie Rempe: Yeah. Yep. And that is another tough thing because again, just because you can do a lot of things and they're knitting related, doesn't mean you should. Does it make sense for the brand I'm trying to grow? Not necessarily.
Camille Rapacz: Yes. And even back to like, we did this, I don't remember what episode it was. Where we talked about like the direction of your podcast even, right? And what customer am I serving and what am I doing? So you asking those questions and getting clearer every day about who am I serving and how am I doing that?
Camille Rapacz: What problem did I solve and how am I solving it? Mm-hmm. It's really helping you get this focus and I think that really helps with the momentum cuz otherwise you're trying to do just a lot of things and it's hard to make any one of those pay off and that's how we sort of lose the steam in our business.
Camille Rapacz: Right?
Katie Rempe: Yeah. And that's really where I was at, which is why after our conversation about the podcast, I ended up actually putting it on hiatus for the summer. And that sparked a reorganization of how I basically am gonna do and plan everything in the business because previously I had really been looking at the podcast as like a separate entity that would also happen to advertise my things instead of really encompassing it in my brand.
Katie Rempe: I don't know why I had such a disconnect, because it's like the same thing, but whatever. And so that helped me think like, okay, well now that I'm on this break, like how can I really make. Most of my time. And then that sort of just was like, all right, I'm gonna take a day to just reorganize the whole plan.
Camille Rapacz: Yep. Okay. So you just answered the question of what have you learned?
Camille Rapacz: You've already done the work to adapt, so that is brilliant. I love that you were like, what's not working is this podcast isn't actually driving the business that I wanted it to drive cuz I didn't set it up right. So I gotta fix it. And so when you learned that you made an adjustment, that's the essence of this reflection process, right?
Camille Rapacz: Is really doing all of that. What's working, what's not working? What have I learned?
Camille Rapacz: Because then step six is also what you just described, which is, I gotta fix stuff, I gotta make an adjustment. Right? Yeah. So there's a few ways to think about this adjustment process in your business.
Camille Rapacz: The first one should rarely occur, but you should always say, are my annual goals still the right goals? Now, you should only be making changes to these if like market conditions have really shifted or there's these external factors, or like you just really were way out, like completely had the wrong idea about what that thing was.
Camille Rapacz: So it, it happens. You can set the wrong goal, but that's thing number one to look at is once you've done all of this, is are the goals still the right goals? You're not allowed to say it's not the right goal, just cuz I'm not getting to it. That's not a reason to say it's not the right goal. I see this happen.
Camille Rapacz: They're like, well it's not the right goal cuz I'm not gonna make it. No, no, no. That's not the question. The question is, if you were gonna make it, is it still the right thing in your business? Mm-hmm. Or. Does it not make sense anymore because this is no longer a thing or this other, whatever it is externally that is going on.
Camille Rapacz: Right. Sometimes the market shifts and we have to go, wait a minute, that's, I gotta change the goals that I have cuz this doesn't make sense now. Mm-hmm. So this is the point to make that assessment is that, how are your goals, like do your goals still stand the the actual end annual goals or are they still solid for you?
Katie Rempe: Yes. Still the same goal.
Katie Rempe: Okay. Still to do the workshops. Still to grow through the workshop.
Camille Rapacz: Nothing's changed. That takes that out of, Nope. Okay, great. So what I love about this is you're like, I might not be on track to get where I thought as far as I thought I would, but it's still the goal I want. Yes.
Camille Rapacz: So once you've done that, and again, this is a rare thing to change, so if you're thinking about this, be really critical with yourself about, don't just change the goals cuz you're afraid you're not gonna make them. Mm-hmm. The second thing that you do is you can really look at this from the perspective of just overall on your business.
Camille Rapacz: And I think you've already done this, Katie, but it's really this process of what things should I stop doing? What things do I need to start doing and what things are working that I'm gonna continue doing? So you can tell how this would feed off of the reflection. What's working well, what's not working, what have you learned this should now inform what kinds of things do I stop and stopping? Could be anything. You could stop a certain type of marketing in your business. Cause you're like, I, I tried, it's just not working. I tried it. The numbers don't show. I'm not gonna do that anymore. Starting could also be starting some marketing channel, but ideally starting is like starting a better way of running the business.
Camille Rapacz: So your description of, I'm going to have a better way to plan out not just my days, but also the overall business. That's a great start. Or continue could be like the things that are actually working, Hey, I'm already doing X, Y, Z, and it's working well. Mm-hmm. So if you were to think about that right now, you've already done this for some parts of your business, is there anything at this point that you haven't yet said you should stop that. You do wanna stop? You don't have to, by the way, have an answer for each of these. Yeah. But it's a good point to ask yourself, is there something I should stop doing? It could also just be you personally stop doing.
Katie Rempe: Yeah. Sometimes I wonder if I should stop doing Instagram because I just had a conversation with another friend also in the knitting industry who said, you know, what has happened to it?
Katie Rempe: It's like nothing performs anymore. It's like the same four people. Half of them are my family members that don't buy anything anyway. And so, like, you know, when all you're really looking for is to make the best use of your time, is that really returning on it? Even though I only do like one day's worth of content creation, but like that's a whole day I could be doing that for something else, like making another video for YouTube, which will help me meet those goals better.
Katie Rempe: So I don't know that at this point Instagram is gonna be worth my full future investment that I ha like I have been.
Camille Rapacz: So yeah, I think that's a great thing to ask questions about. The whole social media landscape is just shifted from when we even started, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. I've been asking the same questions.
Camille Rapacz: So this is a great. Part for you to really just decide like, where am I gonna put my, what channel am I gonna put my energy into? And if it's gonna be YouTube, then yeah, maybe you don't need, or maybe you just post once a week just to have a presence that people see or something like that. Right? So that's a great one.
Camille Rapacz: I would dig into that one a little bit more. What would that allow me to then start doing? That would help me narrow my focus on doing a few things better. Cuz that's really what we're after, right? Is a few things better.
Camille Rapacz: Yep. So that would be your stop, and then your start. What do you think, what are you pondering in your start?
Katie Rempe: I really just need to start being better at following my own commitments to do like my monthly reflections and things, because even though I do have them, I always say like, oh, the first Monday of the month, like, that's the one that I'm gonna do.
Katie Rempe: And then I don't always hold myself accountable to doing it. So I am gonna get better at holding myself accountable to my own appointments with myself.
Camille Rapacz: Oh, I love that. Yes. Start, start everybody making those appointments. Make an appointment with yourself. Put it in the calendar to do those things, and then keep the commitment to yourself.
Camille Rapacz: Nobody is as important to keep a commitment to as yourself.
Katie Rempe: Yes. It helps you build your own integrity. I'll tell you what.
Camille Rapacz: Oh my gosh, yes.
Katie Rempe: Just do it. You feel like such no good if you disappoint yourself. I know.
Katie Rempe: I know.
Camille Rapacz: Yeah. Being your own boss. Super hard. Yeah. Yes. Holding ourselves accountable. We're just, yeah. Yeah. Oh boy. We find that balance. Whole episode. Whole episode on what horrible bosses we are to ourselves.
Camille Rapacz: Okay. So then continue what's going really well. You're gonna continue, I mean, there's lots of stuff, but let's pick one big one.
Katie Rempe: So going well is really just the knitting aspects. So like the pattern sales are still going well, so still knitting the patterns. They still do well, like introducing new ones.
Katie Rempe: The old ones are still doing great. So doing that and working together with people to help has been good. So collaborating has really brought more oomph to my efforts than just doing things alone.
Camille Rapacz: Love it. Okay. So you could do that similar to doing the SWOT analysis, you could actually just create, I usually have people just create three columns and just start filling in, like what are some things to stop, to start to continue.
Camille Rapacz: And it'll really help you as you're trying to continually improve on things in your business. So that's a great exercise to do as well.
Camille Rapacz: All right, so the last thing it improve is this is the overall big picture now adjustment. So now you would look at what is my strategy? What's been my approach to my business?
Camille Rapacz: Whether it's in your marketing, in how you're delivering to clients, like the channels that you're choosing to use to capture clients. All of these things, you're gonna look at it now and say, are there, what adjustments do I need to make? So for you, and this should be, again, 99.9% of businesses, I'm still sticking to these goals.
Camille Rapacz: I don't know if I'm gonna hit them by the end of the year, but if I make X adjustments, I have better chance of hitting them by the end of the year. That's the whole point of this adjustment, which is why really the emphasis is. What should I stop doing so I can do more of the things that are working in my business?
Camille Rapacz: I can invest more in the stuff I wanna continue, or I can start doing a couple of things that will actually be a better approach than what I'm doing now. So for you, it's that question of, okay, do I adjust my strategy? I stop spending time on Instagram, I reduce that or eliminate it, whatever your choice is, and then I'm gonna repurpose that time into this other thing, which is really the strategy I want to go all in on, right?
Camille Rapacz: Mm-hmm. And for you, it's probably not necessarily a new strategy, it's just a shift in approach to this strategy. We're like, I'm gonna stop splitting my time and I'm gonna just refocus my energies, which is ideally what I think every business should be doing is what's working and what's not working, and then making some of those tough decisions about, you know what, I'm gonna pivot this way.
Camille Rapacz: I'm gonna just gonna do this thing. And that's the payoff that you're looking for. Yeah. And that's the outcome that you're looking for in this overall process is how do I approach the last half of the year smarter than I did the first half of the year? Cuz I learned stuff at this point. I just gotta apply it.
Katie Rempe: That's right. I'll never need to learn how to make a class again cuz I've already made the first one, so
Camille Rapacz: That's right. Oh my gosh. It's so great. Yeah. All right. So once you do that, then you can set your Q3 goals.
Camille Rapacz: Here's what I wanna get done by q3 and then here's what I wanna get done this month, the month of July. This should help, you should be able to adjust this. Is that kind of goals cascade process? I, I think about it is you got the big goals cascade down to what's then that, what does that mean? I gotta get done this quarter and then what does that mean?
Camille Rapacz: I gotta do this month? Mm-hmm. But it's all in service to the same long-term goal. Yes. You're just setting like these milestones to get there. So Katie. We really walked through this at a very high level with your business, but how do you feel about what we were hoping to achieve for you and your desired outcome in this process?
Camille Rapacz: Are we getting there? Can you see how if you went back and did some of this other work in a little more detail that's gonna help you get there, what are you thinking?
Katie Rempe: Yeah, I think this is great. I feel a lot more inspired to keep going. And yeah, I'm just looking forward to taking what I've learned in the first half of the year, which really felt like my do part and applying it to the second half of the year, which is just letting now people know about it.
Katie Rempe: So not being afraid to reach out to people who I've had contacts with, to, you know, collaborate on things and promote and, you know, help them with their things. I think that's really gonna be the way and also, Realizing that just my online class doesn't only have to be just the online class, but also could be in-person classes.
Katie Rempe: And that was something that was a big like, oh, hey, okay, well I have it all written down here. I could do it in person just as easily. Yeah.
Katie Rempe: But yeah, and that's been going well so far. So I think just continuing to promote it through other folks who have bigger reach in the knitting world and remembering to focus in on knitting, because last year I got real distracted on the magical aspects, kind of lost track of the knitting. So this year it's just gonna be more hyper-focused.
Camille Rapacz: Mm. I love this. You're, that's such a good example of how easy it is for it for us to get distracted by stuff that we really are like, love and want to do. Yeah. Again, back to, you know, that struggle of what the business needs versus what you want and what the business really needs is for you to focus on your area of expertise.
Camille Rapacz: Mm-hmm. Like your expertise is all in the knitting side. Yeah. And it's what your business needs is for you to develop that space so that you can really draw the customers in to that particular aspect. And the other is really just distracting from it. At this point. Now you might be able to go back to paying more attention to the magical side of things as the knitting side really builds up.
Camille Rapacz: Mm-hmm. But you're not at that stage yet in your business. Right. You're still working on getting to the level of revenue that you wanna be at. Right? Yes. So it's important to just focus on that one thing, which I think is hard for all of us to do. Absolutely. Yeah. All right. Anything else, any other thoughts you have?
Camille Rapacz: Like what guidance would you have for business owners listening to this about doing this process, this midyear process?
Katie Rempe: Definitely do it like make time to do it because we meet you and I and your business group every month to do the first of the month to do a monthly recharge where we look back at the previous month to see what we've accomplished.
Katie Rempe: And even if you only do this, to look back at what you've accomplished this year so far, it is so heartening because it's easy to lose track of everything you've done, especially if you're like me and you're like, oh, I feel like I didn't really reach it. But, but you've done a lot and there were a lot of things that came up.
Katie Rempe: So giving yourself a little grace as you're going through this and remembering like, oh, right this month was bad because this thing happened, or because this wasn't able to happen, it will give you more motivation to finish the year strong and give yourself a break.
Camille Rapacz: Ah, love it. Yes. I think that doing this, it does require back to the, you have to schedule an appointment with yourself.
Camille Rapacz: Mm-hmm. You do. You're gonna have to schedule time to work on this, but you know, you don't have to schedule like 90 minutes all at once. Right. You could do three 30 minute sessions of working on this over time. Right? Yes. That's totally feasible.
Katie Rempe: And treat yourself after.
Camille Rapacz: Absolutely. I mean, treat yourself during whatever you have to do.
Camille Rapacz: You know, if you wanna sit down with, you know, whatever your favorite drink of choice, tea or wine or whatever it is, and just sit like go sit in a nice coffee shop or a park or whatever works for you. That just gets you in the space of just focusing on, really reflecting on your business. Do that, right?
Camille Rapacz: Mm-hmm. Get away from your desk. Yeah, good point. I mean, you might need data from your computer, but you know, get away computer. Yeah. Yes. The other thing I recommend is, this is a great thing to talk through with a coach or a consultant, if you can Allah me or just a thought partner. If you have a good thought partner.
Camille Rapacz: We've talked about this on the podcast in the past. Just talk this through with somebody who can help to illuminate some of the things, help you see things that you wouldn't otherwise not see. Cuz you're really close to this, so you're too close to your business. Sometimes you can't see the forest for the trees.
Camille Rapacz: So yes, really good thing to have somebody to talk it through with. If you have a team in your business, definitely include them. You wanna share the state of the business, you wanna get their ideas for things you wanna stop, start, and continue. You want that to be a team effort. So it's not just your job as a business owner, but involve your team in this process as best you can.
Camille Rapacz: This is a step that businesses tend to skip because they just wanna keep pushing forward and try and get the goals done, and they missed the part where this reflection could help them get those goals done smarter, faster, better, more efficiently. But I mean, for that matter, more enjoyably, right? If you just really looked at things, yeah, you might have to make some hard decisions to get there, but that's the point.
Camille Rapacz: And that's your job as a business owner. I gotta make some tough decisions if I'm gonna make this go better. So be ready to do that. It's okay to, by the way, be a quitter of things like Instagram. It's okay to do those things. I know lots of, they try doing something and they're like, now I'm out. So, that's right.
Camille Rapacz: Do that. Just do that. We'll stop. Stop doing things all the time. I mean, if we didn't, we wouldn't be able to do new things. So we have to stop doing things. That's good. It's hard sometimes for our brains to be okay with that. Mm-hmm. So if you do want help with this process, if you're thinking, I really wanna do this and I want some help, please do reach out to me.
Camille Rapacz: I'll drop a link in the show notes where you can schedule a free consult and I'm happy to just, you know, offer some free guidance, but can also tell you how I can really help you with minimal, like a small amount of intervention. This isn't like buying a big coaching package or anything like that. I can really help you do some targeted review of your business and give you that outside perspective if that's something that you're looking for.
Camille Rapacz: And really, I think every business can benefit from this, but if you're a really tiny business and you're just getting started and that's not something that's, you know, in your budget, then. Find a thought partner or think about joining the group that Katie was talking about. So I have this membership group of really small business owners who are just sort of just getting things started, just getting things moving in their business.
Camille Rapacz: And it's a way for them to get support and support each other. And that's where we bring like the aspect of accountability and all those kinds of things into the phrase, so that you're not just out there by yourself trying to figure this out, or just listening to a podcast and trying to kind of implement the stuff that we talked about.
Camille Rapacz: It's much better to do with people and thought partners and somebody like me to guide that process for you and give you some guidance on how to do it. So that's another option. I'll drop a link in the show notes for that as well. So those are all, those are all my things.
Camille Rapacz: Such good things. I can't. Good, thanks.
Camille Rapacz: I cannot speak highly enough of working with you, Camille. I mean, plug, but I know I did not
Camille Rapacz: pay her piece, by the way, and so smart while looking at things that it's just like it, it doesn't, it seems effortless for you, and I know that's your area of expertise, so obviously you're pretty used to seeing that.
Camille Rapacz: But it is so nice, especially with the business group, to talk to other like-minded people who are going through things that even if they're in a completely different industry, it is so relatable. You're like, why isn't anyone looking at my Instagram? Why isn't, why do I hate writing email newsletters?
Camille Rapacz: Like all these things that are just so therapeutic. And then also it's just very helpful to make sure you're doing the best at your business. So it's, can't speak highly of it enough. Come join us.
Camille Rapacz: Aw, thanks Katie. Yes. Okay. Check is in the mail for that plug. Very nice man. Appreciate it. Yeah. Katie's other side hustle.
Camille Rapacz: Oh, alright. Thanks everybody for listening. Thank you Katie, for giving all your time and divulging, you know, hopefully not too many secrets about your business, but go off and do all of this stuff in your business. Everybody. I'll drop these six steps as well into the show notes if you are thinking, oh boy, I didn't take any notes while I was listening.
Camille Rapacz: But definitely reach out if you're looking for some help. Cuz this is a big step and it's really important. It can really make a big difference. So also if you like the podcast, Give us a review on Apple Podcasts. You know that review button on Apple Pod is really hard to find by the way. So when you go there, it's just this little sentence.
Camille Rapacz: I think it just like, it's, it's not even a button. Oh. So yeah, it was, it was kind of a pain in the patooty to find. Anyhow, persevere.
Katie Rempe: Thanks for nothing. Apple Podcast.
Camille Rapacz: I know. Or you know, review us wherever you listen to your podcast.
Camille Rapacz: We'll take all of it in. Okay. We're getting doggy restlessness on Katie's side. I totally saw this little doggy face and she muted herself. It's so cute. I know. Oh my gosh. Puppies. All right, well, doggy distraction just in time cuz we gotta go. \
Katie Rempe: All right. Very good. Well, it's been a pleasure. Thanks
Katie Rempe: for having me on, Camille.
Camille Rapacz: Absolutely. Thanks for joining me and we'll be back in your ears next week.
