Episode 110 - Why Your List Isn’t Growing (Leading vs Lagging Indicators Explained)

If you’ve ever felt like you’re doing all the things…posting content, showing up online, trying to grow your email list…but the results just aren’t matching your effort, this episode is for you. Today, I’m breaking down one of the most important shifts you can make in your business: understanding the difference between leading indicators and lagging indicators.

Most entrepreneurs are focused on the wrong things. They’re watching their sales, their subscriber count, and their engagement…wondering why things aren’t moving fast enough. But those are lagging indicators. They’re the result of actions, not the actions themselves.

In this episode, I’m going to show you:

• What leading and lagging indicators actually are
• Why focusing on lagging indicators keeps you stuck
• The exact leading indicators I teach inside my programs to grow your email list and attract consistent clients

If you’re ready to stop guessing and start growing your list and leads with intention, this episode will give you a whole new way to look at your business.

Mentioned in this episode:

Grab your VIP waitlist spot for the next round of “Business Visibility Made Easy®”. Join me to learn how to build a visibility ecosystem to have consistent list growth, leads, and buyers…without paid ads or being online 24/7:  https://tracybeavers.biz/vipwaitlist

Ready to grow your email list and attract consistent clients…without relying on paid ads?

In my weekly newsletter, I share practical visibility strategies, simple list-building ideas, and real-world insights you can actually use.

Join here: 

https://tracybeavers.biz/newsletter

Entrepreneurship isn't meant to be a solo sport. That’s why I created a space that gives you visibility, community, and encourages you to promote your offers, connect with other members, and build meaningful business relationships.

Inside my free Facebook group, Be A Confident Entrepreneur: Get Visible + Grow Your Email List and Income, you’ll meet thousands of other online business owners who are building real momentum together.

Come introduce yourself, answer the quick entry questions so we know you’re a good human, and when you join, shoot me a DM and let me know you found us through the podcast. I’d love to welcome you in personally.

Join here: 

https://tracybeavers.biz/bacefromcobs

Transcript

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You know that moment when you check your email list and it hasn't grown, and your brain immediately says, cool, something must be broken. So you start tweaking everything: your content, your offer, your messaging, when in reality, you might just be measuring the wrong things. Today, we're gonna fix that. Ready to grow your online business without losing your mind? You're in the right spot, my friend. Welcome to Create Your Online Business Success. I'm your host, Tracy Beavers, and this show is all about practical strategies, creative ideas, and sanity saving solutions that you can use right now. Let's crank up the dial on your business growth and make it fun. Let's create your online business success. So we're going to talk about one of the most important shifts you can make in your business if you want consistent visibility, steady email list growth, and actual leads coming in. And who doesn't want that? We're diving into leading versus lagging indicators. Sounds like a snooze fest, I know, but essentially it's a what we can control and should be measuring versus what we can't control. And once you see this, you can't unsee it, because it explains why so many smart, experienced entrepreneurs feel like they're doing everything right, but not getting the results they expected. So I want to make this super simple. Lagging indicators, it's a super fancy name, for your results. Those are things we cannot control, like sales, new email subscribers, booked calls, revenue. They tell you what already happened in your business. Now the leading indicators, another fancy word for saying what you can control, those are your actions. Things like posting content, inviting people to your email list, starting conversations in your DMs or your inbox, being visible in groups and communities and networking, inviting people to your free Facebook group or to listen to your podcast, or subscribe to your YouTube channel, join your program wait list, the fun ways we get our subscribers to reply back so we can have deeper conversations with them. These are the things that actually create your results. But here's where most people get stuck. They're focused almost entirely on lagging indicators. I see this all the time with my business visibility made easy students. You guys know that's my eight-week group coaching accelerator. And they are totally focused on those lagging indicators. They wake up and check, did I get a new subscriber? Did I make a sale? And when the answer is no, they assume something is broken. So they come to our live strategy call and they want to try to fix it. And they want to try to change everything. But here's the truth: you cannot control, I cannot control, my lagging indicators. You cannot control your lagging indicators because the market decides those. Your subscribers, your audience, your market. You can only control your leading indicators, the things that you are in charge of, your actions. So let's talk about this through the lens of list growth because this is where I see it all the time. Lagging indicators sound like my list isn't growing, I'm not getting leads, I'm not making sales. But when we look at the leading indicators, we can start asking better questions. I'm asking my students, how often are you inviting people to your email list? Are you promoting your lead magnets? Are you promoting your free Facebook group? And you know I teach that that should grow your list. How visible are you every week? I mean, are you really visible? And are you actually starting conversations in the inbox and in the DMs? Or are you waiting for people to come to you? Are you giving people a clear next step? Because here's the thing: our content will only do so much work for us. After that, it's up to us. We have to maintain that visibility. We have to be inviting people to join us. We have to be having conversations because visibility alone does not give you leads. So here's a simple framework that I want you to remember. Visibility is the invitation, it's the connection that gives you leads. If you're showing up but you're not inviting, you'll stay stuck. If you're inviting, but you're not connecting, you're gonna struggle to convert. And if you're not visible, none of it works. This is why things can feel inconsistent even when you're like, Tracy, I'm doing all the work. So instead of asking, why isn't my list growing? I want you to start asking, what am I doing consistently each week to grow it? Because that's where your power is, that's where my power is. Your power is not in checking your numbers. Although we do need to check our numbers and track our analytics. I do those once a month at the end of every month. The power is in the actions, the things that we can control, those leading indicators. And we also need to normalize something that people don't talk about enough. Lagging indicators, those take time. It takes time to grow an online business. I personally am tired of people thinking they can come into the online space, throw something out there, and it's gonna sell like hotcakes and they don't have to do any work. This is a business we are building, and it takes time, patience and consistency. You can do all the right things this week and still not see immediate results. That doesn't mean it's not working. It just means your results haven't caught up yet. So this is a long game, not a 24-hour feedback loop. Building a business takes time, patience, consistency. I know you're so sick of me saying that, but it's the truth. And this is exactly what I focus on inside my programs. Not just be more visible, but what are the right actions? How often are you doing them? Are they actually leading to list growth and leads? Are they leading to connections, conversations, relationships? Because that's what converts. Because once you look, you lock in those leading indicators, those things you can control, your lagging indicators will start to take care of themselves. And it's really cool. So here's the thing: if things feel slow right now, before you go change your content, before you throw the baby out with the bathwater, changing your content, changing your offer, changing your entire strategy, pause and ask yourself, what am I actually doing consistently and be honest? That would create the result that I want. And is what I'm doing leading to conversations with my audience? Because that one question can change everything. And if you want help turning up your visibility into daily list growth and actual leads, that is exactly what I teach inside my eight-week group coaching accelerator called Business Visibility Made Easy. And it's also what I teach my elite one-to-one private coaching clients. You can grab your spot on the wait list for the next round of BVME by going to tracybeavers. I'm sorry, Tracybeavers.biz forward slash VIP wait list. If you can't tell, your girl is not 100% today. I've got a bronchial thing going on. It's it's a whole thing, but here we are, we're doing it. Also, I have an awesome newsletter. If you are ready to grow your email list and attract your consistent clients without relying on paid ads, pop into my newsletter. I share practical visibility strategies, simple list building ideas, and real-world insights you can actually use. And I also share a bunch of stuff that you didn't ask me about, but hopefully will entertain you. You can go to tracybeavers.biz forward slash forward slash newsletter and grab that. As always, I want to know what you want to learn. Tell me, YouTubers, tell me podcasters, podcast listeners, DM me, email me, get into the comments, tell me your thoughts on this episode, and tell me what you'd like to learn more about. And remember, you hear me say this every week. Don't go it alone. Being an entrepreneur is freaking hard. Some days everybody wants to buy what you're selling, and other days nobody can remember your name. And if you think you're alone in that, you are not. Come join my free Facebook group to get more support than you could ever imagine. You can promote your offers, join our free networking events. It's called Be a Confident Entrepreneur. The links are for for everything are in the show notes, waiting for you. I want you to have a great balance of the week and weekend, and I want you to remember that when one of us rises, we all rise. So that is why we have got to keep cheering each other on. Hey, thanks for tuning in to create your online business success. I hope you found today's episode packed with actionable tips and inspiration. And listen, if you want to dive even deeper with me and connect with a community of like-minded entrepreneurs that totally get you and understand what you're building, then join us in my free Facebook group. You get to promote your offers anytime, network with other entrepreneurs just like you, and possibly find some lucrative collaborations. Just search for Be a Confident Entrepreneur, get visible, grow your email list and your income over in Facebook. Or, if it's easier, just click the link in the show notes. We cannot wait to welcome you in. Let's stay connected so we can create your online business success together.